Happy Almost Weekend, blogosphere!
My day went awesomely once I got into the grind (the coffee grind, that is) – closed with my favorite people and plenty of madness and hilarity was had. I left with a smile in my face (and a quad iced USA in my hands), and that, my friends, is golden. Having a job period is something to be grateful for; having a job that you love, priceless. Got home about half an hour ago, and have since put the laundry on and had a cigarette – this evening (following blogging, natch), I’ll be getting a headstart on the Brothers Grim piece and chilling with Visa and Vega. Nice and relaxed, just the way I like it.
Anywhore, this post is all about art – my art, the other creative outlets (besides writing profusely) that keep me sane. My favorite media being sharpie and ink pens, I’ve undertaken the task of (finally) getting some pieces I’ve been promising for ages done and mailed.
Of the 14 in my queue, I have 2 completed. First off, I did a piece for my friend Cizz that’s a bridge between trad style sugar skulls (a feminine one embellished with flowers and lacy patterns & a masculine one with diamonds for eyes and a ganj nose), and my crazy line work style. Here’s a time lapse progress pictorial for your viewing pleasure:
Started with an outline on the left (feminine) half of the piece.
I like to get the detail work done in chunks, working from the inside of the outline outwards.
From there, I started the border work & sketching in the right (masculine) half of the piece.
Then, filled in the negative centre space with a spiderweb and a spider + aces and poker chips, and outlined the masculine sugar skull.
From there, I outlined and bolded out the background guidelines and detailed the masculine skull with a .05mm pen.
Close-up on feminine sugar skull.
Close-up on masculine sugar skull.
And 14.5 hours later (3 dead sharpies + 2 dead pens, too), the final product.
This was an exceptionally time consuming piece with all of the fine line work and stippling I chose to use; however, it turned out pretty rockin’. Cizz is super happy with it – and to be honest, I am too.
Yesterday, I got a piece finished for my good friend Spinnaker – he requested that I work the phrase, “we the people, on boulevards and blacktops…,” as well as our names, into the piece somewhere – and the rest was up to me. I hemmed and hawed over it for a while and had initially thought about doing a skyline and some graffiti style lettering; however, Vega truly encapsulated what the piece became when he mentioned Anonymous – Guy Fawkes mask? PERFECT.
As always, started with my outline.
Then, used red and black .05mm pens to detail the mask in the style of a caldavera.
Then, lettering (and cursing myself for awkward placement).
Next, sketched in and bolded out the outline for “The Daily Blur.”
Had WAY too much fun “lorem ipsum”-ing, coming up with fake ads, and lettering “The Daily Blur.”
Close-up on classifieds.
When I got the “Blur” done, I moved on to outlining the background and bolding it out appropriately.
Background ended up being much more visually pleasing than I’d anticipated it to be, and worked beautifully with the awkward placement of “We The People.” Happy with it!
To make the background a little more interesting (and to keep in theme with the writing on the Blur), the red segments of the background that aren’t bubbles are the chemical compounds and street names of cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, MDMA and nicotine. Just a compound close-up.
13.5 hours later, the final product. I’m THRILLED with this one – it pushed me out of my comfort zone, and led to one of my favorite pieces ever. Badass, if I may say so myself (and no sharpies died in the creation of this masterpiece haha)!
Anyways, I have laundry to fold and another piece to get started on; however, expect more from me in the next couple days for sure.
For now,
Wallace, out.
|Eloquence is Bliss| 