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.

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

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.

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. =/

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