Dexter, Season premier.

The premier of the new season of Dexter was tonight. Thought i'd put together a quick sketch and share some thoughts on the episode.

Overall i really liked it. I especially liked it after such a lack luster season last year. Just in one Episode stuffs already moving along, and that's precisely what the show needed. They could have spent the whole season with deb wondering whether Dex is a serial killer or not, but they chose to move past that and develop further.

I think my only problem so far is that all of a sudden LaGuerta's pretending to be a cop again. They could have picked anyone else to find Dexter's slide other than her. I guess it kind of makes sense, given her relationship to Doaks. "Surprise, Motherfucker, I'm not the bay harbor butcher!"

Anyway, looks like these last two seasons are on the right track to be pretty good. On another note, I'm pretty pleased that i finally got  descent caricatures of both Michael c. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter put on paper. I've been having a hard time figuring them out since i started watching the show.

The Glowy, long necked, see-thru Tarsier thing

Here's my concept for the latest project in my Studio class. The project entails combining two or three different animals into a new creature. Initially, pretty self explanatory. The only stipulation was, we couldn't just copy and paste body parts. Also. it couldn't be too fantasy or sci-fi. This is one of those projects that's very open ended and you really have to art-direct yourself and make smart decisions.

This was a tough one to get off the ground, at least for me. I new from the get go that i wanted to somehow incorporate an adaptive mechanism, like certain animals use of color or defensive adaptions like the puffer fish. Out of this, the idea of bioluminescense really stuck with me, particularly the look of the Jellyfish and also of certain angler fish. I just thought it was a really cool visual and could be very interesting if combined with a vertebrate.

A real challenge on this project so far was the lack of an internal visual catalog. I rarely draw animals. You might even say it's a weakness of mine. So, when asked to combine a bunch of disparate creatures into one i had a hard time even articulating my ideas on paper. So, it was off to the library to grab every visual dictionary on animals we had. 

So I went ahead and sketched some ideas; a bunny/puffer fish that when threatened puffed up its fur to a ridiculous degree, and maybe even used it as a weapon like the porcupine. I also sketched out the idea of a frog/angler fish, this really sedentary swamp monster that used a glowing lure to attract flies and other bugs. This one started slipping into the realm of fantasy when i envisioned what it would look like if it were to lure people, the size of a building, a neon sign as its lure. Finally i sketched out this concept of a Peacock that used this bioluminescence. For good measure i tried a couple other concepts like a tortoise/hare and pig/bird, that didn't really pan out. I was inclined to go with the bird.

However, all of these ideas still had a copy/paste look. Just one animal with the body parts of another attached. At this point i asked for some clarification. To put it straight in my head i stated the gist of the project like this,
      "Create a brand new creature, it's environment, what it eats, etc., and use the features and characteristics of existing animals to visualize it, instead of starting with the real animals and making something out of them." 
This idea made a lot more sense to me, and fortunately my Instructor said i had the right idea. With a clarified vision of the project, i set about changing my bird/jellyfish.

I imagined the habitat of this new creature to be a dark swamp or maybe an underground lake or cave system. This would be a creature that lives in the dark and eats the kind of things that grow there. I imagined this creature as mimicking, or maybe being chemically evolved by bioluminescent mushrooms that grow in these caves.  I eventually used a couple new animals as well, the Northern Tarsier, and the ant-eater, which im still unsure about. It's still at the point of sticking different animal parts together, but  it's getting to the point of not being recognizable as any of it's components, which is key.

Anyway, let me know what you think of what i have so far.

Boston T-shirt designs.

curious to hear what people think of these.

More hands!

Poster concepts

Some poster layout roughs for the latest client in my 'Community Projects' class, a local Chamber music concert group. Some i like, others, not so much

Personal project

 Something i've been working on in my spare time lately. Obviously Mucha inspired, wanted to experiment with a style that was out of my comfort zone,  and art Nouveau is waaaay out of my comfort zone. The image is based on the Polish short story 'A Shard of Ice' part of a larger collection, 'The sword of Destiny' by Andrzej Sapkowski.

let me know what you think. I'll be cleaning this up and adding color shortly.

