hom-a-nom-a-nom

migrated!

2010-10-02T23:08:00.000-07:00

no longer updating this blog-- MOVED HERE! :D

unicorn bait

2010-09-30T00:40:00.001-07:00

haven't had time to breathe (i feel like i say that a lot...). in any case, it's the truth. started this last weekend and finally found a bit of time to turn it into a sketch. thumbnail and concept sketch:

i love how my thumbnails are so hopelessly indecipherable.

i'm not sure why, but i find this really funny. there's a running joke with my coworkers about how much i love drawing unicorns..but i realized that i hadn't actually drawn one for over 15 years. well, here you go.

(btw: anyone who's anyone knows that unicorns are attracted to virgins, according to legend...or the encyclopedia of facts)

shut

2010-09-25T23:30:00.000-07:00

i haven't drawn anyone with their eyes open since july.

Moon Festival Doodle!

2010-09-21T11:17:00.000-07:00

Pretty happy with this one :D New doodle live in china, taiwan, and hong kong: here!

Interview with CNET

2010-09-06T10:23:00.000-07:00

check out the interview and gallery on CNET!

Buckyball!

2010-09-03T21:32:00.000-07:00

New doodle for the 25th Anniversary of the Buckyball is FINALLY live on google.com! Super thanks to all the engineers and designers who put up with my insanity and nagging :)

NOW GO PLAY!

Wall of Doodle

2010-08-21T13:03:00.000-07:00

This is the full installation where my "e" sits. the artists from left to right:
G, Micheal
o,o, Dutton
g, Susie
l, Ryan
e, Jennifer

unfortunately we didn't win (BOOO), but at least dutton, susie, and i had a really fun late-night-painting-session in the office :)

Juxtapoz

2010-08-20T20:25:00.000-07:00

Interview with Juxtapoz magazine from earlier this week: here!

In Twain

2010-08-15T23:26:00.000-07:00

i'm back from maui and really fucking stressed out. (was that a cry for help?)

tried several avenues to abate my nervous energy today:

1. went grocery shopping
2. cooked cellophane noodles
3. cooked nian gao (didn't win any beauty contests, but it was freaking delicious)
4. attempted to draw

i ended up eating dinner at 4:30 pm (b/c i had nothing better do to) and consumed 1/3 cup of dark brown sugar and 200 ml of sticky rice flour (nian gao) over the next three hours. BAD IDEA. i now have the j-j-jitters from sugar withdrawal.

anyway, i really did attempt to draw something of relative substance to drag myself through a long day, but i just couldn't do it. i've been playing with a new concept for a painting but i froze. a brief phone conversation blocked everything i had planned. couldn't draw. couldn't focus. had to keep myself busy somehow so i decided (or maybe it was the sugar) to actively disregard my own nagging standards of "taste" and just draw something completely masturbatory for the sake of drawing. (fell back on a few old themes/design choices so i didn't have to think too much. god, i miss my sewing machine.)

ended up looking like an asian audrey hepburn + beheading piece, but i initially had Sargent's "Madam X" in mind (or i really just want a black dress with a plunging neckline). the blue variation is the original, the second is an adjusted version.

thumbnail sketch:

i also normally don't do personal work on the computer. that's my day job. at home, i try to maintain my grips on real media. today was an exception.

post four emergency doses of red bean candy and a second cellular installation, the jitters are gone...but i'm left with an insatiable need for salt. i'm recognizing my lack of savory snacks, staring at a packet of soy sauce, and wondering how one defines a "good idea."

i'm just realizing how frantic this post appears.

Aloha

2010-08-07T23:29:00.000-07:00

OOO until 8/13/10

Officially.

Seamstress Final

2010-08-03T20:30:00.000-07:00

it's not a doll, it's a sculpture.

so this was a major time-suck (fig-1), but it was really fun to get out of 2D land for once :) this is part of a larger effort for my team (i obviously had the "e"). tomorrow is the final installation for all the letters so i'll have photos of the full piece in the next few days. anyway, here's the second half of the process:

DAYS 6/7: sanded and painted the figure and sewed the basic structure of her dress

DAYS 8/9ish: found that an old bottle of painkillers (left over from my date with the DR) was the PERFECT height for her seat. (see walgreens tag peeping through) penciled in the pixels for the "e" and began to sew the pieces. NOTE: sewing 1" x 1" squares of fabric with a standard size iron is decidedly unwise...though i only burned myself once (SKILL).

