It’s been too long, I don’t have time to Explain Each one of these.

I’m Back in school now. RIP my time. Here’s just a dump of my last projects and doodles and sketches I’ve done since the self portrait.
I’m just gonna spew out piece names and your gonna play match the title to the piece.
Put Your Best Foot Forward
Side Step
I in Hand.
Phantom’d
This Too Shall Pass.
Bacardi Boy
Bulls Eye Primaries.

Oh and Bacardi Boy made it into No Love’s current Zine Tiny Tidani they just released it this summer. Nolovehnl.com check them out, they got some sick work.
Ok enjoy.

Enjoy. Working on Takeshi Sans got That Flow currently.

My Daily Bread.

It’s been quite some time since I’ve last out out a water color piece, however this was a very appropriate reintroduction to watercolor because I just fell right back in love with the layering process and those hard water edges. Got 2 other watercolor pieces in progress currently, both portraits actually, but varying in size dramatically.

Enjoy(ed).

In Spite of Calamity.

Now. here comes one of the most controversial pieces I’ve ever made, which also happens to be a self portrait, but let me just go ahead and warn you: Don’t let your Mind go there. I swear it’s not what you think.

The inception of this piece all began with the need to redeem the last self portrait that I did way back whenever in watercolor… the sharpie addition just hurt too much, and plus I had 2 extra Illustration boards on hand, so why not try it out in a medium that I’ve increasingly been using since January of this year. I also thought this would be a good opportunity to work on my line work and line quality since it would be such a big piece. I may have made the same mistake again but….. I’ll get there in a minute.

First, let me start out by saying this piece is a subject matter dream come true. 2 hands, a face, my face, and a crazy expression? In one piece? I think so.

I think the only thing worth pointing out process and decision wise was my decision to forgo using a ruler to draw my lines. I originally wanted perfect straight lines, but after doing the first few lines on the upper right hand corner of the forehead, I decided it looked too processed and… just unnatural, so I took pride in my crooked lines and just went to town as painful as it was. I think the longest line I had to draw measured in at 8 inches. Wowzers was that not fun. I have to say though after drawing so many lines, I feel like i learned some kind of technique to drawing straight lines of some very long length:

1. Once your hand starts to bend to get down further, adjust your fingers to the curve accordingly to prevent that bend from showing up in your stroke

2. fade out your line instead of letting it come to an abrupt stop, this leaves room for a more seamless line break.

3. and draw your lines sitting at the same angle. I tried going from a stool to a chair at eye level with my piece. My lines were going the total wrong angle as the others.

Now you may see that almost none of my lines are perfect, but I say to you… the ones I put the time and effort in to make look the most “Mechanical” where done with those techniques. And besides, after the first layer went down, i really liked the look of the natural curves in my lines. Gave the piece a nice organic wood grain feel.

Alright no more stalling, now time for the explanation of the X.

The red X is an Idea that I’ve been wanting to do for a while now in a piece and I had briefly put thought into it when I first started the piece but then I just kinda pushed the thought into the corner. My personal feeling on the X and reason for wanting to add it is just to get the mind going to think about the sense of completion and self satisfaction in a piece, yet for the Artist to make a conscious decision to ‘Vandalize’ or ‘deface’ there own piece. This isn’t the only manifestation or idea that I’ve thought about to portray this concept. I plan on in the future making a series of very detailed and time consuming portraits containing a short written statement just over the face alone about the expression or whatever, similar to the one seen in AAA. Upon completion of the piece however, I just had an overwhelming feeling of lack of completion in it. I just didnt really feel that it was my style to make just a simple black and white image without any hint of color at all. I played around with a few ideas, but in the end i just kept coming back to this one.. It was just so drastic and shocking I just couldn’t even resist at least entertaining the idea. Well upon completion, I had initially posted the image under the title ‘Unto the Light’. but… It just got to the point where I had to do something color wise. After pretty much pacing around most of yesterday and weighing the pro’s and cons of doing this, I had posted a small mock up image to instagram. This may sound a little funny but….. a favorite street artist of mine from the UK named Adam Neate had liked the photo of the mock up on instagram…. and after that I just had to do it. In a very determined rush, I went straight home and without any more  thought, I just did it so i couldn’t second guess myself.

Now as you’ve probably already thought, why my own face. Well, thats what I said too, and If it wasn’t my own face, I wouldn’t have been so wishy washy about the idea, it would’ve been done in a split second. However the fact that It’s my own face throws all of that out the window sadly and adds another layer of complexity to the issue.

Lets start by saying, no, I’m not self loathing, nor am I an emotional person, nor do I have low self esteem. I will say however, If I had completed a second portrait in this same style and technique of a different subject matter, I would’ve added the X to the other piece.

