PATTON OSWALT AND OTHER WORKS!

Here's a portrait I did of PATTON OSWALT, My favorite stand-up comedian of all time. I'm a big fan of "comedy through word choice" as I call it, and Patton is a masterful magician of word choice, garnishes every joke with delectable vocabulary. This is a terrible description. But anyways, you can tell he was an English major. So, I based the illustration off of one of his jokes from his recent "MY WEAKNESS IS STRONG" where he talks about how he has become such a negative sarcastic person that it's really difficult for him to be around happy little children who admire his Ratatouille work. It's done on Acrylic on bristol mounted on masonite. It was fun drawing these little Linguini's and Remy's.

Here's a piece I did for Tomer's class. It's based off of Sloth, one of the deadly sins. The guy is drowning in his bed. Gouache on 4-ply bristol.

GOING DIGITAL!

So I finally started working on digital art, and the transition from my traditional approach of illustrating has been much much smoother than I expected. All those times I messed with photoshop to place photos of my friends in embarrassing situations and funny backgrounds worked out; it kept my photoshop skills from deteriorating! hurrah! The first piece here was done earlier this week for Tomer Hanuka's class and I consider it a success except it deviates away from my usual style. The illustration is about Capgras Syndrome: a disorder that causes a person to think that his/her loved ones are actually identical looking imposters. That's no fun.


Ok, so I did this work below to experiment with digital coloring. (and it's totally my style!) I only use the "polygonal lasso tool" to make these random color shapes. It looks rough at first but once these shapes blend with the other shapes, it starts to smooth out and it gives it a real original look that I'm very happy with. This technique is kind of how I oil paint or do watercolors; let colors overlap and build up to create depth and shape...it's like two-dimensional sculpting.

I HEART TYPOGRAPHY!

oops...will post soon. I need to take some photos of things first...

ALIEN INVASION SKETCH

PIZZA BOY OF THE FUTURE!!

This is a piece that I did for fun. However, the acrylic finish was disappointing. It was a little too muddled. I'm considering using the computer next time. I really enjoyed doing the sketches though and it was really fun designing the pizza boy's flying scooter.

OWL!

I LIKE IT!!!

So here is a self portrait that I haven't finished yet...
but for now...I LIKE IT!

GOUACHE DARN IT!! (get it? it's a pun.)

So this past school year (my junior year) I really got into Gouache. My dream job is to work at Pixar Animation Studios, and my favorite artist from Pixar is Lou Romano and he's really my main inspiration for gouache. So these works were all done last semester. Enjoy!

JUNIOR THESIS WORKS AND ETC.

The following four images here are the oil paintings that I did for the Junior Thesis Show at the School of Visual Arts. It was risky to try a new medium for such a large project but I thought it would be a fun learning process. I was unsure about continuing with Oil Paintings but my teacher Eric White really pushed me to get back into it. And I plan to continue oil painting even for my Senior portfolio.

I also accumulated a lot of unfinished oil paintings during the last semester. I did a lot of paintings to practice technique and I also tried to finish many paintings in one sitting, which prevented me from working on parts of paintings that were really wet. So I ended up with a pile of canvases with 50% finished paintings. But I loved these paintings sometimes even more than my completed paintings.

The thing that I miss most about oil painting is how messy my studio space got...

BLACK BOSS

So this is, without a doubt, the coolest name ever devised for a can of coffee. BLACK BOSS!
And the can looks really cool! If I wasn't studying illustration, I would be in Graphic Design so I can do package design.

I also photographed my Munny right after my cool coffee can. I painted this Munny with Gouache and coated with Matte Finish. It was for Marcos Chin's assignment last semester and it's been hanging out in my closet ever since. The New York heat makes it a little sticky once in a while but it's been holding together pretty well. I should name the darn thing...I haven't yet... I'll do it now... hmm... REDWOOD McCALLISTER! I like it!

Sketches From My Handy Dandy Notebook!

So here's some sketches... I don't use pencils to pre-sketch. I simply use my pen and make lines and come up with things as I draw. I think it really boosts my quick decision-making and my brain power, it will teach me to be more confident with my lines, it's a fun way to brainstorm for ideas, and it's extremely fun. My sketches seldom make sense, but making sense is really overrated I think.

This one below is creepy but I love it with all my heart, kinda like my crazy uncle Joe.

and I would love to make a children's book in the style of this sketch below
see what I mean about the sense-making...

HOT CHICKS AND AIRPLANES: a Las Vegas Tale

So this past weekend I went down to Las Vegas for my uncle Scott’s wedding. And his brother (my dad) commissioned me to paint something for the groom as a wedding gift. In return, my dad decided to buy me a new cell phone. I pay for my college tuition out of loans and I work weekends at the Olive Garden to pay rent and feed myself; so my family helps out by paying for my phone plan. So I asked what did he want me to paint, and he responded "I was thinking...Hot Chicks and Airplanes." I guess it makes sense. Uncle Scott is an airplane pilot. A heterosexual airplane pilot. So I went with it and painted beautiful women and airplanes... it was kinda fun. And in exchange, I got the new iPhone 3GS. Isn't it Beautiful?

Here it is in all it’s glory.

I title it : HOT CHICKS AND AIRPLANES #1
The number is a nice touch, I think. A teaser of more hot chick and airplane paintings to come.
It’s like those movies. THE END. Then the question mark shows up. THE END?
(I apologize for the bad picture, the week in vegas was hectic)

But my parents have always been about their children retaining their own independence and working for everything. responsibilities and such. And since the phone plan is quite expensive, they decided I would have to work to keep the phone plan. I would be under uncle Scott's AT&T plan since my parents are moving out of the country to Germany, so in exchange for the two year phone plan I would have to do six more paintings for Uncle Scott. Probably things that he could hang around the house. Maybe he'll make me paint flowers. But this will officially be known as "THE UNCLE SCOTT iPHONE AGREEMENT!" Here is a picture to summerize the agreement.

Here's a photo of the wedding. that's my dad on the right.
Here's a picture of me gambling all my money away

Greetings!

well folks, it was about time that I made a blog.
yep... that's all I got to say today...