ZOMBIE HORSE OH SHIT

so here's a whole slew of sketchbook things again, of varying quality, as per usual. first, a forties-era cover. nothing's really forties-ish about it except her dress, but shhhhh. and, the book had a lot of blue in it? rough week, this one was.
the next two are in that same book, perpetuating the "a lot of blue" thing. i rather like the first one, a "parody" of a weird-shaped thing abstract thing that i decided was a big angry pile of laundry trying to scare the little boy in the dark.

next up, "glorification" of "ZOMBIE HORSE OH SHIT!" there's a crown? yeah. this does not do the original justice, but i never was one for drawing zombie horses very well at all. and then a sad man trying to sprout something out of what turned out to look like a mound of tar. not so promising.

finally, a nice cheat-y week: "in addition to" the cut paper puppy? A GIRL HUGGING HIM. god i'm predictable. then a little boy in footie pajamas escaping out his window into the night. i'm okay-ish with this one.and break!

toooooooooolbox.

i'm unfortunately aware that it has been like a month since i last posted anything - tragic, unspeakable, unforgivable, etc., etc. floggings will be administered. let's get back into the groove with some response-respond pieces from the last few weeks, shall we?
first we have a "continuation" of two weird monster kid things that looked like they were yawning very symmetrically, thus sleeping very symmetrically, except one of them is maybe not really a monster. then more sleeping.this week's was "reversing" a food chain that said that snakes and frogs and deer-ish things and bunnies ate children. so instead, we have a silly blond boy with footie pajamas and a really big appetite. and an alice in wonderland-esque girl in a blue frock.

these were actually the first week's response-respond pieces, the ones i forgot to scan. it was an "exaggeration" of a boy quasi-hugging (think awkward family portrait) a skull-faced polo-wearing guy while holding baseball-type accoutrements. naturally, a crazy slide-tackle hug ensued. and a demented anatomy archer guy followed.and apparently by "last few weeks", i really meant "all the response-repsond pieces after the first one, since i haven't posted anything in like eight million years". sorry guys. this one is "questioning" a robot ripping off the head of some guy by, you know, making the robot a nerd in a robot suit? maybe? then a bird falls off a cliff, i'm not sure why. my random 'respond' pieces are bizarre, and usually completed very late at night.

so there you have it, all the response-respond pieces up to now. stay tuned for a cover design for one of these books, my "freak the mighty" book proposal comps, my words on wheels poster, and my christmas wrapping paper design. etc.! i promise i definitely probably won't be such a toolbox like this again.

response and respond.

i realize that they are a noun and verb of the same thing, but i couldn't really find a better way to differentiate between the two-part double-page spread sketchbook assignment i'm doing this semester. this time it's a response to the previous two-page spread based on a keyword (i.e., exaggerated, or oppositional), and another open-ended spread for someone else to respond to the following week. get it, get it?i forgot to scan last week, so i'll see if i can't get that book back later and scan them then.this week's response was an "oppositional" take on a farmhouse in a woodsy grove, so i decided on a tiny tree struggling to exist in a super-urban cityscape, that i decided to execute like wallpaper, you know, for fun. my 'respond' piece is a little girl afraid of the dark and psycho-killer-nightmare-monsters that dwell in the shadows. i'm gonna give these books the "hey i want to experiment with some mixed media" treatment, so i can play with new things and expand my repertoire without botching something i need to turn in. also, apologies abound for the minimal updates thus far. things are just getting underway-ish and ceramics is so not a scannable, web-friendly art (nor am i very good at it), so it's limiting how much i have to show for my efforts. also, because my illustrated book class is a long-term singular project, it has less 'in the meantime' sort of nice-to-look-at things. but i should have some character designs and turnarounds to show soon, so never fear.

nothing ties a nice neat bow at the end of a narrative like automatic weapons.

this is it. my very last weekly double-page spread for concepts. this one didn't come with a word, only the goal of concluding the story. this one was called "deserving death", about a hit man/assassin whose family thinks he's a traveling salesman, who finds out that another agent similar to himself has been charged to take him out in his home. last page was him as an old man, wondering if he'd live long enough to see that age.

i now wish he was wearing a tie that was flapping emphatically over one shoulder as he dives dramatically through the air, guns a-blazin'. i kind of loved this assignment. next week we get to keep books in the order of highest sketchbook grades, so we'll see what all this work earned me, if anything worthwhile. there are a couple books that i have my eye on, i won't lie.

until then, i guess i'll have to settle for working my ass off on finals. monday will yield my final book cover (we haven't critted yet), and tuesday will produce my foray into the third dimension. unfortunately, the rain/snow/sleet has made baltimore extra-disgusting, so photographing my hug-a-friend hugging the city will be, um, gross. bummer.

hopefully it's not an even trade.

