Let's Cypher

Let's Cypher, Mixed Media, 20"x20"

What's going on here?

Peaces

 Decay

Giant Pearl Diving

Here's some pieces that made it to my portfolio. I'm still trying to figure out an efficient way of doing my visual development work and my illustration work. Decay was done for my friend's album cover called Median. The Giant Pearls is a moment piece for the 20000 Leagues Under the Sea story.

Scavenger

Scavenger, Mixed Media

I did this illustration with methods I learned from my expressive drawing class. Part of the exercise was combining disparate elements and the result will create a meaning in itself.

DFD and Atomic Conductor

Thirsty Fish, Mixed Media, 10x13

Atomic Conductor

Here are some oldies I had laying around. The Thirsty Fish is a portrait illustration of one of my favorite musicians, Dumbfoundead. I'm not sure if it looks like him anymore (lol), oh well. I think I was looking at Kent Williams a lot at the time and tried to emulate how he had some off-qualities to the likeness of his models. It is very subtle. The Atomic Conductor was a project from my visual development class that I never colored until recently.

Sun Tarot Card

Adjustment, Mixed Media

Scan, Mixed Media

Sketches, Col Erase Pencil

"Forget the round trip, give me a one way

It's been a year since the case of the Mondays

See, my peers have the face of the mundane

I'm in a place you can taste all the sun rays"

-DFD

I did this for my friend, Nikita. I've known him since the beggining classes of my illustration program, and I've always thought he acted like a kid but it's also the thing I admire most about him. So this illustration was also based off that spirit. I also know that if I'm pursuing something, and I feel like a kid again, then I'm in the right place. I know, that sounds really corny but I've noticed it's been one of my core values and I've never regretted anything in that path. Here's to being a kid again!

Fear Beer Bear - Shot Chaser

Line Drawing

Painting

Final

This piece was for a zine in my conceptual illustration class. The theme was Fear Beer Bear and chose to illustrate the issue of date rape. Kinda heavy. The lyrics are bits and pieces from Atmosphere songs.

Crew of You - The Garden

Lines, Pencil

Paint, Acrylic on Rives

Adjustment, Photoshop

This climactic scene takes place in a Carnivorous Garden where these guards protect a sacred fruit. In this moment, my main character, who is the rookie of the team lets down his teammates when he becomes drenched in fear unsuspectedly out of ignorance of what combat is truly like. He fails to save one of his comrads even though he is the position to do so.

Old Man and the Sea- Character Portrait

Santiago Final, Photoshop

Santiago, Mixed Media

This illustration is a portrait study of a character from Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. I tried to work the image so it would be good for print media but I still get a little unclear in the greys. Perhaps I become to careful and knitpicky.

Crew of You - Apocalyptic Bad-assery

Lines, Pencil

Paint, Acrylic on Rives Paper

Adjustment, Photoshop

These were for my Conceptual Illustration class, Fall 2009. I really want to fix the painting more but I am just finally deciding to move on. Concept-wise, I didn't really grasp what the purpose of the assignment was (hence the title).

Pinky Swear - The Traffic Lord

Pinky Swear- The Traffic Lord, Mixed Media, 2009

I did this for a zine called Pinky Swear. The theme was childhood misconceptions. I used to think that there was somebody under the intersections that controlled the traffic lights. The idea still entertains me actually.

Old-fashioned

Word!

DEBUG Magazine: Rickshaw Hustle

Rickshaw Hustle, B&W Medium, 2010

I did this illustration for Debug Magazine. It's a local San Jose Magazine that cover really awesome topics. The next issue's theme is struggle. Look for it within the next month or two and read some of the articles. This illustration is about how these Rickshaw Bikers are making cash.

Art Exchange- MTB

Makeshift Terror Beak, Mixed Media, 8.5"11"

A bunch of my friends did an art exchange event and I did this piece for my friend, Tara. I based it off a comic she did during our beginning illustration class, as well as graffiti. I pick up a lot of graffiti influence from The Seventh Letter, CBS crew. Craola is probably my favorite writer. Doing art for others is always fun for me to do, and she seemed pretty stoked when I gave it her, so yeah... dope!

Do the Tengu

Do the Tengu, Mix Media, 18"x24"

Done in Barron Storey's Conceptual Illustration class.

Ante Up

India Ink, Gouache, Paint Markers and Pens. Jonathan Wayshak was a huge influence for me with ink. It's amazing how much value he can create with lines. I was also looking at tattoo magazines for design ideas.

During my process I went back and forth so many times with ink and gouache, constantly making choices between design versus following "rules." After and series of thumbnails and ideas, I came up with the final plan but it was still to be experimental. I really enjoyed how different brushes can create a variety of effects and learned that it doesn't matter what kind of mark you make as long as the image reads the way you want it to. I guess the way you create a mark can be one way to designate a "style." My biggest problem was creating the ninja in low-key which led me to do some low-key and high-key studies soon because I wasn't even sure of what I was doing. probably The highlights might have just appeared to be overwrought.

Azuki Deck

This is the deck that I painted for Azuki in San Jose. I feel like I marked my territory whenever I leave a piece somewhere. I thought I'd get experimenting with acrylics and color. I also wanted to practice some perspective and composition. Although this piece is jampacked with errors, I learned a lot.

"Contrast is the meaning of life." John Clapp, one of my instructors, after random talks with him after class about other artistic factors, also told me that it works on multiple dimensions, though value should be the most important, which was something I failed to do in here. I had an arduous time at solving value composition. A ton of the light sources are wrong.

I played with contrasting colors as well. Figuring out the focal point, I decided would either have to be between the ninjas, a ninja, or the graffiti. I never decided. The ninjas have as much white on their faces as the graffiti, placing them up front simultaneously and although the ninjas are colored in complete black, the graffiti pops out as well because of its cool colors. This is all in theory.

During this semester, I remembered John being disappointed at my ability to not listen but I did learn more than I would need. I had used acrylic titanium white to fix mistakes in my comics. He told me I should've used Guoache because "acrylics are transparent BY NATURE." I've been wanting to paint eversince he said that. I experimented with scumbling, washes, and what marks I can make with different brushes.

I also learned that I should "be thoughtful." So I'm going to leave these long notes after each of these artistic endeavors come to an end. I can't wait for color lessons I'm going to learn in the next year.

CTE, WS, RBS