All These Things That I've Done

Ok, lessee if I can make a longer post than last time! I have fun, adventurous things to speak of!

First off, I'll fulfill the prophecy foretold in my last blog post: updates on PRINTMAKING!!!!



Currently, we are working on etchings. To the left here is the amazing Renaissance etching Knight, Death, and the Devil by Albrecht Durer. Of course, our professor wasn't expecting us to do anything as intricate as this one.

Initially, I had no idea what to do for this project. There are so many options! Because of the nature of the medium, you can be as fine or loose as you want with the lines. Compare the above etching to this series by Picasso:
Pretty big difference, yeah?

So for inspiration, I was reading this awesome dark fantasy manga called Berserk. The artist, Kentaro Miura, has ridiculous skillz and uses a lot of techniques that would seem to translate well into etchings. In the end, I went with this:
Here, you have a swordsman standing in front of a castle with a solemn look on his face. Pretty simple, right? I feel kinda bad because the cape and the sword is pretty much ripped off of Berserk's main character, Gatts.....But capes and swords are totally badass, so I couldn't not have both of them.

The process of etching is covered pretty well by Wikipedia here. It's a pretty straightforward, but time-consuming undertaking. Here is how my etching plate came out:

I had to transfer the original image on backwards so that it would come out facing the right way (although it probably wouldn't matter since I don't have any words). Shiny, ain't it? This is a zinc plate. You can also use copper, steel, or even plexiglass. The problem with plexiglass is that it'll wear down a lot faster than the others, so you can only run a few prints before they start losing quality.

Anyway, here is a pretty crappy image of the end result:
Not bad, I suppose. The print is in a display case, so my reflection is showing a little bit. I was a bit disappointed in the face. The eyes are completely different and now it looks too anime-ish. Well, it was pretty anime-ish to begin with, but the facial expression is still really different. Luckily, you can still add to the etching after dipping the plate into the acid bath.

So, expect a better picture later on and maybe some touch ups.

And now for some more GanPen prints!

Sorry for the bad pics. Bloody display cases.....Why are my prints so good?
Anyway, this here is an embossing. The idea is to run a print with thick, damp paper and no ink on the matrix at extremely high pressure. The end result is an impression of the raised parts of your matrix that looks really cool under certain lights. It works a lot better with a wood matrix...mine was linoleum. After the paper dried, I took a can of spray paint and painted at an angle to hit certain raised parts and to bring out some really cool shadow effects. Pretty cool, no?
And this is a simple print over a pastel colored background. The linoleum block slid around a bit, so there is a bit of image ghosting, but I think it came out pretty well.

With only 2 weeks left of school, I don't see us doing anything else other than printing more etchings. This is all I really want to do, anyway!

***

Now for random stuff in my life! Today, I went on an adventure to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden's Sakura Matsuri with friend Julie. Unfortunately, it was raining, but it was still lots of fun. Despite going to Japan a few years ago, I'd never seen a Cherry Blossom tree until today. Here are some pictures of flowery things!

Mysterious grape flowers!Koi pond!

Closeup of Cherry Blossoms!

Part of the Path of Cherry Blossoms!

Like I said, it was really fun to see. There were a lot of Japanese cultural events, but we both had a lot of work to do so we couldn't stay for very long. If only it were a sunny, windy day so that the petals would fly around and look super-pretty like they do in anime...

That about sums it up! Dunno when the next update will be, or what it will be about, so keep posted!

While everyone's lost, the battle is won
With all these things that I've done.

-J

Doing It.

Well, I've been debating on whether or not I should upload these paintings. Being an art student, I have to draw and make paintings of many nude models. But, being a would-be toy designer, I want to keep this site family friendly and paintings of naked people are usually reserved for the high school crowd...

An hour ago, I thought, 'Screw it, I wanna talk about naked people paintings!'

So, here I am! LET'S RAWK! If naked people aren't to your liking, then...suck it up and deal with it! IT'S ART!!!!!!

This is from the first semester. Remember all those fruits and still life paintings from before? Well, this was the final for that class. I think we had two 6-hour sessions to work on it. I'm really proud of the face, but that's about it. It was really tricky to just jump right in and paint.





Fast forward to this semester, after my self-portrait. Our next painting was a sitting nude figure against a backdrop. Initially, I was pretty happy with how this painting came out. But every time I look at it, I become a little less satisfied. I feel like I relied too much on dark brown lines to define the figure, especially around the torso. I also wish that I had a more frontal view of the face. Faces are probably my favorite thing to draw or paint. Something that I benefited from while working on this painting is the drapery. I learned a lot about how to paint folds.

Next up is this fellow! It seemed like every painting pr drawing class had him as a male model. Anyway, here I really started to get a balance with the skin tone. Not too much reliance on lines and more of a tonal shift to indicate form and light, especially at the legs. The mission was to paint a sitting nude in space as opposed to against a backdrop. Some of the space is fabricated or adjusted to fit the needs of the painting, which is pretty cool. We got to drift away from what we see and focus more on the "Plastic Space," as my Professor calls it. This painting isn't finished and I feel like I should put a few more hours into it before it's complete.
Here is a closeup of the figures. Like I said, I love painting faces. The face of the model was mostly done over one class period. Same with my classmate. One day, she decided to get grey/ blueish highlights and I decided to change the painting to reflect that.