DAY 10/11ish: painted the shadow box to fit the palette of the fabric. something unfortunate that i learned when working with textiles is that YOU ARE AT THE MERCY OF THE TEXTILE DESIGNER. you can't change their palette, so you have to just suck it up and alter your plans...or layer sheer and opaque fabrics.

DAY 12/who-knows-what-anymore: final composition thoroughly secured with the help of mr. elmers, a handful of pennies, and Susie's trusty glue gun! i sewed the girl onto her seat and replaced the drugs with pennies (yea, i know, significantly less fun :P) so she wasn't top-heavy.

so there you have it! it was an awful lot of fun to work on, though my volcano-ash-and-sawdust-filled lungs may disagree. i have to say to my credit, though, i DID actually buy a dust mask...and i did use it-- only i didn't open any windows. apparently tiny, lung-slaying particles tend to linger in the air, so when i took my mask off, i gained a respiratory system full of foreign bodies. cheers to a shorter life span!

i also never addressed the subject matter of this piece. the restrictions of the project were only this: make an "e." well, ok. that's significantly less specific than my other assignments. considering the tumultuous nature of recent events, i decided to fall back on an old favorite subject: the seamstress. and only b/c this is the only subject i've consistently revisited, i feel like indulging myself and taking a walk through a bit of ego-centric history:

it started in the winter of 2008 (january 3rd or 4th if i remember correctly). i took a textiles class called "pojagi and beyond." in this sweat-shop-like environment, i stitched away for at least 300 solid hours....in about 6 weeks. ended up with several obscenely self-serving pieces. the three below are "armor," "swell," a 15 foot installation, and "the kiss," based on Klimt's palette (his painting of the same title). i found the act of sweat-shopping strangely comforting. it was agonizingly repetitive, vaguely empty of thought, and extremely meditative.

it was a mindless means to an end-- but mostly a means to a means.

it was a long winter:

running into the spring of the same year, i did a retrospectively weak digital painting called "seamstress" (yawn). unlike the previous series, this piece detailed my resolve:

in 2009 i was surprised to find myself in need of my dear, old friend. this time it was not so much the physical act of binding pieces together, rather, depicting it. these are two of an eight-part series that explores the button as a vehicle for attachment. it also put to good use my childhood obsession with collecting buttons off the floors of department stores (more specifically, Syms). "red blood" and "white blood" appear at the end of the series:

this brings me to the shadow box. unlike my previous works, the purposes behind this piece not only changed nearly every other day, but were in direct conflict with each other. the circumstances surrounding its creation kind of fucked up my reasons for using the subject matter in the first place. typically, i had a singular voice in anything i created with this theme. i had one thing to say to my motivator. after this particular project, though, i don't know what to say to my motivator anymore.

i've already said everything, and now i'm passionately neutral.

i'm not sure where this experience leaves my relationship with the 'seamstress.' this might just be the death of that theme since i'm finding myself scrambling for new symbols. regardless of whether or not i could ever find comfort in this subject again, the process of this piece served its purpose (see fig-1).

Seamstress Process

2010-07-24T19:52:00.001-07:00

whoa, so it turned out that when my team asked me if i could actually fabricate that sketch into a sculpture and i said, "yea, sure," i wasn't bluffing. what a relief. honestly, i haven't sculpted for four years so i just assumed that i'd be able to deal haha.

received some valuable advice from the lovely sarah greenfield on how to work with paper clay-- so big thanks to her :)

I still have a bit of sanding and painting to do, but for the most part, i'm finished with the basic structure. here's the process thus far.

DAY 1: additional sketches for turning reference and a wire/foil skeleton for gesture and stability.

DAY 2: loose first coating of glue and paper clay. this stage reminded me of plaster casts from Pompeii (was that insensitive?)

