Project 365 Photo: Day One and Today

January 1st, 2009

January 2nd, 2009

Please Vote for My Video for this Scholarship Entry!

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And you can possibly win $1000 as well in a random drawing, just for voting! Please hurry though if you can, the voting process concludes on September 25th. Thanks for any and all support!

Jazzy Artistry-A Short Film!

This is my short film entry for FastWeb’s “Why I Deserve a Scholarship” contest. If you enjoyed this short film of mine, please vote for it on the contests’ website here. Voting ends September 15th, so link to all your pals and help an aspiring artist out.

http://www.whyideserveascholarship.com

Thank you for voting, commenting, and mostly thanks for watching!

Direct link to video:
http://www.whyideserveascholarship.com/video/show/11726

Back to Basics: Where Is My Sketchbook?!

Today I visited Parsons The New School of Art and Design for an information session about the school. It’s definitely one of the colleges at the top of my list that I plan to apply to. The most informative thing in my case from the session was the portfolio requirements/outlook.

The admissions rep gave a good analogy of what they’re looking for in portfolio submission. The analogy being: a reality show he came across in which women were auditioning for a modern dance production. Much of the styles performed included “modern” taste such as hip-hop, etc. The lady who must have been the head of production demanded the women show ballet skills. When one of them questioned the request, the lady responded (paraphrase), “How can I teach you this if you do not have a good understanding of your fundamentals.”

So essentially, I fully realize what I need to place in my portfolio. Over the next few months you’ll be seeing a lot of conceptual and traditional works representing the principles and main elements. Since the community is so great here, perhaps those with the full-fledged experience and everyone else who is knowledgeable can aid me in my selection process. I need to get a damn sketchbook ASAP. Make that two…actually three. Lol.

Peace.

Wrapping Things Up

So, the past four weeks have been a blast in all honesty. The Reelworks teen filmmaking program I’ve participated in this summer has been a worthwhile experience. I really enjoyed the tie in it had with Urban Word, a teen spoken word organization. I must say, I’ve gained a whole new respect and like for the art of poetry and the spoken word. Yes, it’s all art. I’m grateful of being able to expand my talents productively as well as enjoy doing it very much in this setting. It is certainly a confidence boost.

I hate to just describe the experience instead of showing it, but my work for the summer program is being weapped up. We’re doing a showcase/performance at the NewYorican poetry club next Wednesday. It’s crazy because it’s a famous and world renowned poetry club, and it’s also my first experience of being on that stage that has been blessed with so many famous folks. I’m really excited for what will ensue. The performance will be recorded, so I plan to have that and my two short films posted on some video site in the near future for you all to check out.

Just checking in, peace.

Murakami’s Magnificence-SuperFlat

You know, it’s a deep thing when an artist asks himslef/herself what is the purpose of their work. Does it just merely have a visual value? Is their a message in the artwork? What do I want whoever is viewing to feel or think about? These questions lead to the method of visioning. Then, from that point, the artist creates. It puts the viewer in their state of mind, and on the flip side indulges the viewer’s own perception. This is what I experienced at the Murakami exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Arts. Truly, this man is a household name, now on a global scale, due to his unique artistry, influence on certain media outlets and portrayal of contemporary messages through his art.

I was dazzled by the first pieces I saw. They were larger versions of Murakami san’s latest designs for the Luis Vuitton company. The Super Flat eyes and mushroom-vine running across the bottom of one piece looked so unique. The bubble spaces that included more wondrous patterns blended with the company logo totally caught my eye, and had me gazing nearly at every object in the illustration. With design like that being placed on expensive bags and clothing accessories, a consumer’s materialism can be totally justified .

Moving further into the exhibit, it felt more and more like we were going into Murakami san’s imagination. There were dozens of iterations of his most famous “Mr. DOB” caricature, and each of them had their own distinctive message and artistic twist. Additionally, what I viewed became more magnificent. There was an entire room dedicated to his Kaikai Kiki characters, mainly the flowers. The room was totally embellished in it, and seriously, it was as if I were walking in a dream.

