Schieles Madman

Egon Schiele was big into the displaces body parts. Of course he was dealing with the displacement of human body parts. Never the less I feel thats what I must have been thinking of as a lay in bed drawing this.
It's strange and unusual and I have no earthly idea what my brain must have been trying to tell me.
But its fun trying to figure it all out!
Elephant heads on stalks! Whatta blast!

Very Odd

Yes, Very Odd indeed. Another in a string of stream of consciousness style drawings I've done over the last week or so. I lay down a few lines and then just start to draw whatever pops into my mind.
Someone asked me what I was feeling when I drew this. I had no real answer for him. Though I had to admit that since I am graduating with my BFA in the next couple of days I would be hard pressed to deny that didnt manipulate my subconsciousness somehow...
Additionally I can admit to being influenced by Nick the Artistic Freaks drawings lately on Deviant Art. See my After the Artist Freak post for links.

Heart Condition

Ive been drawing some rather odd things lately.
I'm hesitant to call them surreal, but they sure are odd.
They have been drawn in an almost stream of consciousness style. With no real meaning to them at the outset they become manifestations of where my brain may be taking me at the time...

While I'm at it...

I figure while I'm at it (posting drawings of Spidey villains that is) I may as well upload a drawing of Spidey himself.
This one is from late '07. I hadn't really drawn him in a while, and just wanted to do something fun.
When I was a little kid the first time someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up I said Spider-Man. When they told me that I really couldnt be Spider-Man when I grew up I just figured that was because the job would already be filled.
In retrospect, if I give it some more work I suppose I could be Spider-Man, after a fashion...

Dr. Connors I Presume

Dr. Curt Connors, a.k.a. The Lizard was a staple Marvel villain for Spider-man way back in the day.
He rarely if ever appears anymore and I think thats a cryin shame - hes such a cool monster and I think he holds up as a fairly versatile character...
Additionally I think he's just damn fun to draw.

This one was drawn in a 5 x 8 sketchbook. I felt it came out pretty well so I added the background to reinforce his ties to Spider-man and to balance out the composition a little better.
Being that I'm a week away from graduation at Long Beach State I get the feeling I'll be posting a lot more items here that were done for no reason other than that they were fun.

After the Artist Freak

This drawing is after a member of deviant art who goes by the name NicktheArtisticFreak. His profile can be found here: Nicks Deviant Profile.
The particular work in question can be found at this link: Bang.
His image just struck me as so whimsical and fun. I was sitting in the print lab one day last week killing some time and thought of his drawing. So I got out my little sketch book and drew this. I liked the way it turned out so I inked it and added a little color...
He asks for you to find your own meaning - and I concur. But dont look to hard or you may just miss the point...

When The Storm Comes Down...

Entitled The Storm this piece is a mono type print off plexiglas. It has appeared as a background for one of my drawings. It is also the piece I chose for my header design at the top of the page here.
Done at a time when I was mostly just experimenting with texture it came late in the process. As a result I was able to do a piece that reflected my experimentation as well as my mood at the time.
Angry and driven to distraction over a few issues in my personal life I began to think of events as a never ending storm from which I could never find shelter.

Abstraction?

Entitled The Red Spider Nebula this piece is a posterised silk screen print of the actual red spider nebula (also known as NGC 6537) located approximately 3000 light years away in the constellation Sagittarius.
It is a planetary nebula meaning that it is the remnant of a star much like our own sun, that had exited the red giant phase of its life. Having thrown off its outermost gases the star itself collapses back into a white dwarf star.
I chose to do a piece like this for several reasons. Firstly I am a total nerd when it comes to astronomy. Secondly while I am not particularly a fan of landscapes I figure that if I am going to go for the grandiose I may as well go for the grandest view there is: our galactic neighborhood. And thirdly while it is an image of an actual thing it plays a bit like an abstract piece of art.
I have been finding things like this lately and playing with them a bit. The idea of taking something real and abstracting it is intresting, but I have found a newer and more profound interest in taking something that is real and already abstracted as well as being formalisticly sound. The Idea is one I am currently exploring in my art.
This is not the best photograph of this piece - I'll upload a better photo soon (or perhaps a high quality digital scan).

