2014 Illustration Circus Gallery show

So I finally got to see the gallery show, which was very successful I think. The artwork that was submitted were pretty incredible and I felt honored to participate in the show. These are just a handful of the art pieces that were on display just to get a sense of the talent artist will create. This gallery features pieces by the students, faculty and even the graduates. 

 

 

The Need to Pick up a book

       So this week, things start picking up for me when I have all my classes. Due to the sudden delays, due to the snow storms cause me to wait on classes. But finally, I had my first Art history 2 class. At first, it had a different process because I had different teacher so I have to retrain myself to record notes for this class. However, it is all in the order of our art history books so it is easy to access the information whenever. We are starting to learn about the 14th century, the Renaissance and further on.

        Then for Painting Color & Light class, we are starting off with painting in grid charts of value shades, tints of temperatures and the color wheel. The more grids we paint, the more skill we'll have when painting in the oil paints. This is my first time using oil paints and it seems to be alright to use. I cannot really say how it is but it's very different from watercolor and acrylic paints because it doesn't instantly dry up. Layering paint is more fluid but some of the oil paints have different time periods for dying, which are usually the lighter colors.

        Lastly, Life Drawing class has been a love hate relationship. Drawing the models in the blueprint like form is helpful but the use of the charcoal medium is difficult to handle. When drawing, you have to be extremely light, so light that the traces of lights can only be visible if the lines were layered over each other. How the class runs so far is that we do six minute sketches to get into the groove of drawing. Usually it is the model would be in a standing or bent over pose. Afterwards, they would be in a length long siting pose, for the class to figure out how the model's body is formed when it is sitting. For a six hour class, we draw for the first three hours (counting the 5-10 minute breaks), an hour lunch break to working the last two hours. This is one of my favorite life drawing picture I created today, and it probably the only visible drawing of a model I have.    

Drawn Model, 18x24, charcoal

     Okay, so I titled this blog "the need to pick up a book" because this week I have been reading a lot more. One of my birthday gifts that was mail to me, from my cousins, were two graphic novels: "Astonishing X-Men by by Joss Whedon and illustrated by John Cassaday, "Rainbow in the Dark" by Adam Withers. I do recommend these novels because they have beautiful artwork and fictional story lines to get drawn into. This inspired me to pick up book instead of another graphic novel, for instance, a story based off of the Supernatural's WB Television series called the "Coyote's Kiss". I would say that it is like fan-fiction but it has better imagery and interesting stories that relate to the Winchester's hunting paranormal career.

      Then, I was doing some research and came across an interesting article. Eric Kripeke, the director, producer and writer of Supernatural tv series, stated that the television series was inspired by Neil Gaiman. Gaiman is one of my favorite author, personally favorites are "Good Omens" and "Coraline". What was said was that his stories of "The Sandman" and "American Gods" are the key source to developing the television series. I haven't read those books so why not take the time to read them. I was lucky to find both books in my school. I cannot wait to read them, and perhapes I review them on my blog.

Here is the link for the article

http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=Neil_Gaiman

Aluminum Sculpture project

Here is my first 3-D Design Project that I created in the last two weeks. I haven't titled it yet but I was thinking of ominous. When looking at it, the mood of unwelcoming or silent within it since the expressive power is more held within itself. The imagery that is thought to be is coral, twisted branches in a forest, mist, etc. What do you think  

Life Drawing class

 A few days ago, I turned nineteen years old on the 22nd of January. 

Happy Birthday to me!!

I honestly didn't know what I would do for my birthday because it would be my first time to celebrate it at Art school. I had no classes because of the snow storms that closed down the school so I was stuck in the house doing homework. However, that was the day that we lost our heating in our apartment so it was just wearing slippers and layers just to keep yourself warm. But in the end, a bunch of my friends came over and just hanged out for an hour. They even made me a birthday cake, or artistic shaped cake. I wished I could have done more but that night was very special to me, just to be with good friends and company :P

      Anyways, what do I think of Life Drawing? It's very different from what I was expecting it to be like. Yes, it is six hours of drawing models, including a hour break for lunch, but there seems to be a specific way to drawing that from what I am normally used to. 

     Before, when I was in my Drawing I class, we learned how to crop or do standard drawing of models. Here, my instructor wants to draw to model out like a blueprints. You used the charcoal as light as you can, while you layered sketched lines to search out or mark the parts of the form. It is continuously layering and sketching strategies in order to get the accurate structure.

     Not only do I have to retrain my mind to draw a different ways, such as drawing from feet up to, figuring out composition and just measuring and marking the figure over and over. It is very unique but I am willing to learn more from this class.

