Spiral Bound.

I've taken a break from the portraits for a bit. I'm actually working on a series right now, as suggested by Ryan Callahan, but I won't disclose the three that I'm working on. I was cleaning out some things last week and found a small 3x5 spiral bound notepad that I've decided to make my sketchbook. It's great because it's so small. I draw in it, tape pictures in it, and write things down like notes and quotes. It's fun! I don't have much done in it, but here are a few cool pages.

Spock!

I saw Star Trek. I'm not a fan of Star Trek. Honestly, I'm more of Star Wars fan myself, but I gave it a shot. I literally clapped and screamed awesome at the end (two of my fellow art friends were in the theatre as well; one of which being Micaela Ruiz). So this is dedicated to Spock. This is a combo of Leonard Nimoy (old Spock) and Zachary Quinto (new Spock). I decided to save myself some clean up time by doing this via photoshop. Live long and prosper!

Graduation Day!

If you had asked me a month and a half ago if I would be graduating, the answer would've been questionable. I had such a rough semester that I honestly didn't think I would be graduating. I hadn't done much work (well I did, but it was terrible) and my attendance wasn't that great, but at the end, I cranked the volume from 0 - 10 and worked my butt off! I created an entire body of new work (the portraits) and I made up for my lacking attendance by helping the department set up for the student show (that debuts tomorrow). All of the hard work paid off when I walked across that stage and took my family and friends to see my wall (pictured below). It was a real treat seeing everyone's walls finished and congratulating one another on 4+ years of hard work and dedication to our school and craft. Tomorrow is opening night. I really hope I sell some work, but I'm excited for everyone to see it. 2009 is flying by and graduating from CCS is my biggest achievement yet. Thank you to everyone that has supported me along the way. Also, I was interviewed and featured in the most recent issue of "C" which is the alumni relations magazine through CCS. Matt Chung and Bailey Isgro were also featured; everything's on pages 4 & 5. You can check it out by click HERE!

MJ & Wall-E.

I had some extra spots on my senior wall that needed to be filled so I planned on pulling an all nighter last night, BUT exhaustion got the best of me and I fell asleep only to wake up at 9 this morning and FREAK OUT. We had to have our walls finished by noon and I still had 2 pieces to do so I set to work! In 2 hours, I busted out both of these! I apologize for the pictures, but I didn't have time to scan them so I took a quick picture and left to finish setting up at school. Michael Jackson ruled during his Thriller era and Wall-E killed the big screen with his debut. These two characters along with the others I've been posting will be for sale at the College for Creative Studies' Student Exhibition Opening this friday through the end of May. I'm selling the originals in really cool frames for only $80 each! Stop by, see my wall, enjoy the work, and direct people toward it! If nothing else, stop by and say hi! I graduate tomorrow and Friday is the opening so the next post will have pictures of graduation/opening night. I'll come up with a new piece by Monday so stay tuned for that. Enjoy the work and have a fun weekend everybody!

Alf!

As the pickiest human being on the planet, pizza is my favorite food. However, Alf's favorite food is cats. I don't like cats myself (as food I mean), but I'm not an Alien Life Form so I guess I wouldn't. This is America's favorite alien, Alf!I graduate in 2 days. It hasn't hit me yet, but I am nervous and excited and a little bit scared. Also, I have been working hard on putting my senior wall up so I will post pictures of that after graduation.

Larry King.

America's favorite interviewer; Larry King.

Joaquin Phoenix.

Although Joaquin Phoenix flipped out awhile ago on Letterman, I decided it was still pretty necessary to create a portrait of him. I found this really great picture of him online and I cut his hands out and used them in this portrait because I think it helps the whole crazy angle. I don't know if Joaquin is crazy, but he is GREAT and it's all because of this guy that I got my spark back. Thanks, Joaquin.

Also, I received an email & did an interview. You can read it if you'd like HERE.

Wolverine & Susan Boyle.

I'm all about Celebrity Portraiture/Iconic figures. That's what the next couple of weeks are going to be about. Let's start things off with Wolverine (also known as Hugh Jackman) and Susan Boyle. I just look at this piece of Wolverine and I laugh so hard because of his muscles and his claws and I love Susan Boyle because she is Britain's under dog. It's all about mixed media these days. Rock and roll.

