Should I be listening during this unnecessarily long conference call? Probably. Was I listening? Not really. “Poo-Tweet-Weet?”
Tag: art
Master Chief-Watercolor & Marker
To be fair, I’m not sure if I can legally call this a watercolor painting. I’m no mathematician, but I’m guessing that at least 50% of this image is the Sharpie marker I used for the black vectoring. Regardless, I still like it. I actually liked it more without the color but what’s done is done now. This piece was sort of an experiment for me. You see, though I just posted lots of other artwork in the last few weeks, this piece predates all of my earlier post from this past week. This was my first official work on canvas in over 8 years. I have dabbled intermittently with different types of art in the last decade, but not very often. I knew I was ready to get back into creating new things, and I figured there was no better way to get my inspirational juices going than to sit down and work on my favorite character ever.
The Master Chief!
I know a lot of people say they are fans of a character, but when I tell you I am a superfan… I mean it
I am a SUPERFAN!
I might be posting more about my costume here in the future, stay tuned!
Thanks for your time.
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Mario Bead Party
Have you ever been in a store and seen someone shopping in an aisle that just didn’t seem quite right? Like a kid in the medicine aisle, a teenage boy in the woman’s underwear aisle, or a grown man in the toy aisle? I witnessed one of these scenarios today, only because they had changing mirrors next to me in the women’s underwear department… I kid… or do I? Seriously now, I was the man in the third scenario today. In my defense, however, my inner child was probably on full display.
I was at my local Michaels arts and crafts store picking up new brushes, a simple enough task, except I always end up veering off into other isles because I have the attention span of a squirrel and there are a lot of shiny things in that store. Fast forward twenty minutes and I find myself in the children’s isle fawning over this packet of perler beads that promise me a picture of Mario if I place them in the correct order and hit ’em with some heat. I never heard of “perler” beads before, but a quick Google confirmation search proved that they work. (I did find them in the girls toy aisle… still not sure why that is a thing but whatever).
Anyway, 3+ hours and $8 later, I present you with the following.
Needless to say, this isn’t a sponsored post, I really just enjoy getting my supplies @ Michaels. If you are interested in doing this project yourself you can find the kit HERE.
Thanks for your time!
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Majora’s Mask-Watercolor
Majora’s Mask is one of the most iconic symbols in video game history. Everything about the mask from its color scheme to its multiple horns and oversized eyes leaves a haunting impression on the viewer that is impossible to forget. As an artist, one of my favorite things about drawing or painting Majora’s Mask, something I have done quite a few times, is that you can change a lot of the small details while retaining the fundamental shape of the mask and still end up with a highly recognizable piece of art.
It is one of my favorite projects to experiment with. For semi-beginning artists, I like to suggest they draw Majoras Mask due to its ability to hide errors in your line work. As you will see below, that is exactly what I had to do with this piece. Regardless of my alterations, it is easy to see just from the first lines of the sketch what is being created.
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Art & Woodworking
As you can tell from the above image, I have acquired quite a bit of art supplies over the course of my life. Recently I decided that a new way of storing my supplies was in order, so I drew up an idea in my mind for a storage box. My criteria for the box were simple, it needed to be functional, simple, not an eyesore, and made from recycled wood and parts.
To begin, I went into my wood storage and quickly found exactly what I was looking for… Not long after I purchased my home, I removed the fireplace mantle and installed a custom built television mount (A whole separate project). I kept the wood from the mantle and decided it would work great for this project. You can see pictures from the television mount project below.
The wood from the mantle, as you can see, was solid oak with a wood stain. I had planned to take photos of the art box project as it went along. Unfortunately, I simply forgot and completed the whole thing in a rush due to time constraints. Below is the completed project. 
As you can see from the last photo I am still quite short on space. I am using my computer desk as my art area which is another problem I intend to fix with my next project. I intend to build my own drafting table, possibly incorporating my art box into the design. Regardless, I will document the whole process with photos. I may even record the process, though I am a bit camera shy so that is still up in the air.
Thank you for your time.
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Link
Typically I have a story I like to share about the artwork I create. This piece, however, has no story. I felt the creative itch once again after a long dry spell and this was one of the first ideas I had for a new painting. It took me roughly 4 hours to complete. Below you will find photos I took of the whole process. Please feel free to leave any creative feedback or suggestions for other works in the comments.
PART 1: The Sketch
PART 2: Line Work
PART 3: Line Work Cont.
PART 4: Shading 
PART 5: Green Watercolor
PART 6: Brown Watercolor
PART 7: Yellow Watercolor
Part 8: Finished 
Thanks for your time!
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Growing Pains Expressed In Art
I was twenty years old, give or take a year, when I drew this picture. It was back in the 2007-2008 time frame. I was a freshly minted father who was freshly unemployed due to the housing market crash of 2007. All I had was a G.E.D (General Education Diploma), no marketable skills, and no idea what I was supposed to do. After loosing my apartment, my car, and my unemployment income, I did the only thing I knew how to do in order to cope with stress at the time. I began to draw.
I sat down one night and let my hands do the work. I still don’t remember drawing this, but I remember the feeling of being incredibly angry and depressed all at once. The unnamed feeling we all go through when life introduces us our new limits of expectation. I was trying to sum up my life at that point in one image, one drawing. I wanted to express all the pain and damage I was feeling. It worked, for me at least. I look at this image and it still sends a shiver down my spine.
Those times were tough and terrifying, but I dealt with it as best as I could. Through my art and my writing… I was able to get everything out in the open so I could think clearly, and make a plan. Having the ability to cope in this way was quite possibly the thing that changed my life around. I went through my emotions and worked things out with myself so that I could accept everything that had happened and begin working on the next step in my life. That next step happened to be enlisting in the U.S. Army.
I thought life was hard before joining the Military, and it was in its own special ways, but the Army was a whole different beast entirely. Luckily I still had my way of dealing with it.
Art…
…isn’t always about making a pretty picture.
Sometimes you just need the art to display a certain emotion or feeling. Something it is a feeling you maybe can’t put into words. It won’t always make sense to others but it doesn’t always have to. The image above may seem exceptionally violent, and it is. But there is more to see here. That image is a representation of my life in the Army killing my old idea of how to live. Basically I am shooting myself in some sort of convoluted grandfather-paradox nightmare, if you will. The military toughened me up for sure, made me more resilient to life and all of its woes. Though life is better these days, I do occasionally come across bits of stress that need to be sorted out and filed away, thus….
….I was created. A sarcastic web cartoon character with horrible hair, a crooked mustache, and killer abs. Thanks for reading, sorry for the anti-climatic ending.
