I’ve been trying my hardest to work with pencil lately. I have some incredibly talented friends who love working in pencil, and seeing their work simply inspires me to push myself in areas that seem so intimidating to me. I am confident with colors. I know how to work with them, hot to blend them together, and how to express myself through them. I can create texture, and build up thickness. Give me a pencil, and I find myself lost. I don’t know how to even start, and I become frustrated. I have been trying my hardest to bringing in pencil into my work, for the mere idea of challenging my fears. It has been quite a journey, one that is yet intimidating to me, but I have been progressing.
I’m not sure why I call this piece “A Pencil Affair”, but it seemed to fit the situation I felt I was in. A sketchbook piece that I think I could expand into a larger piece when the time seems right. I’m proud to say no color in this piece! What do you guys think? Any ideas, comments or suggestions?
I came across a Canadian artists work called Jen Mann and thought they were so inspiring and beautiful that I had to share. My favorite pieces are from her series “Strange Beauties”. You can check her website for more work and information. I am absolutely in love!
A lot has been going on since last I blogged, but mostly just sketching things out in a sketchbook. I am so OCD about my sketchbooks that I have two different sketchbooks for different reasons. Completed pieces are in my large sketchbook, while simple pencil sketchs are in a smaller one. It is safe to say my smaller pencil sketchbook doesn’t have much in it because I love color, and I dont like simple sketches. Most of my sketches need to be complete.. Im weird that way! I wanted to share a few I’ve done these last few weeks, and hopefully will continue to do. Im in the process of working on one sketch but it’s taking me some time to finish. I really ant to start a new large piece, and so what I’ve mostly been doing is contemplating how to go about doing another one.
What is written on the piece with the eyes only is:
“They say your eyes are the windows to your soul, yet sometimes I wonder if maybe we say that to give ourselves this blind faith that we understand others & can read them. Whaf if the truth is the eyes you are looking at are simply reflections of yourself. What if the truth is the eyes you are looking into are simply reflections of yourself. What if who you are looking at simply reflects what you truly are? Maybe it explains all the pain, hurt & anger you see in them because that is what you are actually feeling buried deep inside that locked soul of yours. Maybe what you are searching for isnt in others… but in yourself.”
I started out as a painter, well, actually a doodler, but does that really count? My first love has always been painting, the feel and smell of it, the way it could change with one brush stroke, one feeling, a mix of a color. I have been so busy creating design based art pieces, that I haven’t had a chance to simply purely paint, and man have I missed it.
Paint and I have had a love affair since I was a child. I remember when I was home alone secretly taking out newspapers, laying them on the ground, getting out the paints and painting for hours, then putting it all away so not to get into trouble for messing up the house. Sneaky of me, I know! I love to live dangerously! Getting back into painting for the reason of simply mixing colors together and seeing where my emotions lead me has been a process. I’ve been staring at this large canvas for days now, contemplating what to do with it. The canvas is 100″x70″ and yes, I have done design pieces that large, but I have not painted on one in a very long time. Walking around aimlessly, searching online for inspiration, and complaining on my Facebook and getting some rather very interesting ideas on how to break through and just paint, I decided to simply start.
I mixed paints, jammed to Santana, and started to paint. For the first time in a very long time, I was truly happy. So happy, that I have been smiling like an idiot for most of the day. I found my long lost love and I honestly do not want to give it up.
Here is part of what I have worked on, and I must tell you, the piece is unfinished and as of now, is completely filled (there is no more white space). I’m allowing it to dry some and will hopefully work on it this weekend. While letting this one dry, I have started yet another designed art piece that is about the same size as the canvas. Im looking forward to seeing where it leads me as well!
I am hoping some good things are flowing out of me creatively, let me know what you think!
When something catches your eye, it’s hard to look away. I am not much of a gamer, I mean, yes, I confess, I love the old school Nintendo, where I could play Super Mario for hours on end, and I was addicted to Okami, played on the Wii, but this game seems so unique, that I really do need to write about it. Maybe it’s the back story that really gets me. Not only do I know one of the developers personally, but I know the sacrifices he made to try and make his dreams come true. Who doesn’t like a good emotional story?
Sanam is a game about Fijleh, who is a radish monk with excellent experience in swordplay and weaponry Searching for inner peace, that has been disturbed by gods who were once worshipped but have been dormant for a long time, sends him on a journey of revenge using his broccoli sword. The game is being developed by “Team Food Fighter”, a team of 4 ambitious people.
Ibrahim Yasir: the 3D artist and Game Developer for Sanam and my personal friend (So proud of you!). He quit his job as a 3D artist to pursue his dream of creating a Jordanian video game, and with no money, but a lot of passion, he worked day and night with the team to create a game that could capture the hearts of children and adults alike.
And the rest of the team (information taken from them):
Mohammed Idrei: He dabbles in everything, has 6 years of experience as a 3D artist and he is a visual effects supervisor at B4Jordan. Mohammed is also an award winner for best visual effects for a foreign movie from Hollywood.
DurDur Draw Man: The shy concept/3D artist, has 4 years of experience in the 3D field, worked on couple of 3D feature films as a 3D artist. And Invaded Mars when it was cool, but he is that shy that doesn’t want for his name to be public yet!
Wajdi Adil Azar: The solid programmer, with 7 years of experience in programming and coding, living with “There is a script for that”.
