Two pen drawing

This was my unit 2 final. We had to draw a large space with mostly two-point perspective and use up two pens in the process. This is the main gallery at MCAD and the drawing is about 22x30.

Collage

Photo series

A couple images from a photo series in Media I class. There are actually four, but these two are my favorites and really the only two that completed the parameters of the assignment which was to create a non-linear, non-narrative photo series. Anyway, I like these particular photos but I've been having some trouble with our photography related assignments.

A Study in Fennec Foxes

For like three weeks I did nothing but create fennec foxes in different ways, it was crazy. The image above is a collage created using different textures. Some are rubbings, some are just scribbles, some are photographs, etc. etc. Each one is photocopied and cut to fit a specific area. It was an assignment for 2D. The images on the sides and below are also from a 2D assignment which was to draw the same image over and over using different line qualities to evoke the emotions anger, jubilant, lonely and peaceful.


In other news, my laptop is unable to be repaired.

Stop Motion Video

Here's that stop motion video I was working on. It's not that great and it's REALLY choppy but I guess I'm satisfied with it.

A few photos...

Some practice shots for my Media I class.



My hands after an intense dye job...



the view outside our kitchen window...



aand a random plant. With some crappy editing thrown in the background.


Just a quick post, I need to finish all of my homework for the rest of the week like right now. I'm headed to a concert tomorrow so no way will anything get done then.

Good night!

AP Studio

Quick news update, I got a 4 on my portfolio!

And I'm headed off to MCAD on August 20th.

Final Thoughts

LONG POST AHEAD.

So I thought I'd go through the final pieces I did and say a little about them since they didn't have their own individual posts. Somewhere along the way this blog turned into a 'process' blog which AIN'T COOL YO. Well now that school's out I guess I can say whatever I wan in here, huh? 8D

Candy Skull: I liked the idea behind this. I was gonna do some cliche things after this with "hispanic heritage" and blah blah blah but then I decided that I didn't really care about all that so I just dropped it. Anyway I thought the embellishments on the skull look good. They're not ACCURATE by any means but I conveyed the message well without the design being busy. The ribcage and femur are super duper disproportionate.

Hat Cake: Another "I liked the idea behind this" piece. From afar you think it's a cake, but you look up close and they're hats. I also really like how the ribbons turned out even though you can't see them that well in the picture.

Sea Slugs: LOVE how this one turned out. I was actually considering dropping this one for a while but I'm really glad I decided to finish it. I got to invent my own creatures for this one which was a lot of fun and I'm actually really proud of that glowing effect I got with the slug on the bottom. The way it photographed where the one glowing slug looks like it's partially illuminating the picture was really cool too, even though it was unintentional. ;D

The Crab: Emilee Commander suggested the bow tie and cane, yes? Thank you~ I like this one a lot too (I like the sea creature ones best) even though it didn't photograph so well. The detail on the crab was a lot harder than I had originally thought but I think it turned out okay. I'm not too happy with the background on this one, it was difficult to get a light gradient effect with the red.

The Turtle: Another one that turned out WAY better than I thought it would. I was a little concerned at first because I started drawing the turtle (tortoise?) and it was a lot duller than the colors I'd used in anything else. But I think it ended up fitting in the concentration. The textures could be way better on it though, it was a little rushed.

The Fish: Oh jeez, this one was really difficult. I couldn't decide whether or not to make the glass refract the light in the background or not... it may have been a better idea not to actually... but I did and it looks decent enough. I think they may be going the wrong direction; I used a glass that curved outward instead of inward. Otherwise though, the fish looks okay and the glass top hat worked out nicely.

The Octopus (continued): Eh, this one I have mixed feelings about for whatever reason. I had to redo this after finishing it because I lost it and the face turned out a little awkward the second time. Her head also looks misshapen and the top hat is stylistically different from all the others. The tentacles turned out okay though.

Consumption: OH JEEZ the top hat is really badly shaded in this one. Well this one started out as a self portrait with the idea of being "consumed" by these top hats... but my imagination went off on a tangent and so it looks nothing like me. So it's not really a self portrait after all. Although it does have my previous hairstyle and left eyebrow slit.

Tea Party: I really don't have much to say about this one, it was a last minute thing that I just needed to have the right number of concentration pieces. I'm really quite indifferent to it.

I think that's it! If I missed one that you were YEARNING to know my thoughts on (I'm ohsosuresarcasm.) feel free to point it out.

Everything Else

There we go, I think that's everything. I'll reflect more on my concentration as a whole tomorrow but looking at it right now... man my craftsmanship could be WAY better. What do you guys think? What do you like, what do you not like, is there anything I absolutely NEED to rephotograph, etc.? Not like I can actually change any of that (except for the photos) but I'm curious to see what people think. I'm not sure what I think right now, too tired...

