It's been too long

If you like my work please check my instagram. Link on the right. I update daily. Frankly it's just much easier to update.

Also much easier to contact me on there. I am currently working on a dance movie. 

ugh

yup. i had to stop the photos . I'm working on my children's book and it's taken up all of my free time, like ALL of my free time.

check out my instagram account (on the right) for daily updates. I'll have a kickstarter set up for this book soon.

ugh

I remember when i was first learning oil painting and seeing this in a book. It blew my mind. I looked at the description and it said private collection. That usually meant i'll probably never see this painting in person ever. But 20 something years later, it's at the new Met breuer museum! Where the whitney use to be. This is the closest thing to a time machine, i remember how it felt the first time i tried to copy this painting as a teenager. I'll try it again as a adult, see if i'm any better.

Water color week.

Hey there, I'm going to talk about watercolors.
I have  A LOT of watercolors. One of my routines is to go to the art store after every paycheck. buy a brush, or a tube of paint or paper. for a good few months it was watercolors. So naturally I have many different sets of watercolors. One of the nerdier things I enjoy doing is color tests on different paper to see what the different brands look like on different paper. Different combinations on different surfaces. Unfortunately most of these tests are trashed. Luckily for you, I'll try to recreate them this week. So look for some watercolor related art and squares this week!

more on the sketch

More work on ear guy. I'm still thinking if he should wear pants, or no pants. I'm thinking of his back story. Usually that helps with the drawing. To know his motivation. I'm thinking he's a former wrestler turned post apocalyptic hunter. Maybe he was a delivery guy turned fur wearing guy. with a sword he found in the museum, after the world turned upside down. And he's wearing a headband because he grew up in the 80's and headbands were really really cool back then. 

woah

so it turns out i was too busy to post any updates on the 72 hour shoot out. good news is. i finished it. barely.

yes, it was very diy. and it was all filmed in greenscreen. note to self, never do that again. especially if time is an issue. it took forever to render.

first update.

Ok so the theme is "two faces" I started writing the screenplay when it was announced on twitter. so from 8pm to 1:31 am I've been writing it. My story is about a man and his friends/coworkers being interviewed. Why does he want to go to a one way trip to Mars. Since my strength is in graphics and visuals, I intend to work on some of the effects before Saturday's shoot.
step one. MAKE A DAMN SPACE SHIP FROM SCRATCH!.

72 hour shootout

Hey there

I'm doing something called the 72 hour shootout this weekend. The Asian American Film Lab http://www.asianamericanfilmlab.com/  does a competition every year where film makers have 72 hours to write, shoot, edit and upload a 5 minute short. It starts tonight, They will announce the theme at about 8pm and I'll start coming up with ideas at 8:05. My script should be ready by Friday afternoon. After the script is complete, I'll do simple storyboards and gather my equipment and my crew. Filming should take place saturday morning and afternoon, depending on how much special effects is needed, I will also be filming that.  Saturday night into sunday morning I'll be editing the film and uploading it sunday night.
Well that's the plan.
I will be posting updates as I begin.
Ready?!

Monopod base.

A little while ago I saw a video from Mr Cheesycam on youtube on the monopod base. I have a cheapo monopod that I got years ago. The bottom of the monopod was just a spike, the spike is fine, but I wanted a more steady base, like a Benro. BUT, I don't want to spend 150 bucks on it. 

the video that inspired me.

Cool right? well, Like I said, my monopod is super cheap, probably 12 dollars when I bought it. I didn't want to waste the Base on it and attach it permanently.  So I brainstormed a detachable solution. 

For 18 dollars I bought the base from Ebay. The bottom of the base is a 3/8 male screw. The bottom of the monopod is a spiked CONE. I would have to make a connection for both parts. 

Here's the ingredients.  

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-3-8-in-16-tpi-Zinc-Rod-Coupling-Nuts-822281/204337391

1.5 inch 3/8 screw

1.5 inch pvc pipe ( or 1 inch, i forget, I had some spares around) cut to about 1.5 inches

http://www.homedepot.com/p/J-B-Weld-2-oz-J-B-SteelStik-Epoxy-Putty-Stick-8247/202528470

I put the coupling nut to the bottom of the base , turning it female. I then put the steel epoxy putty on the end of the monopod, after cutting off the rubber piece attached to the monopod. I made a little rig to make sure the 3/8 screw was 90 degrees. (it was still alittle off but good enough!)

After the putty hardened, i attached the pvc pipe, and put more putty on that. 

After an hour it was fully cured and good enough to test. 

success!

Afterwards, I sprayed it down with krylon. 

Not perfectly straight, but i tested it with my camera and the biggest lens I have, worked fine. I wouldn't extend it all the way or attach more gear on the camera because of the weight, but for light shooting, this works! I'm not worried about the attachment breaking off because i put so much of the epoxy on there, that stuff is STRONG. 

TBT blind ninja turtles.

Remember in drawing class you had to do blind contour drawings?

You weren't suppose to look down at the paper as you drew. So a hand would look like that mess. The drawings were sometimes interesting but mostly trash.  In the 6th grade I started drawing everything with my eyes closed. Everything= superheroes and ninja turtles.

I am still drawing ninja turtles with my eyes closed and they still look the same.

Much more fun than those damn hands. 

Airbrushing.

Recently I rediscovered my airbrush.

It all started from watching Adam Savage's one day build,

then other videos of model kits and airbrushes,  and here I am. About to buy a new Airbrush spray booth to make model kits. Another expensive time consuming hobby. Look for updates. I'll start off by painting some of my super sculpey sculpts.

Stay tuned friends!

Arya Process

Hey friends, 

Here's a few progress photos of a watercolor I'm working on.

Arya STARK!

Step one, lay in the shapes.