     Then in 3-D Design, it has been interesting for our first project, with a medium I never thought as art. We had to construct aluminum foil art structures, which allowed me to express and play with the art medium with my hands. I will post a picture of it on Sunday. Coming up, going to be working with wire. With all the wire supply and tools I got on my birthday, I do hope something creativity will come!

By the way, for fans of the Starkid's Starship Ranger, here's a watercolor gouache picture :3 Enjoy

Bug's Wish, 8"x4", Watercolor& Gouache

What I do when I'm stuck in the house

Well, after a huge wave of snow clouds, I have been mostly stuck in my house doing artwork and preparing for my next project. I am will to go visit friends but today seems too cold to go outside for a walk. So besides doing homework, I find myself filling up my watercolor sketchbook from last semester. Here are some watercolors that I done so far :)

These are some of Mary Blair's thumbnail squares that she done from the Disney movies of Peter Pan and one of Donal Duck's movies. Here I get to play but learn about the use of color theory and it's transition value.

From looking at the Art of Rise of the Guardians, I saw the concept art from Jack Frost and was surprised that they didn't go with these choices. Instead of throwing a hoodie on him, they could have put the elements from his origin and the forest that he woke up in. So here are some of my sketches of what he could be and my own fairy creature. That's the one with the lime green skin.

Sketching 28 pages_part 4

Page 23-24, pencil

These two pages are another use of drawing observational drawing and free drawing. Most of these pencil drawing of my father, brother and my hand in these pages. The large drawing uses the dark shapes in order to block off the figure.

Page 25-26, watercolor&gouache, pen&ink

Page 25 has thumbnail color squares, which were inspired by Mary Blair work. If you looked at her disney work, she illustrated movies like Cinderella, Peter Pan, and Alice in Wonderland. The two thumbnail square below the Peter pan ones are my own creation for another story. 

Then page 26 is basically is just doodling with color pen&ink and black gouache paint for emphasizing a loose drawing style.  

Page 27-28, paper cut out

These last two pages are cut up with scissors and Exact knife. The "Twin peacock" used of cutting technique so I practice by thinking about the negative and positive space to isolate the figures as a circus performer.

    These are all the page from the Sketchbook Project, that will be touring around the East with other artist's sketchbooks. I hope this inspires you to look into this project and fill your own sketchbook with your own artwork.

Sketching 28 pages_part 3

So, I back and doing good back at art school. What I enjoy about this school is the sense of community and so many friends that you can come back too. Like Monday night, although I missed a night of video games and board games, I got to play hide-and-seek in the dark and the guessing game is just enjoyable to do with friends.

Anyways, continuing onto the other sketches from the sketchbook project. . .

Pg 16-17,  pen&ink

Pg 18-19, pen&ink

Pg 20-21, pen&ink

Most of my passion of art has been influenced by graphic novel illustration. Currently this is my drawing style that is in progress, trying to more away from the vivid drawing detail and manga facial expressions. Not only am I displaying my illustrations but also one of my stories. On an another post, I'll post the story and give you input.

Pg 22-23, watercolor&gouache

So this is based on the artist, Danny Dennis, with the combination of beautiful imagery and abstraction. On page 22, this is known as the Water spirit that must be based on an Indian or cultural style. So then on page 23, I design my own masks related to Dennis' style and the basic contrast colors. The mask shows uses of design patterns, mark making and mortifying creatures into the sphere.  

Sketching 28 pages_part 2

Pg 6-7, pencil

Here is what I most sketch, food and characters that will possibly developed overtime.  

Pg 8-9, pencil

Not only was my winter was sketching in this sketchbook but I had a desire to make christmas cookies for everyone. It your life, you have to pick up baking in order to feed yourself well. I wanted to draw more but got tired of that page, which will happen with a sketchbook, that you'll just leave a page with no idea how to finish it. But on page nine, this was drawn in the back of a vehicle for a two hour drive. This was inspired by gallery show at my art school; the theme was of Krampus, a legendary beast from Europe that would kidnap naughty children for Christmas. This is my interpretation of the beast, with a drawing my dog Kona inside it's straw basket because she eat most of my shells from my still lives. This is the way of expressing my vengeance upon her. 

Pg 10-11, pen&ink

Here are more examples of my illustration drawing ability, some pictures are ideas for the circus submission, other inspired by the artist Maurice Sendak from seeing his exhibit, while others are just for doodling. Mostly it is playing with mark-making and textures with pen & ink medium.

