Day 2

Gah. I'm awake. It burns.

Here's the new addition from last night though. I added the beginnings of her skin tone. I see that my lighting needs to be fixed in places all around. I don't know if there's an actual term for this, but there's this point you can get to with oil paint where the painting can't take any more white paint. For instance, the paint was so thick and wet last night that I couldn't make a proper highlight on her shoulder any more, if I try to blend the white, it just gets absorbed into the base color. If I decided to blend green into the skin or something, it would have blended just fine. I just need to wait until it dries a little - its so hot in my room it should be ready only after a few hours.

DAILY INSPIRATION Day 1

Herbert Baglione - Street Artist. I love how he uses black, white and gold.

TODAY'S CREATION day 1

This is my current project. It’s about 2.5' x 4' in size.. This has gone through a full spectrum of steps, which is actually quite helpful. This was originally a sketch of mine which I created one morning at a self -improvement seminar. I scanned it and brought it into Photoshop where I used my wacom tablet to choose my colors and create a digital painting. This was a great way to figure out my values & hues – which makes creating my final painting so much easier – I don’t have any guesswork, I just have to copy what I’ve already done. I scored an old-school overhead projector (which needs transparacy sheets). I traced my original sketch and projected it onto my hardboard canvas (prepped with clear gesso). I really love hardboard because I can get some very fine gradients and detailed lines that I just can’t replicate with a textured surface like canvas. I’ll keep you posted.

WHY SAY NO?

I created this piece on the letterpress based on a quote that my friend Eli says “why say no when you can say yes” –Briefly after I learned of this quote, I watched the movie Yes Man with Jim Carrey and was inspired to create this poster.

It says “Why say no When you can say yes? Life is so much fun when you say yes.” The characters are created on one big lineoleum block that I carved into. I pressed it using a letterpress, then created the type afterwards using wooden block type. I was actually really limited to that particlar typeface.. All the other faces didn’t have enough letters in the size that I needed, but I think it turned out alright anyways.

Recently I got to show it at a small gallery space in San Francisco along with other students/artists in the “bookarts” category. There were some absolutely incredible pieces there, books are a beautiful way to use art to tell a story – artist books don’t necessarily need to be coherent, but they definitely should be captivating.

MURAL FOR MY BROTHER

My brother recently moved into a house with his roommate. I received the great invitation to be their commissioned muralist. “Paint on any wall you want! Paint whatever you want!” I find that when requested to do just “anything” I tend to resort to familiar concepts from my past. In this case, it was a tribute to Arizona where my brother and I did a lot of our growing up.

I’ve included the process from my thumbnail to completion. I actually finished it in one sitting lasting 6 hours -which is pretty quick for a large scale painting, strangely it looks so much like a part of the house that many people don’t notice it when they walk in. I’m excited to use the space and be a little more adventurous with my next mural there.

Misty mountains repeating into the distance has always been an image that moves me. The differences in color created by the thickness and amount of atmosphere in between the viewer and the mountain. I looked up pictures of cactus flowers on my phone while I was there, creating those on the fly.

Commitment to waking up early

I’m learning that happiness comes from being in action and being in motion. I’d say the hardest part about being a freelancer is being your own generator of this feeling of motion. It’s very difficult actually to be creative when there is too much time. I hear this assumption many times-“hey I’m sure painting is a great way to get out your frustrations and to zone out into your own little world, free from worry” – This for me couldn’t be further from the truth. I find that in order to paint, I must be in a very good emotional state. Painting/designing for me comes when I am happy or when I’ve experienced something fascinating or particularly beautiful to me - perhaps that shows in my artwork. It is not a release, but more of a manifestation of my present state.

What’s the point?

As of Today I’m officially on a “semester break” from teaching. Which means I have 1 month to fill without a fixed schedule. In the past, its been a little bit of a personal prison (sleeping in.. becoming "lazy.") The feeling of motion greatly comes from the amount of work I’m doing, and I believe I can use this blog as a way to create an expectation of myself for the amount of work I’m going to get done.

Here’s my Daily proposal to myself:

Wake up at 7 on week days (Write a small post to prove it)

Show something creative I’ve worked on for that day.

Show something Inspiring that I have discovered.

Although I don’t know if anyone reads my posts, I feel like the act of publishing my actions will create the right kind of structure that I need in order to push myself and continue the rolling ball of creativity and contentment. By the way, if you’ve got suggestions, let’s hear them! :D Note to self: This outline of action begins NOW.

BAZAAR BIZARRE

What's it like to take a walk through the inside of Etsy? A friend informed me about this event the day it was happening.. Thought it would be a good place to take a visiting mom and brother in Golden Gate Park. I love how big cities can turn the ordinary into the remarkable - such as this seemingly ordinary Craft Fair with a DJ playing triphop & electronica and featuring inspiring crafts from up and coming artists -many of whom are also etsy sellers consequently. The Space was quite large with a bigger turnout than I would expect for a craft show. There are alot of clever artists out there! Here are some examples of my favorites from the show, I'm a sucker for letterpress and typography. Thanks Karen for the heads up!

Also check out my new friend Willo's site (who was a vendor at this event) - for her most excellent merchandise: Willo Toons