Juxtapoz exhibition and my YouTube Channel

I forgot in my last post to tell you about another huge show going on.  20 YEARS UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF JUXTAPOZ is happening right now, alongside the SLANG AESTHETICS! exhibit by Robert Williams at Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. Tons of great artists showing.  You can check out the line up below...
 

Today at 2pm they will be hosting a free special talk with Andrew Hosner (exhibition co-curator / Thinkspace Gallery), Gary Pressman (exhibition co-curator / Copro Gallery), Greg Escalante (Juxtapoz co-founder / Copro Gallery owner), Robert Williams (Juxtapoz co-founder / featured artist), Gwynn Vitello (Juxtapoz’s current President + Publisher).

I also wanted to share that I've started a YouTube channel.  I really love watching other artists' process videos.  Whether it's a time lapse of them working on a piece or a tutorial with tips on certain techniques...I'm a bona fide YouTube art nerd.  I figured I'd share some videos of my own with anyone who wants to learn more about my process.  I'm still working out the kinks, so please subscribe and the filming will get better along the way ; )  

You can check out my first process video below...


Feel free to comment or message me with anything specific you might like to see in my YouTube videos. 

~ eye should figure out a better recording set up...my collapsible easel rigged with my iPhone is seeming just a bit ridiculous, ha!

latest pieces, more big-eye artists, and a series in the works

Hoping to share a lot more new work soon...the wheels are definitely turning.  Here are my two most recent finished pieces...

Valentine - mixed media on wood, 24"x24"

Pride - colored pencils on paper, 11"x14"

I'm in some sort of a transitional spot with my art right now.  I took a lot of time off from shows to try to work on my skills.  That helped me to have the freedom to change things up a bit and I've been leaning towards more realism and detail in my pieces.  I'm finding though, that I'm kind of all over the place with mediums and my whole creative process.  Going with the flow of each piece, I work sometimes in pencil, pastel, colored pencils, mixed media...and I've recently started using the computer more for my sketching process.  Now I feel it's time to get more focused.  I think it would benefit me and my art to stick it out with a specific medium and process for awhile.  A small series would allow me to push the medium while getting a lot more comfortable with whatever it is I choose to use.

I also want to start giving myself some weekly homework to keep up the hand eye coordination since I'm putting initial sketches together on the computer more.

Time to share some work by others :)  Here are a few from some more Big Eye Artist Collective members...

Oswald - Chris Hamer/Urbnpop

Diavolesso - Angelo Barile

Ice Bat Kitty - Jeremiah Ketner

Here's a little rework of my Red Riding Hood "sketch", though I'm not sure when I'll really start on her...

~eye should give myself a few deadlines...I'll narrow down my ideas for a series within two weeks, and homework this week...hmmm, I suppose I'll go with 10-15 anatomy-based sketches.

my process and a new piece in the works

Thought I’d talk shop a bit since I don’t really go into my process much.  I typically use several reference photos along with some lyrics or poetry when building a piece.  I’d quickly sketch out an idea, get bored of sketching, and jump into the real deal.  Just recently I’ve been trying out some new techniques for concepts and “sketching”. 

I’m not very good at using Photoshop or similar programs, but I can make my way around…clumsily.  Man, I’ve been really digging some of the perks a computer can offer…speed, special effects, and...the best-ever “undo” option...ahhh!  Not sure why I didn’t think of it before, but being able to quickly put a detailed composition together and change it up if it’s going south without losing hours and hours of work is a pretty big perk.  

Here’s a pic of a concept for a new painting… 

So, I’m really into duality within people or different facets of people’s personalities and have been trying to figure out how to effectively illustrate that kind of idea in my art.  I went through all sorts of ideas from layering a piece, using glass, plexi, resin, archival plastic sheets…but I wasn’t too thrilled about using any of those ideas at the moment. I just wanted to be able to make more subtle images to put on top of a main figure.  This new process allows me to add the transparency I’m after…and hopefully I can duplicate the effect in my finished piece and be happy with the outcome.

In the painting from 2012 below, I added the second image, and to push her back a bit by adding some static or noise (whatever you want to call it)…I laid my pastel sideways and went for it right over her face.   

15 - pastels on wood, 24" x 24" (available)

While there’s definitely excitement in taking risks when you’re in the moment, it’s also cool (when you’re 20 hours in) to be able to know you can pretty much execute the rest of the piece as you had imagined it in your head. 

~ eye should make a little more time to sketch random things for practice if I'm going to continue using this process to start my pieces.