The more and more I look at it, I love it, but at the same time, I don’t due to the reactions that I’ve gotten so far, however those are the same reactions I’m looking for, but I think people are failing to see the beauty in this piece drawing out the intended reaction that I’m looking for. The purpose this X serves is purely for form sake, not for symbolism or anything, yes there are other ways I could’ve added color to this piece, but I personally was stuck on the X and I wasn’t willing to risk any other idea. I have come to the conclusion though that I fired this idea too early and on the wrong subject, however I still think I can stand by it.

Just to kind of balance out the projected reacts I could get, I had to change the name of the piece to try and divert the focus from the view of the self concept to more of a negation of an Action concept. I’m tired of explaining this, just look already. Let me know how you personally interpret this however.. Alright my fingers are retiring for the day

In Joy we (T)Rust.

Prime Time.

Well… Where to start about this piece:

This piece was started way back in super late May following the Completion of Yuki San by about a week or so. This was also around the time I had gotten word about the commissioned work that I didn’t start till about 2-3 weeks after the initial talks. Started out same as always… just a loose sketch and what not, gradually adding details and what not.. well by the time I had actually built up enough steam to develop a drive to actually complete the piece, it was Commission time. The initial idea included a poem like text to be written in bold in the background in big bold Latin or Roman style font or whatever, from corner to corner of the page, had everything measured out and everything:

Then suddenly… what do you know, I’m in a crunch for time on my Commission. It got to the point where I had to stop work all together on this to finish up the commission because I was pushing the commission aside for this piece.. and I was completely sketched out for this by that time. Once I had finished the commission and I got back to this piece, I had totally all together lost my drive to complete it and the idea just severely bored me.

Well, I had made it that far, and I wasn’t to waste a nice clean sheet of Illustration board like that so what do I do? REPURPOSE.

originally it was all going to be black and white and have a very complete look to it.

After a quick brain power sesh, I decided to incorporate the colors that I’ve grown so fond of recently: The primaries. And as you can see from some of my earlier smaller kind of sketchbook and little sheet work… I’ve always had it out for the text inside the image work. This was finally my chance to do it on a larger scale. I am very pleased with the results, except for the fact of the colors in the top bird.. too much yellow too little red.. anyways, without further ado.. direct your attention to the lower half of this post….

Oh and if you really want to know what each bird says fully particularly the top one, stalk my instagram under the same name. I wasn’t in my right mind at the time and gave a little bit of background on the top bird in the close up I of the top bird.

Oh and I couldn’t help myself but I had to put in some Lazer eyes.

ENJOIRU.

To Bite the Hand that Fed You.

Well this was the first commissioned piece that I’ve ever done. Old friend from back in middle school wanted something for his mom and well…. this came about. While trying to move away from the intense line work of previous ink piece, I tried to focus mainly on color here and only shade where it was absolutely needed. The chains was a little bit of a struggle, as the reference image I had Taken was with string, so this is one of the first pieces I’ve done where I’ve had to fabricate an image into the original reference photo with some level of complexity. I don’t think i failed too horribly at it as seen here. However… I think this piece marks the downfall of my shortlived hand stint.. no more pure hands I thin– well hold that thought, I did have one really cool one I think somewhere floating in the back of my head somewhere.

INJOI.

Ohh, and.. Im on facebook…. I’ll just set this here.

https://www.facebook.com/liquidstreakz?ref=hl

 

Random series of Sketches and Miscellaneous work.

Really decided to focus on my line work in the two weird contour line ones.. A few ideas spawned out of those entries, but I think they just kinda fizzled out or have been reincorporated. Really kinda went a little heavy on the laser eyes, but I regret nothing. Got one bigger piece I’m gonna post soon incorporating the laser eyes that I feel worked quite well. I like the dancing one…. Really like the guy laying down with the laser eyes.

I must add, the last piece was a wall art piece that I did while experimenting with the translucent post it note book tabs, I just thought it made perfect sense judging from some of the watercolor paintings I had made in the past utilizing broken down color in individual streaks. That in turn sparked the watercolor piece that comes directly before it mainly based off the whole direction of line. I’ve only done color breakdowns in a certain direction for each color, however the wall art piece showed me direction of color can say a lot about a piece.

K enjoy

Forever

This was an oil adaptation from the same image I did in a quick watercolor sketch. Original one had the statement written on it (In Spite of Ulterior Motives). Again, was a play on my first impression of the facial expression.
I title this one forever however (I need to stop rhyming) because of the infinity symbol pattern I used in blending the middle of the face if you can see correctly. Really like the acrylic marker touch in the background f the solid lines. Breaks up the monotony of the pure oil pastel. I just love this medium so much due to how well it suspends expression and emotion in each “blend” or stroke.
Ok seeya Enjoy now.

