Dregs

Hey Everybody!

Just wanted to tell everyone who may still come here that I have a new project I have been working on. I developed some sketches into a zine I recently put out called "Dregs." Just impressions of the general public throughout my experience in retail. You can find out all about it--including how you can get your very own copy in the mail with a secret foldout drawing(!!!)--here or by clicking on the picture below!

-Jason

Blue Mountains of Georgia

We got to spend some time in Ellijay, Georgia for Christmas this year. Unfortunately we should have stayed up there longer. Too many places to go walking around, and lots of opportunities to use the digital camera. Here are some pictures that I took throughout our time up there.

Hikin'

The creek you have to drive through to get to my Dad's cabin. Our car couldn't make it across.

Some trees that fell over due to a storm we supposed.

The sun started to shine on parts of the mountain during our walk. This little patch of sun was illuminating this tree ahead of us.

Once the sun was up, the lighting on the mountain was just unreal. I kept playing with the cameras settings to try to best capture it.

Sunshinin'

 

Lots of little rivers and waterfalls and such.

Like this one here.

That's pretty much it. I wish we could have stayed longer than just a day or so. Next time I want to bring my oil pastels, and spend at least a week. Imagine how much you could decompress!

-Jason

Shrine of the Martyrs of La Florida

So today I got to check out this really cool abandoned mansion off of Mahan Drive. It goes along a mission trail that stretches all around the panhandle. The reason is because I am submitting a holiday card design for the Martyrs of La Florida nonprofit who overlook this house.

I brought my camera to take some reference photos, and just because it's not everyday you get to check out an empty mansion. Keep in mind I do not claim to be a photographer so quality of pictures vary.

 

 This is the back of the house.

Also around the back, facing almost directly behind the above picture.

 

This patio area is also on the back of the house leading out to the above pictures. Lots of pictures of the back for some reason.

 

One of the rooms inside the house. It was pretty overcast but the sun managed to shine in a little bit.

 

I just really liked the texture on this wallpaper. This is the kind of stuff you just can't make up.

Anyway, it was a really neat place. I might try to see if I can go back just to do some oil pastels or something.

-Jason

Wiard Faceplate

Now for some new work I guess. I have been working on a design for the faceplate of a Wiard  Synthesizer. This comes from my sister-in-law's father, who is really into building synthesizers and all other kinds of gadgets. He was working on a synthesizer, and decided he needed a unique faceplate on the design. He gave me some references so I could get to work. I ended up using the format of the one pictured below, and inserting my own objects.

Below is my version. Lots of brains, and a bisected brain-stem. What he will end up doing with this once I get it all inked up and broken down to flat-black flat-white is etch it onto the faceplate.

-Jason

And some paintings

So I don't do much painting, however there are only so many drawing classes you can take. I took two oil painting classes, one at FAU and one at FSU. The one at FAU was just terrible. Not only for the fact that I didn't get any good work out of that class, I just did not have a good time. Absolutely miserable. The oil painting class at FSU however was much more enjoyable. My instructor was Lilian Garcia-Roig. She was amazing. Another one of those encouraging people that pushed me forward despite my doubts. However, once again I didn't get anything really worth showing out of the class. I took another painting class at FSU with Judy Rushin. This time focusing more on acrylics. This class I really enjoyed. I got my first painting I am really proud of, and like to show people who are at all interested.

Basically what happened, was she taught us about acrylic transfers. So I got the bright idea to grab my sketch books, make tons of photo copies at various sizes, and transfer them to canvas using my acrylic medium. It was an experience going through my sketchbooks (which cover about 2010-2012). Seeing all my old sketches from when I was just trying to get out of the house. It was a way to combine things I felt were recurring in there (lots of faces). In a way I kind of consider this a self-portrait, even though my face is only half there on the top middle. When I look at it, I see myself during 2010-2012.  I also used ashes and tobacco from my cigarette ashtray that had been accumulating for months. Gross, but she said we had to use something other than "traditional art materials." The only thing I think it really adds to the painting is a bit of a grittiness to contrast the bright colors. I even got it in a student exhibit at First Friday during that semester. Because of that I had to come up with a title, so I just called it "Sheeiiit"

 

This one my friend from my old neighborhood wanted me to paint. Of course I am a huge procrastinator and took forever to get it this far. All I really want to do next is warm up all the blues on the mask.

-Jason

That other time I got to use oil pastels

Messersmith also used our student fees to buy us all oil-pastel sets. I have to say my last semester at school was one of the few times I didn't see my student fees just go to waste (because I didn't actually see anything come from me getting charged an additional $75 or whatever to take a class). Anyway, that is neither here nor there. Oil pastels were so much fun to work with. You can get a real painterly quality out of them, without the frustration of mixing and applying paints! All the mixing is done right on the paper, and just felt so much more active and involved than any time I have ever painted.

This one I remember not being incredibly happy with. Mostly because of my placement of the figure on the paper, and I wrestled a lot with some proportion. But I love the color in this one. I remember when I finally had enough of this drawing, I took the blue pastel, and started doing this scribbles near the crotch, and along the contour of the torso. However this act of frustration managed to warm up all the other colors I had put down, and really reminds me of flesh. Really fleshy flesh.

Here is another I was a little more happy with. However I didn't quite get that warmth of the flesh like in the last one. I remember he was using a neon green light on her back, hence the neon green on the sides. So much fun.

I can't remember if I decided to draw her face, or if Messersmith instructed us to do so because we were all glossing over the face in the full body drawings. Again, this one has some problems with proportion, and the eyes look terrible. However, I love the color. This time I used more of a green to make the darks rather than blue.

I managed to find my oil pastels from that class today going through all my stuff to find anything decent to shoot. Can't wait to use them again.

-Jason

The time I got to draw on black paper

Another reason I really enjoyed Messersmith's class was that rather than focus on how to properly draw the figure, it was more about how to use different materials to draw the figure. Before his class I had only really worked with charcoal, pencil, and ink for figure drawing. He used out student fees to get some black paper and instructed us to get some colored pencils. He also used red and green lights as a light source rather than just a regular bulb.

We did warm-ups drawing each other.

Maybe a 15-20 minute pose?

Yea I know I'm a slacker what with all these incomplete drawings. But like I said before, I have a problem focusing on one area rather than working the whole drawing. I think I have gotten better at it, because I at least consciously think of it now, but as you can see, I suffered from this all the way to my last semester in school. Still had fun though.

-Jason