Charcoal Studies

Each of these is a different charcoal study. The first one is a still of objects I use when I am sick. The second is about where the cards fall. I taped and hung cards and strung them over my hand. The last one is a diagnostic drawing of a skull and drum. 

Home Sick

Let Chance Land Where It Will

Diagnostic Skull

Remember Death's Scent 

This piece started as a three skull study. Later I added a self portrait with bone exposed. The flower was the last addition. This piece is about changing your plans midway through. 

Would You Like a Drink?

My first attempt at color with Nupastel. Most of the color is arbitrary. Needless to say, color is hard.

Care for a sip?

These Are Not the Droids You're Looking For

Messing with color, Nupastel. A still life of a city scape made of ordinary objects. Shadows are cool colors and highlights are warm colors. 

Eggs. That is all.

Peering At You From Across the Room

Full spectrum still life in Nupastel. No black. 

Full Spectrum Still Life

 Me, Myself and I

This is a series, and investigation of U.S. relations with the world. Stereotypes are thrown around without a second thought. I want my viewers to consider how those people would think if they overheard those offhand comments. To force this, I drew three self portraits of myself in different cultures.

Myself in Africa.

Myself in Asia.

Myself as Muslim.

Line Dynamics

Not all lines are straight and clean. In fact lines can be dashed, dotted, twisted and manipulated in so many ways. Using both actual and implied line I created two pieces. One was before critique and the other is after critique. Contrast and directional force were considered in these pieces. 

The bottom is before and the top is after.

Line Transformation

Manipulation of line is what makes this piece important. Keeping the spirit of the lines directional force, I straightened and lengthened them to create a dynamic piece. The transformation has visual steps but is not sudden or abrupt. 

The progression from organic to geometric line.

Line and Shape Dynamics

Line and shape are one of the building blocks of art. Using different scales, thicknesses and crosshatching of lines and shapes I created four dynamic quadrants with depth. 

The four quadrants.

Texture

This project investigates textures and how they can be represented. Using blending and full value scales I used pencil to create the most realistic copy of the dynamic texture swatch. Texture  is important to depict accurately if you want to get your point across. 

Comparison of the drawing and the actual piece.

Practicing With Color

As an artist, knowing color like the back of your hand is very important. Creating our own color wheels and mixing colors using only the primaries teaches about how colors work together. Using paint and pencil I created a color wheel and thumbnails of color swatches. 

This shows progression from blue to grey, orange to purple, and the color spectrum. 

Color Wheel

Investigation of Color

Color is very dynamic when carefully manipulated. When two colors that are true compliments are set next to one another they vibrate visually. Using Adobe Photoshop I created dynamic vibrating images.

If this image is giving you a headache, it is doing its job. 

Deconstruction Abstraction

Taking something old and making it new is a big part of art. For this assignment we took an image of architecture and cut it up into quadrants. We then took the quadrants and rearranged them in a new and dynamic way. Connecting and extending the lines to fit your purpose and tastes. From there we did a pencil drawing exactly like the images we cut up. From there we added color to a section.

The final pencil drawing. 

The imported color version.

Dynamic Cube

Two dimensional design is not limited to flat surfaces. They can be applied to create dynamic three dimensional objects such as a cube. Using a color scheme (warm, in my case) and line you can draw the viewer's eye around the cube. By connecting the lines and color fields it create a continuous piece. To enhance the piece I created perspective drawings of doors and windows to make it seem like you can enter the cube. The cubes were created with a combination of Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. 

One of the sides of the cube showing my handmade wood texture. 

The top panel shows my favorite image of the door. 

The use of gradient to show depth. 

The full view of the unfolded cube. You can see where the lines and color fields connect.

Tattoo Design

The purpose of this exercise is to create a dynamic tattoo in remembrance of something. The tattoo had to pull from a contemporary artist's style. I decided to remember my dog Snoopy who was killed by a truck a few years ago. It was a rough time in my life and I cherish how my family bonded over that day. I used the semi anonymous street artist Banksy as my inspiration for the style of my tattoo. The process of creating this design started with sketches and scanning them into photoshop. With photoshop  and a drawing tablet I manipulated the images to create the key and simulated images.

This is the final presentation of the tattoo. It includes artist inspirations and in progress pictures.

This is the black and white key of the tattoo. You can see the graffiti style stencil of the truck. 

The colored version of the tattoo on simulated skin to test how the colors affect the design. 

Another simulated image of the tattoo on the arm location. 

The final product executed in permanent marker and acrylic paint.

Overall it was a great learning experience. I feel more at peace with the death of Snoopy and realize how close my family can be.