Journal Entry January 5 and 6, 2012

Yesterday I was watching an old black and white movie so I decided to draw a character I thought would be reminiscent of that time, just random drawing. Today I went down to Old Town San Diego to get out of the inland empire of southern california and actually go somewhere with culture. I love my town of Redlands, but sometimes I feel like I just want to leave. I had a great time drawing in Old Town. I did a couple buildings and some random stuff around the place. Today I filled up 3 pages in my journal. Not an overload of drawing, but enough that I thought was productive. I absorbed the culture and had some fun. Afterward I met up with a good friend who is a life and career coach. I want to make some goals this year so talking to her helped me to lay out a plan in the next week that I want to accomplish. It seems realistic and doable, so it's easier to get it done instead of just dreaming about it. I want this year to be more goal oriented so doing these plans every week will help me a lot. I gotta keep this momentum going. Here's to a new and productive year.

Journal Entry January 4, 2012

This is a new sketch for the day. Since I did animals yesterday I thought I would do another one today but interacting with a person. Falconry seems like such a fun sport. Since doing these journal entries it seems to me that making a goal to do one of these a day is getting easier, and it is something that I want to do. One of my friends is a career coach and I listened into her tele-seminar today, where she was talking about setting goals and getting to the career you want. I feel that this is a good step to get in the habit of making small goals and accomplishing them, even if it is in a day. I have more long term goals, I just have to now make a game plan to accomplish those goals. I guess when I'm doing these my plan is to warm up with small drawings, read, relax, research and then delve into the page and sketch. I'm gonna have to approach those small steps first to build up to one of my long term goals. Thanks for reading.

Sketch Journal: Jan.3, 2012

Here's my entry for the day in my journal. The subject matter of the day is animals because I haven't drawn them in a while. I wish there was a zoo near me so I can draw them live. The nearest one is San Diego, which is over a 2 hour drive away. I guess that's not too bad, but I'd make it a day trip if I go. I got these reference pics from a great site that have great drawing tools and picture resources. The website is here: http://www.pixelovely.com/gesture/figuredrawing.php. Check it out if you want great practice.

Sketch Journal 2012

Alright, so here's my first post for 2012. I've decided to keep a sketch journal for the year that (hopefully) I'll add to every day. I say that because lately I've been lacking discipline to do anything. Here's my first sketch for Jan. 1st and today! The first one starts off with a bang, the second one is just something that popped into my head after taking a look at a reference photo. Kinda weird, but intriguing.

Revisiting the Masters

Man it's been a while since I posted anything! Last week I went to the Laguna Arts Festival with some friends and checked out all the great art by local residents of Laguna. The art was very inspiring and I enjoyed it all. One artist I thought was very cool was John Taylor. He made some incredible sculptures of submarines, ships and paddleboats. He used trash and computer chips to make them, it was so awesome! You can check out his work at www.folkartships.com . Later on that night I went to go see a live show called Pageant of the Masters. Now this is an incredible show where props and people are placed on a stage and in movable frames. They showed how it was done and at first it looks like people and props on a stage, and then the lights go off. When they come back on the lights are different, and the figures and props become the painting. Everything looks completely flat. They also did this with sculptures and they actually looked like sculptures. It was crazy to think how these actors could stay completely still while the audience stares in awe of what they are seeing. They hold their pose for around 90 seconds. Master paintings are recreated in a very surrealistic way that seemed almost impossible to me. This got me thinking upon looking at all these master paintings about how can I revisit the masters of Illustration. I studied them at school, but it's always a smart thing to go back and take a good look at how illustrators like Dean Cornwell, Howard Pyle, Harvey Dunn, J.C. Leyendecker and N.C. Wyeth worked and study their drawings. Here are a few drawings of Dean Cornwell and a J.C. Leyendecker. Dean Cornwell is called the dean of illustration and rightly so. His knowledge of anatomy is incredible. His figures are drawn with such authority, they jump out of they page with so much personality it's crazy. J.C. Leyendecker is a master of design in his figures, he edits out all the busy parts and puts in what matters in the drawing. I learned a lot by doing these yesterday and today. I look forward to doing more each day.

More Sketches

Here are some more doodles I've done in my sketchbook. Nothing really major but just fun drawings. I haven't really tackled any major paintings as of late. Opportunities for upcoming classes are flooding in and it's kind of overwhelming. It's hard to find time to just sit down and paint without putting a whole lot of thought to it. Most of my stuff requires a lot of involvement. It's finding the time to get fully involved in my illustrations that's hard. Sometimes I just want to do stuff that's easy and fast. We'll see how that goes.

Some sketches

Here are some sketches I thought I would share. I did these just messing around in my sketchbook, seeing what could come out of some doodles. I know it's been a while since I posted. I'm going to post soon a pic of the marquee I've designed and painted in downtown historical Redlands. It was something different, but still a challenge for me to do.

A new push for marketing

As an artist with no representative, no degree in marketing, no company to do illustrations for it's tough to find an avenue that can keep me busy and happy with the art that I do. I love to draw people, I love to draw in public so how could I make that into a revenue? Over a year ago I decided to market myself as a caricature artist for parties, events and festivals. This has been going on with ups and downs at different events. Why stop at trying to do everything by myself though? Connecting with party and event planners was one marketing strategy I had to tackle. After making a bunch of fliers with this service and spread it out to dozens of stores, I got a call the next day from a party planner about working a party. So any artist that is just waiting for something to happen without doing anything different will wait a long time. I say reboot your strategy by reaching out to others and connect with them, you never know what will happen. My goal is still to develop my own illustrations and be recognized for them, but I need to be pro-active in what I am happy doing right now. I used to think that the caricature artists in the bay area were uneducated and talentless hacks, and for some I still think that ;). That doesn't necessarily mean I am one in doing the same trade. This new approach in marketing seems to work and hope it will continue to work, along with the people I connect with.

