Minilogue - The Leopard (Extrawelt remix)

Here's another track I found recently that I really enjoy. I can't get enough of Extravelt, and this remix is one reason why. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Grumblebug

Illustrator is great for character design. This was once a quick sketch done with a Sharpie that I then scanned and built vectors over. It's also all set up for animation in Flash. I just added it to a bug filled street scene that I haven't touched since last summer. I was gonna leave my computer at home when I travel to Vermont next week, but have since changed my mind. I want to keep getting some more of my digital work done and the ipad/iphone just won't cut it for the serious work. I want to finish and animate the bug filled street before the end of summer, even if its only a short scene.

Praxis

Using the name of the anarchist collective I've lived with, in, around for almost fifteen years, I did this exercise in which I first hand drew the Old English letter forms by hand, then built the vector version of the letters in Illustrator, added flourishes with brush strokes and brush styles. Then I rasterized the whole mess and exported to a Photoshop doc and used drop shadow, outer glow, and emboss for final touches. I know layer styles are somewhat scorned by professional graphic designers for their overuse, but what the hey, I don't know about you but I'm always pretty happy when things are glowing and all soft around the edges.

Missing my Life Drawing Group

Here's a portrait drawing from sometime around Nov. or Dec. of last year. Probably one of the last decent drawings I made in that session. I stepped away from my figure drawing group in the Spring, as I was feeling too stressed about work and other projects. I was having a hard time relaxing and enjoying myself. Now, I am missing it very much. I am thinking about returning when the next session starts in July. I love drawing the figure! I hope to have a much bigger showcase of the figurative work up on my website in the next couple months. I also really want to work on some clothed/costume drawing sessions with models. Anyone got a fabulous/stunning/hot outfit they want to be drawn in? I usually need a couple hours to work with a model to get warmed up and get a accurate drawing done. If you are seriously interested let me know, maybe we can work something out. I would love to draw people I know sometime, as opposed to the models at my drawing group (who are by the way some of the best life models in the Bay Area). I have been drawing at Michael Markowitz's drawing studio (http://www.users.interport.net/m/c/mcm.dnai/) at 23rd and Chattanoga, SF for many years now. Michael has run the place for nearly two decades now. I really appreciate and admire Michael's dedication and artistic output, and can't thank him enough for providing such a quality experience when it comes to the drawing from the figure.

Besides pushing pixels, I can push paint too!

This painting was done several years ago and seldom gets seen by anyone as it lives in my bedroom. I had done some other Caravaggio studies a long time time ago, and I always loved this painting, so I gave it a shot. I didn't do any drawing before hand, just a reproduction in a book and a gessoed panel. My technique is probably rather thick and heavy handed compared to the artist's original approach. I hope to paint at least one painting this summer. At a minimum I could always do another study like this one.

BAL TV in lights

Another fun tutorial I followed, using the name of our school's in house television broadcast show. It's all about light brushes. This was one of those effects I would always see and be like "How you do that?"

Living the Second Life!

For the last several years I have logged many hours in the virtual world of Second Life. These are a couple shots of one version of myself in the gallery warehouse space I had created on land I was holding. The works in the galleries ranged from my digital work to my traditional figure drawings. I really admire all the creativity I ran across in Second Life. No one I know locally was ever a part of Second Life. I know many people are like WTF about Second Life, but it is a pretty amazing space. And hell, I've been curious about virtual reality since I saw "Westworld" and "Futureworld" as a young kid. I freaking loved those movies! Not to mention the later and often overlooked classic "Brainstorm". Anyways, one of the things I like about Second Life is the ability to take photos of your avatars, your friends, and the interesting places you can explore. I never quite got to the point of making one, but you can also create Machinima, or video productions in world using avatars as actors.

CAST Motion Graphics

Here's a piece I made last year. Using the name of the academy I help run and teach in at my high school, I animated an Illustrator/Photoshop tutorial project in After Effects. I really enjoyed producing work that combined several different programs. This was one of those moments where I felt like my skill set and intuitive sense of working with computer graphics and motion graphics crossed into a new dimension. I still have a lot to learn, but this is a good example of how far I've come.

Heart with Daggers

Here's another Illustrator piece in the same vein as the earlier posted Pentacle design. I love how easy Illustrator makes it to play with your designs and re-use assets again. I still remember the day when the pen tool finally made sense, and the clouds parted and the brilliance of vector imagery shone down on me.

Fractured City

This piece from a couple of years ago was one of my efforts to explore abstraction in Photoshop. I was a little slow to developing an appreciation for abstraction and minimalism in art and design, and am now trying to play catch up. I like the feel of this piece and the directions it points towards. Maybe a bit too much recognizable source imagery.

Fish Dreams

These four images are from a series of collages done a couple of summers ago during a particularly bumpy time in my relationship. The series of actual collages came from combining the French erotic postcards book that was found alongside a Fish identification guide. There are at least six small framed pieces.

Old Habits Die Hard (Photoshop Remix)

Originally conceived as a tattoo style watercolor, this piece has been done in oil as well. Here the original watercolor has been edited in Photoshop, to hopefully become animated in After Effects and or Flash in the near future. Liked the direction this was going, but could use some more work and attention to detail.

Arson Vector Pentacle

This is one of my early successes with finishing a composition in illustrator, heavily riffing off the tattoo motifs

Lightning Monsters in Illustrator

Worked on this over the last couple of nights. Playing with a creature idea i came up with sewing felt monsters with my daughter. I think i got carried away with the the outer glow. :))

Stephan Bodzin - Luka Leon

Another gem of a song by the amazing Extrawelt - DistTheme (Original Mix)

What's on the plate!

So, with the summer just kicking into gear, I am thinking about all the cool things i can learn, do, make, see, visit, etc. Of course my list will far exceed the actual available amount of time and energy. Nonetheless, I am going to try. This summer's list of projects and endeavors include working on AP Studio Art curriculum, motion graphics for friend Duniel's electronic music, a dark, norwegian forest painting, building and re-building my website, portfolio development, more photography, CAST program planning, upkeep of Animation Lab, return to life drawing group, work with Adobe Lead Teacher program, advance my skills in every program in the Creative Suite, create and film animation project with my daughter, learn more about network systems and programming, read at least one fiction and one non-fiction book, make one new friend, get re-acquainted with the gym, and go out dancing at least once.

What the hell am I doing?

In an effort to produce some semblance of an intellectual voice and response to the work I create as an artist and an educator I am humbly embarking on the beginning of this blog. I am hoping it will serve several functions. One, I hope to just increase my visibility as an artist and dilettante designer. Two, I am attempting my own resurrection as a writer,or at least a journal keeper. I am in the midst of trying to visualize and manifest some new goals over the next few years and writing was once one of my more consistently used tools to help me in those efforts. If you are running across this page and these words and email me or post a message and I will send you an original Arson artwork of some kind.