 Step two, define shapes and put in some colors

Step three, more of steps one and two.

Hellboy Progess shots

Happy Monday Friends,

Here's Some progess shots of The Hellboy image I uploaded last week.

First off, I'm a huge fan of Mike Mignola. It's always a treat seeing his interpretation of forms and his characters.

 This piece was also inspired by Jack Pierce and his Frankenstein makeup on the great Boris Karloff.

 First off, I did a quick sketch in pencil,  5h. I had a gun vs beer bottle debate at this point, beer bottle won. (sorry good samaritan) After that I put a wash of burnt sienna.

 Fleshing out the shapes, and putting in more colors. It's coming along. Because of the paper I'm using I can easily pick up colors if I screwed something up, which I did, in a lot of areas...
the paper is the discontinued 5 ply plate surface bristol paper. (4 is fine, but I still have some 5)

I think that's a di vinci watercolor brush? #5 kolinsky. And a cheapy Utrecht bright synthetic to pick up the paint. 

And here's the final, with some cleanups in photoshop.

Thanks for reading, got questions? comment.

Year in REVIEW

Hi friends,

So 2014 is almost over, another year of exploring other creative venues besides DRAWING. Not to say I didn't draw every day, of course I did. I have always been super interested in Film and the process. But this year I wanted to do it, for real. Writing, filming, directing, editing and lastly whoring my film. Good times. I even had a Short appear on public television.

Most of 2014 was spent reading and experimenting with the technical side. Learning about sound and equipment.

2015 will be about making it.  Thanks for visiting this site and joining me on this wonderful journey.

jr

Neolucida

So I ordered a neolucida a few months ago and it finally came. A proper review is in the works. 

Tim's Vermeer

http://www.sonyclassics.com/timsvermeer/

I recently saw a documentary called Tim’s Vermeer. It was about Tim Jenison a Texas inventor, who decides to replicate the process Vermeer used to create “The music Lesson”.  He had NO prior oil painting experience. It was a very interesting film if you’re one of those people who enjoy art, art history and art process.

This is not a review of the movie, just a quick babble.

Watch the trailer in the link above then come back and finish reading.

ok done?

After finishing the film, I did some reading from the critics. The first thing I noticed was their dismissive tone, I wonder if they are painters. It seems like the more proficient the painter, the less offended they get when they read that some old masters used lenses and mirrors to aid in their work.

Using optical devices isn’t cheating. I was struck by how simple his device was. Two mirrors. Back in painting class we were encouraged to hold mirrors in front of our eye to judge the accuracy of the portraits to the models. The better you are at drawing and the more you paint, the library of techniques builds in your arsenal. Having more experience, your painting will get faster and you may use different tools get the desired result. This was Jenison’s first (!!!) oil painting. Given the fact that he didn’t know what colors had what properties, how some colors are transparent and others opaque, what mediums could smooth the paint, how the shapes of the brushes matter.  I think it looked great. Sure it took over a year, but if he should continue painting, his next paintings won’t take nearly that long.

I never looked down on people using optical devices, I was curious too. I consider myself a pretty good draftsmen but I was always eager to test out the mirrors and lenses. Is it such a stretch to say some of my art heroes used the same tools?

I’ve seen eight Vermeer paintings in person, one thing you see right away is the softness. It didn’t appear in arbitrary spots, they were present and consistent in certain areas. As if he were focused on one plane and defocused all around.  His background has always been an interesting riddle for art history buffs. We as a society and many in the art community have a annoying habit of “God-ing-up” our heroes. To say some of your heroes used optical devices doesn’t lesson their skill. It makes them real. I guess from that time to now, it became a taboo to mention that aids were used. Art would be more appreciated if it were painted by magic and not by hard work.

The correct way to sharpen pencils.

There is a correct way to sharpen pencils. Are you using the pencil to write? draw? render? do clean drawings? dirty drawings? Do you want a line that is long? short lines? Straight lines? curvy lines with a consistent point? curvy lines with a varied thickness?
If you use a pencil sharpener you're stuck with one type of point. if you use a electric pencil sharpener the point is thinner but basically the same point as a manuel sharper. If the lead is harder you can sharpen it to a certain length, if you try that with a softer (blacker) lead, it will break. is the wood waxy? if it is, the wood will cut in one piece instead of breaking up. Is the blade sharp? If you want a surprise sharpen your pencil with a razorblade. cut it like you're sharpening a spear, but dont' lean it down on the lead. but before you cut the tip at the end, leave it blunt. give more angles. the angles are good. when one angle is dull, turn your pencil and use the other when they are all dull, sharpen again.

the canon 6d.

well, the year is almost over and it's camera lusting season once again. Loyal readers (all one of you) will remember my last camera lust. the 5d m3, the black magic cinema camera and the digital bolex (which never did come out). well because all three cameras were over my budget, I've decided to turn my lonely eyes at the canon 6d. for 2 thousand dollars I'll be able to do fantastic stop motion movies and take wonderful photos. It shoots good HD video which i can import into after effects and work my magic.

sketchvideo

sketchbook in progress from jrtistic dot com on Vimeo.

watch this in hd. because, why the heck not?

NY comic con

Every year at around this time comes NY comic con. It's the biggest "comic" convention on the east coast. I've been to every one since the first. Funny story about the first one, they sold more tickets than the place held. That's it, that's the story.

Ok, there's more. Fire Marshals had to block the entrance and prevent nerds and dorks from going in (dorks I can understand, but why nerds?!) The organizers had to expand, and luckily for them, the Javitz convention center has plenty of space to expand. Every subsequent convention since has expanded considerably from the previous.
Good fun awaits, in fact the most fun I've ever had at any convention was at ny comic con a few years ago when X and I walked the floor with 1 goofy mask on.