Roots

Roots is a piece I did specifically for my BFA show at Long Beach State. The opening was this last weekend (The 20th of April, 2008) and went swimmingly.
The piece is a mixed media of mono type and linoleum cut. The idea behind it (aside from 'hey, how cool can I make this look??) is about how people get wrapped up in their upbringing and their environment. Little skin heads become who they are because mommy and daddy hated this or that. But they don't really know why. Religious extremists (of any denomination) become so by virtue of these roots.
Pick an extremely myopic behavior and it can probably be traced back to their roots as they fail to embrace differences while hating the different.
These roots bind people into behavior they may otherwise break free of on the path to thinking for themselves. But bound into their little box they tend to loose themselves amidst the chaos of their limited world view.

Graphic Novel Test Page

This is a test page done to work on a look, experiment with atmosphere or just getting the lay out or what-have-you, for a graphic novel I am working on. I think I may have mentioned it before. To reiterate it revolves around the Zodiac killer and his series of as yet unsolved homicides.

As mentioned this is a test page - while the finished page may look fairly similar it will be completely re-drawn when the time comes...

Children of the Gods

I am quite the comic book imagery oriented guy so I thought I would add another line drawing in for your enjoyment.
This drawing is based on the television show Stargate SG-1. Though not intended to be reflective of the shows pilot movie/episode under the same title, I always liked the idea of these aliens posing as gods to transplanted humans across the galaxy.
This particular piece is in the coloring and lettering stage.
I have already digitally generated the "event horizon" of the worm hole glowing from the face of the stargate and will add it in when the coloring is complete. The reason being is that depending on how I color the figures and their uniforms and what i do for the background I may adjust the hue of the wormhole so it in not quite as stark in contrast to the rest of the piece.

"I feel... threatened..."

This piece entitled Do I Frighten You was done in response to my work The Grass is Always Greener. It felt like a natural progression based on how I felt at the time.
In critique the head of the department commented that the work made her feel threatened. Not in a bad way mind you. Just that the tone of the piece, despite the vibrant color housed an underlying aggression.
Up to that pont it had been untitled but soon afterwards I gave it the title it had now.

Whoever Said it Was About Bloody Distraction?

This piece is a combination silk screen and monotype.
Because of the monotype element there are others that are similar, but with varying color schemes. I'll post one of those soon for comparison/contrast.
Tho a bit pedantic in its presentation I enjoy the effect of this one. A work about ones dream state the stylized figure is a distortion of himself in his color scheme as his unconscious ponders ... whatever.

Seasonal Distortion on 4th and Junipero

This one was originally entitled Seasonal Apathy on 4th and Junipero but i have since changed the title to Seasonal Distortion on 4th and Junipero.
This piece is a simple (but quite large) reduction woodcut.
It started out as one piece (the left image) entitled Summer on 4th.
Soon after I made the second (the right image) as Winter on 4th.
Two separate times of the same year where I was in the exact same spot (same table, same chair, facing the same direction) feeling the exact same way...
As I sat with my sketchbook open I noticed the pattern of shadows cast across the page so I traced them out.
Later in the year I noticed I was sitting in the exact same place in the same orientation I had been in months before. Once again I had my sketchbook open and noticed the arrangement of shadows across the page. I realized the shadows were cast by the same tree / shrub as before.
I began to think of the nature of the shadows, not as accurate representations of the plant they were cast from, but as distortions of the truth of the plant.
And being as that the location, time of day and circumstances of the two separate events were almost identical I was struck by the dissimilarity in the distortion. A dissimilarity that was predominantly attributable to the time of year.
My mind started making connections between this and circumstances in my own life and I found myself wrapped up in an internal dialog about art imitating life / life imitating art.
I combined them into a diptych after the fact...

