Letting go of it.

So I have realized that I was in absolute love with my maquette, the Key Keeper. Here is the break down. I took a class last quarter called "Dimensional Illustration" and twisted it into a class on building maquettes. I made two. The robot and the arm guy which you can see if you scroll down. I did well in the class and put a ton of time into the work. I loved it.

But I have realized that I was holding myself back to some extent. I didn't fully understand that I was hampering the process of my other classes. Which I also did ok in but not as well as I should have.

Anyway below is the final image that I sent in to my prof.


Now this is image is terrible. I am disappointed with the blurry quality and graininess. But that is the price I pay for trying to sculpt and paint down to the last minute.

This is not a personal bashing session, those are tuesday nights. No this is an honest critique of myself. Improvement has to happen or you suck forever...

Round two...

Ok, so like I was saying in my last post I am going to try to get a better grip on this colored pencil process I am trying to develop.
Here is the new monster I am going to try it on.




I've named it Hexaped. "Hexa" being greek for "6" and it having six legs. My creativity astounds and abounds.


Anyway I've also decided to look towards the past and learn from those who came before me.




This is an example of Alan Gordon's sketch book work. Notice his link off in the right column. He was my first art teacher when I went to community college, he also graduated from RIT and was one of the major reasons I decided to go to RIT. He uses Prisma color grey scale markers, Prisma color pencils, acrylic, acrylic washes and various other mixed media in his work. He obviously knows how to use the media and I plan on learning what I can from him. I really love the solidity and depth his shadows have. They are part of his piece and I feel that I don't know how to achieve that yet. This also nails and establishes a wonderful sense of light in the image, something else I haven't quite gotten the hang of.


On a final note I based my concept for Hexaped on an old sketch I made from when I was fifteen or so. I am glad that I have the literal pounds and pounds worth of old sketches and things but sometimes I think I may be using them as a crutch for my creativity. I maybe wrong though.



So good night and good luck fellow toilers!

ciao,
Matt

What I am doing?

I recently started working with colored pencils (Prisma color) on toned paper. It's great! I have seen it done before by other artists here and there and it was definitely a good move on my part. My understanding of color, form, and shape is much more solid. So here is what I have come up with...




This is the Sharkalo... and here is the finished colored version.




This us the final product. I need to pay better attention to areas like the shadow. I can see now that I rushed it. Some of the form of the head, shoulders, and arms is kind of sketchy. That's what I get for not getting good or any reference though. All in all not too bad. I have to noted improvements on the next one but I am quite please with how this turned out.

For the next round I have already started the character I will be posting. This time it will be more step by step, which I am doing so I can look back at my process and keep refining it.

'Til next time!

ciao,
Matt

That is right...

For tonight all the changes I am going to make are done. Blog title, personal imformation, links I am going to add, and a small other snippet or two. So done!

On a side note I want to point out that yes I did link to JAMES GURNEY!!! I am such a fan boy. There is even a picture of me in his blog from when he visited RIT. Honored. Beyond. Description.

Also I got Carly, Doug, Bobby D, and Alan Gordon. Success!!!

That little light went on.

So I surfed around the blogoshpere to learn what I could, as I said I would, and have come back better for the journey. I figured out how to link to other blogs which was something I have been struggling with. I feel like I may be one of the last few people from my generation who will never become fully integrated with technology. It feels like I am pulling my own teeth sometimes when I try to do what I think will be a simple task. For example I have NEVER sent a text message. I have tried but seems like a waste of time. Oh well. Next I want to get the format of my blog to be wider but that will take some more time. I have to go pick Greg's or Leffer's brains a bit and see if they can help.

Hopefully as my grasp of what I am doing improves I will be able to use my blog for it's newly realized potential: personal retrospective, art review, and networking.
'Tings are looking pretty good.

Learning...

I am slowly learning how to post with greater skill and attention to layout. I am also trying to figure out how to link other blogs to my site. Since I can't post an image right now, blogspot said that there is currently some problem with posting, I will have to do it later.

I will be back.

Art Dump!!!

Well I am going to post up some of the stuff I have been doing lately. Here goes nothing...


These are the dimensional pieces I did for the fall quarter. The robot guy kinda sucks. He was my first attempt at doing a maquette. The second guy, I call him the Key Keeper. He is a character I have been drawing for some time and I am pleased with his sculpture. The final image though came out kinda terrible. That's cool. the next will be better.

The Tap Flows....

Ok I figured out how to save images for the web. This is what I have done thus far. I am starting to reach my limit of knowledge of Illustrator, which is pretty limited.




I am feeling OK with what I have done thus far. So now I am off to bed.

Self-Improvement...

I am going to start posting my practice work from Illustrator and Photoshop. Feed back is so greatly appreciated, Joe I am looking for ya here. Well I am tired from working all day at my new job so I am going to get this posted....


The original sketch:


Here it is after I have put some time in on it in Illustrator... Which I will post as soon as I figure out how to change up the sizes and the file types.

I'll be back.....


ciao,
Matt

The big WHY....

Truth be told I made this post to make crits on my buddies blog and may never return.