We were working on this painting when, seemingly out of nowhere, another model appeared and we started a new one!

And that brings us to my current painting. I believe we have two or three more sessions with it. The assignment was to paint a reclining model. Originally, we were supposed to be able to create a setting for her, but as everyone's paintings progressed, I guess that idea got dropped.

It's really fun to compare this drapery to the previous paintings'. I've still got work to do with the blue-green one and the yellow cloth on the right. Something that's been giving me difficulty is the face. I'm at a really awkward angle. Not only is her face foreshortened, but it's turned to the left and she seems to move her head every time I look. I'm afraid that the nose looks too much like a pig's snout and her chin's shadow looks too much like a goatee. I can't say that it looks very much like the model.

Well, that about sums it up. It's really cool to look back and see how I've progressed as a painter. Next semester, we have two painting classes: Figure Painting and Abstract Painting. Not looking forward to Abstract; I can never seem to wrap my head around abstract art. Honestly, all I can ever say is, "That's interesting," or, "That sucks." Really looking forward to figure painting and working with multiple models.

Look forward to another blog post very soon. Maybe even over the weekend. I have much progress to post about in Printmaking class.


Carry on,
-J

P.S., if you want to see what the last painting looked like on Tuesday, my friend Deanna took a pic of it:

Devilpen redux!

Here are some pics of a new Ganpen I tossed togezzer as a birthday gift for my friend!


It was a bit of a rush job because I've been pretty busy as of late. To compound the problem, the "F" key on my keyboard fell off, so I have to press this tiny rubber nub...it's really throwing me off.

Anyway, this is a redone Devilpen with a reversed color scheme. Here is the old one for comparison! The horns are a little more shapely, and the tail isn't pointy. I also used Montana Gold "Anthracite" colored spray paint and some Testors Zinc Yellow enamel for the feet. Not bad, but if I had more time, it could've looked a little more polished.








I have about 4 blank Ganpen figures with me here and have enough material to make a small handfull more back at home. Over the summer, I plan on going into production overdrive and fix together some new penguins! Or maybe make a redone design! Who knows. While I really want to stay in the city, there is a lot to be done at home. Only three weeks left in school!

Happy stuff
-J

Quasi-productivity

Hey, you guys remember this guy? Well, I randomly decided to revamp his design just for kicks. I actually didn't look back at the comic for his redesign, so I completely forgot about the half-hakama and human right leg. The new guy is entirely robotic...for now anyway. Who knows, he might have a human brain or eyeball or something.


I drew him with a brush pen...I love those things so much. He's also digitally colored in Photoshop with some dry media brushes. I don't have a name for him yet, so if anyone out there has ideas, feel free to leave a comment! I'm sure this guy will appear again somewhere down the line. He's part of my character roster, along with Ganpen and his minions!

Finally enjoying spring break just a teeny bit,
J

Sculpture and MORE!

Edit: Added some pics of real-Marcel!

Man, no update in over a month! My bad, peeps, my bad. To make up for it, here are some photos of my recently artwork! Up top here is a Ganpen linoleum print I did in Printmaking class. I have a number of other experimental prints that I might upload later. If you haven't seen my movies or don't know about the greatest mobster of all time, check it out now!

***

Up next is the sculpture I've been working on since the start of the semester. It's a portrait of my friend Marcel. In class, we paired up and sculpted our partner's head. This is probably the most expensive project we've had; the clay and supplies cost over $130! That's more than all my art supplies in my sophomore year of high school!




It's a pretty hefty sculpture, too. A solid 9-ish bricks of oil clay went into Marcel's head. It was a great project! All of the other classes sculpted from a model while we got to work from classmates. Our next project is a reclining nude figure, which is shaping up pretty well.

***

So, right now I'm in the middle of spring break! It's been pretty cool, but it hasn't felt like much of a break. I actually have a decent amount of work to do ( 8-10 page analysis research paper....=_=), but a lot of it has been put on hold because of a little challenge a friend and I have going on. We have to complete a sketchbook by the end of the break! That's 184 pages in 7 days. I'm not far at all and it's unlikely that I'll finish in time, but....A CHALLENGE IS A CHALLENGE! So far I've done 23 pages. If I were on schedule, I'd be on page 80-something by the end of today. But I think I'll get started on that paper instead...

***

That about sumps it up for now. I'll try and update more often! I have a lot of paintings, but they're of nudes so I don't know if I should find somewhere else to host them. It's already Wednesday! Only 4 days left in the break.

Wishing there were more hours in the day,
-J

Home Base

If you didn't know, today is the eve of the release of Watchmen! I got tickets to a midnight premiere up here in the city and that's a good....7 hours or so away.

Because I love you guys (not cuz I need to kill time!), here's a new blog post!

Inspired by this post by my friend Julie, here's a little look at my work station in my room.



