COMBAT ARTIST

Some thumbnails...

2012-01-26T11:28:00.000-08:00

I am working on my 'big project' today and looking at thousands of photographs. I noticed these little shots as I was looking at some of the images I photographed in Iraq. This was my attempt to document the progress as I painted the dragon dollar.

I had an idea but I wanted it to be different. I had a few with people cause that was what every bill has but I wanted to something different. I don't know if it was due to my extensive studies of Mandarin or my love of chinese history and culture. I have a couple of different ideas that I may want try. Once I decided on the dragon I tried a couple of different thoughts and then I enlarged it to get some more details. I usually don't move this quick but I felt good about what was happening and quickly transfered it to the board.

I had just finished the painting of Perry Stewart and I was feeling very confident in my painting ability. It was a time when I needed the paint to have a place to go to get away from what was going on around me. It was not like it is in the movies with shellings every day or that I ever did get into a single fire fight but it was difficult for me. This little project along with the other painting I did were such a wonderful experience for me.

After I got to Kuwait, once again my opportunity to paint kept me from completely going crazy! I am so grateful for those opportunities and I can't wait for more!

For a fellow soldier

2012-01-25T19:08:00.000-08:00

A rough draft for a friend, he wanted an image with his deployment flag patch and his dog tags. Something simple to remember the 'fun' times I guess.

Lots of Photos

2012-01-25T19:02:00.000-08:00

I don't have an drawing to post because I looked at way too many pictures today to try and draw one. I was looking at a million photos to select the ones that I would use to produce the paintings I will be starting on soon. I am really excited for the work ahead of me. It is both terrifying and exhilarating because of the amount of work that will be required. I have never set a goal to do this many works of art in this time frame that are all about one theme. I have done this many from school but they were all in different ideas and techniques and sizes and well, just different. This is going to be a great experience for me and I hope to get more posted as the productions enters a more visually apparent stage.

I am looking to involve this little scenario I have here. I have some other images and will probably use them as they offer a better persective into what was going on.

First rough

2012-01-23T09:15:00.000-08:00

The work begins with the concept in mind. I will be composing several paintings to commemorate the work my company and other soldiers did and I have pencil to paper. Officially I have been working for a few days now but I wanted to keep you updated on the progress so far. This is a scene of a evening checkpoint that was conducted. I am not sure if a vertical format would be better. I think I will but I wanted to see it in the horizontal just to make sure. This is going to be a long journey to complete this job but I am looking forward to every pencil line and each brush stroke!

Painting Money

2012-01-23T08:49:00.001-08:00

I have had this idea of painting my own money, or at least some imaginative bills of my own. This one was a lot of fun. I had a few tubes of paint and I let the paint direct my color pallet. Not something I normally do but this was going to just be a fun exercise.

I had a pre-textured board that I had brought with me to Iraq and with a few neon colors and a couple of colors that are less exciting I got busy. The sketching was completed in a day and with a quick transfer of idea I got busy. I tried to keep with some basic principles of light against dark, bright against muted and either turn the form or not turn the form, was if decorative or was it something that needed to pop. It really was fun and didn't take too long at all. Kept me busy on something productive in my down time.

The board was measured to fit a frame that I purchased at a thrift store. This project measured 12" by 24", a pretty good size for the design. It has been fun for me to pick up old and less than ideal frames that have been discarded by others. I have gained some inspiration and been able to frame some paintings of mine for quite a discount.

Getting finished with the 'Zebra'

2012-01-19T14:42:00.000-08:00

I had finally posted a blog that I had written a while ago when I noticed that I am almost done with that painting. It is of my brother, one of my brothers. I have two and both are part time referees. It just happens that I caught this one in uniform at the house and so after a quick photo shoot wearing non-regulation shoes I started to paint. I am almost done. I think all I need is some camera flashes.

I am on youtube!

