First off, I'm not really that great in self portraits, I just give myself a fat, roundish face and hope everything else comes together. So, my friend Craig gave me skateboard he found in the garbage dump and it still works pretty well. It's been awhile since I've ridden a skateboard (years) but I began cruising around again, and today, I fell decently hard... in front of people... and it was... AWESOME!!! I picked up my board and proceeded.
Also, I read this post from Chris Sanders which is what inspired me to draw this.
A few weeks ago, a musician that changed my life passed away. I couldn't say he was one of my favorites and I wasn't sure how to feel when I first heard the devastating news. But the more I read about it the more disheartened I felt. He changed my life because he opened the world of hip hop for me, back when I only saw what was on mtv. Rap was the first element I was exposed to, was the most horrible at but became an expressive vessel for my life.
I first saw Eyedea battling on HBO in a competition called The Blaze Battle back in 2000. Man, he ripped his opponents so easily! This opened me up to the underground scene, back when Rhymesayers and Definitive Jux were barely coming up. It went to Scribble Jam, Rawkus Records, Hieroglyphics, Del, Non Phixion, Atmosphere, Aesop Rock, Cage, Stretch and Bobbito, the Wake Up Show, etc. I watched his battles over and over again which lead to other battles and freestyles. This world of hip hop was my school and my homework. After school I went to learn one of the elements of hip hop. I wasn't into the high school experience thing. I fell in love with hip hop and it changed my life. Any BBoy, MC, writer, or dj will tell you the same thing.
Freestyles were the best. The spontaneous build up of energy amongst peers or colleuges or strangers allowed me to become expressive. The best thing I learned was that It is OK to fail, just keep going! Which is something I always forget to do. Failing is such an important part of learning. The battle scene also kept your ego stable because the props you get are well deserved and if your ego is inflated, there will always be someone to knock it down. In the end, it's all fun and sometimes competition but we were all in it for the same goals. I know I'm just ranting now.
Anyway, I just wanted to say Thank You to Micheal 'Eyedea' Larsen for teaching me to know myself and to be confident through it. Your music and voice has touched many hearts and changed the hip hop world forever. Rest in Peace.
These are the last of plein airs I've done in Journal 2. This consistency of posting has been really helpful with understanding my learning habits as well as my strengths and weaknesses to work on or keep. So, I need to start doing these again.
These are the last of my first journal. There are other pages but are just notes and not entries. I also realized how my I enjoy the act of drawing and found how much I use line to communicate a lot of my images.
I tried to get into plein air more and found it pretty difficult to make color choices. I stumbled upon a tutorial on Erik Tiemens website about oil painting. He said to first start just copying John Singer Sargent's pieces in Black and White and then using Burnt Umber and Prussian Blue. I didn't do that at all, but I thought it meant simplifying color with just cools and warms, and so I began painting with that pallette. I found it helpful as it trained me to develop my senses of cools and warms, especially in the greys.
First off, I'm not really that great in self portraits, I just give myself a fat, roundish face and hope everything else comes together. So, my friend Craig gave me skateboard he found in the garbage dump and it still works pretty well. It's been awhile since I've ridden a skateboard (years) but I began cruising around again, and today, I fell decently hard... in front of people... and it was... AWESOME!!! I picked up my board and proceeded.
