earring, ink on paper, flash

putzing around with a quick drawing…somehow the axis of rotation slid a little off to the side while processing in photoshop.  c’est la vie.

this is the last of 25.  i try to sneak in a quick self portrait every year before i suddenly age.  

i don’t feel any wiser, but i feel more compelled to fake it.

foghorn, digital (animated in flash, color corrected in photoshop)

this is a response to sophia’s lighthouse lady.  she was so very kind as to teach me how to do this :)  

i want to make a series of disembodied, spinning heads. 

an experiment in strutting

not knowing what you’re doing is both incredibly exciting and frustrating. 

trials, digital

i’ve always wanted to do a piece about the salem witch trials due to my equal parts hatred for and fascination with abigail williams.  that a group of little girls acting like fools can lead to a series of deaths is unreal.  but pathetically real.  

this is another experiment with textures and general fuzziness.  it’s also a nice way to mask my poor lighting.

related, digital

i’ve been working on this sketch on and off since 2009 after we first met.  you can see the previous attempts here.

i have a backlog of ideas that i should probably complete one day.  

in other news, i have a piece that will appear in a show at Light Grey Art Lab later this month (2/22/13).  the show is called Hot Party— read more about it on their blog.

but his voice, sketch, digital and pencil

experimenting with a few new brushes and thinking about white.  this is also my favorite bit of verse from christine.

box 5, digital, pencil, ink

i’ve been living in my own head for a few weeks— flipping between recordings of john owen-jones and hugh panaro with almost as much ferver as my 15-year-old self.

this the is first piece of legitimate phantom art i’ve done since i was a teenager.  (that was a sepia watercolor of hugh and sandra joseph that i actually gave to hugh at the majestic theater stage door.  i wonder if he still has it.)  working on this makes me wonder how much i’ve actually changed in the last decade.

anyway, i started this as an experiment in fuzziness and textures.  i found that i stopped rendering for a reason:  it takes too damn long.

erik, sketch, ink and digital

sometimes i really, REALLY miss being in back in NY.  broadway/hugh panaro/the phantom of the opera are a small example.  i don’t often draw fan art, but i WILL draw the hell out this guy.

it’s also quite apparent that i’m making/testing out some new textures.

youth, digital

for a long time, you’re too young for most things; but when that ends, you find yourself unprepared.

here’s a little isometric perspective for a change.  it’s both hip and caters to my laziness!

this drawing summarizes my last month.  i spent a lot of time thinking about “the phantom of the opera” and shopping online for scooter dresses.  kind of a strange combination.  maybe i pushed the male too far to the creepy side (cast shadows…) but he’s supposed to dance the edge.

youth, drafts, digital

i’m clearly a person who can’t make a decision.  i’m not sure if i want the graphic clarity of a sparse background, or the narrative of a full scene.  i’ll probably end up wasting my time by coloring a couple of these…

i originally wanted to keep my shapes very simple and kind of blocky.  alas, the drawing ended up, er, fairly detailed.  i think i need to come to terms with my primitive need to control every last curve.

in case anyone was wondering why i disappeared for a while, i was in japan for a couple of weeks.  i hung out with robots, ate at Jiro’s, ran through temples, and had my life changed for the better.

gif - lady on the run, color pencil and digital

animated gif.  oooh la la.

lady on the run, color pencil and digital.  queen elizabeth I, paper, tape, cardboard, pencil.

a few drawings of bouncy, running, squishy ladies.

also a night of paper-fueled psychosis in the office.  i decided it would be fun to make a quick bust of queen elizabeth I.  

K-Pop Resistance cards, digital

some of my coworkers and i banded together to make a custom Resistance deck for our engineer’s birthday!  in the spirit of the game, we presented him the gift and proceeded to yell at each other for a few hours in celebration.  

my cards are based on Kara’s Pandora video (which is a painfully catchy song).  cards from other guests included minecraft, code, steak, masubi, and maki.

edited for question from anonymous

Q:  I love the K-pop resistance card! What’s happening? Is the lady cutting the power cords impersonating a dancer or member of the group or something?

A:  she’s part of the band but disgruntled that she’s not front and center— hence cutting the sound system!  music girl fights are vicious.

floral dress (final, draft, and concept), digital, print here

i hadn’t made much art for myself (at all actually) in recent months.  this came out of a boredom sketch— i was originally going to make a simple animated gif where the petals fall on her lap, but it got a little carried away.  this was also inspired by a picture of a 1910 maxi dress i had open in a tab for weeks.  

i’ve been trying to work in a looser style …but unfortunately it becomes really rigid when i zoom out (a large part is probably that i used straight vertical lines and small brushes).  

my personal work has slowed down significantly in the last year, which is kind of a good and bad thing.  talking to my coworker, kevin, a few weeks ago, i asked if he still thinks drawing is “difficult.”  he said yes— not necessarily for technical reasons, but for a lack of inspiration.  it’s hard to draw something that’s meaningful— which is exactly why i’ve hit a wall.  i have nothing to say anymore.  considering, though, that all i had to say a year or so ago were mopey, whiny things, my lack of drawings might be good.