With the unique story like that, and the incredible graphics and imagery, it is definitely a game I am looking forward to playing! The game not only needs some love and support, but it also needs some people who believe in the game and the people creating it. The developers are looking tocrowd-fund the development and have set an ambitious goal of $100,000 to develop and release the game.
Check out the trailer below and they have also been mentioned on IGN Middle East which by its self is pretty intense.
To read more information, stay updated, share, and contribute (please do!): Click HERE, lets hope their dreams come true!
I have been itching to paint for a while. You know the kind where paint literally ends up in places you have no idea how it can reach there? Where you build up the thickness of the paint on canvas, and can interine more than one color together? That is what I’ve been wanting to do but havent found the time to. Since being snowed in for 2 straight days (yay for nothing better to do than paint and try and stay warm!), I decided what better timing than now. What inspired me was the 2nd picture, an abstract landscape by erica kirkpatrick, but I wanted to make it somewhat mine… What I did was change up the color somewhat, but I painted using the bottom tip of a pencil, and started mixing the colors together to try and give it some depth. The canvas, as usual, is too small for my piece. You would think I would learn to purchase larger size canvas, and I will. I’m thinking of starting a larger piece with somewhat the same style. I think the painting would have been a lot nicer if it was larger.
Let me know what you guys think. I named this piece “Secrets of a Forest”. There is an eerily quietness to the piece, in some way soothing to me.
I finished this a week or so ago, but haven’t had a chance to breath, let alone blog.. I feel like such a terrible blogger!
With everything that is going on around the world from demonstrations, riots, people trying to tear away from the usual idea of government and demanding their rights and the simple need to live, came this art piece. I started drawing and the piece just created itself. I wanted to express the idea of everyone seems to have ended up looking, feeling, and thinking the same. That we have been conditioned to feel certain feelings at certain moments, that we constantly do the same routine and never question what authority has told us. I won’t get into politics, but I think I have come to a point in my life of creating pieces that speak something. I’ve written before how I want to communicate a message, I want to create a political piece that expresses something that bring people to attention. I don’t think this is quite the piece, since it’s a sketch, and my first, but I think I’m moving forward.
A mixed media art piece, using acrylic, markers, and newspaper, I wanted to use my normal style, yet bring it to another level. To create a piece that is the same, yet different. With that being said, this piece was born. What I like about it is how I incorporated another material into the piece. It gives it a dimensionality that wouldn’t be there if it weren’t for it. The text on the top says “Think for yourself” is a bit sloppy, but I think I just wanted to finish it already. I am thinking of removing the text.
The idea I’m going for is to create a larger piece with a ton of these faces standing in line. Every one of them created in newspaper, or junk food wrappings and newspaper and this one face looking like this one. The only face standing out. The only one trying to walk away from the pact and think for itself.
The face looks this way because it’s generic. It’s more of a symbol than a face. It’s more of a personality, than a person. It’s an identity. An idea. An idea of trying to become your own person. To question everything, and come to a decision, and an opinion without any outside distractions (the newspaper being the distraction).
What do you guys think? Do you see what I am trying to communicate? Do mind the terrible picture quality and lighting. Too excited to post it to care about it, but it is pretty awful!
Unconventional clothing at its best. What makes these pieces so incredible are that they are created not only as art pieces, but pieces that are functional, that can be worn, and worn beautifully. Pieces made from newspaper, paper, masking tape, porcelain saucers, coke cans, feathers, and the last is made from fruit petals of a Chinese Parasol Tree. Which do you prefer? I think I would wear them all!
When I work on large art pieces and I have a little more paint on my palette, I like to create something small in my sketchbook and then come back to it later, when I’m traveling and can’t carry large pieces with me. It’s mostly small sketches of something I would create into a larger piece.
After finishing the half meter art piece, I started finishing pieces in my sketchbook that were still not finished. I wanted to change my style somewhat, yet still use the same lines that I usually use, and by doing so, I came up with this. I actually like it. It isn’t the typical circular designs I create, it’s more geometric, yet it seems to work well with the color palette. I tried concentrating not only on the positive space, but the negative space as well. If you look between the lines made with the black marker, you will see this sort of design happening within the piece. Two art pieces in one; the positive space creating an art piece using the black marker design, and the negative space creating a different art piece within it.
I’m not sure what the name would be for this one, but it reminds me a lot of California beaches, with the yellows, greens and blues mixed in the background and the lines in the front reminding me of the textured lines on the bark of palm trees. Every time I look at it, I think of California. Maybe I will call it “California Feeling”. What do you guys think?
I have been working on this piece off and on for some time now. Since I had so many large pieces to work on, this one was in my sketchbook and was worked on when I travelled around to work, up north to a village I teach art at, or sitting at a coffee shop. It allowed me to keep working on art, even when I didn’t want to carry around large pieces everywhere I went.
I couldn’t figure out a name for the art piece, so I let my Facebook art fans decide on one. So many were so good, but none seem to hit it on the nail. I kept concentrating on the shadows, how they seemed to be a little tense, and showed movement, and I simply couldnt get it out of my mind. Becky Baer Seitsinger came up with a name I loved, “Kaleidoscope”. It explained so much, from the movement, to the colors, to the change in direction… It fit perfectly. Thank you Becky!
Let me know what you guys think. Does the name fit it well? Would you have decided on another name? If so, what?