Obama-Rama!

I started this piece back in January and just got around to finishing it up. I was fortunate enough to actually attend the inauguration with my long time friend, Zack, and what an event it was. I've never been much into politics, but I've always been a fan of history and to say that I was at an event like this was overwhelming for me. I also think the fact that it was an unplanned adventure added to it being overwhelming; in a good way.I did this using ink and a nib and I also used acrylic and cut paper.

The following is from Obama's inauguration speech. It was pretty inspirational/moving to hear it in real life and to be surrounded by over a million Americans, all eager to stand together, and believe as a whole. People eager to believe that things can change and, over time, they will.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.

Epic Return.

This entire year I've been fighting what I really enjoy doing. I've been trying to paint, I've used colored pencils, I did pen and ink, and a whole lot of other things in between, when all along, I was ignoring what I truly enjoyed and what I truly enjoy is cutting things out of paper. I've taken it to a new level and I now paint paper and cut that out, but the thing is; I see things in shapes and I like to make shapes and cut them out. It's FUN and I thoroughly enjoy it; I LOVE IT. So, it took me until the end to have a moment of clarity and, by then, I had an entire semester's worth of crap-work and I decided to get rid of all of it and do a bunch of cut outs and they looked better than all five of my paintings combined. I've got a long way to go and I know that, BUT I feel great about everything and I'm excited to show you what I've been working on. Forgive me for my absence (yet again), but I'm back for GOOD. The first piece was circus themed done in illustrator and photoshop. The second piece was for the Detroit Zoo and I did it in Photoshop. I didn't get to turn it in, but I did it anyway.

Stephen Schudlich.

I have no excuse for being absent. I have just been taking some time off. After almost 3 months, I think I'm back in the game. MAKE A STEVE. TAPE IT UP!

Giacometti!

For our final piece in Senior Studio, I wanted to play around with my cut paper idea, but instead of regular paper, I decided to paint paper and then cut it out. I drew the hands on wallpaper with pencil and cut those out and the eyes belong to Elvis Costello. I thought they were perfect. I think the concept behind this piece is really interesting so I'm going to share it here. It's one thing to see an image and it's another to understand the idea behind it. This is based off of a blind contour I did of the swiss sculptor, Giacometti. In Art History, I learned that he was a really stand up guy and everyone liked him, but it was later discovered (I don't remember how) that every time he met a woman, he would think of ways to kill her. So with this piece, I wanted to make his eyes and hands the focal point. I originally had eyes for him, but I thought that these eyes were better because it's as though he has masked intentions and the fact that these eyes are looking off might give someone a questionable feeling (maybe anxiety?) and his hands have rough, sketched lines because he was a sculptor and relied on his hands (but also wanted to kill women with his hands). I did a lot of messing around in photoshop so this is Tradigital (traditional and digital) and I think I am going to explore this process further over.

Robots Revisited.

I am revisiting the robots. What can I say, I love them. I reprinted them and wanted a silkscreened look and, most importantly, I wanted color. The color is done using watercolor. So, I'm done with this set. I'll have to draw a new set over break.This past Saturday was Noel Night here in Detroit and it's one of the most festive nights EVER. Anyway, my good friend Chris Houghton was doing caricatures and he offered to do one of me, for me! What a treat. He did a fantastic job and I gave him the liberty to give me a really red nose (in reference to Joe Sorren or the Puffs commercials; depending on how you look at it).I'm really starting to notice how small the network is around these parts. Mike and Vince were talking about filling a sketchbook over break and Vince told me about it and I told Chris. As for the challenge, I might just try to fill a sketchbook over break. It would take me so much work to do it, but I think it'd be worth it. I am also going to be doing one piece of art a day and posting it to my blog over break (like Chris Houghton's Dailies).

In 4 days I will be comatose for about 3 days.
Then I will wake up and do some work.

Long Time, No See!

This is an experimental piece for senior studio. This semester my work hasn't really been that cohesive, but at least I'm not being a stick in the mud!

Get Em While They're Hot!