DAY 3: started digging into her right hand, back, and legs

DAY 4: completed her left arm and chipped away at the feet (i'd accidentally made the wire/foil skeleton too large)

DAY 5: was only going to work on the feet and legs, but decided to start on the face as well. i actually had to use a size 00 brush and sewing needle to work on her lips. it was a late night...

DAY 6: finished off the face by filling out the cheeks a bit (it didn't turn well from the previous night) and added hair...exactly how i'm going to paint between her hair and face is a mystery to me...

phew! she stands about 11 inches tall and sits around... hell i don't know. the point is she's rather tiny considering she's going to sit in a 16"x16" shadow box. hopefully i'll be able to sand/paint her this weekend and start sewing her clothes/everything else/paint the actual shadow box before the due date.

one minor lesson learned from this project: breathing paper clay dust gives you volcano lungs. unfortunately, i was too lazy to buy a dust mask...though i had six days to do so. perhaps that means i haven't learned a lesson, rather, made an observation.

Josef Frank Doodle

2010-07-15T00:07:00.000-07:00

new doodle for the birthday of Josef Frank (textile artist) here: http://google.com

jennifer goes to 3D land!

2010-07-13T14:32:00.000-07:00

concept sketch for a future project....IN THREE-DEE!! excitement and anxiety follow.

scratchings

2010-06-29T20:22:00.000-07:00

i have had better days: not much in the sketchbook but writing lately--but these managed to creep into the pages.

pretty sure i also need a new scanner (see streaky fucked-up-attude)

French Easel

2010-06-01T22:18:00.000-07:00

i just acquired a Mabef french easel. this solves my poor painting posture problem- but sadly also puts an end to my brief yet brilliant career as a professional alliteration-ist.

Teeth, sketches, and android tomfoolery

2010-05-27T21:03:00.001-07:00

Hell yes! I have completed a new painting (IN MY FREE TIME!) It's called "teeth," and you can track the process on my joint blog: Father Son Whaling Trip.

Teeth, gouache on paper, 28"x14"

In other news, i've finished a couple of watercolor sketches recently-- her are two of them:

and for those who attended I/O this year, you might recognize this illustration...working on it made me giggle:

something less interesting to everyone but myself: i finally, FINALLY painted on site. my coworker, mike dutton, convinced me to journey out for a quick landscape painting session recently. i quickly found out that i am a total hack. needless to say, i'm not going to post the unfortunate smattering of watercolor, but hopefully i will show future paintings (assuming i get better with practice...)

Oh, RISD students...

2010-05-26T21:49:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention this a couple of months ago, but I found it really funny how I knew exactly when Jon Foster gave out the "Wolverine Netsuke" assignment for this year's Cover to Cover class...b/c I saw a lot of hits on my blog via Google search query "Wolverine Netsuke..." all of which came from RISD campus hahaha.

Anyway, hits for this old blog post cropped up again (linked from another blog) and I was wondering how often pple were finding this painting....naturally, I Googled it-- and this is what I found:

HILARIOUS.

EXPLETIVE!

2010-05-14T00:47:00.000-07:00

I AM ARTISTICALLY FRUSTRATED! I AM ALSO A WHINY BABY-CHILD!!

Mothers Day

2010-05-09T00:22:00.000-07:00

New doodle for all our mothers :) here!

150th Birthday of J.M. Barrie

2010-05-08T16:03:00.000-07:00

Author of Peter Pan and Peter and Wendy, now live in the UK: here!

Tchaikovsky's 170th Birthday

2010-05-07T00:06:00.000-07:00

When I was a child, I started my first acrylic piece-- but I did more dancing than painting. Tchaikovsky's "Waltz of the Flowers" blasted on my boom box and it sounded how life is supposed to feel.

New global doodle to celebrate his 170th birthday with San Francisco Ballet: here!

A video about the making of/meaning behind this doodle: here :D

Rocket Festival

2010-05-04T14:47:00.000-07:00

New doodle in Thailand: here!

i actually forgot to post about my doodles for anzac day in new zealand and australia the other week... but i was on CBS recently: here

Vlasta Burian

2010-04-08T16:57:00.000-07:00

New doodle for Vlasta Burian is live in the Czech Republic: here!

