Where we're going, we don't need roads

My first digital painting since returning from the holy land. 

Avi Arazuni's Farm

After leaving the Kibbutz, I spent a month and a half working on organic farms in Israel.  My favorite farm was in a little settlement called Ezuz in the Negev Desert, where I worked for the Arazuni family. I'll spare the details, and simply say that I can confidently state that my time at Avi's farm was the most peaceful 4 weeks I will ever have in my whole life.  

      Of course I had to draw a gift for the family upon leaving them.  This is Avi and Tamar, the couple that ran the farm and brought life to a beautiful orchard in the middle of a dry wasteland.

40 Kibbutz Volunteers

I spent this past winter residing at beautiful Kibbutz Bar'am on the Lebanese border of Israel, where I worked, lived, and partied alongside an ever-changing roster of volunteers from all over the world!  There were only 25-40 volunteers at any given time, but the total number of volunteers that passed through during my 5 months was probably somewhere around a hundred, maybe more.  Upon leaving the kibbutz, I challenged myself to draw 50 volunteers, released in sets of ten.    

Below are my favorite four sets.  I left out my first set from this post, because in it I can tell that my style was the least developed, and the four successive pages were much more, well, successful.

Brothers

Last commission before I peace out to Israel for a little while!

Book illustrations!

Here are a few pages from a children's book project I am working on for a peer.  It's basically about a toddler who goes around the world helping children in need.   The biggest challenge here was attempting to make each page look consistent in style, an issue I've never really faced before (since this is my first legitimate series project.)  I'm sure one of these days I'll achieve a bit of darn consistency.

This first one is the cover with the text removed.

 On this page I threw in a cameo of my favorite harmonica-playing rats from the alleyway....

Classmates

Some quick little portraits of some of my fellow graduates from the FIT Illustration program!

Party Down

16"x16" oil on board

My piece for the premium cable-inspired art show at the Bottleneck Gallery in Brooklyn, opening September 7th.  I chose to illustrate more of an underdog show, Party Down.  It's starring Adam Scott and Lizzy Caplan, and it was pretty darn funny.  Check it out on netflix and whatnot.

Rock Bottom

oil on board, 11.5"x16"
I painted this like halfway through my last semester at FIT, and I figure even though it isn't quite finished, I ought to post it before it becomes long forgotten in the art pile next to my desk.  Sorry for the disgustingly low res photo.

So apparently I do watercolors now

        As long as I keep the colors subtle, it's not half as bad as I made it out to be, not to mention it's a hell of a lot more convenient to work with.  Plus it also makes it easier to retain the glory of my original sketches; a problem I often face when using thicker media.    

      Anyway, this was a little commission for a coworker who just had her second little bundle of joy. Her kids are pretty darn cute.

Here's the preliminary sketch too if anyone gives a hoot:

The birthday otter

For a friend who likes pirates and otters, if that isn't clear enough.

"Draw a bunch of gnomes getting plastered,"

...was, for all intensive purposes, my instruction for this commission. To get printed on a shirt for someone's birthday gift.  I knew it was gonna be a blast from the start.

In the works....

A small sample/preview for a an exciting project in the works....more to come!

Finally in the business

It's about damn time I did my first commission! I'm so excited to have sold a painting. My professors were absolutely right, it really does feel fantastic to have people hand you money for drawing a picture.

Not to mention, I'm really happy with how this came out.  It's a portrait of my coworkers' in-laws for a Fathers Day gift.  Probably my favorite watercolor that I've done thus far.

A couple of oil studies

High Society

For one of my final school projects, we were to take an already existing movie and recreate it in our own image, via concept art.  I chose to re-imagine the 1956 musical, High Society, as a hand drawn animated feature!  I focused on Bing Crosby's character, C.K. Dexter Haven, and did a character spin, sculpey maquette, and a conceptual digital piece.

Pies and Lilypads

A couple of newly painted pieces, both in oil.

