Stop and start again

I've decided to close this blog and start a new one based on art and fashion.
Please follow me here! http://fashionformutants.blogspot.com/

It's the end of the world...and I'm okay.

This semester I created alot of work that I am really  proud of! I wasn't much of a designer when I started this program and all I wanted to do is draw! But, I'm slowly getting into design and learning more about the art of graphic design. Here's some of my projects for Designing for Advertising:

Simple B&W Recycle ad.

Simple B&W Tutor newspaper ad

Yellow Pages Competition: Full Page ad.

 I hated this project because I couldn't think of anything for it! It had to be really simple and full of information. I looked at past winners and really, they all are pretty slapped together. I mean some stuff were obviously crooked! And then there was a ton of other errors I that I always fret over. This year some classmates won 2nd place. It was a decent design but no-where as good as this guy I know in my program. He is amazing and actually sent in 2 ads. But like I said they wanted really simple and easy. But look at got honorable mention! T__T I mean really? The first person didn't even care to crop the leaf correctly! 

Bleh, don't mind me, I just hated the project from the beginning. Moving on,

National Ad

I had a sweet idea for this ad, which was to sell something to a different target market. I choose to sell a sewing machine to men. I know a few dudes who sew but obviously it's more of a "woman's product". The best thing about this sewing machine is that it does all the work! They just have to hold things in place!

My School is doing a school wide project for the first ever epic story, "Gilgamesh".  Since we aren't really doing thing yet we had to make some teaser posters for the upcoming semester. We had all this information that wasn't really necessary and because it is a TEASER poster, I just put in things that could grab attention and make you curious about it.  I have been looking at alot of tutorials and been learning alot of new tricks to put in my work.

The final revisions for the Swan Lake project.

For my Illustration class:

I took my teacher's advice and changed the colors on both "Hardcore" and "Space Girl". It makes the figures stand out alot more.  I also filled in the letters for the logo. These are the final revisions.

For Media Design:

I had to make a flash website! What a pain! I got everything to work but the INTRO page! And it's all because I missed a stop! Booo! Now if I can get this to work online I'll be able to fix this poor blog up!

I am also proud of my glowing letters.

This summer I have alot of projects to work on, including re-creating some book covers and doing more Pulp Girls. Also, my first project  I will be doing some illustrations for one of my favorite songs by the National!

The National have some very visual lyrics, if that make sense!

I will leave you with this sweet magnet my brother picked up for me,

The summer brings amazing possibilities! 

Unless the end of the world happens.

Quick update!

Last week of school! I am super busy and have no time, but I wanted to share my illustrations for my Pulp girl series. I am planning on doing more, but these three are the first I've ever done in this style and I am quite pleased on how they came out!

I redid, "This is hardcore" and look how well it came out!

I am confident that the rest of my projects will turn out just as nice, so I am not worried! (Just as long as everything is done ontime!)

Next week, I'll do a round-up of my favorite designs of the semester!

Germ Free.

Just a quick preview of the work I am currently doing. Should be done by the end of the week!

A Cropped Version of my 50ft woman! It's looking pretty good!

Logos I'm making for my pin-up site.

School ends next week and I am doing way too much at once! So many projects to do!

Other news,Last week, one my Idols Poly Styrene of the X-Ray Spex died,from her battle with cancer. The X-ray spex was one of the reasons why I got into punk rock and started to listen to alot of female fronted bands and learnt about the Riot girrl movement.  

The X-Ray Spex only really released one album and it was "Germfree Adolescents".  A witty snarky send off to commercialism, Identity issues and social standards.

"Oh Bondage! Up Yours!" became an athem for the future riot grrl movement and locked Poly's legacy in place. 

We will miss you Poly!

The Fury in your head.

One of my favorite bands Foals, are coming to the Beachland Ballroom on the 29th!

Because I love them so much I made two posters for the upcoming show.

You know I do love the grid and the Swiss Design. I could make a billions of things! It's amazing. I still need to tighten some stuff though.

I have been doing a lot of research and tutorials and this is a product of some skills I've learned. Check out http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/ for great tutorials!

I just wanted to share some of the work I've been doing. School is ending! So happy!

Took a break.

So after abit of a break from the internet, I am back. Hopefully to start posting more and getting my freelancing work on the road. I got a lot of ideas and projects I need to work on. My goal for this year is to have a solid portfolio, around 20 pieces. I've been doing alot of talking to people and I need to start doing a lot than what I am.  Been letting way too many other things get in the way of what's important. Anyho, here is some of the work that I've been doing for class!

I did some Swan Lake posters for my Ad class. This is the Poster and the bottom ones are the front and back of the program.

And B&W

This is my best work yet! I have a bunch of other things I am coming up with and as long as I can sketch it out, I can come up with something.