Hans Christian Andersen

2010-04-01T21:55:00.000-07:00

WE'RE LIVE ON ALL DOMAINS! Thumbelina doodle SERIES for Hans Christian Andersen's 205th birthday. CLICK THE DOODLE to see the sequence! here!

Jan Amos Komensky

2010-03-27T19:35:00.000-07:00

New doodle up in the Czech Republic: here

Hungarian National Day

2010-03-14T16:45:00.001-07:00

Doodle live in Hungary: here

Mother's Day

2010-03-13T16:11:00.000-08:00

Doodle live in the UK for Mother's Day: here

New doodle

2010-03-06T18:48:00.000-08:00

Live in Sweden now: Vasaloppet

Girls Day

2010-03-02T11:21:00.000-08:00

New doodle is live in Japan: http://www.google.co.jp/

Carnival Doodle!

2010-02-11T22:38:00.001-08:00

Doodle live in Brazil: http://www.google.com.br/

new doodle

2010-02-10T17:51:00.000-08:00

new doodle for belarus here! Napoleon Orda

also an illustration for Doodle 4 Google here: Doodle 4 Google. pictures of my team are also in there somewhere :D

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

2010-01-17T23:38:00.000-08:00

New doodle is up for MLK's birthday: here!

rodney and the holidays

2010-01-03T21:39:00.000-08:00

hope everyone enjoyed their holidays! here's rodney to reaffirm this wish of good will:

i tried my best to draw a narwhal for work...but when that failed i had to branch out on my own. oh well.

Mary's Legs

2009-12-21T22:11:00.000-08:00

been working on this on and off for a while now. i'm posting just to make sure no one thinks i'm dead or anything. i still don't know what to do with it.

Sketches are all i live for now

2009-12-12T14:17:00.000-08:00

I was talking to Mike Dutton the other day and rediscovered gouache. this is what happened to my sketchbook as a result:

testing out gouache and acrylic medium. it's fun so far.

true story: i was looking at the "J" in this for a while and felt that it was kind of strange but didn't know why. it only took me two days to realize that I HAD DRAWN IT BACKWARDS. yes, i've written my own name at least several times during my life and i'm not illiterate...but this typo only dawned on me AFTER i had penciled and painted it. i'm wondering if all of my schooling diplomas were a scam. gouache and ink:

lia marcoux likes cameos and i've been thinking about them recently. they're out of my system now. gouache:

in other news, i was fortunate enough to nab free tickets to Cirque du Soleil's "Ovo" in San Francisco earlier this week. IT WAS FANTASTICALLY MIND BLOWING.

New Doodle in China

2009-12-10T15:18:00.000-08:00

http://google.cn: New doodle for the birthday of "The Rocket King," Qian Xuesen.

Vacation!

2009-11-25T00:00:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone :D

New Sketchbook

2009-11-23T21:08:00.001-08:00

i've been noticeably absent from the internet lately-- and also overwhelmingly present. i'm ALWAYS online but never really heard haha.

anyway, i bought a new watercolor moleskine and here's what i've done TO it since i lovingly stripped it of its purity. (yes, i realize how disturbing that sounds haha)

1. i was tired of working with tight vectors and pixel-level detail...and i threw a brush and paint at the first page. i wanted to make the subjects look like they were awkwardly standing next to each other...but maybe it's just an awkward sketch in general.

2: Ok, i can explain the following. i saw "This is It," the Michael Jackson documentary, on monday and though i'll spare everyone a long-winded retelling of how it was the closest thing i've ever had to a spiritual experience i WILL acknowledge that it has triggered an unforeseen (and certainly unanticipated) fixation with the King of Pop. it's also allowed me to work in brush and ink (which i haven't done for...ever??)

(note: pretty obvious what hanging around Aaron has done to the way i work.)

Water on the Moon Doodle!

2009-11-13T19:11:00.000-08:00

I read the big news this morning and boy was it a busy afternoon :) Check out the doodle here: http://google.com

Day of the Dead

2009-11-01T23:53:00.000-08:00

New doodle up in Mexico here!

