Week 9- Updated sketches

Hey guys,
Thanks to your suggestions I went these two ways  with my concept. The top one is of the rooster looking up at the sky while all the other chickens are pecking at their food.
The other way I went is of a young chicken looking up at the birds flying in the sky copying them only to learn that is a grounded bird.
In both images I exaggerated the size of their feet so it subtly makes them appear more weighted to the ground. I animated the faces slightly by cartooning the eyes, more so in the young chick.
Which one do you guys like better?
I plan on doing full color and I think I would like to do a realistic background. The medium will probably be water color base layered with color pencils and then finishing details in acrylic. Any suggestions or thoughts would be great to hear!

The remix

I played with the "stand", moving it around a bit. I think its new position improves the readability. Although I am aware the "stand" kinda looks like "spand", the final will be much better.

Updated Sketch

This is an updated sketch of the idea that I had in mind. I decided to make it more into a scene. I was having a hard time trying to come up with a crowded city only because I am not good with drawing straight lines. So for my concept, I have a young teen looking up to the sky and in front of him towards the distant is a hot air balloon departing away towards the city which is seen from a distance. On the hot air balloon I will add a quote saying "Sadness flies away with the wings of time". it's universal, I don't have an actual answer of what it is that he is longing but this is the part where I want the audience to connect themselves to the individual that is shown, and perhaps looking at the image can remind some one of a certain event that was either an important moment, or a memory that brings back feelings.
 For medium I am still not sure what I want to work with. However, I have in mind of working with color pencils because it can bring a lot of texture and I don't really work with color pencils so it might be interesting to try it out with this project.

week 8 Unrequited puppy love

I always considered myself more of a dog person than a cat person. I actually feel more compassionate to a dog than to human being. I think this is because you can always count on a dog to give you unconditional love. Even if you have a bad day, you can always count on your dog to make you feel like you're worth something. I actually got this idea for a drawing at the dog beach. There I witnessed a man on a his cell phone completely ignoring this adorable puppy at his feet. The small dog looked up at the man towering over it with this happy expression on its face, while the man on the phone seemed too preoccupied to even care about the dog. I found this scene pretty heart breaking and decided to illustrate it. I decided to give my illustration a faux-naive feel to it to give it a feeling of innocence. I also plan on using charcoal and crayon on my final piece.

Unrequited love

Here is my interpretation of unrequited love. This work was inspired by a hardship I was going through. The message is pretty simple. I started the situation with great confidence and was optimistic, but I was definitely burned and heartbroken in the end.

Week 8- Project 2

This is a rough sketch of my concept for the project. It is of a chicken off by itself looking up at a flock of birds flying south. In the background are other chickens huddled together doing normal chicken stuff like pecking for food. The idea is of wanting something that you feel you were made for, destined for, but for whatever reason it is impossible. In the case of the chicken, he/she wants the limitless freedom of flight but is physically unable. I always thought it was so peculiar and ironic that chickens and penguins can not fly, at least with penguins they can fly in the water. The sketch is so rough because I have not yet decided the best means of rendering the image, more cartoonish, realistic or stylized. I know I want it to be done with a lushous palate and the medium will probably be mixed with water colors, acrylic, and color pencils. What do you guys think? The theme of the desire for flight reminds me of two movies that I loved as a child, Chicken Run and Opus and Bill in A Wish For Wings That Work.

A legal controversy

This image solely had a huge impact on Obama's campaign. McCain as himself probably helped, but that's beside the point. Done by Shepherd Fairey, the image was originally based on a photograph by Mannie Garcia. He was later sued by the Associated press for copyright infringement. It was originally printed as a grassroots poster to spread the word of Obama's campaign. It later took a life of it's own, being spread in just about every medium possible. Later, on October 16, 2009, Shepherd Fairey admitted that he had taken copyrighted work and defaced it. In a court aggreement, he agreed to work with the associated press on further projects.

Unrequited love

Honestly I had a relative hard time trying to think of concepts for this illustration. I Toyed with ideas of using abstract form to represent love unreturned. I looked up classic examples of it in literature, song, and movies. There were two that stood out to me: Catch the Wind by Donovan and Return to Sender by Elvis Presley. I don't think it's very possible to draw wind, so I decided on on making a very simple illustration of Elvis's song. I did some research on Elvis, trying to find an example of unrequited love in his life. Her name was Priscilla. They were married at first, but after she left him for her karate teacher (My thoughts mostly consist of, "lol, what?"). Apparently this had a huge impact on his ego and he was never quite the same after. I had my ammunition ready for this illustration. From here it's a simple matter of placing the image into illustrator and making it look all crispy with good typography and a good stamp effect for "Return to Sender."

My idea for the drawing.

