When I say Drew you say Struzan. Drew Struzan. Drew Struzan!

I wanted to pinpoint some attention to Drew Struzan a fantastic artist many know his artwork but not his name. He is one of my favorite artists and I remember looking at Struzan's work for long periods of time as a kid. 

There is Bob Peak influence but he puts his own spin with his photo-realistic work. 

If you don't know who he is you actually do know him by his prolific work over the span the span of over 4 decades. And he has drafted about 150 iconic American movie posters, and that is not including the promotional work he had done for said movies as well.

I was thinking of Drew lately because I was listening to the Side Bar podcast and his interview on the show. He is an extremely shy and humble guy. He was not supported as an artist from his folks and his story is interesting. At times he questions if his work is good! *I really want to smack him for that, but then again I probably wouldn't. Drew is an extremely introverted guy who likes to work in complete solitude in his backyard studio. Another point a lot of people are excited for the new Star Wars movie. I keep seeing all the retail merchandise and such. I don't have cable so I don't see the commercials. Honestly I was more excited he released a sketch of how he might do the movie poster for the movie. I haven't even seen all of the new Star Wars episodes released in the early 2000's.

On a side tangent Movie reboots are just well..stink. Watch this link if you feel inclined. Nerd mode activated. 

Unfortunately in 2008 Drew went into retirement but does a few special projects here and then. His work flow consists of a sketch on illustration board, and then light washes of airbrush with color pencil for details and a bit of acrylic paint. I like how he can mix it up from photo-realistic work and cartoonly imaginary stuff. 

This Cartoon was a card commissioned by Steven Spielberg after James Cameron beat
Spielberg in knocking him off from being highest grossing movie Titanic at the time. 

The other day I found this mixtape Amaiya Jazz.
It is something different from what I have been listening to lately.
Packs a lot of punch, I used to not be a fan of short songs just because they were short. I've grown to appreciate them as much as annoyingly long songs, a lot can be said in a short amount of time if it was truly made that way. The whole tape is less than 30 minutes.

Normally even if I really like an artist, I don't like all the songs on the album. There are less than 5 albums that I just consider pure awesome. I guess I just added this one.

Free Download Link...can't believe they are just giving this away

At first I just wanted the song It's Her but then I was forced to get the whole bundle and then I listened to all of them and I now practically like all these songs.

Without internet for about half a week...one gets creative and writing and painting on the phone just is not the same. Part of my workflow with any project when I start I look at a lot of pictures and collect them in folders. There have been times I usually average 100-400 different types of images I look at for a combination of ideas. (I'll have to write and show more of this sometime)

 I shouldn't be spoiled being without internet since I have been in situations where there have been a few times where I moved to someplace new with no internet or furniture for about 3 weeks or more. It is something when you move in another part of town, another part of the country but when it is overseas you are waiting months for stuff. I just wished I timed the connection better.

From Dat Piff-
"Amaiya Jazz". This 12 song project is Certt's first release of 2014. Mixed and mastered by Certt himself. With appearances from @CoolroySays, @WhoIsJewlz, & more. Artwork by Tasha Faye. Follow Certt on Twitter @TheRealCertt

Amaiya Jazz Download Link

I don't know what genre to call this I mean it is hip hop and some R&B elements if you like that. It isn't a jazzy album.

Today on November 1st is International self portrait day.
This event and tradition was started by Conceptart.org

I have not done a self portrait for a long time. This year the idea that sparked me to participate was thinking about the thumbnails of the character selection menu in fighting games. An example would be games like street fighter, Super Smash Bros. Mortal Kombat etc. A cartoon version, I don't have time to do a detailed self reflection study in a relatively quick time, just something quick and fun.

Character Stats +
===================================

||+Active Imagination                                            ||
||+Ambitious                                                          ||
||+Instant Reflex ability with Counter Attack       ||
||+Mixed Media Artist                                           ||
||+Ambidextrous                                                    || 

||+Ambivert                                                           ||

====================================

Character Stats -

===================================================

||-Short Attention Span                                                                             ||
||-Cannot multi-task                                                                                  ||
||-Needs to be Caffeinated on a consistent basis to work smoothly         ||

||-Selective hearing                                                                                   ||
||-Small stature below average height.                                                     ||

||-Accused of being a natural charmer. No flirting skills.                        ||
===================================================

+*Level up Bonus: Can learn a Kata faster than stylish Dance moves.