Loy Krathong

2009-11-01T13:30:00.000-08:00

Doodle up in Thailand: here!

my art needs me time

2009-10-28T22:51:00.000-07:00

i guess i'm facing a common problem for artists who draw for a living-- i don't have time to do my own work anymore. anyway, i'm fighting my way through this one right now, but i don't know what will become of it:

also sketched this out earlier tonight after realizing that i haven't worked from life or in pencil for a LONG time:

the text reads "me as seen by me, for now. october 28 2009." i drew it in a moleskine that i accidentally purchased for nearly $20. i say accidentally b/c i didn't know that i was buying one with "plain" paper-- aka CHEAP ASS PAPER. $20 for cheap paper....i wanted to kick myself. alas, the damn thing is in my possession so i might as well make the most of it :P this was my first moleskine ever too...i don't think i've learned my lesson though. i'm buying another one with watercolor paper.

Turkish National Day

2009-10-28T18:04:00.001-07:00

Doodle up in Turkey: here!

Netherlands Multatuli

2009-10-12T23:28:00.000-07:00

Doodle up in The Netherlands! http://google.nl

here are my previous doodles so far:

10/13/09 (Netherlands)
9/3/09 (Japan)
9/2/09 (Global)

Japanese Moon Viewing Day

2009-10-02T10:13:00.001-07:00

Second doodle is live in Japan: http://www.google.co.jp/

Update: My manager just informed me of something crazy today-- one billion people saw my gandhi doodle today. one billion. i don't even understand more than 20 people seeing my work. WEIRD.

First Google Doodle! Gandhi!

2009-10-01T18:16:00.000-07:00

My first doodle is live in half of the world! Check it out here now: google.co.uk

It will be on google.com at 12 am Pacific time tonight.

I'm slowly beginning to realize how many pple use google...it's quite overwhelming.

I'll post when I have other doodles up in the future :)

update

2009-09-15T18:58:00.000-07:00

my job is awesome. i should have my first big doodle going live on google next month. look out for it and i'll tell you if it's mine.

i want to do my own art too.

i'm alive.

the lady or the tiger

2009-08-16T09:28:00.001-07:00

scratch that, i finished the painting in 3 hours the other night. so much for not finding time.

and just for context, here are all three paintings lined up :)!

in other news, i'm really itching to do a series of black and white ink paintings before i leave. unfortunately, i have an annoying guest over who demands attention until i fly out. we'll see how i work around this scheduling inconvenience. (:P)

de laydee or de tigah

2009-08-14T23:52:00.001-07:00

third piece in the series-- pencil drawing and color key. i don't know exactly when i'll be able to actually paint this...i really want to finish this series before i leave but the scheduling is getting a bit tight. i've already cut foam core for the first two paintings so i can float them in my new apartment.

the time is pressing...i'm starting to get anxious and nervous about relocating! wish me luck.

roar again

2009-08-07T15:56:00.000-07:00

second painting in the series!

Roar!

2009-08-06T11:44:00.000-07:00

trying to keep myself busy by creating paintings that will go on my new walls (where ever that may be... apt hunting is giving me anxiety.) anyway, here's the first painting in a 3-part series!

this is pretty small...about 5.5 x 8.75?? anyway, they're quick and keep me working.

the lady or the tiger

2009-08-04T11:19:00.000-07:00

working on a small triptych that was originally inspired by Frank Stockton's The Lady or the Tiger? . it obviously veered from that reference point, but what are you going to do? here are the first two drawings/color keys:

Colorblind Senior Color Technician finish

2009-08-01T16:27:00.000-07:00

been kind of overwhelmed lately, but i managed to sit down and finish this yesterday. painting many small circles is surprisingly not horrifying...it might have actually been fun (in a masochistic kind of way). in any case, i really enjoy using very graphic elements...can't help but feel my love for klimpt playing a part in that though.

leaving the nest

2009-07-28T19:22:00.000-07:00

i guess i'll have to put my dreams of becoming a broadway star on hold for now.

the wait is finally over-- i received my official offer from Google to join them in Mountain View, CA as a new web designer/illustrator. i receive the documents in the mail by the end of the week and while i'm very excited (and flattered, and grateful), there's obviously a lot to deal with in light of this news.

