Sunday, December 25, 2011

Etchinggggzzzzzzzz


I heard a rumor that I took classes other than painting this last semester. I know, I didn't believe it either.

First, some sketches that were pretty good but lost out to other ones to be made in to actual prints:

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And some processes:

I don't have every printed iteration of this next one because there were people in line for the scanner behind me, but this one ended up being my favorite (too bad I did one more thing to it afterwards which lightened the whole thing up a lot) 

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Project the second:


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And for my final project, instead of doing one print I decided to do two paired ones. I was actually thinking of using these as the base for covers if I end up doing a minicomic with these characters (hopefully yes; I've got a few others I want to do first, but yes)


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Disturbingly, I didn't plan for the street layouts in the above images to line up at all. Might have fallen into some compositional habits there. 

And tomorrow I shall fly to California for family christmas, etc etc and will be back just before new years'.

Friday, December 23, 2011

Amber


I was just going through some posts and realized that despite spending nearly all my time the last few months painting, I had posted hardly any paintings at all


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I've updated this painting some since it was taken. Also I've gotten an actual photographer to take pictures of my work, but I haven't had a chance to make those small enough for the web yet. All part of an upcoming website update. 

In the meantime, I'll be uploading one or two of these every now and again, I think. 

Also, some photoshop stuff:


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I think I'm starting to figure it all out! My face: it makes the smiles. 


Thursday, December 15, 2011

business caaaaaards?


Throwing these here partially as a reminder to myself to look at them after I've gotten some rest, but mostly to get peoples' opinions. Have I gotten rid of all of the paper texture in the white space? is the text readable? have I done anything horribly wrong?


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front


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back


Monday, December 12, 2011

Structure and chaos and mobility


As I've gotten closer and closer to graduation, I've gotten a lot of inquiries re: my future plans. Mostly they come from friends and family, but often they also come from curious teachers or classmates. Whoever it is, when they ask and I think they mean in the immediate future, I can say travel, and if I think they mean more long term I say grad school. For most people that's enough. They may ask for more specifics with either one of those, and I am happy to provide details. There was one classmate, though, who was more interested (and though I say interested, the word insistent would also apply; there was no way to escape the conversation) in my plans even after that.

Even though I know it's a question that I'm likely to be asked in an interview, either for a job or for school, I was a bit stymied. It felt kind of strange; it's not like I don't have plans or possibilities, but rather that I have too many. In years past, I have been able to plan out my future in a way that almost felt minute by minute, regulated and linear. There was a lot of emphasis put on this sort of thing when I was in high school. Before that, even: I remember that people started asking me about career plans and what colleges I wanted to go to even in middle school. While all of that ended up being marginally helpful, it created a lot of systematic stress, most of which ended up being to no purpose. I did not go to the school I thought I was going to. I am not studying the subject I had intended back then. My life looks nothing like I would have expected it to even a year ago, and it is all the better for it.

Although I am in no way a performer, I like the way that people who do improv think about things. 'Yes, and...' has a lot going for it. It validates the current moment and opens up the future for further investigation.

So when people ask me about my long term plans, this is kind of what's tripping me up. If something new and interesting comes along (that doesn't conflict with current obligations, obviously) I'm likely to try it. Do I want to teach? Yes, I'd love the opportunity. Do I want to work alone in a studio full time? Of course, that sounds fantastic. What about a studio with a few other people? Or even a lot of people? Those have advantages too, and are even more appealing than working alone. Do you want to illustrate? Design? Paint? Do comics? Animate? Well, that's where it gets tricky.

Where I am right now, I can't see myself not painting. It just isn't something I can see myself giving up. Ever. But all those other things? I would love to do them too. And not just for a paycheck, but actually devoting myself to them. Things that allow me to work with other people are especially appealing: I'm not always (ever) the most outgoing person, but I've always found my own work to be the best when it has been influenced by knowledgeable, impassioned people with whom I share space. People seem to have come to this weird conclusion that art is about the final product, the still image, the tangible object, but it's really really not. It's about the dialog. Whether that's between creators or between a creator and her audience doesn't matter.

But perhaps that is a discussion for another time.

Right now, what matters the most to me is finding an environment in which I can produce the best work that I am able to and then put it in front of peoples' eyeballs. Every place that I'm applying to meets that criteria. After that? Well, chances are I'll want to find an environment in which I can produce the best work that I am able to and then put it in front of peoples' eyeballs; it's just that the circumstances will have changed slightly.

This article about how Valve organizes it self is pretty interesting and helped clarify a few things for me (and not just because I think that working at Valve would be one of the most insanely intense and awesome experiences in the history of ever.) It lines up with a lot of things I've heard about Google, about Pixar, about places my dad has worked (some like this, some rather than antithesis.) Stefan Sagmeister's policy of  shutting the studio down for a year every...what? seven? I think seven years lines up with it.

Structure and chaos and mobility!


Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Erik the Dinosaur and Other Such Nonsense



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Guys! Great news! I figured out how to make things look like stuff in photoshop! Actual painting-looking things! Very exciting :)

Also: introducing Erik the Dinosaur. If he's not the greatest gift I've ever received, he's definitely in the top ten. (He was given to me by the infinitely generous Wan-Tsunami, aka Diana Busby, artist and maker of many fantastic things)


I think I've mentioned recently, though in passing, that I'll be graduating soon. Right now, I am in the midst of applying to some grad schools (fingers crossed), but because I'm graduating in the winter instead of the spring I'm finding myself with four extra months of unstructured time. So I am structuring it! With travel! I shall be like a cartoon explorer, and Erik will be my amusing animal companion.

Partially, this is a warning for everyone: this blog will be turning, at least partially, into a travel blog. It is also partially to ask for recommendations: what are your recommendations of places in the U.S. to go? Awesome museums, passed over parks, maybe even tourist traps that are worth getting sucked into.

This will still be primarily an art blog even while I'm traveling, of course. I plan on painting as I go (and hopefully sell pieces as I go to be able to pay for more awesome traveling and also that grad school stuff that I mentioned before) so there will be that, plus if I can set up remote desktop access with my photoshop-and-every-other-useful-program computer, I'll also see if I can keep up with some digital work.

Hey, look, this post wasn't made in the wee hours of the morning! I think that's pretty good, don't you?


Monday, December 5, 2011

Digital Analog is up and ready for business!

Ok, so, I've been pretty busy lately, what with the show and impeding graduation and applying for grad schools and all that. But! I did manage to finally get my site for my side project to....function. Yes, it definitely WORKS, which is a huge improvement over what it was doing before, which mostly consisted of not working.

Anyway, a link: http://digital-analog-project.com/

I've got a few tweaks to the design planned in the near future (logo design? what logo design? pffft) and my main website needs a small overhaul too (I have WAY more paintings than I thought I would--makes the functionality...well, it's ok, but I'd like it to be as smooth and seamless as possible)

And now, back to work/sleepytown.