I like this image. I still don't know exactly what I want to do but I want to symbolize the idea of love. I don't know what to say, but I don't want it to mean something specific. I want it to be neutral.

week 7 Controversy

In early June, 2007, Swedish Artist Lars Vilks was invited to an exhibition called "The Dog in Art". Vilks submitted three pen and ink drawings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad is a "roundabout dog". According to Vilks, the intention of the drawings was to "examine the political correctness within the boundaries of the art community." The day before the exhibitions opening, Vilks's drawings were denied due to the fear of violence from Islamic extremists. After the first denial, Vilks's drawings were refused again by the Gerlesborg School of Fine Art. This stirred up an intense debate within the Swedish media. People began to question the values of self-censorship and freedom of expression. It wasn't until August that his drawings were finally published. Soon after, about 60 Muslims began to protest out side of the building responsible for the publishing. Within a few weeks this number skyrocketed to over 500. The Muslim community viewed these drawings as blasphemy towards Islam's most worshiped symbol. After the publication some of the employees who worked for the newspaper's headquarters required bodyguards to simply enter the building. And as for Lars Vilks, he received death threats on a daily basis. Half way through September, the Islamic State of Iraq announced that they would give $100,000 to anyone who brought them the head of Lars Vilks, and $50,000 for the head of Ulf Johansson, who was the editor and chief of one of the newspapers. Vilks's bounty was raised to $150,000 on the order that he would be "slaughtered like a lamb". To this day, Vilks's is still under constant attack from threatening mail to hackers infiltrating his blog. I personally always thought that it was a good thing to spark any emotion in someone with my art. Even if my artwork pisses someone off, I still view that as an accomplishment, Not in Vilks's case though. I think he knew what he was getting himself into, thus he deserves the repercussions.

This is the combination of too much whiskey and too little admiration. I have been procrastinating on finishing this for roughly two years, it was originally suppose to be my interpretation of Love Sickness, but a phone call later and a few mints the meaning changed to Unrequited Love. Not that i was ever in love. 


If you haven't guessed, or are unfamiliar with the piece this is modeled off of German Artist 

Albrecht Dürer piece titled Adam And Eve. Durer was a firm believer of  the Italian art theories; one of which followed the idea that the perfect human form corresponded to a system of proportion and measurements.

Not that i disagree, but i took a different approach to my piece, one that would better express the complex, irrational notion of young love. The emaciation and elongation of the bodies also helps to express the emotional turmoil of the subjects. Just like when Eve initially stole that forbidden, they two lost their innocence.

This picture and video above is from the 1941 animated film Dumbo. For those who haven't seen this Disney gem, it follows the story of a circus elephant that learns to fly. The reason why many people ridiculed the disney movie is because some believe the characteristics of the crows were racially driven. Having seen the film and knowing exactly what characterisitics they are speaking of, I can see how people could elude to that conculusion. Yes they're black, yes they're supposedly from the south (hence the country accent), but I dont see it that way. People have also compared them to the much worst black-face meme, which was popular through out the 19th century. I have attached a video of the clips with the crows you be the judge.

Saddam Shark

This installation was made in 2005, by the artist David Cerny. This became one of many controversial installations that was banned in Middelkerke,Belguim, then in Bielsko-Biala, Poland. The main purpose of this installation was a parody of another work done by Damien Hirst named,"The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living" which was created in 1991. The purpose of the installation lets you relive that moment in freeze time. It lets the audience contemplate what it would be like to be in their shoes, or in short words -dead. It also gives a message that anything can happen in matter of seconds. At one point everything seems to be fine and then out of the blue a hold breaks. 

I think this is a really interesting piece. I do admit that it is offensive, especially because of the location that it was going to be placed. I think in the end it was the right thing to show-case it in a museum and not 

outside where children could  be expose to it and be shocked by it. 

Controversial Body works

This work is done by German anotomist Gunther von Hagen. Displayed at  "Body Worlds show" http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2002/mar/19/arts.highereducation  its intention is to familiarize the viewer with the inner-beauty of the human body.

 Von Hagens style started 25 years ago when using polymer chemistry, pioneered a preservation technique that replaces water in cells with plastic material. By 1990, he had plastinated his first whole body - a process that requires 1,500 hours' work and costs up to £25,000. The result is an odourless, dry, realistic-looking corpse that endures. Gunther asserts,"There are obviously aesthetic elements to what I am doing, but I am chiefly a scientist who wants to enlighten people by means of aesthetic shock rather than cruelty shock."

His many critics compare him to Dr. Frankenstein claimming his work is cruel, insensitive, and self serviing.

Not really seeing for myself a problem with Gunther's work, I admire his presentation. Carefully arranging internal organs, ribcages and the such takes talent in addition to a strong stomach. Why is human anatomy or organs shocking and disgusting in the first place?