this is a little something i like to call "ultra-mediocre". i could be worse, i suppose, but whatever. i had absolutely no idea what this book was about, so i did what i could. the word was "aglow", which is what outside the windows is. not my best work, but there is some definitive shrugging going on in that regard because i have some much more important work to be done for finals and national portfolio day is this weekend, thus sucking any and all of my free time away from me. i did what i could with what i've got. so sue me. my other projects are shaping-up pretty a-okayly, so we'll see if the mediocrity was worth it.

when in doubt: GO CRAZY.

awww, crazy tin-can robot tirade. can't really apply the blanket "story of my life" caption to this one, go figure. the story is about, well, a a tin-can robot looking for his future, though the story digressed into, i don't know, a whole lot of weird shit, like carousels and bagpipes and bobcats and sexy android ladies. i was unclear about what was happening, so... TIN-CAN ROBOT SMASH. what an eloquent solution to my confusion. he goes crazy, swats all the weird shit in the story away, so i guess the next person can decide where he's going. also, my original word was "airbag", then i unceremoniously cheated and swapped it with rebecca for "fish", which worked out because a seahorse had already shown up in the narrative. weird story, that's for damn sure.

p.s. happy thanksgiving! i love cranberry sauce.

inching toward that threshold that i still can't find.

my latest weekly two-page spread. this is not only a book i've worked in before (see below,re: girl at the convenience store counter), but also the one i blurbed to start with (identifying the hero, setting, and goal). i like it. better text this time, colored after the fact instead of sloppily before. angsty as per usual, what do you want.

also exciting - got my schedule, and i got all my first choice courses, which was something of a miracle. i understand the registration process zero percent, but i am so not complaining. i will be taking two art education courses for mat, concepts two with rebecca (because i love her), which is the required junior spring course, the illustrated book, in which i will illustrate a complete story book throughout the semester (perhaps "the twelve dancing princesses", says my 'thinking-miles-in-advance' mind), and ceramics. also for mat. i currently have two days off (monday-tuesday-four-day-weekend-what?!) but i am contemplating t.a.-ing a class for warren, in addition to the whole, "hey, three jobs" situation. we'll see how badly i feel the need to adjust my life's calendar for maximum likelihood of suicide and i'll get back to you.

feigning adulthood, or, thinly veiled pinocchio references.

this is the latest of the sketchbook two-page spreads, titled "a squid-farmer's diary". i realize, exactly at this moment, that no one writes in their diary in third person. sigh.

anyway, so this guy was attacked by a squid on the previous page, and my word was camel. and also he was on a search for a friend. and on an earlier page, he'd met this lovely woman (because someone else was sadistically given the word 'bouffant' earlier in the book's history, apparently), so i decided if i were drowning in the ocean and was being forced to free-associate about camels, that i would dream of exotic vacations with bouffanted buddies.

not so happy with the text on this one. it's suppose to read "as he drifted off to sleep, he dreamt of exotic locales and warm companions." but, too much paint, and not enough character to the type. i believe future endeavors with colored type will involve more careful application of paint to the letters after being blocked in, as opposed to this hasty pre-lettering application. ulgh.

incidentally, i'm still considering posting my writing to this blog, though the semester is nearly over. i like that class a whole lot. but until i bite the bullet and actually post my adventures into the literary, you'll have to endure my constant musings on the idea with no follow-through. extruciating, i know.

also, i am meeting with the gallery coordinator for my very own solo show on thursday! it will be in march and april at the sparks filling station, (an adorable gas station turned coffee shop/gallery), so i have developed a proposal for the body of work (exclamation points plural!!) that i am planning to execute over winter break for the show. it will basically be a combination of the things i do by default, the things i do automatically. but what does that mean, you ask? all right, i'll quit the cryptic.

i will be taking the pages in my sketchbook that i particularly enjoy, usually with both text and image, and executing them in full color (as opposed to pencil and/or ink, as in the sketchbooks) in the manner that i have been completing these double-page spreads in concepts. it occurred to me that when i was given a prompt that i needed to fulfill quickly, immediately, and usually without thinking, that the method that i used for such a thing would be something inherent to the way i work naturally. of course i would be most expedient doing what i do best, by default. so i am using flowy acrylic with loose brush ink on top for clarification, but of things actually relevant to me, instead of, you know, camels. a secondary part of the show will include essentially amped up versions of my dailies, done in full color acrylic to be scanned and layered with my original ink drawings. they may be grouped in threes or fours, or they may be available as singles as well. these will include a tag or card of some kind that essentially says "hey! here's what day of my life you bought!" with the original text that accompanied the image and explaining the daily illustration process it was a part of.

anyway, so that's the plan, ish. there are still some details to work out, but overall i'm pretty much evenly jazzed slash terrified. hopefully things will err toward the former as i get going, but man, nothing strikes fear deep in my heart like facing what happens when i grow up, go out into the big scary world, and become a real boy.

or, you know, girl.

acid yellow angst-fest.

so here is my latest book spread, based on a hitman-ish guy who can't unclench his fists, and is on a mission to find a cure for his condition, and also love. my word was "blossom".