Doberman

     A watercolor cutout cartoon thingy for someone whose doberman has not been feeling well as of late.  Hopefully this will raise her spirits a bit!

     I never do things like this, especially not in watercolor.  It was very freeing to work on something NOT for school...the lack of pressure makes it so much more enjoyable.   Scanner butchered it a bit, tough cookies.

NYC Blackout and Looting of '77

Woo! Last painting of the semester!  Done in gouache, in a different style than I normally work in.  This was for a project in Peter Emmerich's class in which we had to illustrate, through sequential imagery, an important event in NYC history.  The style of this piece was heavily influenced by color scripts done for several recent Pixar movies.

Checking off final projects, one, by one, by one....

Musical Mousies for Sal! One of my favorite finishes of the semester for sure.

My first gouache painting!  This is about one of my favorite days at the dog grooming salon where I work.  This Komondor mix came in an absolute mess (although I admit I exaggerated his size and dirtiness a bit in the picture), and people crowded around the window staring in awe during the six or so hours it took to even remotely tidy him up a bit.  One of the coolest, and smelliest, dogs I have ever seen in all of my days.  I really do love the big ol' mop.

My oil painting for Kam's rendering class, I'm really happy with it.  I still need to touch up the hands and a few other things, but its mostly done.

EDIT1/18/12: touched up! I still can't look at those sausage fingers without cringing. I'll take this as a learning experience to always get the best reference possible on the first photoshoot.

Something about waking up in the morning...?  I kind of forgot where I was going with this but I'm content with the finish either way.

Finish of my Decemberists poster for my mentor, Robert Mackenzie.  It was wonderful to receive his input throughout doing this assignment.  He is a phenomenal illustrator as well as a phenomenal teacher, and I am so humbled and glad that I got to meet him.  Check out his blog at http://robert-mackenzie.blogspot.com/

Art Deco NYC travel poster assignment

Some works in progress!

I'm back! I don't really have any finished pieces, but it's been a while since I've posted, so I'll atleast put up some works in progress.

These first two are the sketch and painting-in-progress for basically my favorite project this semester.  We were allowed to do literally ANYTHING, so after a few days of stressing out over this extravagant vague assignment, I decided to illustrate one of my favorite days at my job at the groomer's!  I'll explain more when I post the finish.

Here is a rough sketch for an assignment given to me by my mentor, Robert Mackenzie.  He is a phenomenal illustrator who I am humbled to be in communication with, and if you have not seen his work before, then I highly advise you check it out.

I lied, this one is actually a finish. This was an assignment to create a book cover for "Time and Again" by Jack Finney, about a man who got bored with drawing soap, so he took a snooze and decided to wake up in the 1880's.  

....okay there's more to it then that. But yeah, it's actually a fairly enjoyable book. Check it out I guess.

Here is a sketch for an assignment we had to make an art deco style travel poster for NYC.

 This is a painting of...well I guess it's pretty self explanatory.  I actually have a lot more done on this one, but this is what's on my computer right now, so this is what you get.  Too bad.  

Again, I have more done on the painting for this one, but the sketch is what I have at hand.  I started the finish in oil, and ended up changing the rooster's eye completely, so he doesn't look so determined and wise.  According to many sources, crowing roosters, or any roosters for that matter, are not ones to bare such determined expressions. who'd of thought it?

Last but not least, this is my concept for a project which requires us each to create a sequential piece about something significant that happened in NYC.  Mine is about the blackout and mass looting in the 70s. 

Well there you have it!  Sooooo, these pieces, as well as two others I've yet to start, are all due in 3 weeks, all while attending classes and working weekends.  In conclusion, life is freaking DANDY RIGHT NOW.  Seventh semester boys and girls, seventh semester.

Though times are though right now, winter break will be that much sweeter, and hopefully I'll have a handful of decent portfolio pieces by the end of December :)  Look forward to more updates with finishes soon!