AAA

Wow haven’t updated this in a while. I’ve got a few new pieces I’m gonna be posting over the day of new works that I’ve done recently. This is an oldie, from back in May. I really like the quick fashion that I did it in, and the simplicity of color in it really is amazing I think. No sketch with this one, just kinda went. This was the first painted portrait that I’ve wrote over and I really like the idea and am currently utilizing it in the current project I’m working on in ink. Will reincorporate it back into watercolor pretty soon however.

The short statement is my interpretation of the subjects facial expression involved. Any ways I’m done ranting, I’ve got like 8 more rants coming that my fingers aren’t looking forward to.

In Joy.

Bloc Party 2013. The Crowd makes a Difference.

Let me first start out by saying, Bloc Party, is my favorite band, in the the WHOLE world. I’ve been waiting to see them live for over 4 years (pretty much since I found out about them and rising jealousy over my sister nonchalantly seeing them twice, last night was the third for her). Over this course of 5 years I’ve become obsessed with them and have listened to ALL of their released material, (vaguely listened to the B side of A Weekend in the City, but they never play that material).

Now. With that said, Bloc Party, Portland. May 24th, 2013. I’ve been short term waiting for that show since I picked up the tickets back in February. I’m gonna admit, living in Ashland, Oregon (on literally the extreme opposite end of the state here) had a little bit of poor planning trying to make it up to the show and wasn’t even sure if I was going to make the show. FThankfully I ended up getting in there about 5 minutes before Bloc Party went on stage after an impromptu greyhound bus to Eugene, and a delayed ride from there. Very poor planning for a very important day in my life.

Now lets cut the background, and get straight to the Point here. I’ve had 5 years of dance and hardcore love for Bloc Party stuck in my bones. I’m going to dance and rock my heart out. I go into this ballroom and squeeze my way up to this like weird middle front area with a semi good view of the Band. So, Bloc Party starts playing, and Its Real Talk, not my favorite, but still I like it and I’m jamming out.
Everyone stands like statues around me. I quickly go through this internal internal dialogue of how hard to jam out in a boring crowd, and I kind of contain myself for like 1 and 1/2 songs. By the second song I was starting to get some funny looks from a bunch of, “hip” looking people in my vicinity. Kinda quelled my excitement for a split second– and then it hit me: This is a once in a lifetime like opportunity. An I going to let these posers around me dictate wether or not I’m going to enjoy myself? Hi I’m most likely never going to see again in my life?

NO.

At tha moment I just snapped and I was rocking out hardcore. Then the looks really started pouring in from all angles. All I could’ve thought at that moment was: You’re Not Ruining My Parade. I jammed out to every single song hardcore. When Coliseum hit, man I just went into the zone and I swear unfelt a circle of space form around me because I was just all over the place. I think I was responsible for the Mosh Pit on Price of Gas. And I was the human ping pong ball in Ares. The point is, I really just let loose and didn’t care after a point and did my own thing. I was drenched in swear by the end of the night.

Now:
The crowd. The Crowd The Crowd The Crowd.
I understand you may just be going to the concert for the experience or maybe something to do, or maybe because you really liked one of there older albums like silent alarm (more on that later, but still you must understand that there’s going to be a handful of people like myself who just want to rock out hardcore. Don’t sit there and shoot people funny looks because there trying to enjoy themselves and get there time with this glorious bands worth. Don’t try and look uncomfortable and be mad that people are bumping into you because your in the wrong venue and definitely the wrong spot to even try and look uncomfortable and mad. I admit, I participated in the mosh pit because the crowd was pissing me off and I had an excuse to shove and push people. I think one kid caught on at some point and tried to give me an extra shove after I had done the same. Looking back now, the whole experience was fun, but…. These crowds…….. These crowds kill me………. Ive made a decision that i will NEVER see Bloc Party live again in the US. I wan to see them live, but sfter reviewing dozens and dozens of live Bloc Party videos, the best crowds are in the UK… Portland was so lame last night. think I’m done rantin– wait, to the Bro Douche who was like “Man I just want some silent alarm, f— this new stuff where’s that silent Alarm at!”

No. There’s such thing as progress. And to expand not only your fan base and yourself musically, you have to be able to expand your style and change, while still of course keeping your unique sound and style which they have. Personally I think Four Material is very comparable and as amazing as Silent Alarm.

Wish they played Kettling though… ;'{

Ok I’m done officially.

Enjoy.

Taught. (2)

Blew it up onto a 16X20 illustration board… Over the last year I’ve seen soo much improvement, yet the road is still a very long road and It feels like I’ve only taken my first step.
Strings look better in this one.

Patience is very much a virtue.
Sketched this piece out for over 3 hours today (+2 previous) and then I work carefully not to smudge my lines, but the dreaded eraser comes into play, and lone behold, 2-3 smudge marks. Patience is an art form itself.