ARBITRARY UNIVERSALITY

Patterns beckon obsessive reproduction. Through this reproduction, evolution happens unavoidably. Accidental variation coupled with intentional derivation = progressive development. 

And I just like the shape. 

LOGO HOME

I hate having to concoct a logo for myself, and never did land on one I really liked. But the process of making logos is super fun.

POSITIVELY CHARGED PARTICLE

Found some old graffiti sketches. I must've just discovered DAIM. Still my favorite.

WHAT EVIL LURKS IN THE HEARTS OF CHILDREN?

I went looking for dark or evil or scary, for a Halloween post. What happened? My drawings from childhood far topped anything I have to show for now. I always went through the red crayon first. I projected my own night terrors. Anyway, gore and evil and dark was much more prevalent when I was a child. Guess this means I'm healthy now, but the trade is tame, foo-foo art.

 

FEEL THE LINE, AND ENYA.

Been diggin' through the vaults, finding old Art Institute work and comparing it (curca '94) to the stuff I had to do for my current degree. Back then, "digital design" was a concept, not an actuality. We were all hands-on, even with type faces. I miss that, and am lucky I got to get both worlds.

This was a great class. Wish I remember who the teach was. He was a weird, pony-tailed body-builder who played Enya and Fresh Air during drawing sessions. It could have been creepy, but the guy understood the core to drawing from sight. I would be drawing in pieces, composing figures how I knew how -comic book style that I had learned from books I had when I was a little kid. (e.g., HOW TO DRAW A SKULL: START WITH A CIRCLE, THEN AN OVAL, TWO MORE CIRCLES FOR EYE HOLES, AN UP-SIDE-DOWN HEART FOR THE NOSE HOLE...."), then applying that to comic book art which was obviously done in the same way. He would catch me doing this and immediately make me stop. "Draw what you see....not in isolated bits...feel the line that your eyes trace, and let it happen on its own. Let the hand follow the mind, not the other way around." Whether you end up with the right proportions or not, the technique felt more fluid, natural, even intimate. You felt the composition render itself, rather than building it robotically, block-by-block.

Steve Brodner once told me, after asking him if used reference material for his sketches, "Drawing is seeing." (Not name dropping, just cool to interact with a hero....and it was a good quote.)


"I think you can define drawing, or the drawing impulse, in a variety of ways: It is concerned with the line, as opposed to color or form; there is typically a concern with movement -- what is a drawing if not the record of the movement of the hand over a piece of paper; and finally there is an interest in the process of thought, by which I mean that drawing, even it its most expanded form, has a relation to language in that it structures the creation of meaning."

-The Institute of Contemporary Arts/Boston's chief curator Helen Molesworth

I had a dream

If only caricature were an employable career. Brodner and those guys got in while the gettin' was good, and only a few have lasted and still get payed.

Two dudes on the Bremerton Ferry.

Ink vs. Vector

Looking back at old (circa '94-'95) work done at the Art Institute (Round 1) and comparing to the New stuff done over the past half year before finally graduating. In this case, I finished my homework 16 years later, modifying it with Illustrator, which didn't exist in '95. Better late than never, I'll take an "F".

MIND FIELD

Pen tool practice, in class. One of my all-time favorites...Albert, not the Pen Tool...

"The key to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."

PATRON SAINT OF PATIENCE

 

Finally finished what was supposed to be a mother's day gift in 2008. (see older post about pending work here) Needless to say it swallowed many hours. Pen and ink, scanned in sections, realigned the scans, used channels to isolate sections and color in certain layers. Also made some major structural changes, such as the flames in the background, by mirroring one side and cloning it....I even made her taller by warping a lower section of her in Photoshop. 17 layers, 25 channels. Guh. But it turned out nice, Kinko's (Fed Ex, ahem) did a decent job printing, however late.

Poor angel remained crushed underfoot. I can't even remember why I was mad at him to begin with. 

Like I wrote on the back, "Happy every day Ma!"

WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE.....

AS LONG AS YOU DON'T SELL IT, IT'S OKAY.

Every once in a while, it pays to steal ideas, copying them as close as possible, to learn technique or form or whatever. I'm just lucky I don't have to replicate out The Great Gatsby or For Whom The Bell Tolls to feel the work of my fellow craftsmen.

Drawn proudly from Kyle MacNaughton's concept sketch work for Out of Picture 2.

Vermicious Knid??

Drawing can get weird when you lack a reference. 

I DON'T DRAW MUCH ANYMORE.

Lost art or sign of the times? I think it was a good habit. And good meditation, as long as you're not trying to perfect it.

BAMBOO

I have a bamboo fetish. I could stare at any free growing bamboo for hours. Lithe and long-lined, strong and yet graceful, not rigid. Leaves like knife blades. Stark yellowish-green hues. Great raspy sound in the wind.

It's a little more tedious, and less sensual, when you try and still life it by pencil. The Chinese found that brush and ink allowed for a gentle and yet still sharp way of creating such images. And you could produce these images rather quickly, like bamboo grows. Art imitates life, often times even in process.

SCARLETS CD RELEASE

CD, promo poster and bling coming soon.... 

(click on image to see full jacket)

LEGALIZE IT.

Did this in 1993, high school. Seemed a cool idea at the time, because there was a lot of generic Legalize It hoopla going on to sell t-shirts and whatnot at Above The Belt, etc., and I thought this could be a counter to it. I thought it also kept me sort of separated categorically from my other straight edge friends.

The interesting thing about this is, because it got such a good overall response from people, I mailed it to myself, to budget-copy write it. I eventually forgot about it, until I saw a Think Skateboards hat with the exact same idea (it more resembled a curved one I did that looked more like a pot plant, I'll add it later if I can find it) embroidered on it. I was dumbstruck. It was so similar.How did this happen?

The copy write was buried somewhere for years.

But I wasn't alone, it didn't end there. My artist buddy Dan had also done up a very unique graphic, a half of a skateboard carved out of a tree stump. A nice drawing, which I believe Marley had done a quick-run graphic for. But, soon after, Think Skateboards came out with the exact same graphic. Dan hadn't secured a copy write. But still, even if we both had legit copy writes, I don't know if we were prepared at the time to go head to head with Greg Carroll.... 

 

 Thanks for sending it over, Dan. I can't find the Think versions so far.

The Graffiti Phase...

Found an old sketchbook from around 1993. I was really bad at tagging and working with lettering and words, so I stuck primarily to characters, especially when going out painting. But even with those I didn't have much originality. I looked up to (i.e. stole from) the talented dudes: Barry McGee (Twist), Andy Howell, Mode 2, DAIM, Dalek, and local talent like Maceo, and Marco from Olympia.

I love Fall

Line drawing, "two more to go."

I am of the age...33.