Eh, I kinda like the old one better

See below for the O.S. (original sketch). Any suggestions? Anyone?

Freakshow, 4 Horse(wo)men

The last two assignments for my digital art class were on the theme "4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse" and "Freakshow." These are my two pieces. Additionally, there are 2 sketches I did with green micron pen (and some red!) in my Anatomy class.


So with this first one, I decided to reinterpret the horse(wo)man War as a Nun...the opposite of what you would expect from a walking riot that leaves countries in the middle of a civil war just by walking through it. Although she does turn into an uber-scary badass version when she has to personally get her hands dirty, but I haven't drawn that form yet :P
So this is my freakshow piece...I don't know exactly what he is, but that's his toilet underneath him, if you couldn't figure it out. It still kinda grosses me out when I look at this illustration. Forgot to add his pubes and his "happy" trail...guess I try those out on him.She's not too bad, hands might be a bit small though...
This dude's head is so large even he's pondering it. Well, it could be I messed up on my proportions elsewhere (the hands? someone tell me). Oh well. 2nd semester after all (although I won't be able to use that excuse for long).
It's 5:29am and it's time to sleep. Guess who's in finals?

Bus madness, lame people at work

So one of the high points of my day happened on the super overly crowded 38 bus tonight, on the way back from downtown where I met up with my dad (as he was visiting the city). Eve and I were on our way home and we jumped on the bus at Stockton St. and we barely made it on. So as the bus driver closes the doors to cut off the people that didn't fit (it was literally packed to the front stairs), some guy kinda forces his way in, and gets banged back and forth by the doors trying to close. So he'd smash his arms against one door, which would give a bit, but then he'd get hit by the other door, which he'd push away just to get hit by the first door...

Eventually the guy managed to fight his way on the bus, the doors closes, and we start off. We pull up to the next light and stop. I then hear the guy say "Excuse me, could you please open the door? My foot is stuck in there." I nearly burst out into laughter, but the guy is only like 4 people behind me. I still manage to tell Eve (in a voice where he may have heard me) "Oh my god, that's the same guy that was being brutalized by the door. That's hilarious!"

I felt bad for the guy, but I figured he wasn't hurt too badly. Besides, the way he 1) waited for the bus to go so he would make sure he was on it, and 2) politely asked the bus driver to release his foot from the door, is just too funny.

How this has to do with art, I don't know, but I figured I should share this story with the world.

Also, people need to learn how to run proofs. To all people (especially those visiting the store I work at) who are trying to do something creative and don't have a lot of experience, please run proofs.

A woman came into the store who was in the day before and was extremely upset because the ink pad we sold her ended up smudging on her wedding invitations. First off, she never asked about drying time, as I heard the recommendation being made. She wanted the best color, and we gave it to her. Second, she apparently had stamped on ALL of her invitation envelopes, without waiting to see how the first might turn out. Now, I don't have a problem with people who are inexperienced in crafting. I don't have a problem with people bringing stuff back when it doesn't work out like they think it'll work out. I DO have a problem with people who are inexperienced and do a 75 invitation run of decorating when you haven't even tried one.

Last weekend, someone came in because the paper they bought wasn't working well with their printer. They were upset because they had printed 150 invitations, and the ink was smudging.

Let me ask you this: why in the big fat world would you ever do a 150 invitation print job without printing a few first to test out the paper? Are you that stupid? If you were a chef and you gave me a recipe, do you think that I would make enough food for 100 people before making a small test run for myself? Come on people, it's common frickin' sense!

Sigh. Do yourself a favor, people, and TEST THINGS OUT BEFORE COMMITTING TO THEM.

Anyhoo, I'm approaching finals, so don't expect too many posts in the next few weeks. Just saying.

But Eve and I have successfully started printing our holiday cards, and hopefully we'll finish the run tomorrow night. I started carving the design on a lino block, but ended up just carving a large rubber EZ carve pad for time's sake.

Additionally, I'm working on designs for a 4 horseman of the apocalypse dealy, as well on my final project for my digital illustration class. The theme is "Freakshow" and there are about 3 or 4 solid thumbs I want to expand into full pieces. At least I'll have something to keep me busy during winter break.

Anyhoo, time for bed, as I gots work tomorrow.

Holiday cards and gallery openings

So Eve and I have been working on our holiday cards the past two nights and after a failed attempt to do a linocut, we got an EZ-mode soft rubber carving pad to do the carve on. We ended up going with the negative of the original line drawing, as it shows more color and will be more impressive when we heat emboss it.

Tonight, I finally started doing a run of a few of the cards. I decided to do a combination of a block print and a rubber stamp by doing everything like you would a linocut, but instead we're inking the block with a rubber stamp ink pad. This is so we can use embossing powder on the whole card. The finished cards are looking pretty sweet, and although there is a bit more to be desired in terms of contrast the card still reads pretty well and I like how they came out. Having a giant surface of heat embossed goodness is pretty sweet as well, and I started messing around with my stamping equipment and ended up embossing my business card holder which I never use (but will start now that it looks all awesome) and some business/calling cards.

I came up with a thumb for a new illustration I want to do, and I'm mulling over some designs for a version of my "poet" shirt. I've decided on a 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse theme (nearly overdone to death, I know) for my 2nd to last digital illustration project. I'm working on some ironic character design to try and keep the characters more original and interesting. I think the one I'm currently going to flush out is War, but I may end up doing Pestilence instead.

Anyhoo, if you're in SF this coming Friday, check out this gallery opening for Kate Bingaman-Burt's Obsessive Compulsion. It's at Rare Device on Market from 6-10pm on the 7th. Check it out!

Here is a quick sketch 1 minute sketches I did of a lizard warrior and a robo-diving suit.
I don't know why the colors got all fucked up with this lizard warrior one. I sketch in strange colors, but nothing this neon... I wonder why google screws up the color on my images sometimes...