Colorful Colony (WIP)

This was my color design project! Sadly, I was unable to finish this one. I actually had one almost finished, but red ink for my contemporary piece leaked all over it. But I really liked where it was going, as I worked very hard on the design! This photo came out blurry, but I have a digital version which can be seen more clearly! Its basically a very stylized bat design, that I put together to make a larger bat. I basically had drawn the original bat design on paper, before bringing it into Photoshop to refine the lines and flip it so they were exactly the same on each side. After that, I aligned them to make the form of a larger bat. I then totally cheated a little by printing it out on water color paper. I had initially painted it where the primary colors were in the center piece, then put the rest of the complimentary, secondary and intermediate colors throughout the wings of the larger bat.

Here is where I began to do the complimentary, monochromatic, analogous and triadic!

I had planned to set them on the mat board similarly to the pattern within the larger bat itself.

Without Coffee I get a little....

This was my perspective word piece! It was a more comical piece that I think a few people who get cranky without their morning coffee can relate with, ha!To start this piece, I first did the lettering in an app on the Ipad, then printed it onto photo paper. I then cut each word carefully out with the with an x-acto knife before pasting it onto mat board. I then used 1 point perspective for the wording, inked it and colored the inside space with brown colored pencil (to look like coffee grounds). After that I sketched out the concept of the scene I had in mind. I ended up only drawing the werewolf himself as I didn't want to spend too much time on the concept! I then replicated the drawing onto the mat board, and had drawn in the Batista bar and the other people in line. After inking it with marker, I added some light coloring with colored pencil.

Here are the words themselves:

Werewolf Concept Sketch: 

Here is the completed piece: 

 

Without Coffee, I get a little Beastly, this is a multimedia piece done in Digital and Traditional media.

There is a sense of space and proportion within this piece, due to the coffee bar having a sense of perspective (it getting large the closer it gets). Even though the bottom picture has more variety, I think the perspective wording is definitely the focal point, as is more largely proportioned to the rest of the piece. I also think the more realistic photo within the words also makes it stands out more. It's also asymmetrical. It kind of has a weird balance since the bottom drawing appears "heavier" than the above perspective?
Even still I really like how this came out, even if its a more comical, less serious piece. It makes me think of  a silly poster.
 

Hands up, Don't Shoot!

     This was my contemporary art piece assignment, which I etched on an ampersand scratch board. I began by digitally sketching the pose and concept I wanted, once I was satisfied I re-sketched his silhouette lightly onto the board. I then continued etching in all the details. I chose to etch the last words of the many men who were murdered, and added the red ink for impact. There are a total of 6 bullet marks around the scene.

    This is an asymmetrical piece that uses positive and negative spaces to make the figure pop. 

     I chose to do my contemporary piece on a different kind of terrorism—such as the kind that’s currently going on in Ferguson, Missouri. Recently several cases have arisen showing the injustice of police officers shooting or murdering unarmed black men and even children, including Trayvon Martin (not by a police officer, but by neighborhood watch), Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, John Crawford, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Kendrec McDade, Amadou Diallo, Kamani Gray, Jonathan Ferrel. One of the youngest victims, a 7 year old girl Aiyana Jones, was sleeping when an officer shot and killed her. Many of these cases have arisen recently with the media of Michael Browns case. In fact, this specific case has caused marches all over the world calling justice for Michael Brown.  

     Darren Wilson, the man who murdered Michael Brown, dehumanized him by calling him an “it” and a demon. It’s not uncommon for the media to demonize African Americans, testing their body for drugs when its irrelevant to the case, finding the worst possible photo they could find. Meanwhile, James Eagan Holmes, was glorified in a certain manner. He was regarded as intelligent and having a PH.D in neuroscience at the University of Colorado Anzhutz Medical Campus in Aurora. This case was more seen as:”Why would such a bright kid do this?”

      Whoever's side you pick on these cases, I hope we can at least agree the use of lethal force wasn’t necessary. What happened to pepper spray, tasers and stun guns? Cops in Ferguson sure remembered how to use them on innocent protesters as seen here, here and here. These cops were able to casually pepper spray children and peaceful protesters. But you know Eric Garner was murdered via choke-hold, in a place where choke-holds were illegal and his murderer wasn’t indicted, so I suppose it doesn’t matter. If a cop can kill a man on video, in an illegal choke hold and not become indicted, will body cams really do any good? 
     The bottom line is these victims won’t get to have their right to a fair trial, as their voices were silenced when they were murdered in cold blood. They will never get to tell their side of the story.Why is it a white man can walk into a movie theater, kills twelve people,and be apprehended alive? He was even able to plead insanity, even though he had booby trapped his apartment, full well knowing police would come looking for him? Why is it places like Youtube, Tumblr and Twitter will remove video and photo evidence showing cop brutality to help protect these cops identity, but not care about revealing the injustice and lives they are harming through this brutality? Black lives matter, and we need to stop the thoughtless murder and STOP police brutality. Michael Browns body was left uncovered in the sun for over 4 hours after he was shot, a spectacle for all the neighborhood to see—doesn't this seem comparable to a public lynching? “Look at what we did to this boy, you or your children could be next”.

    

Detail Shots:

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