Pg 12-13, pen&ink

 Both these pages were sparked from seeing two different exhibits. Page 12 is from the Florence Griswold, where they displayed Harry Holtzman work. You may recognize these sketches of the painter, Pier Mondrain. Holtzman worked with Mondrain but then used his skills to make these drawing three dimensional. By creating physically volume and form, the viewers can interact the artwork by looking through the white spaces or seeing other colors inside the grid. Then on page 13, the New Britain Museum of American Art had exhibits on Hawaiian art and of Maurice Sendak work. You know him well as the illustrator of "Where the Wild Things Are" and many of your childhood stories are. Fun fact: originally the story was suppose to be "Where the Wild Horses Are" but Sendak couldn't draw horse, so it got changed to the monster creation he had doodled. So, to thank him for his beautiful work of illustrations and passionate life, I drew one of his wild things in memory of him and in hope for people to remember him as well.    

Pg 14-15, Pencil

Page 14 & 15 both show my ability to draw observational pictures, whether it is an three dimensional object or interior design of a room. So, yeah, I say I made some improvements from last semester but I do say that I loving those boots. Totally want to stick my feet back into them now. 

Sketching 28 pages

         Usually when return from a long first semester of art school or college, you would find yourself working long hours, or driving around with your friends to a movie, or finding yourself sinking into your couch as you watch the lights of the television screen. I pretty much did most of everything that I list, the only thing that I wouldn't have done is working. What I mean is working at a job, however I found myself working tiresome hours to fill a tiny sketchbook before its deadline of the 15th of January.
        This sketchbook came from a program called the Sketchbook Project. What it is a touring library show of those sketchbooks that are shown through many cities and states. You can use many types of mediums in the sketchbook, such as watercolor, printmaking, pencil, cut paper, pen&ink and so on. Here are some of the pages that I drew in the sketchbook, I will post more pages another day.

Here is the like to the Sketchbook Project website if you wish to look into it

http://www.sketchbookproject.com/

Pg 1, Pencil, Pen&ink, Watercolor, Gouache

Page 1 is always hard to fill in. Since this is the one page that you will first open up then judge upon the entire sketch on. I have know idea what you see in this image but this just an experimental page. At first it was done in pencil, then it went to pen&ink to make some values then to watercolor & gouache to practice with color transition. I do wish that that I had time to finish but it does show my process of sketching. 

Pg 2-3, Pen&ink

This one kind of speaks for it self but here is the background story to this image. It starts with the small opened tuna can in the top left corner, which was included in one of my pastel still life drawing. So when drawing this, I was listening in on the zombie TV series, Walking dead. I guess the imagery and atmosphere it creates this strange imagery, I guess. You decide?  

Pg 4-5, Pen&ink, watercolor, gouache

Here, this is an example of why it's fun to have a sketchbook. You don't have to go in order, you don't always have to go page by page. One day you may feel like drawing in page four but another, skip to page seventeen. So first, page five is done in watercolor and gouache of a fortuneteller sitting on a moon like shape. This was one of my ideas for the circus theme submission. On page four, I was just doodling reputation of design pattern to a drawing of my loving dog Kona, which is an observationally drawing of her. Then the cartoons here were inspired from listening to a review of the one hit single of "It's Raining Men" by the Weather girls or Two tons 'o fun. This is just an interpretation of the song's meaning.

Circus Submission

Peacock Twin    24" x 12"
cut paper, watercolor, gouache, oil & hard pastel

             During my winter break, this is one of the projects that I'm going to submit for a gallery show. Like in the title, the show is circus theme based so I combined the idea of siamese twins and animals that would be exhibited in a circus. Creating the figures were fun, using cut paper to shape the characters then painting the details with watercolor. However it was difficult putting them on a background.
             From what I learned from school, you usually have to plan and do the background first before finishing the main object first. But since I did the figures first I had to come up with creative canvas; something that would contrast with the values of purples and green peacock feathers. This style was inspired by Brittney Lee, who also has her own blog and artwork that you need to look at. Seeing her artwork reminded me how passionate I was to use paper collage. My first paper collage was done my sophomore year of high school, seeing a senior create a paper collage of a panda bear challenged me to make one. This is one of my favorite paper collages that I created for AP Art, it took the longest time to glue the wing feathers and piece together the pieces like a puzzle. Hopefully, I will be able to post more paper collage pieces for you to see my progress.

I hope you all had a

Happy Hanukkah! Happy Christmas! Happy New Years!

The link below goes right to her blog

http://britsketch.blogspot.com/

Yellow Wing, Cut paper, 18 x24