2012-01-18T11:37:00.000-08:00

This was a crazy experience. I not only got to paint a ton of space but it also landed me on youtube. It is really strange to see myself on youtube. I teased with my wife that I was 'going viral now' but seriously it was great to paint. The individual that did the video has some other great videos he has on youtube and he is the one that helped me with the photo I currently have for the top of my banner on my blog here. I plan on painting it soon, but for now the reference is on the top of the blog.

Just an update on the painting!

2012-01-18T08:20:00.002-08:00

I have made some encouragement from my brother to work on my skill. I have been wanting to work on it as I have been trying to listen to some uplifting talks and interviews as I travel back and forth to work or as I wait for a formation or just any extra time I get. It has been inspiring and I have been taking steps that I pray will have a lasting effect.

One idea that I am going to work on for this next year is coming up with a life vision. I will set some goals, establish some very specific ways of accomplishing these goals and then write out why I want to accomplish the goals. I guess by going through all this and writing it all in a first person way as though they have already happened is suppose to make them more real. Then I record myself reading the life vision and I listen to it daily. I hear myself telling myself what I want, how I am going to get it and why I want the goal to come true.

An old painting with some progress!

2012-01-18T08:20:00.001-08:00

I am still working on this fish. I have done some work, now I just need to finish it.

2012-01-18T08:20:00.000-08:00

I am so excited for a new start. It is a new beginning with the blog. I have proposed to the command if I can paint some painting to commerate the work the soldiers did as Operation New Dawn came to a close and the last of the U.S. soldiers were leaving Iraq. I am so excited for this great opportunity. I am going to try to make it as much as I can in every great way I can! I am trying to take some advise from a friend that has always had some great advise . I think I am combining a couple things in one as he challenged to do something new and he says to keep a blog. I redesigned the blog cause the blog is important to an artist and my new activity is to use my art for something more the drawing tattoos. The future is bright. I am looking forward to all I can create, not just on the canvas but with life! I did want to thank a friend for his support, here is the post he put on his blog reminding all artists to have their own blogs:

Back again

2012-01-11T10:10:00.000-08:00

Okay, it has been too long. I have been away to Iraq, doing my part in the job I signed up for. I am back now and would like to get started posting more of what I love to do. This is a portrait I did while in Iraq. I took just enough paints and a few boards to be able to have some fun. I have been wanting to do this one for quite some time, the reference was some pictures I obtained from a social networking site and threw them together. I felt like it matched the personality behind the man quite well.

The evil rocket Scientist!

2010-11-24T15:15:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to make a greater effort to draw and to paint. This is the most recent painting I have finished. It has been a really fun project to work on as I feel like I know the direction my style. It has been a long journey to find my style and although I still have a long way to go before I get confident in my skill and can sit down at the drawing table and know how I am going to get to the finished work of art. I like where I am going with the drawing style so now I need more work with the paint. I am experimenting with a process of drawing the design, painting the drawing and then using colored pencil on top of the painting to put in more detail and additional color. I think it is fun!

My other additional step here to improve the whole project as a whole is I am starting the artwork with the frame already in mind. I had purchased this frame at a thrift shop so I simply had my board at the size of the frame and started painting.

This painting is of my brother-in-law, one of my heros, Dave. He really is a rocket scientist. We have build potato guns together and so I put that on the left of the composition Because he is so smart and great at math I put a chalk board on the right with lots of math equations that I am sure Uncle Dave could tell you what each one is! The mouse on the bottom is because of his mad computer skills and the rocket on his right our left is cause he is a rocket scientist. You may notice the socks have holes and I am not going to explain that now cause you should already know all about that!

Some Graffiti art!

2010-09-06T17:51:00.001-07:00

I've had this one done for a little while not but I need to keep posting and although I am working on another couple of pieces that I hope to get up here soon! This was something I had a lot of help on from a professional graffiter. He was a good friend while we lived in Monterey, Ca on our second tour there. I wanted to do some graffiti and suggested my name to start with. I came up with the basic design, he suggested some tweeks to make it more graffiti-esk and the we taped and painted. Great fun!

