A few sketches

I'm still working on the large painting, here are a few sketches though!

Some Sketches

I'm still working more on the physical painting, I will get a picture of it soon and post. For now here are some sketches!

Final Piece: "City at Night"

Just finished this one this past weekend! Hope you like it!

Fairly quick concept

This is unfinished, I need to spend a lot more time painting out photo textures and add to signs. I also want to make it look more like a skull I think.

Here is a digital sketch I am thinking about turning into an acrylic painting. "Instagram Filter"

This one is a 30 minute hopper study (with Loch Ness thrown in). Done for Daily Spitpaint.

Here is a quick study from life, I don't think I'm too comfortable yet with fuzzy, painterly edges.

Some other Stuff

Commission Piece, would like a little feedback in class. 

Possible Idea for final MFA show

Today our Professional Practice class took a trip to Houston to visit galleries and artist studios. It gave me a lot of time to think more about the tension I have between my more illustrative works and my abstract ones. I was thinking of ways to tie them together into a more cohesive whole. I think it would be neat to create a corresponding abstract one to balance out every illustrative one. I would likely try to consciously incorporate elements from the illustrative into the abstract, elements I think make it aesthetically pleasing.

Here's an example. Inspired by just a snippet of the trash, I created the abstract above. I think I may turn it into an acrylic painting.

A forest monster, and daily spitpaint, and some quick environments

An update

Lately I have been thinking a lot about "fine art" and struggling a little bit. I think I am much more comfortable with concept art for film or games because I understand it a lot better. It has a clear purpose and seems much more objectively measured. What really is the main purpose of a lot of fine art? It seems to be created mostly for the rich to buy and consume, and to boost the egos of the artists.

Anyways, here is some of the stuff I have created lately. After speaking with several people from the industry, I have decided I need to focus a lot on keeping a lot of the "life" within the art while still making it readable.

And this is for "Wake"

Idea for next work.

I really love the work of Syd Mead (below). He's a prominent futurist and has created many captivating images. 

Lately, I've been thinking about the importance of my work. Like Phil said: "obviously it shows you have technical skills, but why should anybody care about this work"? He's right, why should anybody care? Well, I agree with Phil that I can grow in this area and put more thought into this question. I think it has already helped with some ideas for my next work. 

Like Mead, I'd like to try and visualize the future, but make it really personal and have it reflect examples of a future I would really like. It may not be a practical vision, as in, I may not believe the scenes would reflect the most likely outcome. I do think it's important though to show a possible outcome. I think this is one quality which a lot of Mead's works reflected. I think it's important that artists continue to create visions of the future because as long as it seems that it might be possible to achieve it, I believe people will internalize the ideas and in some way help to bring something like them about. 

Some "Wake" art and more

Here is some of the progress I've made on both of these concepts, but more much work is needed!

Also, I was thinking about what Phil said about the abstract art. I find the contrast between the more rigid, realistic-type concept art and random abstract stuff very striking. I think in a sense, the abstract stuff acts like a valve and lets out something that the rigid stuff tends to build up. It's almost as if I need to do both. The abstract and experimental stuff is there to balance out and keep me from becoming to rigid and formulaic. They are both equally important then, and both are part of my artistic self. Next to think about, how much of my artistic self should I show in my MFA show?

More work, a vision for my MFA show

I have been thinking a lot about what I enjoy about making art. A lot of it I believe has to do with experimentation and the learning and excitement that comes with it. I want to have variety in my final show, but it won't be contrived- it will just be a result of my natural experimentation and my urge to use different processes with a focus on different subject matter and styles.

One thing I've been doing lately is listening to music and letting it drive the image. These thumbnails were created quickly during the duration of various songs, and no work has been put into them after the song has ended. For one part of my final show, I would like to do a lot more of these, pick my favorites, and display the thumbnail images in some array. From these, I am thinking of taking the ones I like absolutely best and developing them further.

631 update

Here is a VERY ROUGH sketch of an idea I had for a painting, basically, babies covered in oil...

And an abstract one

Here's another piece of "Wake" concept art

Getting back into painting

My drawing wrist has been hurt so I decided to paint with my left hand. I started with this digital quick sketch:

And I very loosely started painting this in acrylic (WIP). The colors are based on the digital colors, but aren't exact. 

While not finished, I was done with that for tonight so I took my leftover paint and painted over some existing stuff on a different canvass (also WIP). 

While I didn't intend to, I actually began to think a lot about aesthetics and human consciousness. For instance, I began to ask myself why I was putting certain marks in certain places and really trying to understand why I though it looked better after the stroke. Or did I make it worse? What is better or worse, more pleasing or not? I think these are deep mathematical questions that no human can quite articulate, but they are fun to ponder while painting. I enjoy exploring these notions.

More sketches and viz dev work on projects this semester

These first three are concepts I have done for the "Wake" and "Scary" animations

Here is a photo I took and played around with some effects with

These are some quick sketches, nothing finished

And here is a "Tangled" study I am currently working on (Craig Mullins on the left).