I'll be back next month bringing relevant information and things!

Promote, Pre-order, Buy!


A friend I met from a workshop posted this online and I didn't believe it was a limited item!
So I missed the deadline to pre-order!

Such real sadness!

But there is a second chance for it to be reprinted!

Follow this link and you'll get a coupon.
http://teespring.com/paintingskills

4 more on the wait list

Please support this.

I was number re-order number 7 and that was like a week ago!

You know you want it~

I want one so bad! Please tell your friends and family. If  you don't want one thats fine just tell someone else who might be interested!

Can't wait to be back next month!
Stay tuned.

I don't have much this week...I've busy with something I need to complete before the end of the month! Which is next week! So heres a sneak peek don't try to many any sense of it! It's a secret. Cliffhangers stink.




I won't leave you totally hanging here some random images to amuse.
Like I said don't make sense of it.

Not sure if it's noticeable. I started to sign my completed artwork with my new signature. 

Kanpai! for Rebranding.

I’ve always had this problem since I’ve been a kid, being copied. If I wasn’t falling asleep in class or playing games with pen and pencils parts then I was awake drawing and doodling.

 I remember in one instance where an idea was taken too far. In 5^th grade in the rotated class elective in class we had to draw as an exercise not sure if it was a real or hypothetical assignment, but we were assigned to draw a mural with the school mascot with a tiger in it.

 Drawings from Thursday's night sketch group. 

These text blocks look lonely without pictures.

Also the color sketches are from my new box of Yarka Pastels.

So I imagined the tiger walking all proud and since it was a American School in another country I thought to be a little patriotic with the American flag and some grass. I was so focused in what I was doing I didn’t realize that people were walking back and forth frequently past me. I didn’t know they were peeking over to see what I was doing.

 I sat in the corner of the room so…. It was obvious what they doing but I was so focused and at that time so socially awkward I wouldn’t speak when I drew. When I got up to go to the pencil sharpener that was across the room, practically everyone in the class had an imitation of what I was doing. Even to the degree of which the tiger faced, the grass and the flag. Even the sky and cloud positions in my piece.  This was the first time it happened and it continued to happen with other assignments.

So throughout my life if I have a great idea for a piece the idea is copied and the imitator would pass it off as their own original idea.
Imitations are imitations. Watered-down versions of the real thing. I'm not concerned. Even the Grand Masters of Art have been copied and still are imitated. It is something to do a study and give credit to where it is due, but to claim it as your own style you defined and such is just plain wrong and quite low. Some people know no shame.

 And at times one cannot be afraid to create because of the fear someone is going to steal their idea, aspect or whatever. Someone may find the imitation but I like to believe in good prevails. Your work will eventually come back to you. I've seen professional websites try to pass off the artwork featured as their own with some tweaks they added. But its the same quality.
When I mean it comes back to you say people know when someone is doing a Frank Frazetta, Android Jones, Rembrandt, Hiroaki Samura, Van Gogh imitation. People just know.

Honestly insecure artists that put watermarks on their images...It is quite easy for a photo manipulator to remove the mark without breaking a sweat. So why bother with it? It obstructs the view. Get a copyright they are not difficult to obtain.


Another story and random fact from 5th grade and everyone remembers me as this. I was quiet but...
One time in the main classroom we were supposed to design a food pyramid. The class was quiet everyone was drawing and writing the assignment. Silence was interrupted by a tap tap tatatatachchata. For some reason I didn't care I was making all that noise. So the teacher walked over and asked what in the world are you doing. And I told him I was drawing strawberries and needed to place the dots.
After that for the remainder of the year people were "drawing strawberries" at random moments to break up the lecture. Since the classes in the same grade were small about under 40 people everyone knew each other.
Then after that year the movie Drumline came out and everyone was having "drum battles" and dropping pencils at random quiet moments.

Onward
Everyone pulls sources from different places. Whether it is imaginative real or based off of something else.


While I was talking about originality. I'll have to admit that I do pull from ideas from other sources like music like I've mentioned in a previous post in my visual influence map . Thing is I don't become my reference or another person's ideas. In an art history class one cannot simply say So and So artist was influenced by....One cannot say that. Instead one appropriated Such and Such's idea or whatever. Appropriate.

There are artists who can come up with their own ideas and have an imagination, while there are some professional and amateur artists who cannot create their own ideas and have to either copy form other people intently or un-intentionally, or some can only draw literally what is only in front of them. I can't bash that. If you cannot come up with your own ideas,which is ok and fine, just don’t copy my ideas. Credit is where credit is due. 

But then again there is a starting point to any art career, when you are learning you do copy stroke from stroke another artist you like. That is a phase that with continued improvement one should get out of at some point. Or you can dwell at the point forever. 

So original ideas are gifts, talents, blessings. Not everyone can think of something original. I have an active imagination and can be distracted easily. One idea brings on another idea quite rapidly and then another. I try to keep a sketchbook with me at all times and draw diagrams and notes of something. If I see something that triggers my imagination, dream it, or think of it. Like imagine a bear fighting a squid in a brawl? Well that’s an idea and now I’d thinking of what that actually would look like on paper? Bear fight squid. Underwater? Dilapidated buildings? Forest? Fire or bright lights? What do I want to see, portray? and show to others?

Or like another time I was talking to some artist peeps and somehow I mentioned I didn't draw anything today but I'll draw you a beaver. A type of beaver that is a at the end of the level boss monster beaver overlord ....Speaking of beavers it reminds me of cheese danishes. I saw this years after I drew a beaver for my friend (& I can't find my beaver drawings in my archives!) So imagine a large size beaver pillaging towns. 

Back on point....
Speaking of squids it reminds me of a Dog in a Wheelchair! Which was a scraped idea from the game Bioshock. Thank goodness it was along with the frog. Honesty I probably would not have played Bioshock if they had these type characters. Sorry dogs in a wheelchair.

This excerpt is  from the Irrational Podcast. Very motivating podcast too bad they haven't made any new episodes in the past few years.

Work in Progress as we like to say it.

This is a special New Year holiday post with not just a single nor double but a triple post!!!
This is part III! the final part of the 1 week series!

 A little WIP to see the process of things.Some digital, traditional and hybrid of traditionbal and digital.

Some Sketchbook stuff full page and closeup. See how I take something from one image and take another part of it to create another image. Some Concept stuff and thumbs for a full illustration. Which I haven't shown in awhile.

 I did some work for a project I was proud of once. But it kind of went sour. The person I was working with kept saying that they did some work they didn't really like and did not wish to follow that path.

 I realized I can throw the same words back.

The work I did did not speak me. It went against my nature. Style, emotion, presentation wise. So now that is out of my system. I've learned don't take any jobs that you know you are fighting your own nature and of what you want to.

 Sorry I closed shop in doing logos for other people. Hey at least I tried to do something that I know I won't like to do in the future.

Anyway here is like +45 pictures to be astounded with. Don't blame me if your computer can't keep up.

 When I doodled I thought of jet packs and then this song I got the Magic in me by B.o.B in me came on so I imaged the magic song with this drawing. Problem is I don't want this song in my head too much so I haven't touched this piece since,

Winter Sleep, I liked this song when I first heard it years ago. But I was taking a nap one time and this dream came with this song. So I think I have the right visuals to do this song justice. I drew this and then went back to sleep.

Last week (I mean about 2-3 weeks ago wrote this before I went on Vacation) I was  enamored going through my computer and this image titled Spanish Woman by John Singer Sargent. I was so with this image I starting doing thumbnails that night and really started to sketch this out the next morning.

 So like the musicians say. I'm back in the studio y'all!

Gramps told me that with any study try to paint it on a smaller canvas. I told him I was aware but was really excited to work on it so when I hang it on my wall its bigger! At some point I forgot the title of the image and some of my artist peeps and I debated and settled on the model was a man. Sike! I'm sorry J.S Sargent didn't mean to get confused.The collar bones and the shirt I was mistaken!

Most of the time when I work with tape It temporary and not permanent. Usually I stick it on my pants leg, or jacket or shirt sleeve. To weaken the adhesive. Sometimes I forget the tape is on me and go out in public with them on. I get some occasional strange stares. When I was in the studio with Gramps and other students I got up and took a break after some time. I got a look from Gramps and he asked me if it was some sort of fashion statement. Its not, I just forget that I have tape glue or paint wherever.

One time someone from the drawing group said the great thing about getting paint on your clothes is that you have another pair of painting clothes! Practically all mine are! haha  whooohooo



I did this one today. It was a live session. I brought my computer today instead of paints or graphite pencils. Just Photoshop Cs6

I am so sad that the pictures of the model got corrupted! :D': I wanted to show a picture of a far out shot. and a zoom into Bob's face. It was fantastic! I was the only one with this view. You could't see his eyes only a bit of his eyelid showed. What a bummer. I'll have to keep it in my memory and recreate that situation in another piece.

 Almost done...and

Finished! Oh man! How I wished to do the eyes more!

Part II of the Triple Post in 1 week series to kick start the fresh New Year!

I went on vacation a few weeks back.
So any time I go out of town one of the first things I like to do is find the local art store and a cafe' near that.

If you are in the Colorado area there is a great chain of local art stores in the area called Meininger. I went to the Colorado Springs one and it is so awesome!!!!!! I wished I hadn't stopped at Hobby Lobby before I went there.

The Springs store had everything. It was so beautiful. They had everything I could think of. So if you are in the area drop by! I oggled about it so much I didn't even take pictures.

On a side note there was a pencil grip thing near the register that I decided to buy and experiment with. I didn't realize it doubled as an eraser as well! That's so cool!              

There is an art store in Santa Fe called Artisan that I go to whenever I can. One time I was going through copic markers and testing them. I forgotten for the longest time that they had a sign near the marker display please don't...something. I forgot what exactly it said but basically don't touch or use the makers.

There was a few colors I liked so I tested some and got carried away. The marker display is near the front of the store near the cash register. One employee noticed me and was about to head into my direction. But was stopped by another and I her say that she's a good patron and tends to spend quite a bit at times. After hearing that I fiddled around with a few more markers and went to check out. I bought a little more markers in a way to apologize.
I've joked with some of my friends I've dropped so much dough in that joint that have special privileges! VIP folks.