Great people, bad fotographer!

2010-09-01T07:09:00.001-07:00

This was the original photo from which the inspiration came, he is a one in a million hero to us all!

I cropted it and made it as large as I could!

I love the shorts and foot gear he is wearing here due to the fact that... well we all know how he feels about shorts and flip-flops!

Trying to get some better detail on facial features, don't know if it helped too much, but it is a cleaner foto!

I love to use family members as models cause they cost the least, the only down side is that I don't think they like being used as models for a variety of reasons. I saw this style of caricature and thought grandpa would be an excellent subject. I am not sure if I was able to pull it off but it was a lot of fun to create. The photos are ones that do not lend themselves well to this drawing because of the lack of detail but I did the best I could. I was able to get a little help from Erin as I had first drawn Gramps with two right feet and had to move some toes around to make it more anatomically correct. She is a wonderful blessing in my life in ever possible way.

Reference

2010-09-01T07:05:00.000-07:00

I can't say enough about good reference for detail when you want good detail. I am not a good fotographer and I don't have good equipment for taking good pictures but here is the drawing I made using the above fotos!

a family member!

2008-12-24T13:30:00.000-08:00

I got inspired from someone elses style and came up with this little sketch of a family member, I decided to draw up a nice on on illustration board. Hope to get it done soon!

Guess what it is... okay its a leg!

2008-11-02T20:53:00.000-08:00

I haven't had much painting done, so I haven't blogged any on this blog but I am back and here is the first installment. I drew this several years ago, it is a leg, with ball point pen. It was good enough for me that I kept it all this time. I finally scanned it and threw the original away. For more resent sketches check out my "sketchy" blog, I comment about my arabic class but that is where I put my resent sketches as I get time!

Help!

2008-08-23T19:00:00.000-07:00

I am working on a personal project and I would like some help with it. I have set up another blog for the assignment! Please go to http://myownpirateflag.blogspot.com/ and let me know what you think of the sketches, each vote counts!

The ghost boy!

2008-08-10T17:05:00.000-07:00

This is an older piece I did back in the beginning of my figure studies. I like it just cause of the contrast. I feel like I need to keep posting even if I don't have time to create any new stuff.

A man for all seasons!

2008-03-25T20:03:00.001-07:00

I was given just enough free range to have a lot of fun showing the big man having some off season fun in the sun. I needed to show his wife and with some suggestions from friends and family I settled on this idea. I will say that this was the funnest illustration up to date and can't wait to get some more assignments like this one.

Is that the Seacow?

2008-03-25T20:00:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed developing the background on this one as much as the manatee in the forground. It was a fun assignment and one that I would do more of with the need for the free backgound.

So, it's a stick figure!?

2008-03-25T19:58:00.000-07:00

A portrait of my wife that at one time I had framed on the wall to remind her of how cute she is when she is pregnant. I would love for her to be willing to model more often for me but as many people are they don't like to hold still let alone for a painting of themselves.

A crazy Dream

2008-03-25T19:53:00.000-07:00

I created this guy while at a meeting that lasted too long and didn't involve me at all, but I was required to be there. So I had as much fun as I could. When I went to paint I borrowed the shadows off my bothers face, I am a little dissapointed in the way it printed here on the blog, it is a little darker than the original or the digital file I have. There was not an assisngment along with this one I just found a little inspiration from a few of the people around me and the idea of what I thought I wanted to be when I joined the Army. This didn't happen and I am glad, although I would like to still get some more training in this sort of work, but for now I will continue to paint and have fun.

Thanks Battle buddy!

2008-03-25T19:42:00.000-07:00

I wanted to thank a friend of mine for being a great friend when we were both studying together in school, and what better way for an artist to thank anyone else than a portrait. I am including this on my illustration blog cause I love to work with people and trying to catch something from them that a photo just doesn't catch.

