A Pencil Affair

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?

Sketches

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.”

Eternal Movement

There truly is no better feeling then finishing an art piece after obsessing over it for a month! You guys have seen bits and pieces of it while I’ve worked on it, from posting about it here, to posting pictures on my Facebook fan page , but its finally done and am I so happy it is! I decided to name it “Eternal Movement” for the subtle way it seems to move across the piece, as if its never ending… A sort of reminder how life and time continues to move along with, or without you. The art piece is 1 meter long, which is 39.5″ X 24.5″.  What do you guys think? I will need to take some more photos for you guys with natural light to see the background a bit better, but I was simply too excited not to share now! =)

Painting Again

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!

Think For Yourself

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!

 

Coffee Cup Art

A friend of mine is really into creating art on coffee cups, and I remember seeing a great artist who actually did this successfully and wanted to share. Cheeming Boey, known as Boey, is a Malaysian artist known for his illustrations and coffee cup art. What I love about his work is he takes an every day item, an item that is disposable, and makes it into something beautiful. He makes it into a piece of art.

His work is a great example of how art doesn’t need to be on a canvas, but anything can be used to create an art piece. It is not only thinking and creating outside of the box, but actually taking the box and creating something out of it in itself. These are a few of some of his great work! You can also follow him on Twitter @iamboey , or by visiting his website.

California Rising

I’ve been having issues with finding the energy to continue with working on my art pieces. A lot going on emotionally that seems like a waste to even talk about, so I won’t. I just wanted to post the last art piece I finished 5 days ago, and haven’t posted up here yet. The name comes from a friends suggestion. He actually suggested “California Sunset”, something about it reminded him of it, but to me, and everything I seem to be going through, it reminded me of “California Rising”. Maybe because I feel like it reminds me of the sun not only rising but setting, with the reds, yellows, and oranges, but the design pattern seems to be rising from the ashes of something terrible. Maybe it’s the hope I need, or maybe it’s me searching for something better. It could just be me BSing as well. At this point, I just don’t know. I do hope you guys like it, and as always, I do appreciate any feedback you have.

Suspicious Eyes

 

 

Another art piece completed yesterday night, and I am finally sitting down to show you guys! I think it came out really nicely, with the bright colors and black pattern! A friend of mine named the piece for me “Suspicious Eyes”, since he said it reminded him of them. Now that he said that, I can see really pushing it even more to something completely different, but I need to keep some ideas for other pieces! =)

I am always happiest walking into an art store, seeing all the colors of the different paints, colored pencils, spray paint, all the unused sketchbooks and card-stock waiting to be used and made into incredible creative pieces.. So much potential! I get giddy just thinking about it! I don’t think I know any other person who gets excited about walking into a store and forking over their cash (though, sometimes I do feel like crying when handing them my money, lol)! I bought a few things I needed (you can never have too many black, gold, and silver ink markers!), and some more card-stock to encourage myself to move away from my sketchbook, which   I do adore, to loose art pieces I can actually frame!

I didn’t work on anything today due to lack of sleep, but tomorrow is a new day with so many new and creative opportunities! What do you guys think of my new piece?

The Whirl of Life

I’ve been working on and off on this piece for a few days, and thought it was done, but it seemed so flat and as though it was missing something. I decided to shade it, giving it some depth and contrast, and I think it turned out well. A friend of mine came up with the name, ”Le tourbillon de la vie” meaning The Whirl of Life, and I loved it. It seemed so appropriate for the piece. It is a mixed media piece using watercolor, black marker and pencil. What do you guys think?

Death: by design

In my last post, I wrote about how I had been having a hard time focusing on working in my “style” . Frustrated and completely not inspired I took a few days off trying to find some sort of inspiration… anything really, to show me where to go, and how to get there. I pinned on Pinterest, I stumbled on Stumble Upon, I watched movies, I listened to music, and I spoke with friends. I found inspiration, but I’m not sure I found what I needed, until I spoke to a friend of mine who’s a graffiti artist. This may be obvious to most, and yes, it is to me as well, but maybe it was what I needed to hear at that moment. He said, “Just create”. I knew this, but then the question turns to “how”? How do I simply create? And he told me to simply move to another direction. Leave those pieces I couldn’t complete alone, and simply start once again with a blank piece of paper. Draw what I hadn’t drawn before, walk into the unknown and make it my own. Hard to do, trust me, but I tried. I think what kept me at it was his enthusiasm to see the new piece. When I was frustrated with it, he pushed me forward and offered to listen and suggested ways to push past my frustrations, and when I was happy with my piece, he was ecstatic, and encouraged me to keep at it.

I guess this is a thank you to him. Through all my frustration, he kept me moving, and for that, an art piece was created, giving me ideas for a series of pieces I am thinking of creating. Let us hope i keep moving forward, and I keep creating. I’ve names it “Death: by design”. What do you guys think?