OH! And credit where it's due, thank you Mai for the turtle idea, Stephanie for the fish bowl idea and anyone else who gave me ideas who I've forgotten. =3

The Tortoise goes solo

Finished my turtle and The Octopus (continued). Gonna go take some refs for my self portrait and stuff like that.

Concentration Count

Let's count together! I need 12 total pieces for my concentration...

Once again...
O= Done
X= In Progress

O The Octopus
O An Eye for an Eye (redo)
O Candy Skull
O The Crab
O Wed
O The Octopus (continued)
O Whallow
O Sea Slugs
O Fish Bowl
O The Tortoise
O Tea Party
O Consumption

The last 4 (minus the VERY last) are very small and will be easy to finish on time. They are fully sketched out and outlined and merely have to be colored. If I can finish a couple more super quick that'd be even more ideal.

Now to find out the due date here and write my artist statement. 8D Oh jeez...

District Art Show

(Catching up on blogs if you couldn't tell). Won third place at the District Art Show. Honestly I was totally surprised that that piece won, especially seeing some of the other pieces there. It was all very impressive, if you get a chance you should go check all that out at the Adam's 12 building or whatever it's called. Soooooo... yeah. 8D

I'm gonna be gone for a week so no new blogs. I need to have everything done pretty much by this coming Tuesday. I need about 4 more new pieces so wish me luck!

Picture Update 2

A Crab







and Cake.

Picture Update

Trading Cards
They're itty bitty little things and I might redo the last one (orange haired one). I might just count these as one and photograph them all together and do a few more trading cards instead of using them as three concentrations... cuz by themselves they're not too impressive... neither are they together for that matter but at least they make sense! XD

After a slight lapse in sanity...

I'm pleased to inform you that I am slightly more sane than I was when I posted my last blog and am also a super slacker. This week I'm doing a stack of top hats that look like a cake. With shiny, stripey bows. And stuff. I'm running out of ideas if it's not obvious already. So this week I'll bore any readers with a quick list of my concentrations so far. Oh, keep in mind that most of these titles are 'working titles' and won't actually be that lame... unless I can't think of anything else.

X = In progress
O = Done

O The Octopus
X An Eye for an Eye (redo)
O Candy Skull
O Trading Card Set (may possibly count as 3)
X Sea Slugs
O Wedding Cake
X The Octopus continued
O The Crab
...
Oh dear, I'm farther behind than I thought. Well... off to work!

Sea Slugs

I like how I just completely repeated myself in that last blog entry... I don't really know what to write about anymore. Haha. Concentration is going slowly, I've hit a block so I've been going back and trying new things that will probably work their way into my breadth from last semester. I've got a couple things going at home including putting the background on my candy skull piece and working on a new picture. It's very much like the octopus image inverted and using sea slugs instead of tentacles. I kind of intended it to be an elaboration on that piece, it will have far more detail and color so hopefully that works out. Haha, I like sea creatures a lot, could you tell? I think I plan to use more of them because they are a very good representation of my contrast against sophistication. They're very surreal and colorful. I'm having more and more difficulties though creating interesting compositions though. I don't want my concentration to be like... find a random critter and plop a top hat down on it's head. For my next piece I think I want to skewer the hat on something...

Oh jeez, that was like a little mini rant there. XD

Christian Hahn

Click image to view full version!


I saw several pieces by Christain Hahn today while visiting the Denver Art Museum and they reminded me very much of my intended style at the beginning of my concentration. The picture above is Land Unter which I got to see and absolutely loved.

Plans for Concentration 5+

Finished my peacock picture. Didn't photograph so well though.

I think I've been moving away from my initial concept and I need to get back to it. There's something crazy and fantasy-esque about my first two pieces that just... doesn't click with the last two. They feel forced. Not that I don't like them, there's just something off about them. I need to be more cohesive I think. For the next few, I'm going to work small and make a series of artist trading cards. They'll be portraits mostly but I'll incorporate an element of fantasy into each as well as attempting to put more design into my top hats.

SO YEAH! That's pretty much it.

Concentration 3 and 4

Yeah I'm a little behind. I think I'm supposed to be on six. So some previews of what I'm working on right now.

College Portfolio

EDIT: My portfolio is partially up on my Flickr. Anyone care to review and critique? What I'd like help with: order especially the first piece, and removal of pieces that aren't strong. Keep in mind that I'm aiming for versatility with my portfolio.

Flickr Portfolio

I'm behind on my concentration due to some issues with my college portfolio. Even though I really need to get cracking on my top hat pieces, college applications hold priority over my class stuff. Once that's in, and it really should be in soon due to the fact that the application is due Monday and I need to give it to the office tomorrow, I'll really be able to focus more on my classwork.

So very temporary hiatus from AP studio while I work on my college portfolio.
Oh and I'm applying to MCAD for anyone curious.