Sherlock Knockoff

Here's the almost final product for my first project in 'Illustration for publication'. We were to pick a suitable Editorial topic, create an illustration for it, and design a 2 page spread for a magazine. Sans a few typographic tweaks, this is my layout.

I chose the new CBS Show 'Elementary', or rather, it's controversial similarities to BBC's 'Sherlock' and the broader theme of U.S. TV copying English tv as my topic for the Editorial.  I'm glad we didn't have to actually write the article. However, i feel pretty strongly about the topic, so i probably would have been able to write plenty.

I stumbled through a couple of themes for the illustration to begin with. First I had the one sherlock looking over the others shoulder with the magnifying glass, or back to back. Then i had them in silhouette with just their distinctive scarfs in color, and i tried it with them holding their respective national flags. None of the Ideas seemed to click. Worst of all, My professor didn't seem to respond positively to any of them. Then i Came up with the conflict centered around the possession of the Deerstalker cap.

I sketched a few scenes of them fighting over the hat, some of which i think would work well as smaller spot illustrations. I chose, i believe, the most elegant solution for portraying that conflict.   I didn't want the two Sherlock's to seem on even ground, that the CBS Sherlock was the others equal, at least not yet, The show hasn't even premiered yet. And i wanted to emphasize the assumption that CBS was essentially copying, or stealing, BBC's concept. As an added bonus, i already had a Caricature of Benedict Cumberbatch lying around. i cleaned that up, improved the likeness, and threw it in the mix. So here you have it.


Let me know what you think.

Hands On (get it!)

Here are some of the in-class sketches and daily drawings from my 'Human Forms' class. The subtitle of the class is; heads, hands and feet. as you can guess the curriculum focuses on those 'forms'. It's officially a bio-med class so we will be getting REALLY in depth. It's funny, everyone else has a mechanical pencil and a li'l setchbook, and i break out a huge 18x24 pad and conte crayons to draw in class. i guess that's the difference between a bio-med illustrator and a regular illustrator.

 Anyway, We started off the class with hands, the bane of any beginner illustrator. I must say, drawing them everyday certainly has helped. Understanding the structure and mechanics also allows me to more easily invent a pose in an illustration. so, once again, here are some of the sketches from the first few classes.

 More formal assignments to come!

2 1/2 Months, and all you get is a Doodle.

Well I'm sure it seemed like this blog was dead for most of the summer. This might be the biggest break that Ive taken from posting since i started this blog. I have been very busy lately. A little update, this summer I left Tri-c, after once again not being able to get the classes i needed to finish my associates degree. So Due to the INCREDIBLE generosity of my Father, plus a much appreciated scholarship, i enrolled at the Cleveland Institute of art, and will be there until the spring of 2014. Almost 7 years of college and just a Bachelors degree isn't the best way to do it, but I'm finally on the way out.

 So, three weeks into real art school and I'm feeling pretty good. I have some genuinely challenging courses this semester that have kept me on my toes. I'm also surrounded by a number of equally, if not more, talented and skilled illustrators and that is invaluable to help me improve. Not to mention they've all been really nice, open and friendly. I do find it amusing that even third year art students get all nervous and shy for critiques. I have, for some time now, really enjoyed critiques and found them very useful, if done right. So far, my instructors have provided great feedback. I love that my studio instructor has a very frank, no bullshit attitude.

 As you can imagine, i have a few projects in the works as we speak. I will start posting new stuff as soon as possible. I foresee a lot of work in progress stuff, as some of these projects seem to drag on a bit. However, one of my classes, 'Human forms: heads hands and feet' requires constant sketching, so expect plenty of hands, feet and portrait sketches. I will probably have some up tomorrow.

 Also, i have a few personal projects brewing that i want to take my time on, so you'll see bits of those soon too.

Anyway, i don't want to post without some art, so here is a quick doodle of Steve Buschemi as he appears as 'Nucky Thompson' in 'Boardwak Empire' on HBO.   Stay Tuned!!