Cocktails

All this talk of abstract expressionism and fine art in my Projects class, along with seeing all the paintings some of the seniors are doing and my painting class is making me want to start using more paint in my work. I remember using it a lot more in highschool and some in freshman year. For some reason it stopped once I entered my major. I'm decent at the computer thing so I guess I should try my hand at paint again. This is a little sketchy thing I did tonight for fun. I should be doing actual assignments, but...
Also, GG Allin is scary and hilarious at the same time.

City of God Logo

I'm seeing a lot of illustrators and designers draw their own type, so I want to try my hand at it. This logo was for the re-done version of my City of God poster. It's a big improvement over the original. The 'D' on 'GOD' needs a little work, but yeah.

Too Messy?

Maybe.

I want this book.

J Dilla, 1976 - 2006

It's been a year since J Dilla died. I don't know why I became so attached to his music, but I feel like he's opened me up to a whole new world within hip-hop. I think one of the things that interested me most was that I had been a fan of his music without knowing it. I had Common's Like Water For Chocolate and Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun constantly on repeat back in high school, but I never made the connection. From what I can tell, he seemed like such a quiet and reserved guy, never needed tons of praise for what he did. He did it because he loved it and I feel like I can connect with that in a way. The aesthetics of his later work has also influenced me, with it's broken, rough feel that I want to reflect in my work. I'm also excited about the people attempting to carry his torch as well as all the people/friends he left behind. Discovering his music I missed is also a great experience. I'm not trying to get sappy over this. It's just something that's really interested me for the past year. Hip-hop producers remind me a lot of illustrators. They create something with their hands, making something unique with their personal touch. They become their work. That connection intrigues me.
So this is a quick drawing of J Dilla I did last night. I used a photo out of Wax Poetics as a reference (by my favorite, B+!), but I think it worked out. Once again, playing with my dip pens. Also, this is the first time I'm used a spray bottle. I like the effect I get by spraying water over wet ink. It's also interesting how I can control the direction of the spray. I love ink. Also, colored in Photoshop.

Dirty Dirty

So lately I've had this thing about my work being too clean. I look at my older work and it just seems boring when it's clean. Maybe it's because it makes me think the piece is too reliant on Photoshop to work well. I also think it's because of my obsession with dirty, rough hip-hop production, old record covers and dusty record stores. I find something nostalgic in it. I'm not entirely sure what it is. Either way, I want my work to reflect that. The world isn't a clean, perfect place. And if I'm going to be honost in my work, I'm going to comment on the dirty realness of life. Also, being dirty is more fun.
So this is a revisitation of a piece I did in my Digital Drawing class last semester. I pulled the drawing off my wall, re-inked it with my dip pens and recolored it in Photoshop.. The difference is wild. Here's the original. I can barely stand to look it. I originally meant for this City of God poster to look dirty and dingy, like Brazillian favelas. But after looking at it for a few months, it just wasn't as dirty as I think I wanted it to be. And oddly enough, the file for the original had maybe 30 layers to it. The new version only has 3. I think it's a huge improvement over the original and I hope I can use similar methods in my later work.

Vivitar

I've been taking a lot of pictures with two Vivitar cameras I picked up at the thrift store. I just recently got a lot of rolls printed. I'm thinking about putting my Flickr account to use and posted a lot of them there. Speaking of photography, I recently bought my girlfriend a Holga camera. She loves it. It's sort of reinvigorated our interest in photography. I just need to learn how to properly use my Nikon D100...