living arrangements:
finding an apartment is difficult. finding an apartment with another person (whom i haven't yet found) on the other side of the country is significantly more difficult. i'm looking to live in san francisco...which is expensive. i have about two weeks to straighten this out...but i'm praying that another RISD alumnus finds him/herself in the same situation so i have a trustworthy roommate.

personal ties:
it's obvious i'll be leaving my family, but they will always be family. i also have to leave all of my friends AND my colorblind senior color technician behind. making a new set of quality friends is difficult. it took me 22 years to find mine. i hope i'm not 44 when i find a good group on the west.

recent purchases:
while in italy this past winter, i invested in a new pair of beautiful italian leather boots. how will i ever wear them on the west? this is surly my biggest problem.

in any case, i was supposed to revisit my painting this week, but craigslist and facebook have suddenly taken over my life. here is what i managed to do last wednesday night:

wish me luck...or send me leads on an apt haha

Colorblind Senior Color Technician

2009-07-22T13:25:00.001-07:00

started drawing up a new piece yesterday and did the digital color sketch today!

this one should be a lot of fun...and a major pain in the ass with all those circles. i don't know why i want to paint them by hand.

Beloved Drone

2009-07-21T10:37:00.000-07:00

so i'm back from my trip and i finally managed to sit and finish this painting yesterday! i'm having a problem with acrylic lemon yellow...it's much more electric/cold than oil lemon yellow. i know i should just mix in some cadmium yellow but i can't bring myself to do it. i also work at night under a very warm lamp so that off-sets the color when i'm working. bleh, whatever. i'll be more careful next time.

other than that, i'm relatively pleased with it.

i think i should offer a comment regarding my choice of imagery (since almost everyone finds this fairly creepy). the decapitation is a bizarre symbol of affection-- by disembodying the cherished person, i eliminate everything about him/her that is material/physical/irrelevant, and therefore represent only exactly what matters to me (the intellect, the personality). the bees actually made its way into this painting b/c i really wanted to work with hexagons-- however, the mouthful of bees hints at the use of the beloved object as a hive, or more frankly, a "home." the use of the word "drone" in the title, however, is just my joke with the subject. it's sarcastically condescending, but that's how we roll.

anyway, i'm still waiting on a response from a job application so i'm trying my best to not get antsy. in the mean time, i think i'll start another painting today...either about a friend's color blindness or the abominable snowman hehe.

haitus!

2009-07-10T23:07:00.001-07:00

i'm about to take a week off with me ma and disappear, but before i go i have a slightly blurry photo of the progress i made after a couple hours of painting today:

i really enjoy where it's going but i must vanish for now. ciao everyone :D

My Dear, Beloved Drone

2009-07-10T01:17:00.001-07:00

working on a new painting (which may or may not seem to have representations of known persons)! here are some images from my process:

the last digital color key is what i will (supposedly) work towards...generally speaking. i've already deviated from that though haha. i never really stick very close to my original plans. anyway, i'm trying really hard to stay away from turquoise...but i'm not making any promises.

in other news, here's the final photograph of "Cecilia"

Oh, Cecilia and Beloved Drone

2009-07-08T20:06:00.000-07:00

i took a few days off this past weekend to celebrate independence day in MA with my second family (:D), but now i just want to get this thing OVER WITH!

i tried my best to fiddle with a poor quality photo-- i'll photograph it again in daylight. anyway, here's a few things i learned while working on this piece:

1. drawing type is very difficult
2. keeping the original shape of your type after 4 layers of paint is even more difficult
3. acrylic is not well suited for type, that is why i have the computer
4. i want a pangolin of my own

think i'll start a new painting tonight...i want to narrow my palette this time.

thanks to everyone for the feedback :) (and please, no comments on the kerning)

update:

actually started the next painting!

i realize that this is ANOTHER beheading piece...i assure you that i'm not more-than-reasonably-mentally-unbalanced! i'm just really attracted to this theme for some reason...probably b/c a lot of beheading tales involve some kind of sexual conquest and romance.

