The Guardian

The Guardian, done with micron ink on 8.5 x 11 cardstock paper.

     This was my pointillism piece! I was pretty dead set on doing a Foo-Dog, so I actually went to a Chinese restaurant and took photos of the Foo dogs outside of their restaurant (since at the time we were only using our own photographs). I basically upped the contrast on the original photograph to bring out the shadows, then printed it as a reference. Afterwards I lightly dotted onto the cardstock in pencil to get his shape down (this was truly done completely in dots), before I went in with ink. I used different Micron and sharpy sizes. This piece took a LONG time to get in all the details, and nearly drove me mad. But I can't complain, as I really like how the end result came out.
 
     I think this piece has a strong sense of unity, since the statue is on its own. I added the spirit-like wisps to give it a little more variety, though I think the detail and texture add a lot to it on its own (hopefully). As I said, it's all dots, no line! It's a monochrome piece and asymmetrical.

Here's a tidbit on Foo Dogs, which I posted back before on its photograph:

 "The guardian lions  are always presented in pairs, a manifestation of yin and yang, the female representing yin and the male yang. The male lion has its right front paw on an embroidered ball called a "xiù qiú" (绣球), which is sometimes carved with a geometric pattern resembling the figure called "Flower of Life" in the New Age movement. The female is essentially identical, but has a cub under the closer (left) paw to the male, representing the cycle of life. Symbolically, the female fu lion protects those dwelling inside, while the male guards the structure. Sometimes the female has her mouth closed, and the male open. This symbolizes the enunciation of the sacred word "om". However, Japanese adaptions state that the male is inhaling, representing life, while the female exhales, representing death."

Fought by Humans, Banned by Humans.

I actually meant to post this on my Digital Art blog, but since I already accidentally posted this here I'll leave it! It's a contemporary piece on dog fighting, specifically the fighting of bully breeds like Pit bulls.

Fought by Humans, Banned By Humans, done in illustrator and Photoshop CS6.

Alternate:

Fought by Humans, Banned By Humans, done in illustrator and Photoshop CS6.

The Colony

These pieces were done for practice while I tried to think up a layout for my watercolor project! I sketched the initial idea in pencil, before taking the sketch into and lining it in MSPAINT, then vectored in Inkscape before bringing it to photoshop to repeat the design and play with it further.

Monochromatic, initial sketch in pencil and finished in Photoshop.

Linked, initial sketch in pencil and finished in Photoshop.

One Colony, initial sketch in pencil and finished in Photoshop.

One Colony will probably be the design I use for my final watercolor piece.

Oo...Ouroboros...oO

    "The Ouroboros or Uroboros (/jʊərɵˈbɒrəs/; /ɔːˈrɒbɔrəs/, from the Greek οὐροβόρος ὄφις tail-devouring snake) is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail. The Ouroboros often symbolizes self-reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself, the eternal return, and other things such as the phoenix which operate in cycles that begin anew as soon as they end. It can also represent the idea of primordial unity related to something existing in or persisting from the beginning with such force or qualities it cannot be extinguished. While first emerging in Ancient Egypt, the Ouroboros has been important in religious and mythological symbolism, but has also been frequently used in alchemical illustrations, where it symbolizes the circular nature of the alchemist's opus. It is also often associated with Gnosticism, and Hermeticism."

      This was part of a print-making assignment in class! I thought the Ouroboros symbol would be perfect for this project, since the symbol in itself represents re-creation and a stamp can be used repeatedly. While the stamp didn't come out as neatly as I had hoped due to all the little details being smeared out, I kind of like the grunge look it has.
     For this project we used speedball speedy carve blocks as our base, then carved out are image using an x-acto blade or a Speedball Linoleum Cutter. After we finished, we rolled on acrylic paint onto the stamp to make a good print. After I had one I was satisfied with, I took a photo of it with an Ipad, then took it into the Wishboard application to make the different patterns after cropping and fiddling with the colors in Photoshop Express.

Translation:

Dragon Parade

Reflection:

Parallel Universes

Rotation:

Dragon Scales

Endless Harvest

Glide:

Ornate Dragons

This one was simply play:

Infinities

Blood Moon

I enjoyed working with scratchboard so much I decided to do another! I was inspired on the morning of the blood moon to do this one!

Blood Moon, done on 5x7 Ampersand Scratchboard, photo taken with ipad.

Here are some alternate versions I edited the colors on that I thought looked neat:

Harvest Moon, done on 5x7 Ampersand Scratchboard, photo taken with ipad, edited in Photoshop Express app.

Winter Solstice, done on 5x7 Ampersand Scratchboard, photo taken with ipad, edited in Photoshop Express app.

1950's Horror Flick, done on 5x7 Ampersand Scratchboard, photo taken with ipad, edited in Photoshop Express app.