I spend a lot of time sitting at my desk on the computer. In fact, my productivity would probably increase tenfold if Facebook didn't exist. Or computers in general...My desk is quite cluttered as well.



The view from the front! Note the website! Check out Dudecraft for awesome craft projects and ideas. Another plug for ya, Mr.O!



Here are is my collection of toys up in New York.



I absolutely love Gundam models. It's a chance for me to see how action figures are made without going to a factory! These particular models are from Gundam 00, the latest anime series. I just started building these things again after a good five or six year break and was amazed at how Bandai's modeling technology has progressed. The gundam models I built in middle school were like stick figures compared to these things! Really fun to build, study, and play with.



Here are some Transformers! I got back into Transformers when the movie came out in 2007. These are from the Transormers Animated line. What I love about these are the design; the Transormers Animated cartoon has a very distinct, stylized anime-ish aesthetic to it. These toys capture that aesthetic very well without compromising playability at all. When these toys were first unveiled, I was dumbfounded by their awesomeness.



Some Japanese action figures and a Ganpen that needs some repairs...
The one on the left is a Figma Lelouch and the far right one is a Revoltech robot with a long name from Full Metal Panic. These guys are mad posable and have excellent craftsmanship. Very fun to play with.



Wall decorations! Wooo!


Here's a project my friend Kara did using my face as a reference. The idea is to write a few short lines, photograph someone reading them dramatically, then use those photos to make a comic strip that doesn't necessarily have to be in order. Cool, huh?



Some books! Note all the Watchmen stuff. All of the Watchmen books are signed by relevent people; the artist Dave Gibbons and the movie's photographer, Clay Enos. Also note the Ashley Wood books. Kinda hard to see, but I have Lore, Zomvies v. Robots Complete, Popbot Complete (until vol.8 comes out, anyway...), and a few art books.



And sitting five feet away is my entertainment system! A 23 inch lcd monitor with a TV tuner, cheap speakers from Kmart, my PS3, and lotsa games! Woo! Good for relaxing but I don't use it all that much.

That's pretty much all that's interesting. I've been thinking about getting back into using deviantART again. I want to put up pics of my paintings of models from class, but don't know if I want to put them up here. If you have thoughts about it, post a comment!

Self-Portrait and OVER 1000!

Here's the first painting project of the semester. I meant to upload it much earlier, but I kept on forgetting to bring a camera so I could take a higher quality shot of it...So you'll have to settle for these cell phone pics.




I started with a quick charcoal drawing and light washes of color. Then I blocked in the skin tone and the white of the shirt.




Next I fill in the background and slap on a few more layers of paint. Then I added my mustachio and chin hairs! Incidentally, this was painted by looking at myself through a mirror.



Here's the end result. I added the wrinkle in the bottom right at the suggestion of my professor to counter the motion of the hair. It doesn't look all that much like me, probably because I did a funny raised-eyebrow expression and had a top-down angle on my face. But I had fun painting it and am learning a lot.

On another note, I have accumulated 1,125 page views! Yatta! Thanks for coming to my website and having some interest in the work of a will-be toy designer. I'll try to update more frequently! Promise!

Comic-Con

As some of you guys know, February 6th-8th was the New York Comic Convention.

It was awesome.

It was the first really big convention that I've been to. After walking around the convention floor all weekend, my feet hurt for the first time since move-in day! I was fortunate enough to meet David Gibbons, the artist for Watchmen, and Clay Enos, the unit photographer for the Watchmen movie. Mr. Enos and Titan Books put out and absolutely amazing book called Watchmen Portraits. Like the name implies, it's a huge book full of black-and-white portraits of actors and actresses from Watchmen. If you've got the money and are a fan of Watchmen, it's definitely worth picking up. Amazon has it for the great, great price for $31.50. I also met Gabe and Tycho from my favorite video game webcomic, Penny Arcade.

On Friday the 6th, when I was wondering around the convention floor, I spotted some authentic, original artwork by Ashley Wood. When I saw a huge original Zombies Vs. Robots painting, I nearly passed out! Ashley Wood is my favorite artist and I was absolutely floored to see his paintings and sketchbook pages in person. I could've studied his paintings all day. Seeing photos is one thing, but seeing the actual layers of paint and the brush strokes is something completely different...If I had a spare $400, I would've picked one up, but I had to settle for drooling over the display table. Someday....

Well, I'm not planning to write up a big con report, but going to NYCC was a great experience. Not only did I get to fanboy-out, I recieved a bit of inspiration and a goal to shoot for. Tonight, on this blog for all to see, I am making a vow: Someday, I will be sitting behind a booth a Comic-Con, showing my artwork, selling my toys, and making a name for myself. With any luck, it'll happen within the next ten years.

That's all for now. School is back in motion, work is starting to pile up. I've really been enjoying painting lately because we're focusing on portraits and the human figure. In my next update, I'll post some pics of some new work. I'm pretty proud with my self-portrait and the process behind it is pretty interesting, so be ready to read about that!


Lesson learned and the wheels keep turning