There is a lot that I appreciate about Murakami san’s art. Firstly, the raw visual aspect is amazing. That is saying a lot because beneath the surface, one can stamp it as simple vector art. Then again, it is his  very own Super Flat style. What his artwork may lack in shading, realistic textures and other relative details makes up for most notably with color and creativity. The range of color swatches he uses instantly makes his art standout with such vibrancy. Also, the majority of his two-dimensional art utilizes distinct composition to display the creative details. For instance, his Kaikai Kiki flower piece. Hundreds of them are stacked upon each other. This is also where the detail of the SuperFlat style play its role. Many of the Kaikai Kiki flowers have their own facial expression. Simple details like that show the amount of effort put into the artwork.

Murakami san’s creativity draws its influence and delivers influence. He takes contemporary themes  and messages from modern day Japanese culture. For example, there is one piece in the exhibit that portrays his vivid and uniquely colorful mushroom design. The backgrond of the piece has a pixelated look. Now, here is a question for the readers, what famous item of entertainment from Japan combines mushrooms and pixels? On of the most poignant themes of his contemporary artistry from the gallery is the Hiropan statue and the corresponding male version. Both symbolize the popularity of Hentai entertainment in Japan. It is quite thoughtful and bold in Murakami san’s case to present it as art, since the context of Hentai is very, explicit.

The influence of his art continues. A lot of his characters and brand-name images identify with the cutsey, vibrant and bright spectrum of manga and anime illustration. The look of it reflects with people from other industries. Take a good view of the A Bathing Ape brand, or even the Kid Robot clothing line. A lot of the graphics derive from the Super Flat style. Another example is rapper Kanye West’s album cover for Graduation. The cover art is totally designed by Murakami san. Truly his influence cannot be denied in today’s modern age.

A lot of critics compare Murakami san to Andy Warhol, which is accurate because Super Flat does have a pop-art feel. He artistically portrays the trends and varying themes of modern Japanese culture and soceity in such a creative way. It is to the point where the influence crosses over to other countries like the United States. These are signs of a powerful artist. He justifies his artistic brilliance even more by making a brand name out of it, thus showing another aspect of success slightly different from Warhol. I am inspired by what I saw at the exhibit. It shows me the power of art, whether it is traditional or digital.

Like Logos?

With the help of a tutorial from Layers Magazine website, I constructed this logotype of my company Blah-Dow! Multimedia, with some southern style y’all, lol. It is an extension of effort to become more and more comfortable with using Adobe Illustrator. Much of this was done using Illustrator filters (something I messed with for the very first time today). Feedback is gladly appreciated.

Link for the tutorial [link]

Kill Smiley-The Redux

Okay, I edited the piece some more by adding a text pattern relative to the focal point, the smiley. So spot which interwebz lingo is there, lol. Oh wait, I just gave one away!

New Illustration-”Kill Smiley”

*Click on thumbnail for a larger size!*

Here is my first art piece using only Adobe Illustrator CS3. I’m still very much in a training stage with this wonderful program, and I wish to learn to texturize this piece some more, but that will wait til I become more advanced.

I would really appreciate feedback of this illustration as a whole, from the concept to the coloring, just let know what you think of it. thanks a bunch.

OMG TV!

Hello, hello, hello! Yes, I know, I’ve been a jerk by not posting or updating or anything of the like. But please believe, you WILL be seeing a lot more content around here. Why? Yesterday was my last day of classes at high school! So long junior year.

So for tonight, I’d figure I show you fine folks some cool stuff. During the spring semester at the NYU STEP program I attend, my classmates and I produced a “TV show.” Well, it won’t be broadcasted on TV, so let’s just call it a webshow. With that said, we made three webisodes. So check em’ out, and tell me what you think. All logos and graphics are by me of course.

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Feedback please.

Have a good night folks.