EDIT: I got in guys! I'm going to MCAD next fall!!!! 8D

Concentration #2 finished

Finished eyeball piece. I messed with it a bit on photoshop so I could experiment with the background. Sorry for the giant watermark. =/

Gorgeous George

My next concentration, involves a peacock. No progress shots yet, they're in progress. The subject WAS going to be a raven, but I got the idea of using peacocks because they are far more gaudy and obnoxiously colorful. When I was looking up reference pictures for the peacock's feathers, I came upon a story about a peacock named Gorgeous George. It was a really cute story from a site that I thought was for purchasing peacocks. So the story and the fact that people actually keep peacocks as pets made me really happy, but reading further into the site... I realized it was a taxidermy site... and I was vaguely traumatized. So this piece is inspired by Gorgeous George who I thought was a who I thought was an adorable living peacock but actually turned out to be a stuffed dead one.

Gorgeous George. Oh and I started at the biography after scrolling down skimming for pictures, so don't yell at me for not noticing the site was obviously a taxidermy site. Haha

Oh, and thanks to Julia for the bird idea!

Scholastic Art Awards

So I went to RMCAD today for the Scholastic Art Awards. I got a silver key for a piece I did last semester. The gallery there was very impressive, especially the gold key winner portfolios. AMAZING. The awards ceremony itself was very low key, they had one ever half hour so it wasn't very crowded. There were like 10 people receiving awards when I went up and you just said your name, school, what award you got and what for then you got a certificate and I got a little silver key pin. Though I forgot to say the name of my school and I felt like an idiot. XD

Anyway, there's a picture of me on the right with my picture I won for. I took A LOT of pictures while I was there but I don't want to upload them all here so they're on my photobucket.

An eye for an eye

Which is not necessarily the title for this piece in progress, but it makes a nice blog title doesn't it? Just a progress shot, but here's my newest piece for my concentration.



I chose markers for this piece because I didn't quite get that bold color I wanted in my octopus picture. I'd never used them before so this is basically my first time using them (I did test them a little in my sketchbook). I like the result, but it's quite difficult to get the shading and blending even and pretty. My main difficulty is that when you use a marker, you can't press down lightly to get a different shade like colored pencils. Which is of course obvious, but still makes life difficult. So pros and cons in both mediums. I'll probably switch between the two a lot in my concentration.

And a little side not about the eyeballs, they're supposed to be a little reminiscent of flowers (yes there are two) and the more prominent one WILL be wearing a top hat. In my imagination, the eyes are dancing together, but I'm not sure it comes across in the picture... not that it needs to. Just a personal detail.

EDIT: Found another artist I want to remember. I've always expressed a like for manga style artwork, but I've only recently come to terms with the fact that it is fine and dandy to work that kind of style into my regular artwork and not just the crap I doodle in my sketchbook. SO ANYWAY, went off on a tangent there... but artists!

Sakizou Love the color and details in his/her (not sure) works. I love overly detailed, busy pictures that leave you discovering something new every time you look at them.

So I like octopi... and I like top hats...

thus octopus top hat. There's honestly not much more than that. I like them both so I combined them.

Next week I'm making it my goal to try out those awesome new markers we got. I think they'd fit in well with my concept and what I'm trying to create. I need to practice a bit with them first, I really have no experience when it comes to markers...

Another thing I'm working on this week outside my concentration is a landscape image. I need one for my portfolio to apply to MCAD so I figured I needed to start on it. I'm using oil paints so it may take me a while... anyway it's an image of Yellowstone a while after that huge fire they had many years ago. My grandpa took the reference picture and he's had it on display over his fireplace since I was little. Good memories all around. =) WIP pics coming later.

Oh, and I found another cool artist this week.
Claudiu Candea who, although having absolutely nothing to do with my concentration, is fabulously creepy. (nudity and some graphic images, consider yourself warned)
>>>LINK

Concentration beginnings + Artist Collection

So I started my concentration today. I wasn't planning on drawing anything, but I had a pretty cool idea and just ran with it while I was still excited about it. Things often turn out better for me when I'm really excited about them, that way I don't get impatient and start rushing things. I want to try not to rush anything this semester. Well anyway, I'll upload this piece, just because it's my first of my concentration. I probably won't upload everything though.

Okay so, I think the photo students are writing about artists they like and I figured it'd be a good idea for me too even though I wasn't officially assigned this.

Alex Pardee
Anna Ignatieva
Sasha/Gidragirl

One of them is from deviantart. XD Okay lemme just say a little about deviantart. A lot of people don't like it or think it's full of anime crap or whatever. A lot of it is stupid drama and popularity doesn't mean a thing art-wise on that site. But I think if you use it like it's intended, which is to share and discuss art with people similiar to you- your peers- it's a great site. The girl I posted a link to is one of my favorite people to follow; I love her style and compositions as well as subjects. She's about my age too and it's simultaneously inspiring and disheartening to see someone your age (or younger?!) creating artwork that you love.