Speaking of sketches, I have a bunch I need to scan and share. I'll be doing that tomorrow!

I'll end this with the "Comic of the week!"

            

Y, the last man by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra.  The story about the only man (and his monkey) to survive a "plague" that killed off everything with a "Y" Chromosome.

I read "Y" a few years back, but never really got through the last book of the series, "Why and Wherefores". And that's because something happened in it that pissed me off and made me stop reading. So now that I'm not being a baby, I'm re-reading it all the way through. 

I'm going to be doing "Comic of the week" for awhile. I am behind on my reading!

This blog will also look kinda plain for a bit. I'm going to use my own layout and I hope I don't bonk it up. :|

Welcome to 2011! The sky is falling!

With a new year comes some changes.

As far as this blog goes,I am going to be updating weekly, in hopes of helping my writing. I'm starting on scripts and re-writing alot of  old stories I didn't finish.I have alot I need to do when it comes to my career and I need to start ASAP. This is my last year at school (maybe) and I need to step up my game! I'm also going to not take on too much at once. I did that last semester and got my bum handed to me.

Here's some of my best work I did for last semester:

This was done for an assigment in Graphic Drawing. Had to combine a bunch of pictures. I used my favorite band Joy Division.

For Imaging and Design, We made ads for Pierre's Ice cream. This is how mines came out. 

This is going to be the new layout for this blog, once I fix it up. 

Another one for Imaging and Design. We made a CD cover for our annual folktales CD.

Illustration Design done for GD.

For I&D, we had to combine two movie posters. I choose to do "Control" and "Ghost World". It came out pretty well, minus the font.  

One of the things I learned about Photoshop and Illustrator is to keep doing things over and over. They are both crazy software and will piss you off numerous of times, but the more you use it,the more you'll get use to it's evil trickery and can stop it from really messing up your work. 

Also save! I think I have 47 copies of all these projects. I learned the hard way about the this.

This year is going to bring big changes in my life. I am more focused and determined to do alot of new work this year and to give myself a chance to really do what I love. I am also going to move in the summer, which means my own space and a place to able to concentrate on my work and other things. I currently live in such disarray I can't think straight! And I want a place I can decorate and make my own! :3

Plans I have for the upcoming year:

-Start the Un-Adventures of Jay and Nikki as a weekly comic.

-Move.

-Work on other stories.

-Do more design work.

-Spend more time reading.

-Bike more

-Take more chances.

-Do everything thing I can to more in the right direction.

Besides this blog I am also going to be doing the daily sketch project, and I may start a 365 project again but doing something different with it. I'm also starting a "What I wore today blog" on tumblr. Which is a place to show my daily outfits.  http://fashionformutants.tumblr.com/  Nothing on there yet because I haven't gotten any good outfits together. Next week hopefully.

I am going to make this an productive year.

This year will bring exciting events!

Changes

I have a bunch of new design work and sketches to put up. Still working on updating this into a really portfolio

Just like life

I always seem to miss my own updates! No internet for awhile,no big deal, life happens.

Speaking of life, I started my last year at school. So happy! Most of the work has been review, so right now I am just chugging along. I am happy though that we get to work on our own projects for most of this semester, so those projects I'd been pushing off because of work will get done.
  I am also getting a car. Well me and my brother will share it till he gets his own, but in a couple of days I'll be rolling! So happy! You can't do anything in this dumb city without a car. Otherwise, you'll have to use the RTA and it's pretty much a piece of crap. Gotta love small big towns.


I am done drawing the introduction comic to the "un-adventures" . I'm now just researching places that would be best to host it. More than likely I'll just make a blog for it. That sounds like a good idea.

I should have had more work scanned to show on here (as I like to post my progress of my work/development.) but I've been busy and trying to keep up with school /work. I am trying to be on time with everything so I don't fall behind. It is crunch time!

So here's another pin-up I've recently done. I am going to draw it on a larger scale.

This based off a pin-up and the song "This is Hardcore" By Pulp. If you don't know the song, you should! 

I'm sure I've posted this before, but you can never get enough of Jarvis singing about sexy bedroom times.

The school also have some of my work posted up.

I want to take them!

Also I realized I need a social life again, because I am going bonkers here. I am use to being around more people and I guess doing more things. Chicago has spoiled me. Plus I run into too many rude,mean and just plain dumb people. They out number the sane ones here. Anyway, I am making friends slowly at work, so that's good. Recently one of my co-workers invited me out to the Tremont Art Walk. It was a pretty good time. Got to see some really sweet stuff and hang out abit. I later went to see Jamie Lidell play, which was amazing!  Oh and we also had to wear mustaches. 

I'll start my artist profile, next week. More than likely it will be about Brian Wood. He's one of my top comic creators.

I get to visit Chicago for a week in November! Can't wait! This trip is much needed.