i also decided that i am creating a body of work for my solo show, a weird amalgamation of my sketchbook pages, this brushy acrylic/ink painting style, and my dailies. so exciting slash terrifying. winter break is gonna be fun-filled, that's for sure. but the notion of closing the gap between all these different directions that i've been heading in is really motivating, and will hopefully be gratifying to accomplish.

i wish i could fly too.

so this was a rapid-fire, priority-zero, slap-dash piece, i won't even lie. i did it in twelve minutes at like 1am, sliding in to beat the clock and finish up before rounds on halloween duty. awesome. it's about a bird-child of some sort, seeking a smooth white rock, and my word was "bathe". he wears a red t-shirt also. whatever. i sort of like the process of doing these, sloppy acrylic and brush ink to tighten it up... even if this is not necessarily a shining example of the merits of this technique. god knows i prefer it to the fucking pen tool in photoshop for digital color. blegh.

i have yet to scan the massive map. almost, then change of plans. perhaps, then more immediately pressing concerns present themselves. there's been a lot of that lately. bear with me.

it's "malcolm in the middle" meets "x-men evolution".

so i know it's been quite some time since i've shown my face in this joint, for which i express my most sincere apologies. it just so happens that fall break, in conjunction with a couple longer-term assignments has stretched out the availability of final products for me to put on display for your viewing pleasure.

i have here my last on-going sketchbook contribution, a cover design for this book on octopi. my word to include was cyclone, as exhibited by the scared octopus running away from a water-tornado of some kind.

in other news, i am attempting to scan my bad-ass (translation: really really big) illustration map from last week's concepts class. once i do that, it will be uploaded, but a few things have come up and pushed that to the back-burner for now. also keep your eyes peeled for the first of my character design for my tv show pitch, "the not-so-secret diaries of luke merriweather". it's about high school and nerds and magical powers and angst and video diaries. you can barely contain your excitement, i can just tell.

i spent too much time on this and not enough time on the dishes. meaning none was spent on the latter.

here's my latest contribution to the sketchbook swapping exercise in concepts. the previous page showed a drowning kitty swimming after a bat? and my word to incorporate was "belt". so we have old man finding soggy kitty while looking for belt to hold up saggy pants. he's got coke bottle glasses and super-squinty eyes, to better emphasize his lack of sights and explain how, while looking for his belt amongst the swamp he apparently de-belted in earlier that day, he might stumble upon a drowning cat instead. i always hated that whole, "grab 'em by the scruff of the neck" thing, even though it supposedly doesn't hurt. it seems to me like the feline version of a half-nelson, how can that possibly be a "sure, no problem, dangle me in the air for an indeterminate amount of time as my skin gets all smeared out of place and pulls my limbs in funny directions" sort of experience? whatever. i am really loving this ongoing assignment, which i'm pretty sure i said already. point is yesterday was supposed to be "crank out the hero book assignment and sketch and ink my rollergirl final" day, and instead it was "muse and dawdle over an excessively involved hero book then not so much finish the rollergirl sketch" day. what's prioritizing?

highly ineffective procrastination post.

so i'm posting this more as a means of avoiding doing other things than anything else. here's my fourth weekly narrative double-page spread, this week about a weird elephant-ish hero looking for the sun, to incorporate the word "bedouin". obscure much? this one's only so-so, as far as i am concerned. in other news, i saw andrew bird perform last night and holy god he is amazing. unbelievable. orgasmic. see him live. no life is complete without it. anyway, that's all. more stuff next week after my crits. that barely helped me procrastinate at all.

a new, more artistic kind of 'weekly'.

mmm, so i have the first three two-page spreads i have completed for my concepts class's ongoing sketchbook. and by "sketchbook", i mean like 14. the idea is that each book has a loose narrative attached to it (essentially a hero, a setting, and a goal) and each week we rotate books, completing a two-page spread each time. the following week, we receive a new book and a word to be incorporated into our finish in some manner. these will make minimal amounts of sense, since they are both out of original context and placed within context of one another, but it'll be fun anyway. ready? here we go:

the first one is a steampunk-era cross-dressing teenage boy, looking to get a bouquet of flowers for his mom. no word to incorporate this time. you can tell he's steampunk because of his snappy jacket and CONVERSES. plus, you know, the train. literalisms for everyone.

the second one is in response to 2 panels of sleeping, dreaming boy, and my word was "clerk". only a little bit of angst.

the third one's hero is "a cucumber with lovely violet eyes" looking for glasses that won't hide them, and the word was "bee".


i elected to collage the last one because, as you can see in the spine, this book is falling apart. like, none of the pages are attached to the spine or each other. it's tragic. the paper crumbles as you turn each page, and i could not even imagine what would've happened if i tried to apply paint to this surface. lives would be lost, families torn apart, little pieces of really old paper would litter my carpet and scanner bed, all sorts of bad news.

i like this project.