*Cheat Code Special combo Round House kick + in high heels.*

//Ultimate Fatality Instant K.O- Classic ******** Slap if highly agitated in black out enraged mode\\

Old oil painting I did of myself a few years back. Started out great and 

then it ended up as a mudslide after overpainting areas I liked. An 

exercise in paint sketching better. 

Here are a few screenshots from Conceptart.org about the event. 

ConceptArt.org

I used to always be on CA. I have a special place in my heart for it but I tried returning a few times and the people and friends I knew are gone and the new crop of people were extreme and rude hobbyists who I don't know why they draw. The layout changed and has never had a full layout update since 2003, my crappy first blog kept getting views. The inspirational and motivational well is dry. I'm not sure if Massive Black is still affiliated with CA anymore. Time changes things and I haven't found a recent replacement for CA, or CGhub.

Some cool and awesome things happened in CA I will never forget. I met one good friend from there and it all started from a misunderstanding of if I was at another workshop in SF or not.
I got some brutal insulting critiques that made me think and improve my work.
Or when I went to a MB workshop there was a guy sitting next to me taking a lot of pictures. I didn't realize who he was in person. I didn't think much of it until I saw his blog post about the event and realized there was only one person on the right of me taking pictures at the time in that angle. Also this person lived 3 hours away from where I am. The thing that haunts me the most from being on my artistic journey, it is terribly sad and disappointing when people give up their craft and don't fulfill who they are supposed to be. Or never grow as an artist and like to stay stagnant and complacent. If you don't fulfill your dreams or life purpose you pay it with the price of not doing it with misery, pain and suffering unfortunately.

Part of the history of self portrait day 

It is an interesting transition the artist Andrew Jones aka. Android Jones one of the founders of the studio Massive Black and Conceptart.org. In the early 2000's Andrew embarked on an artistic journey of drawing a self portrait every day for a thousand days. That voyage took about 3 years. It is fascinating at the beginning of this great feat Andrew struggled for a while trying to come up with different ideas and styles. It was a design challenge to keep all the initial ideas fresh and interesting. But toward the end one can see Andrew developed his signature style that millions recognize today.

Did you know Dutch artist Rembrandt Van Rijn painted almost 100 self portraits of himself in a span of forty years? It is interesting to see Rembrandt's life story and artist journey as well: to a curious young man, living in luxury and frivolity, and struggles of loss of abundance and love happen to him in his elderly years.

I've grown to really appreciate and love Rembrandt's work. I never really paid much attention to what Rembrandt was doing when I was younger until my Mentor made me aware and told me as an ongoing assignment to analyze Rembrandt. The genius and mechanics of his technique is awe inducing, He is meticulous in light washes of grayscale and then layers with translucent color until it is more opaque. The use of chiaroscuro, it is interesting the dark blacks he uses in his paintings are not just black but a series of complementary colors in earth tones built up.  Also in those days tubes of paint did not exist so the paints used were natural resources like minerals, dyes, elements, etc. Earth tones were the most common pigment it was more available then other colors like violet was coveted highly, created from flowers and all. It was something that usually the student or apprentice would create the paint grind and mix the pigment for the artist while they painted.

I have yet to see one of Rembrandt's paintings in real life. One of my things to do list in life before I pass on. Nothing beats being around great masterpiece artwork one can see the colors vibrantly in front of them and also feel the spirit and presence of the piece. Some of the feeling cannot be substituted in a photograph. It is like perhaps live music you can't feel the heart throbbing rib shaking bass in full effect on a cd. It doesn't work as well it isn't the same.
 Like when I went to the Nicolai Fechin show that was incredible looking at a set of brilliant work all in one place and even more powerful that the art show was located at his residence and studio.