Do you realize?

I have been feeling unmotivated recently. Not really making progress on the work I should be.
The last couple of weeks have been kind of hectic, with work and family life so my art has taken a back seat to everything else. Luckily though, I have been inspired to get back in my work and hopefully, I'll have some finished worked done by the end of this month.

I've decided that once a week I'll do a write up dedicated to some of my favorite artist and writers. Art and comics are really important to me and there are alot of people who I admire and enjoy their work. It is also away to help with my writing and away to get back into blogging. I have to start better "networking" online. (that's what my advisor said anyway..)

So why go into comics in the first place?
I grew up with comics. From Archie to the X-men, I got into comics thanks to my father's collection and my mother, who would constantly buy comic digests from the supermarket. As I got older my taste in comics changed going into more indie and obscure comics, but the love of the medium never changed, instead I grew a better understanding of the medium and started to appreciate the world of comics alot more.
When I decided to go into art as a profession I knew that illustration and comics would be my best bet. I love to tell stories as well as draw.  I wanted to express and share my thoughts on the world in a visual way and I had found a medium that fit me best.

And just so this isn't only text, here are some pin-ups did in the last couple of weeks.

I re-did that Barbarella picture, using those organic lines and shapes I love to use.

I am recreating alot of older pin-ups with my spin on them. this is an unedited version of the first one I have done. I am going to fix it up a bit in photoshop.

The world of Jay and Nikki is coming along. One of the big reasons as to why it's been taking so long to produce new work is because I have no place to work! I need a new desk.

I am hoping to get Jay and Nikki's blog up and running before I start class on the 30th.

This is the unedited banner for the blog. I don't know if I want to leave it in black or white.

And here's the banner for this blog, I will use eventually.

Summer is almost over! So happy I can concentrate on work now instead of the heat!

Stand and Deliver

I haven't updated in awhile. Mainly because I have been working and because I have been working on trying to set up everything for my comic. Work takes up most of my time but I am starting to manage it better. And once I get some wheels I'll be even better. Buses are so inconvenient here! Ugh anyway, I have been getting into old x-men comics and realized that Storm was a badass and Halle Berry did a shit job as her. (She just can't play a superhero man.) Storm is a goddess,a leader,a thief and a force of nature.She lost her powers and was still the leader of the X-men. (Scott is up Jean's butt to ever be of real help...) She should have been played by a stronger actress.

Ms. Ororo is also fashion forward.

My birthday is in a couple of days, Should have a real update after that.

Skin 'em alive!

So I got a new job! About time man and it's just not any job either, it's working at Whole Foods. I got hired on the spot too! My bright and winning personality must've won them over. I'm extremely excited about this job because if it's up to me, this will be my last retail/cashier job. I'll work at Whole Foods until I can work full time as an illustrator/graphic designer. Until then, WF should keep me more than afloat esp if I work full time. I take this as a sign of moving forward and getting things in gear. I needed this job and I am so greatful!

Also,unemployment and being broke isn't my kind of thing.

This also means I can move by the end of the fall yay!

I haven't done any drawings in awhile, mainly just working on projects for school and they are driving me crazy. I am glad this semester is over! Ugh. Here are some sketches from the sketchbook:

I need to start drawing alot more guns and combat scenes if I am trying to do an action comic. I use to draw them all the time. I wonder why I got lazy and stopped?  Oh yeah that lazy part. I am glad I grew out of that.

                                           

I did this for Rendering Techinques. I know,I didn't use alot of the photoshop tricks on it but really, all the other versions of this looked tacky and really over done. I don't know, I am taking baby steps with this whole color with photoshop thing. I know if I want to learn I need to get out of the comfort zone, but really I thought the others looked pretty crappy. Plus I like flat color I think I work well with it. 

Since I am done with school, I will start to work on "The Unadventures of Jay and Nikki". I haven't done anything with comics since I started school, so the first thing I need to do is work on this comic. I am not expecting it to be any good off the bat. The jokes will be corny and the drawings will be different alot of the time because this is what I'll be using to help develop my work and start learning my basis.

Today was the last day of class for the semester. I did pretty well even though I felt rushed and disorganized for much of the spring. 

I am really into Typography now. Which is strange because I never really care too much about it, but now after taking this class I think I will try to do more work with it. Funny though, I took typography at Columbia and hated it. Guess it was probably just the way it was taught.

Here are some of my final posters.

For my final project I had to make a brochure to go along with the first poster:

For my first time ever using Indesign I think I did pretty well. I'll try to keep it up with typo during the summer.

The National's new album is pretty sweet! I wish they'd tour and stop by cleveland. I'd love to see them in person! I love all the songs on the album but my two favs are currently, Anyone's ghost:

And Bloodbuzz Ohio: