Who knew Superman could be such a jerk...

...a funny jerk, but a jerk nonetheless...lol. Click to enlarge.

Bees: Continued...

So here's the final version of my Bees Illustration piece. Critique went well; received a lot of valuable feedback. I will be reworking this final version, however, as the assignment called for a "vertically" oriented illustration, and mine was horizontally oriented.




The illustration is meant to convey, through satire, mans dependence on Honey Bees as well as our love--bordering on addiction--for Honey.

Additionally, the illustration is an implicit reference to the fact that Bee-keeping, in many urban jungles (like New York City), is considered a "criminal act" and/or a violation of the law. Thus, here, in my illustration, we are witness to a city dweller who has been reduced to cavorting with a "sketchy honey-dealer," in the middle of the night, in a dark alleyway, all in an attempt to get a taste that sweet, golden, food of the gods, straight from its source.

Tools for the Trade: 140 pound water color paper, Water colors, Pencil, and Ink Pen.

Work in Progress: "Bees"

So at the present moment, in my Illustration class, the topic at hand is "Bees." Given this New York Times article concerning the aforementioned bees, our assignment as budding illustrators was to create "a full-page, full color illustration...that would be used as the lead-in to the article...," among other things.

Upon reading the article, one thing becomes very clear, and that is that there is a lot to be said about these amazing little insects. However, given the expansive information that is provided in the article, I must admit that I found this assignment to be rather challenging with regards to what it was, exactly, about bees, that I wanted to illustrate.

After much consideration and even greater thought on the matter, I decided to focus on the relationship between man/humans and bees; of course, be warned, because my interpretation of the relationship is very exaggerated, and rather "dark," if I may say so myself...lol.

I went through several thumbnail sketch-ideas before finally settling on this particular sketch-idea. The following are stills of the work in progress. Enjoy.

Rough sketch...



Testing out color...



More color testing...



Well there you have it folks; a shady bee character peddling honey in a dark alleyway to a clearly addicted human male (a honey-addict). This is going to be one of those things you'll either like, or outright hate...lol. Looking forward to hearing the class' opinions in our upcoming critique session...lol.

As I am still working on the final scheme for the illustration, pictures wont be posted until it is completed, and submitted for critique.

Ciao.

"Blockhead- The Music Scene"

Animated video that I came across via another blog. Really interesting, and intense, and weird. This is probably one of those things you shouldn't watch while high;...or maybe you should?...lol.

Blockhead - The Music Scene from Ninja Tune on Vimeo.

Japan

I just want to state that I am very sympathetic and highly saddened by what has happened in Japan. While the above illustration may imply otherwise, the truth is that, the illustration actually highlights my inability to comprehend and/or accept the truth of this tragedy when I first heard about it.

When I awoke this Friday, in the morning, the first thing my roommate told me was that parts of Northern Japan had been struck with devastation. I didn't believe him, until I checked the news for myself. Even then, for reasons I have yet to fully understand, all I could think about while watching the news was just how unreal the situation was; like something straight out of a movie...a monster movie...like Cloverfield...or to be culturally more specific, the various Godzilla vs. (insert Godzilla's monster nemesis' name in here) movies. And so this imagery and this idea stuck with me; and it played out over and over in my head, because to me, this notion that a real-life monster was to be blamed for the damage and destruction seemed more plausible than the actual truth--what the news was reporting--which was that Mother Nature herself has caused this.

To keep this idea from playing over and over in my head, I thought it best to actually sketch an image in my sketchbook--a visual catharsis of sorts. I originally depicted Godzilla battling Mothra, with the two mythical titans destroying Sendai and surrounding areas in their wake. After some revisions, however, I made it a point to focus in on the truth; as much as I would have liked to believe that monsters had been responsible for all this damage and chaos, and justifiable deserving of blame, the real truth of the matter was that, only Mother Nature was at fault here. The only "monster" deserving of blame for the attack on Sendai this past Friday was Mother Nature. Accompanying this acceptance of truth, and reality, was a vindication of sorts--one that is to my mental benefit, and to the benefit of a certain mythical beast of legend who I had been falsely accusing for quite some time now.

My prayers and condolences go out to all those affected by this tragic event. In moments like this, the strength of our bonds, our humanity, and the fraternity that is our species, becomes all to apparent. Once again, my prayers and condolences.

Kemba and Lebron discussing game winning shots.

China vows no Western-style political reforms.

The story.

Scandalous: N.P.R

The story.

My opinion:

Ronald Dahl's, "Matilda", by Aaron Renier.

I really enjoy illustrations that have this kind of frenetic look to them. Anyway, you can read the rest of the story here . Enjoy!

"The Pig Farmer", by Nick Cross

This is a really amazing film by Nick Cross.

The Pig Farmer from Nick Cross on Vimeo.

And the fact that it is implicitly commenting on very real social issues (present and past), I think, makes this film all the more interesting; delivering adult issues in child-friendly packaging--very clever.

Wise Words...

"The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you’re sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that’s almost never the case."

Chuck Close.