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.