The Incomplete Artistic Endeavors of a Gen Xer

It's as if working with another artist, only one who doesn't talk, complain or make excuses for not finishing her end of the deal. Not all of the choices are entirely mine. I give it the, in this case, drawing and it finds where it wants to make a vector line or where it wants to make a fill of black. It is completely a surprise. And one that I cannot take total credit for. I didn't draw the circle, it was something in the copy of the image that caused that. Now I look at this drawing in a completely different way. Like the skeleton rabbit is alive and eating its way out of the ground.

In the painting of this version, I had no idea that what was smack in the middle was this symbol. This symbol that looks much like a Chinese kangi. It almost looks like "gatsu" which is the kangi for month. Further interesting is now the axe is not at all visiable. The cop on the right seems he is wearing a mask and the shadows on the ground seem to make more sense than they do in the original painting. Wicked...

Awe, yes, Illustrator, you strange and fantastic program. I have you now for 23 more days. What will happen next?

The first image is a very small painting, and was created after a heated argument over wondering lips. The second was created after I accepted there was nothing I could do about another's actions, so I was trying to make the best of it. Meanwhile, after a few days...I ran these two through live trace, in Illustrator... The second one is rather nice, I think I am in love.

I leave my experiment with this final work. It is a design for a jewelry card. I regret I am unable to send off this Photoshop free download with a complex and labor intensive work, however, stay tuned. More to come...as I just downloaded Illustrator!

Facebook is strange to me. But I found something to do when I look around. Quizzes. So far, I have found that Akira Kirasawa would direct the film of my life, I would be Joe Strummer if I were a punk rock male and my street name is "Peanut". What is even better than taking a quiz, is making a quiz. This is the art from my third creation. It's called "Colbert's Boyfriend: Decide Stephen's Best Match." I gleefully spent all day working on this. The work ends up being really small of FB, so here it is... Much to my surprise, Rush looks pretty. Composition Sources: Steve's Layout Steve's Face Glenn Beck Lou Dobbs Jon Stewart Rush Limbaugh

This is my new summer project. TOP GUN Yaoi! After spending two days mulling over the internet for a different presentation subject...other than Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I discovered Yaoi. Manga written by women for women about man love. If you could see me now, you would see that I am grinning, as I think it's really "funny". I haven't read any, only looked at pictures and watched a few youtube clips, and it's not as campy as I was hoping, but who knows? Top Gun has always been a BROMANCE. Tom is really fisting it with Val Kilmor in the scene I grabbed this likeness from, but I got too tired and I am still waiting for drawing with a Wacom to get easy. Photo source Cloud source Yaoi Article

I have been looking at pictures from Hiroshima and Nagasaki all day and reading stories, it may have influenced this drawing. A very sad day. A very sad past.

Since this is a blog about "how art is made", I feel responsible in showing the source of "TEN". I started with this picture I took this summer of my two buddies from Fresno. I traced their bodies and then layed it over the top of this image of trees I photographed last year during this time of year. Then I took cut outs of the following shots from the bird room at HSU. and After flattening the all of the layers, I ran them through different filters. Then dumped various colors around the image. I had to stop because I was starting to loose the image. And I was having too much fun :).

Inspired by Marumiyan .

Ode to a moment in abstraction. Honestly, I cannot take this seriously. This is in league with photographing a paint spill. But we all have it in us, right? The ability to make something out of nothing. This is the imagination at its best. Perhaps, many love abstraction due to the way it can launch the imagination. Although abstraction can be really beautiful, I tend to think it's a lazy art. And to wobble even further on the subject, lazy has its beauty too...think sleeping figure. With the above, I actually spent quite awhile on this, adding in and taking away. However, one would not know this unless I confessed. The general response of abstract art is, "Oh, my kid can do that." Which is true, and often the kid can do better. I prefer the balance of abstraction and representation, but now I am entering the cynical waters. When I hear myself defining the visual, I tend to loose site of the visual goal. Which is, to convey a feeling visually and without words.

Drawing in Photoshop is my new obsession. Before my graphic design instructor died of the H1N1, he encouraged myself and other students to learn to draw with the Wacom pad and pen. It is a strange way to draw, but he claimed after about 30 hours, it wouldn't be so bad. He was sort of right. The eyes are staring at the screen and the hand is on an electronic pad. I suppose there are many areas in my life where I don't 'watch' myself completing a task, but it's certainly not a normal or comfortable feeling. The tricks that Photoshop offers are endless. I am making myself post something every day until my 30-day trial period is done, then I will download Illustrator. And if ambition proves to be on my side, perhaps InDesign as well. If anything, this is a humbling experience, similiar to when I took a drawing course with my right hand. At the very least, I am saving on paper? Hummmm, not sure if I buy into that arguement, as it is, if I am lucky, this computer ...