The Service Is Terrible (Rough Draft)

I don't know where this came from, but it happened. As soon as school starts back up and I can get to a lightbox I'll redraw it. OR, even better, I could use my friends projector and make this sketch into a transparency! This is only 8x11, so some more space to work in detail would be fantastic.

Edit: Looking at this on the computer I can tell it needs a few more things to balance out the composition, like maybe another tiny little cherub in the top left. Once I get more room in this I'll put in some more details on the lower half. I just need to decide his setting.

Roberto, Fernando

Here are the last two mariachi men that will be going up beside Alejandro on that mural. They will be doing a Charlies Angels pose and will flank Alejandro on either side. A few things in both of them are wrong, but I'll fix them once they get up on the wall.










Oh and I've decided one of them will have a large mustache. Now which one...

LA MAMACITAS

HELLO. I'm working on a mural with this girl, Ashley. The mural theme is Dia de los Muertos. This skeleton man (Alejandro) is of her design, I'm just helping paint and outline. My own designs will come in later with two other skeleton band members (Roberto & Fernando) and some little things.

This dude, Ben, is working pretty much by himself in the other room. It's twice as big as the mural me and Ashley are working on so he's a beast.

So here's what we have done.













Oh hey look its Ashley.

A Sneeze, Backfired

I'm enjoying this thing. I don't know where I'm going to go with it from here, or if I should just stop right now. Oh well. I wanted to make it slightly more interesting so I turned his afro into a scaly mess.

ALSO. I really like how his ear turned out. I am never happy with ears. But here I am, happy with his ear.

ALSO. That hand bothers me. I'm not happy with hands yet. But I'll put at least one in every painting until I am.

Ol' Coot

I'm working on a few small things for some small contests on some small paper. But hopefully, this guy will be part of something much larger, because I like him and his dreary eyes.

A Peaceful Protester

Poor thing, never had a chance.

Order Inside Spontaneity

When I was 17 or 18, I felt liked my work lacked process. I was painting in a fog, without any idea of where I was going or what I was creating. I just let the colors flow and the lines take shape on their own. I would create paintings like this one I did in 11th grade, and it was kind of like unconsciously doodling.

I decided then that truly great artists had a process. I imagined that these artists would labor over these exquisite ideas for months, maybe years, before they would finally begin creating their masterpiece. In truth, I still have no idea what makes a great artist since there are so many to choose from. Even my idea of what great art is has changed over the years. One day its tight, technical paintings and the next it's about abstract expressionism. Yeesh.

Now, instead of feeling like I have no process, I feel like I don't have enough prep time. I feel anxiety over not having picked the colors more meticulously beforehand. I have to say, it's making me feel like I'm limited and that I won't grow as an artist.

So now I've decided that great artists know how to do both. I'm still not sure though, so I decided to do a little experiment. I gave myself 30 minutes to do something technical and familiar to myself (which is a face btw), and then I gave myself about 10 minutes to just let loose on it with color and let the brush create the detail.

I'm actually pleased with how it turned out. It's funny to me that I am more than happy with how the painterly brush strokes and color turned out, but I'm much less happy with the face.