Arctic Horror - finish!

Whew.  So while I think I only logged in about 12-19 hours on this one (I wasn't the best at tracking time spent on this project), I'm pretty happy with the end product.  Perhaps I'll come back to it in a few days and work on it more, but so far I'm pretty happy.  This is also the longest I've probably ever spent on a digital paint, so that in itself is a big accomplishment for me.

Cool, time to get on with the other pieces I have in mind.  Go Friday art days!

I'm pretty excited that with the new HP Lovecraft movie in the works, the shoggoth is gonna get more attention.  Woo!

nosferatu

Long time, no post. Busy with the gallery show that's coming up on FRIDAY!!!! Check it out here and RSVP on the FB event page here.

PS - If you're seriously interested in buying the art, show up early at 7pm for the Artists' Reception. We've already got a few inquiries, and buyers will be there to check it out, so if you don't want to miss out, show up early, grab a drink and a price sheet, and shop away!

Happy Holidays - quick paint

Happy holidays, people!

100th post! Illustration Friday - Wrapped

It's a wrap for the wrapped rapper.

So this is about 5 days late, but with all the craziness last week getting ready for the SF Zine Fest, I think I have a valid excuse for waiting on this one.

Anyhoo, E and I have decided to really step up our game after all the great feedback we got from the Zine Fest. I think that if people had come to the zine fest really expecting to spend money (like people going to APE or Renegade do) we would have done even better.

Eve even sold one of her Illustration 1 paintings! Seriously, how many students sell the VERY FIRST assignment of Illustration 1 done in gouache? Not many, I'd expect. Anyway, I sold a painting, a few prints, and Eve made up some nice digital reproductions of her paintings. We ended up doing fairly well, and we're weighing our options about attending APE as an exhibitor this year. We shall see if the budget allows.

It was really great to see people that I haven't seen in a while, and it was awesome meeting tons of great new peeps! I managed some sweet trades (esp. Cough zine #6 and Sean Logic's Myspace Swindle zine - both highly recommended and done by cool-ass people) and our bookbinding workshop was an overwhelming success.

Anyway, we've been overhauling our Monkey + Seal site, so go check it out, as I'll probably be blogging over there much more than over here. Updates go up there MWF. Peace!

New portfolio site! In other news, epic fail.

Self-portrait: Pastel

Seascape - Oil on canvas - 16" x 20"

So the good news is that thanks to the awesomeness of "monkeyboy" from the Airtight interactive forums, I managed to work out most of the kinks from my personal site and it's up and running. Now it's just some design issues (uh, the header a bit big, anyone?) but at least it's functional.

www.rickkitagawa.com. Come check it out!

In other, lamer news, I submitted 5 pieces to the Spring Show for fine art and got a total of 0 of them in. Sigh. I was most disappointed that none of my silkscreen pieces got in, but I have to admit they're more pizazz rather than super technical printing, so if that's what I'm being judged on, then so it goes. It just means I have to get better at printing while keeping the looseness that I like. Anyhoo, I'll try and photograph all my submissions this weekend and get 'em up here and in my store soon.

Judging for the Illustration portion of the show is today and this weekend, so it's my last shot to getting in this year. Cross your fingers.

So I thought about it this morning, and as much as it eats shit that I didn't get in this year, I realized that in the end, it's not about the Spring Show. I asked myself "would you still go to art school even if they didn't have a show? Would you still go to art school if you knew you weren't going to get in next year?" I would, and even though I still damn well want to get into the show next year, it's really about learning. I have the rest of my life to get into shows and craps (it would be nice if it happened right away), so I should just focus on getting better.

I'm still going to try and sell the crap out of my artwork, but such is life.

Also, so I fell short of the $600 in 10 days goal, but I did manage to get a graphic design gig that made about half of that. So who knows, maybe this whole "setting goals" thing works.

My portfolio

So I finally made a carbonmade portfolio. I put up some new stuff that I don't think I posted here, but if you want something more organized that deals directly with my art (and less of the politics, rants, etc.) here you go.

Also there, I just added three new pieces to the illustration section which I've been working on for a few weeks now (some of the original sketches, etc. were done..I finally revisited them!). Hope you enjoy.

Check out my Etsy Shop!

After slowly working on this between homework, life in general, and work, I have finally opened up my own little button shop at Etsy.

You can check it out here at www.RiSK.etsy.com

I've got my buttons up and running. Hopefully I'll eventually have some illustrations, chapbooks, comics, clothing, and more up, but that's all for now :)

And if you spread the word, I'd be most grateful :)

Oh yeah, and I finally got some art to put up.

This is my first oil painting EVER. Well, the first one I actually tried on. My first ever oil painting was with Eve, and I did a little 3x5 canvas board in about 10 minutes. This one took about 6 hours.This one is my second oil painting, but the first one wher I actually had to mix colors myself and not rely on shit that comes out of the tubes.

Eh, the drawing is kinda off in em, and the colors/values could be better, but for 6 hours each, I don't think they're half bad. And excuse the bad photo quality. I'm still working on that.

Ri.S.K.

So I finally changed the name of my blogging profile over to RiSK (technically, I changed it to Ri.S.K., but I am too lazy to actually type that all the time).

Why the name change, you ask? Well, as all things change, so does my artist signature. As I'm working on developing a visual identity for myself, I figured part of that is an identity shift as a whole. Nothing too drastic, besides making the conscious decision to devote myself to my crafts. I've realized that to make it doing what I love, I really have to do what I love. While that sounds easy, in reality I've spent a lot of time doing stuff and not really creating. Not enough time has been spent drawing, and looking up reference material, and practicing constantly. So much of my life has been comfortable, staying inside my little bubble of natural talent, doing things that I am naturally good at. Now as egotistical as this sounds, I find it to be true. I do most things decently without really trying, and as soon as it gets hard, I usually give up and move on to something else. I've lived my whole life this way, and no more. I'm sick of being mediocre at everything and really good at nothing, so it's time to really risk something and go for the dream.

And that goes back 20ish years to when I really, really, really wanted to just draw for a living. Back when I was drawing on the walls with washable marker, on recycled printer paper with crayons, or on my shoes with puff paint, I wanted to be an artist. Now, after facing the reality of life and going through the misdirection of my generation, flirting with chemistry, biology, environmental science, psychology, and acting, I know what I want to do. I want to draw for a living. Don't get me wrong, I still like all of the above, and use those tools in my art (and I'm never going to really give up on acting), but they're not my focus anymore. I don't think I've ever been this focused before, and now I want to finally let art breathe in my every cell. Now, I paint on walls with spraypaint, on recycled sketchbooks and copy paper with graphite and prismacolors, and on shoes and clothing with acrylics and fabric paint, and I love every minute.

So back to the name. My full name is Rick Susumu Kitagawa. The Japanese part is loosely translated as "going forward to the North river." I've been leaving out the Susumu part for too long (mainly cuz growing up I thought it was a silly sounding name), leaving out the going forward part. But I've reclaimed that middle part, and wanted to somehow keep it yet keep the name short. So Ri.S.K. is basically an abbreviation of my full name. Ri(ck) S(usumu) K(itagawa). But it also stands for the internal change within me. I want to be a great artist who can change lives through his art. I'm not sure how to do that yet, but I know what I want to do, and I'm not going to let anyone stop me.

-RiSK 11.27.2007