An Emotion in Paint!

2008-03-25T18:53:00.000-07:00

This one was for a assignment on an article about pain and I chose to use the headache as a way of expressing that emotion. It was an enjoyable assignment to work on. Can't wait to do some more.

ZOMBIE PENGUIN!

2008-03-03T22:04:00.000-08:00

I thought this was the coolest little head, sort of weird eyes. More importantly I wanted to share a few thoughts that I had from a not so recent trip to L A with the multi-media department from UVSC. I don't know if this will help any of you not in the art industry but I wanted to share them in order to review them myself. I will include the thoughts that I also had on how they apply to everyday life as I see it.
1. Show off as many skills as possible at the same time. How well can you do what ever you are doing?
2. Make each mark say exactly what it is suppose to say. Is what you are saying and how you are saying it tell the story you want said?
3. The more time you spend drawing on something the more correct to the model it should look. If you do something, make it worth doing.
4. Exagerate the pose. When you perform an act, perferably and act of kindness really make it count, don't just do it half way.
5. In the portfolio, always pick your best work and make it bigger and better. In life, we always have the choice of what we will do, make it a good choice.
As you can see I tried to liken the ideas that the story board artist from Disney shared with me during a critic of my gesture book. It was great to talk to him and hear all he had to say. The representative from Dream works told us for our portfolio we should have life drawings, a little demonstration we can animate a walk, and fully demonstrate our ability to pick up any other cartoon style and create with that. I think I could handle the Cali weather, just got to find a way to pay for it.

Tommy Kat

2008-03-03T21:46:00.000-08:00

I did this back in school as I was exploring different ways of creating texture with not only different surfaces but with the paint as well. I just wanted to have some fun with texture and try an match some colors to a picture I saw. I had a lot of fun painting this little head. How do you like the texture?

Dizzy

2008-02-15T22:00:00.000-08:00

I did this one back in high school. I feel like I was able to capture some of his soul in the drawing. It was fun to do and I look forward to doing more. The work requires some pretty clear reference but I love to work with pencil, I feel a real comfort with the medium.

Human Fish?

2008-02-15T21:55:00.000-08:00

This is for my next illustration assignment. I have chosen the idea of humans being so backwards from what nature is (or so it seems all too often.) I would love to hear any thoughts on the fish as it is only 2/3 complete and I don't really have an environment for him yet. I know what I am going to do now I just need to do it. I look forward to finishing this one and getting it posted.

Willy Nilly Hilly Billy!

2008-02-05T22:23:00.000-08:00

I am beginning to feel more confident with the paint and what I can do with it. I would like to continue to experiment with more techniques and always work on getting better. This was an illustration for class where we were given a short phrase to illustrate. I finished it for class realizing that the last 20 percent of a painting requires 80 percent of the work on the piece. I still need to put in a few hours on this one, maybe you can help me to get those final touches!

My first painted caricature!

2008-02-04T22:36:00.000-08:00

This was an assignment for a head drawing class in which we were to choose a celebrity and draw a caricature. You guess who I chose and then tell me how I could have improved the painting.

A Test!

2008-01-30T12:48:00.000-08:00

This is an exercise with watercolor. I was working with another image and I feel pretty good about it. I don't usually work with watercolor but I am trying to get better to enable some quick color sketches in the future. I enjoy quite a bit working with watercolor it just requires a little more time and patience as the proccess is slow and unforgiving.

My First!

2008-01-29T22:19:00.000-08:00

Now that I have a blog. I will be posting my illustrations for you to see and enjoy, I welcome any suggestions on improving. It will be a little slow getting started but as soon as I get enough work digital I will get them posted. The only concern I have right now is the diversity of styles. I hope that my own voice is coming through, I am confident in being able to reproduce the work with variations on theme and subject matter. If there is anything that you would like to see or would like to hire me for a project you have let me know, I would love to help you out. I hope to hear from all of you and have a great productive day.