This was more of an experiment/challenge than anything else. I wanted to try to fuse the drawing with the cut out technique. I also wanted to make the grill using silver foil to see how it would translate once scanned. I like Tony. I would probably buy one of those sno-cones from him.

Senior Studio & Blind Contours.

We've got a new president and I've got some new work! I've been getting back into painting and, as a result, I've produced these images. The first one is Butch Walker. Butch Walker is one of my favorite musicians (ever) and this is a sort of homage to him. With both of these assignments, I wanted to take a new approach to my work. I read in Illustration Now that there's this illustrator that starts his work out with a blind contour so he isn't influenced by a style so I did that with these. Basing my idea/sketch off of a blind contour, I was able to rely on my hand as opposed to outside influence. I really like working this way because, as my dear friend Maria Filar pointed out, I'm not trying to make it realistic. Here's the initial sketch that the painting was based off. I really liked the sketch a lot and I think I may go back and try to do something with it, but here it is:And here's the finished painting; rendered on wood using gouache and mixed media:I finished this assignment up yesterday and handed it in today for critique. It's based off of Eric from Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. Eric has a really great hat collection so I put his crown hat on him because he is a king! I mostly wanted to experiment and just have fun with this piece and my mission was accomplished. I used acrylic (as opposed to gouache) and some mixed media:

Land Ho!

It's Halloween (Happy Halloween!) and I can't BELIEVE that time has flown the way it has. I was thinking about back in the day when time probably didn't fly by so fast. Take Christopher Columbus for instance, he was on a boat for a long time (approximately 588 days) and I can't imagine that time flew by during those days. This is my version of Columbus. I didn't want to be influenced by anything so I did this from my head; although I was subconsciously influenced by Lane Smith. I came up with the sketch while having a dinner rendezvous with some friends at Applebee's a few weeks back. The other night I was really inspired around 5 am and decided to do a finish using cut paper/found paper. I guess you could say I'm starting to do construction/paper cut outs again.

Big News: Shirt Style.

This is a big post for me. I mean, I think it's a huge deal, but it might not be to you. It's not everyday that this happens though so I am just going to say it's a big deal and that's that. So remember this little diddy?Well, I stated back before summer started that it was going to be on a shirt, but I wasn't sure if it would happen. After all, seeing is believing (although some will say believing is seeing. I like both) and so today at 9 am I get a text message from a dear friend by the name of Brandi Keeler that says, "Is that supposed to be me on your shirt?!" and I was SO EXCITED to get to school. I didn't rush right over to student life, but when I did get there, I was jumping around (leaping is more like it) and I was all smiles and to top it off, they are using the shirts for our GEEK WEEK (which we celebrate at CCS. It's a week long event of competitions between departments and big fun in general). Dan Long probably thought I was insane, but this is a big deal! You know when musicians say they're always really excited and weirded out when they hear their song on the radio for the first time? That's what this was, minus the weird part. So, I took this overzealous picture (using photobooth even though it takes horrible pictures) of myself displaying the shirt:
I want to really give a huge shout out to Bryan Durren though. He was my teacher in the winter semester prior to school ending. If it wasn't for him, I never would've had the opportunity to do this piece or to have it picked so, THANK YOU, BD!

Heath Ledger/The Joker.

Heath Ledger. What a guy. Hands down, best actor in history because of his role in The Dark Knight (which majorly pwns 2008). I seriously can't get over this movie. I'm beyond obsessed with it. It's The Joker! I will be The Joker for Halloween as well, but anyway, this is kind of stiff, but I wanted it to mirror his stiff movement.

Circus: 5 Cents!

I am obsessed with the circus. Wait, let me rephrase that, I'm obsessed with OLD circuses and the idea of the circus. Last time I went to the circus, it was a Shriner's circus and I was 12. I also rode the Tilt-A-Whirl 13 times and threw up after, but back to the circus. I think clowns are bizarre and I find it interesting that people are afraid of them. My sister doesn't like clowns. I wanted to play with the idea that this clown is creepy and not exactly trustworthy even though it's selling goodies to people and children. I also messed with clipping masks and texture and that was fun. On a side note that kind of relates to clowns, but not really, I enjoy Tod Browning's FREAKS. It's a great black and white movie about real life freaks from 1932. Watch it!