Mixed Media

The print I used as the background for this drawing of the hulk is a stand alone piece in my printmaking portfolio. As I have stated before I have recently discovered the joy of digitally mixing prints and drawings and the monotype print (entitled The Storm) seemed to fit perfectly with the drawing. The figure of the hulk playing his usual "heavy" is contrasted in his graphic nature with the more organic look of the print while the colors tend to reestablish a connection .
I know a number of professionals don't tend to like the mixture of styles but I see it as very visually dynamic.
Mixture of the two styles increases the possibility of where one can go with a drawing. Moreover I enjoy the mixture not for any formalistic reasons but because it looks cool.

After Redon

Odilon Redon was an artist (painter and printmaker) from the late 1800's to very early 1900's. He frequently played with disembodied body parts in his work as he was a symbolist.
I have a fairly great appreciation for his work as it seems to appeal to a particular sense of analysis of the world for me. Analysis of ones environment and changing circumstance. And how that change can make people feel.
This Print is entitled After Redon because it is based (all be it somewhat loosely) on a print of his i saw once where the disembodied eye became the balloon.
The piece entitled The Eye, Like a Strange Balloon, Mounts Towards Infinity can be seen here.
This is a collagraph print that I inked up intaglio style. I then added watercolor and stamping elements.

The Grizzly Truth

Again, I must say I am loving monotype printmaking.
I enjoy the formal structure of this piece as much as I enjoy my intention for it.
This print is (of course) a monotype print in just three layers.
Not bad getting that kind of depth and texture out of just three layers.
The image itself is and abstract expression of disgusting realization.
You were bilked for your lifes savings...
Your spouse is having an affair...
The pain you felt wasn't part of the dream, rather it was indeed a wild animal gnawing on your cranium while you slept...
I was going for a visceral reaction to the visual and I believe I got just that.

Oh Dean...

Oh Dean... is a piece I made for an upper division independent study class. It was inspired by Jack Kerouaks novel On the Road.
The book (one of the best I feel I've ever read) is the story of a handful of people who spend the post war years traveling about the US at the expense of pretty much everything.
I didn't necessarily want to capture a portrait of sorts of any one of the main characters. Instead I wanted to capture a feeling. Color and imagery go together in this piece to portray a sense of a grizzled, weary nature. The squint in the eyes reflective of one who is always looking to the horizon while the vibrant orange gives a sense of early morning anticipation for the day and at the same time weary surrender to the end of the day.
The text itself is from the very last paragraph of the book.

This work is also a bit of mixed media. The bust of the man is a linoleum reduction cut (the orange field is printed off a separate, larger linoleum block) and the text is silk screened.

Danger

This was another piece I had submitted to the juried BFA show at Long Beach State University.
It was rejected in favor of the other piece (Cyclical).
It is mixed media of silk screen, mono type and dry brush elements printed on wood panel.
The work itself is about danger, just as the title suggests.
I know most viewing the image immediately think it is the baby that is in danger. But what if that was not the case.
Can you suspend your disbelief long enough to fear for the safety of the unidentified monster?

Nothing about the imagery suggest this is the case at all. Then again nothing about the imagery proves the baby is in any immediate danger. It is just a suggestion that danger lay ahead. But don't we find in our lives on a daily basis that things are not always as they seem?

Cyclical

So this was the piece I had accepted into the juried BFA show that was held at the off campus site in downtown Long Beach.
The arrangement in the show is sans the bottom image (third panel) however.
I went to the opening on the 23rd of February only to find that despite my explicit instructions they had hung my work incorrectly. Instead of hanging it vertically they hung it horizontally...

But they said the would fix it so I really cant complain.
The work itself is a linoleum reduction cut where I utilized the white of the paper as one color and laid down two more to get the effect of three colors.
As far as my intent it is as the title suggests...