Week 7- Conflict

http://www.gocomics.com/garymarkstein
This is an editorial cartoon by artist Gary Markstein. Directly below the image is a link to one of his websites that has a collection of several of his cartoons including a lot of his recent work. I looked at some of his other stuff and he has some other really funny ones that relate to this one, depicting Rush Limbaugh. This kind of perfectly depicts the one of the many contemporary conflicts occurring in women's rights. The conflict of natural right versus religion, should the law of man control the rights of an individual. His is consitutional if religion is forcing its prohibition? I liked this cartoon because it elegantly uses iconic symbols and manipulates them to effectively get the point across.

Life and Death- A Juxtaposition

In this image we see one lonely man walking through a "hall" of large statues of hooded skull figures. The corridor seems to go on endlessly. There are flocks of birds flying away from what are presumably their nests in the crevices of the statues. It follows a monotonous color scheme using foggy, putrid yellows contrasted with a small amount of green in the shadows.

Although not obviously about life and death; in this work they are not polarized. However, the juxtaposition of the two is very apparent. The foggy hallway is completely barren of other people. The lone figure appears to be either lost or exploring a relic of ancient peoples. Skulls peak out through the hoods of the giant statues, a clear indicator of death. They almost look down at the man, awaiting his collapse. The juxtaposition is specifically that of the lone man walking with a torch, and the statues as a reminder of a civilization past. A lone man alive in a dead world.

Zdzislaw Beksinski: unnamed piece done in oil

link to his online gallery here: http://www.beksinski.pl/ click on "Original Works"

Life & Death: Ontology

This piece is made by the artist David Titterington. It's 54cm x 74cm and it is charcoal on paper. I think this is an interesting piece because the whole shape of the figure is some kind of flower blooming and as it blooms a child is being born. Below it, we can see a skull which represents death. I think the name itself gives it an interesting thought, I think this quote better sums up what the meaning of Ontology means, "An explicit formal specification of how torepresent the objects, concepts and other entities that are assumed to exist in some area of interest and the relationships that hold among them."

Life and Death

This caracature of Dexter is by the French illustrator, Anthony Geoffry. Im not really into the show, but I do know Dexter is a character that assumes the role of a modern day serial killer. The artist displays Dexter with a nonchalant expression, splattered in what I imagine is human blood. The feathered hairstyle in addition to his shaved face doesn't quite suggest killer to me at first look; which may be the appeal when he lure in his victims. But after seeing the splattered blood I surely assume that its from an unsuspecting person and he stares emotionless at the corpse. Now to psychoanalyze this guy on assumption, I would guess that he finds a twisted satisfaction in killing people which helps him cope with life on his own terms.

Week 6 LIFE & DEATH

The illustration above was created by Richard Warren in 2007 as part of a series called Seven Suicides and was exhibited at St Peter's Church Wolverhampton. The drawing depicts the early 20th century artist John Minton and famous actor James Dean. Minton's life story was a tragic one. In the mid-1950s, Minton found himself out of sympathy with the art trends that were becoming fashionable. Not being an abstract artist, he felt "sidelined". Minton was also seen as an outcast but other artists for his homosexual lifestyle. He also suffered psychological problems, abused alcohol, and in 1957 committed suicide. Towards the end of his life, Minton became obsessed with James Dean and his untimely death in 1955. Minton was fascinated by Dean's devastating car crash and it inspired several of his later work. I believe this is why Warren depicted Dean and Minton together. Minton almost appears to resemble Jesus on the crucifix as Dean gently consuls him. Some believe that John Minton was a martyr for the homosexual community and Warren's illustration strengthens this argument. Warren's style within the composition mimics but does not copy the style of Minton and is a good tribute to the artist's work.

M.C. Escher The Eye 1945

This piece has always interested me, this is where my fascination with eyes began. But it's much more than that. I cant say for certain, no one can really, unless they knew the artist personally and his intentions when creating the piece. But to me, the eye represents life, more than that still. the eye is round, one could argue that it is the circle of life. All is one. One is all. 


And what of the faintly outlined skull creeping in the pupil. Escher was considered an illusion artist, the skull sits comfortably behind the eyes, always out of view. The skull in Western society also repents death, mortality. Maybe Escher is teasing us with the one who watches over all of us, the fate of each of us, death. There is no great expanse of life for us all, just the small time we have, constantly being watched by death just drawing nearer to our destinies.

Week 6- Life and Death

This is a more recent political cartoon by the artist Jim Morin. He works for the Miami Herald and has won numerous awards including the Pulitzer prize in 1996 for editorial cartoons. In terms of style he is defiantly a cartoonist with a more contemporary style that is more realistic and often uses color to help illustrate his drawings. The drawing depicts a man and a tree that was recently chopped down. The man is meant to be President Obama and the tree is meant to represent Osama Bin Laden. This cartoon was published after the death of Bin Laden. The roots of the tree are meant to represent Al Qaeda. I think what the artist is saying that although the figure head is dead the inter-workings of the terrorist organization still have root and possibility of growth.  I think the cartoon is very successful as it clearly illustrates a direct narrative and still allows different possible interpretations of certain aspects of the drawing.