My Relationship With Wall-E.

I can barely put into words the awe I experienced when I saw Pixar's Wall-E. There was nothing more adorable than this little robot and the fact that he exhibited so much emotion. The movie itself was fantastic (including the 20 minutes without dialogue and only sound effects) and I got to see it on someone else's dime. I suggest everyone see this movie. It has my heart. Beware, it's a tear-jerker

I'm Back From NYC!

Well I'm back in Michigan and I can't say I'm happy about it. The conference was great. I met a lot of really cool people (you'll be hearing from me soon, guys!) and I had a good time. I got to see fireworks and eat pizza, but I didn't find Ben Bailey or his cash cab. There's always next time.

ICON5, Say What?

I am in the process of stressing out over everything. I am making business cards that have my genie image on the front (but I have to edit the iphone text out) and I'm hoping to get them by the time I leave for New York City on Wednesday evening. I wish I had thought of this sooner, but alas, I did not. So, what's this New York business I speak of? I will be attending ICON5 (the Illustration Conference) and it will be held at the above image which is the Roosevelt Hotel. I really cannot put into words how thrilled I am about this. It's going to be such a great experience. I think I will get a lot out of this and I am really looking forward to seeing Cathy Gendron again. I will try to do as much sketching as possible and I look forward to sharing my experience with everyone when I get back. My goals for this trip are listed below in no particular order:

To Do in NEW YORK CITY:
1) Pizza.
2) Find Ben Bailey/Cash Cab.
3) Exchange as many business cards as possible.
4) Make friends!
5) Not get mugged.
6) Stay out late and roll with the homies.

Sweet Summer.

I scold myself for abandoning this blog the way I have. Shame on me, but I have been extremely busy. This summer is already flying by and it makes me want to vomit. How is already June? HOW? I don't know. I haven't been doing much art because unfortunately work has been consuming me and my free time, but that's all going to change. This piece is kind of old. It was the last piece I did in Image Making 2 and it was for an iphone ad. I did this on Illustrator. It took forever. Not kidding.I was also told by my boss, Carla Gonzalez, I had to come up with dinosaur trading cards for the Arts Fest down here in Detroit that just passed (June 7 & 8) and that was a lot of fun. I created the cards using illustrator. We printed them off on cardstock, stapled them, and the kids got to decorate them as they saw fit. They mostly used glitter though. It was a great feeling seeing kids color these cards. The cropping is kind of weird because Carla wanted them big enough for the kids to color and that wasn't possible if the entire body was in there, but they still worked out fine.

They're Gr-r-eat!

There's nothing I love more than a good ol' bowl of Frosted Flakes in the morning! I'm kidding. I think I hate Frosted Flakes. I've never even had FF before. Anyway, I did this for my history class. We were supposed to pick something that defined American History via illustration so Tony called me and said, "Hey I can be that guy!" I went for a modern meets vintage appeal. I used a lot of different textured paper. His scarf is made from the inside of an envelope! Anyway, big fun.

If I Could Be Anyone...

I'd be Slash. Slash is pretty cool and confident. If I was a boy, I'd like to look like him. He's got BA written all over him! I did this a couple weeks ago and realized an update is long over due. Plus, Matt Byle (check his stuff to the right) left me a comment screaming about an update. Slash is made from construction paper and a piece of painted paper (hair). My birthday is Friday! I'm going to be 21!

Bloody England.

I finished up my next project in Chuck's class. it's a little different in subject matter and that excites me the most. I've always wanted to go to England and with my friend Nikki over there, I can't help but wonder what it's like and also feel a tad jealous. So I told Chuck this could be used for a post card. I was able to scan all of my progress from start to finish and it's an interesting transition. I actually might go back and play with the original little guy because he's a lot of fun. The finished product is done in construction paper and some pen used on the face. I wasn't sure whether to use the black skyline or the gray (to separate the guard from the background).

Logo.

I did this logo for BBC kids in our Image Making 2 class. Considering I had 2 hours to start it and finish it, I'm pretty pleased with the end result. Originally my colors were purple with orange lettering, but I changed them for some reason.