So I'm thinkin'

I want to focus on gestural figure next semestre. I know I'm going to have to work hard to make a nice finished piece, but kinda figures like this. http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/g/images/gesturdrwng_hickmn.lg.jpg or this even moreso http://fromlife.blogs.com/.a/6a00d83452f4f169e200e553e341738834-320wi

I really enjoy gesture and I want to find a way to use it in my painting like I did with my 8ft.

We're not ok

Final product for my 8ft painting.

"The World Doesn't Think We're Okay"

media- Tranparent Watercolor, salt, ink on paper

size: 48''x7.75'

I hope it speaks for itself.

more progress

This is "Locked up Inside". It's about ideas and thoughts taking shape in the mind. It's one of my favorites for the color scheme as well as some of the interesting wet on wet techniques. This one also made me want a set of radiants.

I started on my 8ft yesterday. I'm so excited to work on it. I feel kinda scared though. The topic is really touchy and can some off as trite or overdone, but it's something that means a lot to me and is not just making a statement.

Anyway, here's some stuff from my series.

slow prog

just putting some of my stuff from earlier up. Haven't had much time to take pics of my newer stuff. And my camera recently died. Lame sauce. First one is from my series and the second is from figure in the environment.

The world doesn't think we're ok

SO I started planning my 8ft painting for watercolor studio. It's a touchy topic, but one I have some strong feelings about. I first started with a fanart of two somewhat popular characters. They looked sad. The idea was that people in the fanfic-verse are always trying to separate the two because of them both being male. Suddenly this art took on new meaning to me. Things recently in my life have been mirroring what they could possibly feel--how people are not ok with the ideas that go against social norms. In this instance relationships. It's targeted at gay, interracial, lesbian, TGs, etc. The art evolved into an anonymous gay couple that share the same pose, with the same hopelessness about their posture. I wanted to show the depression they show at the world not approving of their love and making it difficult. I intend for them to be nude to show a sense of vulnerability. The painting will be gestural and raw, almost abstracted to keep the sense of pain with it. I'm not sure if the words will remain, seeing as they will be the title. I know this can be a cliched topic, but it is something that hits close to home and I want to express that, not make a statement. I want it to be personal and close to me not to reach masses or offend people.

reference stuff

just giving myself the reference imagery/ bio for malcolm morley.


http://www.speronewestwater.com/cgi-bin/iowa/artists/record.html?record=8

Oh btw

...this is the stuff I've been working on in my series class. My Series I think is going to be called masks and metamorphoses. These are the first four from them. The titles right now are kind of tentative since I really want to think them over and relate them to the figure and imagery in mythos that I am picturing. In order from left to right: Two Stars of Astarthe, Dancing Leviathan, Asmodeus the Fox, Holding Mastema's Power. Each relate to a character in certain mythos about change, deception, demons, angels, and really metamorphosis as a whole. It's something that I enjoy researching. Something that I never get tired of doodling about. It also helps me relate narratives more to my live experiences and that is extremely exciting to me.

Some choices

So I finally got the chance to upload some pictures since my camera has been kinda dead. I thought, that the best thing would be to take the ones I'm using as reference for class. This one is the location for my strat. project. Although it's not the exact image I chose, this is still the same place just from a different view.

This is my formula figure. His name is Sai, and he's a plush that I made based off a very ghei artist-y ninja character from Naruto. (c) Kishimoto. This was edited with PS and using the charcoal filter.

I think that this is the one I'm going to be using for the Night Figure Project. The light on the water intrigues me and I hope I can make it all turn out well.

Artist inspired

I haven't had much of a chance to get my own work posted up yet despite the fact that I have almost finished three new paintings. One of course if for my experimental studio, and then the other two are for my series studio. I feel particularly inspired this semestre though. I was very anxious to dive into painting and really have seen myself improving even this early. It's very exciting. I guess what I really want to do in this post is show some stuff by my most favorite artist, Yoshitaka Amano, someone that really has inspired my own work. He's very illustrative in his style, but at the same time he manages to create interesting abstracted figures and environments. What I'll be showing is more of his character illustration and I have of course added the link to his art page in the gateway.

These images I'm posting pertain to costumes I've made based on his character design. It is sometimes very difficult to translate these into clothing format because they are watercolor. I think I made a decent attempt though. If you're interested costumes can be found on my coscom account which I also provided a link to.

These particular ones are what I feel as examples of figures that become the environment. Amano has a very distinct style. His color mixing is very mature and despite many neutral tones, he also has a lot of bright colors as well. His line work is exquisite and makes me definitely stop to take in all the detail. You can still see a nice use of wet and dry paint, glazing and many other techniques to create such stunning pieces. I highly recommend checking his art out.

Test Run

So this is going to be my art blog. I suppose I should talk about myself a little in this first post, so that people can see where I get my influences from.

I am a watercolors major and UNT. I didn't start out that way though. I was a drawing and painting major. At first I was really scared of watercolors and I didn't like it. I hated not having control, but somewhere along the line I grew up and realized that I enjoyed the sense of letting the paint control me. Instead of fighting against it, I started to work with it. I found that I loved being experimental and in doing so, I found myself in the artworld. This is not to say I've mastered it. I'm far from it; however, I am seeing improvements in my art.

Outside of the studio I work part time at Chic-fil-a (this is to pay rent and buy paper/supplies), make costumes, sew plushies, and write nonsensical stories. I've noticed that things written in my stories sometimes make their way into my art. And while I've consistently heard that illustration is not art, I am quite disinclined to agree with that statement. I constantly ponder over what defines the two and while I try very hard to keep an open mind about it, I have still not really found any statements that I wholeheartedly agree with. I find that my stories help my in creating an infinite amount of subject material for me to pull ideas from. I also see myself pulling ideas from the methods I use in constructing costumes. I found that in using the mixed media as I do in costumes, it makes in studio time more enjoyable.

As for goals, I just hope to see myself contiuously grow in my art, and maybe get the chance to be in some shows.