Cecilia Process

2009-07-01T00:45:00.000-07:00

thought i'd post an image of Cecilia in progress:

i managed to find an old sheet of hot press paper from freshman year (score!)...so that was exciting since i've been working on cold press all year. anyway, so far it's in watercolor and acrylic...but i anticipate having to dive into some gouache for the type-- which is incredibly tedious to work on.

i also realize that this is pretty far from the first color studies i posted. in actuality, i've been fighting this piece on the computer for a few days before i finally decided to just attack it in real life (thank god). there are so many more possibilities with real media...not to mention significantly more control over my palette. as a side note-- the photo i took is a little off in terms of color accuracy. i'll shoot it again in daylight when it's done.

Cecilia

2009-06-26T01:43:00.001-07:00

in recent news:

i've graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with my BFA in illustration and have been doing that grand old tradition called "job searching." in my search i've had to contend with a few problems:

1. jobs are few and far between
2. my only offers/prospects are in california
3. i may have to come to terms with leaving my friends and family behind
4. i've developed an unexpected closeness to a few of my friends that i'm not very willing to give up

right now, though, i'm waiting on a response from a company that i've been in communication with since april. in the mean time i've been cleaning house and working on this:

these are just quick digital color studies before i attack it with watercolor and acrylic. i'm trying to do a darker/cooler palette so it's giving me a hard time. anyway, one of my goals for this piece was to do some hand-drawn type. i've been hanging out with aaron a lot so i'm constantly exposed to design.

in other news, aaron's Design of Obama is officially available for pre-order on amazon! what's cooler, though, is that i'll actually have a credit in it-- i'm listed as "design assistant," but i really wanted to be "design assistant and supreme color technician extraordinaire." apparently you can't always get what you want...

sam elliot

2009-05-18T12:09:00.000-07:00

new zbrush business-- i was going to model javier bardem (he has a seriously wild face) but by chad's recommendation, i decided to base the new stuff on sam elliot instead. i decided to clean him up a bit (cut and neaten his hair). now he looks really authoritative...one would argue: nazi-esque.

wolverine- netsuke

2009-05-14T18:49:00.000-07:00

first of all, Jon Foster just told me that he read my blog so:

HI THERE JON! i totally fixed the sword :P

secondly, here's the final piece for his class:

i had a lot of fun making it-- i've never used a chinese calligraphy brush before. gesso and ink on wood.

3D what?!

2009-05-05T00:36:00.000-07:00

scared into learning ZBrush-- thanks muchos to Aaron for helping me find awesome tutorials and to Lucas for babysitting me!

a midsummer night's dream

2009-04-23T01:11:00.000-07:00

cover to cover assignment for Jon Foster (william shakespeare's a midsummer night's dream) and a dip back into watercolors! after a number of interviews/portfolio reviews, i am going back to "illustration" and experimenting with style for a bit. a few companies told me that they would like to see a broader range of styles from me...so here's my first (half) stab at a style shift. unfortunately, i'm still drawing the actual forms as i normally would, but i'm handling the subject differently (print-esque). i hope to achieve a more drastic change for my next piece.

watercolor, digital.

thanks to aaron for setting my type :)!

boneshaker

2009-04-21T00:21:00.001-07:00

This one was a nice break from my normal portfolio work-- cover for Boneshaker, a jon foster assignment. i was finally able to get back to my oils and away from my computer for a few days! what a relief.

i also reworked my white mammoth character a while ago. it was kind of funny to digitally repaint something that i'd already painted in acrylic. i learned a lesson here: pick your medium correctly the FIRST time.

reconsidering color

2009-04-04T17:43:00.001-07:00

after taking my cityscape to mary jane's class, i received some really helpful advice on my colors and how that affected the overall tone of the piece...so i readdressed parts of it! hurrah!

mangos and dirigibles

2009-03-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

i've been chained to my computer for several weeks now. this is what has come from our abusive relationship:

i realized a few things while forcing more knowledge of color into my brain:

1. black is a crutch, avoid it when you can.
2. mint green, magenta, and violet are BEAUTIFUL together.
3. at least one of the light sources in a naturally lighted scene is the color of the sky. no matter what.
4. rain will make your colors fracture and break on the "edge" of objects.
5. color is difficult. really difficult.

there are a bunch of things i want to touch up in my three keys for the boarding piece (take out the black, fix that damn "rain texture" in the bottom piece...etc) but i have to scramble for time while doing other pieces before portfolio review day.

btw, the best way to live requires a few friends who will eat, work, sing, and bake with you.