Palm Springs art class

So I taught a class at the Palm Springs art museum on Saturday, October 16th and it turned out great!! The kids were nice and focused, ready to do some work and learn. As I walked around to observe the teen's art, it was already obvious to me that they were getting a hang of things. It was not only a learning process for them, but for me as well. They were really involved in what they were doing and seemed really into it. My age range was from 12 to 19, which seemed that it might be hard to handle but it wasn't too stressful. It was an awesome class and the education coordinator asked me to come back in July, so I look forward to teaching the kids again!

The Design of Music

So here's the color comp of the commission sketch that I posted earlier. I'm genreally happy with the direction I'm taking it. The posterized edges in it gives it a more stylized, graphical type of painting. As with all my paintings that I do a digital color composition for, the colors may change when I paint it traditionally. Which is what I want so it doesn't look so much like a digital painting. Will post another update as time goes on.

New Commission Sketch

So, here's a sketch for a new commission I received from someone I met at the recent Stage Coach Days event in Banning. It's musically inspired and considered a challenge for me, especially since it's going to be stylized in a posterized, traditional painting. I love challenges though, because it always makes me think differently on how to approach something. So here's a preview of what it's all about, enjoy and I'll post up a digital color comp of the piece soon.

Sketches and Color Comp "for Harvester of Sorrow".

Working on a new piece, which I actually posted a first sketch of previously. I thought it was too restrictive and didn't like the composition that much so I completely changed it. I'm putting up some development sketches, the final sketch, and the color comp I did. I'm painting it traditionally so it won't look so "Digital". I'm doing this illustration in the hopes to add a new client to my list, Wizards of the Coast. Time has been going to long since my portfolio review with them at Comic Con. Since I have a direct contact with the art director I'm going to send him this, along with one more piece.

new illustration sketches

Here's a sketch of a painting I'm going to do for Wizards of the Coast in the hopes of getting some work for them. I'm not gonna send just one, but a few more so I don't keep on having to send new stuff all the time. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Saving Grace

This is my latest finished commission for my first real collector of my work. I'm really happy with the way it came out and he was also. I actually immortalized my roommate in it, so he's another person that's happy with it, ha ha.

My First Comic Con!!

Last weekend I went to my first Comic-Con and I was not quite sure what to expect. I had two pieces up in the art show so I wanted to make sure I was there. I had my portfolio ready and plenty of cards to pass out, my goal was to make connections. I arrived at the San Diego convention center and it was HUGE!!!! I heard the con was big, but actually seeing the size of the convention center and how many vendors there were was overwhelming. I went and hit the ground running, going to as many publishers as I could find. I hit up the Del Rey booth, expecting an art director to be there that I could show my work to. Unfortunately none was there, but I gave the editor my card anyway, hoping he would pass it along to the art director (kinda doubt it). I did that to several other publishers, and then went to pay a visit to my old boss, Eric Joyner. It was good to see him again and catch up. I learned that he met Matt Groening and had a small talk with him, very cool! After my visit with Eric I went to go visit one of my favorite artists, Donato Giancola. He is easily one of the nicest guys to meet, very open to give feedback on my portfolio. I learned a lot just from talking to him and getting feedback from a grand master. I might go visit his studio when I take a trip to New York in September. Next stop was Todd Lockwood, who was also very open to give feedback on my portfolio. He laid down a lot of faults in my work, which was actually very helpful and that I will use. Next up was my portfolio review with Wizards of the Coast, which actually went really well. They loved my work but want to see what I can do when I push my work even more, through color and dynamic composition. I talked to the senior art director of D&D and the game designer which really helped and gave insight to what they were looking for. I came out of it with the art directors card and already started an e-mail thread, which was golden. That's all I could ever wish for, a direct contact within Wizards that I could send work to as they come along and eventually come to the point of getting work from them. My paintings didn't sell, but getting that portfolio review and contact info from Wizards was worth more than my paintings.

All The King's Men Final!!!!!

It's finally finished!!!! I'm really happy with the way it turned out and I consider it my best yet, conceptually and technically. I'm taking this down to this years' Comic Con to debut it to the world! I'm super excited to get some feedback and see peoples reaction to it. I feel this painting needs as much exposure as possible and could very well lead me to my big break.

"All the King's Men" W.I.P. 6/9/10

Here's an updated pic on "All the King's Men"! It's getting there, but I have to solve more of the background and simplify some things in the wall.

It's Coming Along!!

So, here's another w.i.p. pic of "All the King's Men". Don't know if I'll make the personal deadline of May 28. I never know though, it may happen. I still have plenty to do on the background, the wall, and of course Humpty. I want to save him for last because I know I'll just half ass the rest if I put all my energy into him in the beginning. I'm happy with the way it's progressing.

"All the King's Men" W.I.P.

So, here's a work in progress picture of my latest big painting "All the King's Men". So far I'm really excited about it and am working hard on it. Seeing that this is my own personal project I'm holding it to some high standards and putting a lot of faith in it. I set a personal deadline to finish it on May 28, and it is now the 14th. I feel I really need to focus harder on it and get it done, but at the same time I don't want to rush it. I got a commission going on which I need to work on, but my personal priority is this. I still plan on taking this to comic-con and see how it is received. I hope it is a big hit.

plein Air paintings

While up at a cultural arts and dance festival at the Edward Dean Museum I decided to do some plein air painting of the Koi pond. Overall It came out pretty nice and happy with it. Also did another plein air painting as a demo for my students in my painting class. I'm pretty happy with that one as well. The Edward Dean one is on top and the demo painting is on the bottom.