"Clutter"

This was my first foray into the world of "Illustration Friday" where artists are given a new topic every Friday and each person submits their own interpretation of the given topic. Fortunately for me they accept new illustrations the whole week!

I took a very abstract, geometric approach to this topic. I actually made several sketches of this over the last couple days, but it wasn't until I searched through my own clutter and found my old set of inking pens that finally decided to go that route. Its been years since drawing ink-on-mylar, so of course, all of the pens were completely dried and clogged. After over an hour of cleaning nibs, fate rewarded me by only allowing one pen-weight to work.

Here goes anyway!

CD Label Leftovers

Made this arrangement with a mess of those center stickers that are leftover from printed CD labels. Sometimes I just can't bear to throw away something mostly useless that I find while cleaning...

Retro Week '08 Last Day

For the final day of "Too Lazy To Post Anything New" Week, I went under the bed to find an acrylic painting from a few years ago. Pretty sure I was still in school when I made this one... or at least coming to the end of those formative years... I picked this one because it was probably one of the precursors to all the collages I have been making lately. Also, i haven't shown a painting in a while.

I like the idea behind it and color, but of course- this painting (acrylic done on illustration board!) could be improved upon in so many ways if done today. Perhaps that's why its been stored under the bed!


And that wraps up Retro Week 2008. I will have to remember to do this again next year. Tune in tomorrow when I'll start posting some backlogged new material. The recently reorganized (and merged) art supplies and office may also yield some interesting explorations in the weeks to come.

Retro Week... Day 6

Today I dug out a REALLY old sketchbook, and found something to post here. The sketchbook was from Junior-High. I liked drawing and even has mild aspirations of becoming a cartoonist. I was also really into Star Wars at the time. Unfortunately... I was really horrible at drawing people. I think thats probably a big reason why I decided on Architecture. I could draw, get paid and not draw people. So I thought this crappy sketch would be a fitting addition to "Retro Week".

When I brought the sketchbook by the window to get some natural light for the photo, I was interrupted and something far more comical ensued. I have added captions of what it looked like Rufus the cat was thinking when he decided to critique my work...

"What are you doing by my window? Ah I see, let me take a look..."

"Alright, man, I'm going to give you my honest opinion..."

"IT SUUUUUCCCCKKKKSSS!!!!!!"

"But please... you must draw me instead. I insist!"

Retro Week - Day Five

Took a quick photo out of an old sketchbook on this one. Again... the simple ball-point pen makes ink drawings look all shadey. Actually, most of teh sketchbook was filled with irregular doodles fighting against the blue grid of the paper.

OK, its not very exciting but I am tired and unambitious after a long day...

Retro Week... Day 4!

Fall 2001... programmatic study of Gregory Ain's Dunsmuir Flats... The full model of this was 12"x12" and when we presented these, the entire class put them all together on a table... it turned out pretty cool - all of the pieces fitting together... Can't seem to find an image of the class compilation, though. I have a piece of this model in my possession still, it is one of the few physical models I actually kept from school. I must have spent hours sanding these little pieces. sanding, painting, sanding... painting again... more sanding. Then finally gluing. I only had the patience to let one of the units slide in and out of the white base perfectly.

Retro Week - Day 3

Reaching way back to my College of DuPage years on this one - Circa 1999. Found a drafted contraption on vellum slipped into an old sketchbook. Im sure this contraption had some great and fantastic use which i have long since forgotten. Or have I?


Rain water runoff from a memorial I designed would funnel down and collect into this, and amonst the pouring rain would divert the water into these channels which would slowly release trickles of water out of the two holes! You could use the lever to unclog the holes with pegs mounted on another surface. Why this technique is not implemented today is completely beyond me!

Retro Week: Day 2

This was actually the start of a much more elaborate digital collage from one of my architecture studios from school a few years ago (Fall 2003). The final "section" ended up with a black background and a lot more layers, and objects folded into it. Despite that, I always felt this initial, simple rendition captured the idea of the project more than one that incorporated a lot of "extra stuff" for the sake of complexity.

Retro Week 2008 - Day 1

Alright... as my existence at the moment is in a total shambles due to various overhauls, I am going to instate a new segment on my blog and bust out some old work that I have done in the past (art, architecture or otherwise) just to change things up a bit. One week only! It is my hope that these will be a cross-section through various stages in my life. I have no idea what else I am going to do yet... so here goes!

I found these two babies while I was cleaning today. They were a couple of Exquisite Corpse drawings that I did with Jess about 2 years ago. The second one being a nod to my impending birthday (and viking themed party!).

Pilot Razor Point Scribble

Whipped up another scribble on the train on the ride home today. Used a felt tip pen this time instead of the cheapo bic pen used on the last one. It definitely yielded a different look, and not quite the same range of shades/grays.

Maybe I should start doing before and after shots of these...

Something Out of Nothing

This was drawn from a "scribble" that I made in my sketchbook. A scribble, in my eyes, is an act of pure chaotic expression. What I have done with that base is layer and develop something which started with almost no reason, into something more formal, refined and spacial.

As a kid, I scribbled with pencil to paper and found shape and meaning within the randomness, and so I have attempted to do so again, but now with a new perspective and a more critical eye.

...Add a Dash of Photoshop

This is another sketch from a few days ago. It got thrown into Photoshop and I played around in there for a little while. I have only one thing to say... I miss the Wacom. But this didn't turn out half bad, considering I used a mouse.

Grasping at the Infinite

Last Friday I had a day off of work and I got to sketching. This time instead of the more structured blocks, strips and rectalinearities, I got to scribbling and doodling. Soon, the wild scratches of my pen became more gestural, which then became more formal and then reverted back into chaos yet again. What seeped out of me were attempts at graphically representing the shape of the infinite, or at least they started that way...

Yesterday I picked up my copy of "A Thousand Plateaus" by Deleuze & Guattari and started reading where I left off a few weeks ago (I have been gnawing at this book all year. It's dense subject matter leaves me puzzled, bleary-eyed and tired at times, so i don't generally get very far before I put it down again, while at other times it strikes me to my core and weaves threads through my existence). Suffice it to say, the words took on a new meaning on that day, and the essay which started as a manifesto to the 'Body Without Organs', suddenly turned to the nature of shapes, form and the dichotomous relationship between expression and content.

These ideas struck a bit of a nerve with me and I began thinking of my own sketches and art in such a way, as I do seem to have two very differing realms in which I dabble; the swirling free-flowing organic forms [expression] and the carefully articulated and placed geometric forms, shapes and objects [content]. While the lines sometimes blur unintentionally, I think it is important to be aware of these strata at the inherent core of whatever we create. But awareness is the easy part; understanding is an entirely different beast.

Feelin' Buggy

These were a couple quick train sketches from a week or two ago. Thought they were just interesting enough to post here. Who knows, maybe they'll turn into something more refined or even sculptural.

Freebie Blues

While Comic Con was a couple weeks ago already, I still find that i have a sizable pile of crap, swag and miscellaneous handouts to last me until next year. Rather than just pitching all of it, per usual, I decided this year to do something more with it. And so I have! In what is the first of what I expect to be a few pieces, I present this collage. It's mostly formal and acted as sort of a bridge outside of my usual pure abstractions and strip collages. My preliminary sketch is also shown below, and it really turned out quite different. The background initially was going to be entirely covered with strips, but it just seemed a waste to cover ol' Wolverine completely...