Big stuff going on

2009-03-05T13:38:00.000-08:00

a couple of things today:

this was for jon foster's "cover to cover" class. he liked it a lot but said that i should change the silhouette of the electric hair (or just make it look less like a forest haha). anyway, i had fun with it. it's oil on paper and digital.

THIS monster of a painting is finally done. i struggled with it for months (witnesses say that i may have even cried and bled over it hahaha). anyway, it's dead and gone. now i can move on with my life!! it's was completely different when i started it...it's actually kind of laughable where it was before:

so yea, i guess i'm happy with how it turned out.

back from italy

2009-02-23T23:03:00.000-08:00

ok, so i left the US for the first time in my life to go to italy for a renaissance painting class. we visited venice, padoa, florence, sienna, and rome -- two friends and i also took a day trip to dan gimignano.

i guess i have a lot to say about the experience-- considering the incredible amount of work that we saw on a daily basis-- but perhaps i would go on for too long. i'll just let a few sketches and photographs say it for me.

i didn't do as much drawing as a would have liked-- we simply walked through everything too quickly. these, however, are from times when i was able to sit and focus.

i shot the first two in florence (the duomo and the museum of natural history) while the last one is from the vatican in rome.

a few things that i learned while in italy:

1. when looking at a remarkable piece, ask HOW MANY people worked on it
2. do not take the ease of oil painting for granted when considering the egg tempera technique
3. contemporary people (in general) have no patience
4. comfortable, water-proof shoes are a luxury
5. when looking at remarkable architecture, ask how many years it took to construct
6. a 100% starch diet is a fast way to gain weight
7. a lot of people in countries that don't speak english would rather not speak english
8. breakfast is extremely important
9. naps are extremely important
10. i love america

uh...i also learned a lot about art. i'm sure of it.

i must say, though, that despite having gone on the trip for a painting course, i reacted much more strongly to the sculptures. seeing michelangelo's "David" in real life was an entirely ineffable experience. Bernini, on the other hand, proved to be the absolute climax of figurative sculpture. his works at the borghese gallery were heartbreaking.

though i've seen, breathed, and tasted so many wonderful landscapes, paintings, sculptures, and foods the only thing i wanted after a long trip away from home was a freaking cheese burger. oh how i love america...and her smiling, over-fed, english-speaking children.

silver plate

2008-12-23T12:36:00.000-08:00

super plastic spot shine time! i'm not really sure why i made his head transparent...maybe i was trying to salvage some of the ideas i had from the drawing (alas, i couldn't make the skull show through the way i intended). soooo now he's a kind of ghost head? whatever. acrylic on paper....uh this is apparently another overexposed file? does blogspot just do that? :P

viva la vida

2008-12-20T21:15:00.001-08:00

i was listening to coldplay's 'viva la vida' and thinking about the biblical story of a woman who pretended to be a prostitute in order to invade an enemy king's tent and behead him. now i'm working on this:

what does 'vacation' mean?

2008-12-19T23:34:00.000-08:00

over-exposed photo of an acrylic character painting. thanks to fabby for the advice :D

i guess i'm most interested in the silhouette... and how it so strikingly resembles a uterus (btw, why is it that everything looks like a reference to human genitalia??)

i'm starting to find that i much prefer agonizing over a piece with a brush than on the computer...this is not to my mother's advantage. i've turned a third of the house into my personal studio. i'm actually surprised that she hasn't yelled at me yet haha.

need to start another painting now....boo to early senior shows!!

royal de luxe

2008-12-17T14:58:00.000-08:00

this shit is craaaazzyyyy-- the "studio" or company(?) is called royal de luxe. they make gigantic moving sculptures.

Le calamar à rétropropulsion
by mamzelle_bulle

empty space anxiety

2008-12-16T17:53:00.000-08:00

hm...lots of white space freaks me out. here are some old sketches to get me going on this thing :)

in the beginning...

2008-12-16T14:39:00.000-08:00

i guess this is the beginning of a shiny, new blog. there will soon be fresh fancy work up here when i find time to actually do such work. until then, happy holidays to my risd, ny, and la lovelies.