I didn't.

Sigh.

I forgot again to prepare a post for today. I promise it won't happen again.

For now, you can check out Paolo Rivera's Wacky Reference Wednesday!

http://paolorivera.blogspot.com/2012/11/wacky-reference-wednesday-no-201.html

This one's really quite good, though, no silly pictures; just awesome art process.

.n

Martin Wittfooth

I met Martin Wittfooth this summer at 3x3 event, Nuts & Bolts. I was part of a group that visited his studio in Brooklyn, NY. All the paintings he was working on were magical. At the end of Nuts & Bolts, I went out with Wittfooth, Matt Rota and other artists and professionals.What a fun time!

In December, Martin Wittfooth will be the featured artist in Instigatorzine, Vol. 13! Until then, check out his first solo show, "The Passions,"  in New York City at Lyons Wier Gallery.

http://hifructose.com/the-blog/1801-martin-wittfooth-the-passions-.html

I'm excited!


Okay! Back to work!

Instigatorzine @Kickstarter

artwork by Ellis Clark

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1895169077/instigatorzine-0

Hello everyone. I haven’t really been active on the web anywhere. Don’t worry. I’ve actually been busy setting up a lot of things.

For example, Instigatorzine has been catching steam and rolling along at a very swift pace. We’re working towards legitimizing the periodical on a professional level. That means getting a LLC, a P.O. Box, appearing at the 2011 New York Comic Con, etc. A lot of major moves.

That said, Instigatorzine needs everyone’s help raising money for expenses towards this professional stage. The link featured will take you to our Kickstarter profile which will enable you to contribute to our cause. We’re nothing without you, and you are our strongest attribute. Without your art and your literature, the ‘zine wouldn’t be where it is right now.

Please help us make our goal by Monday, August 22, 2011! You’ll get neat prizes for your greatly appreciated contribution. :)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1895169077/instigatorzine-0

More updates about other things I've been up to later this week. :)

So, I graduated...

And I was featured on NJ.com with Stephanie Herrera and Elias Jimenez thanks to Steph's awesome caricature skills.

http://photos.nj.com/jersey-journal/2011/05/2011_njcu_graduation_6.html

Hit the jump. It's really neat.

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Stephanie Herrera - sherrera-art.blogspot.com

Failure?

I'm kind of sad I didn't get into Creative Quarterly 23 (CQ23). I submitted the cover I did for Instigatorzine #1. I guess it wasn't good enough.

I guess... I'm not good enough.

HA!

I'll see you in the fall, Creative Quarterly. I'll get in. Even if you bounce me out again!

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Creative Quarterly 23 Winners - http://www.cqjournal.com/winners.html

Creative Quarterly - http://www.cqjournal.com/

Blummertime.

I'm going to try to be scarce around here for the next couple of months, but it's really difficult, because I like sharing what I'm up to with you folks.

If I'm ever going to leave school, however, I have to leave you in the dry. There's a lot of other great artists there who update regularly, though. Paolo Rivera, Sean Phillips, Shigeko Okada, James Gurney, Joe Quinones---just to mention a few. There's a bunch of art blogs, too, like Today's Inspiration, The Pixar Blog, Color Informal and Art with a Bark (if you like animal art).

Then again, if you LOVE sandwiches, like I do, then you'll like breadxbread, an interesting sandwich blog based in California. Too bad for us non-Californians.

Do it.

I'll probably be back soon. Ha.

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Paolo Rivera - paolorivera.blogspot.com

Sean Phillips - surebeatsworking.blogspot.com

Shigeko Okada - shigekookada.blogspot.com

James Gurney - gurneyjourney.blogspot.com

Joe Quinones - joequinones.blogspot.com

Today's Inspiration -todaysinspiration.blogspot.com

The Pixar Blog - pixarblog.blogspot.com

Color Informal - colorinformal.blogspot.com

Art with a Bark - canine-art.blogspot.com

breadxbread - breadxbread.blogspot.com

Google Art Project

Ever want to visit the Tate in Great Britain? Or the Van Gogh Museum? Google brings you there.

Check out this Degas piece at Museo Thyssen - Bornemisza in Madrid! Google really lets you get up close to these masterpieces. Talk about bringing art to the people, huh?

William Low and the Ellis Island Challenges

I'm taking a class with William Low, an Illustrator from B-B-Bronx, NY. He illustrates a lot of children books, but he also does other paintings. Most of them revolve around New York City. I wouldn't blame him. NYC is pretty happening. Sometimes.

This past Tuesday, my class, painstakingly called, "Special Projects in Art: Ellis Island," was to boat over to the historic isle and research anything about the island for the second assignment for the course. The second assignment being in traditional media (oil: classic or watermix).

By the way, this is my first assignment for the class, which was to be completed through a Photoshop painting method. While, I'm not necessarily a stranger to the Adobe program, I definitely learned more than I expected when it comes to painting digitally.

Side by side, we were to select one of the references Low recorded himself (I think) and use a part or the whole reference to develop a painting. It's not bad, I think. Some parts could be improved. Just the water, ambiguous objects in the background, desaturating the greens, shadows---things like that.

Or everything.

Back to the story!

On Tuesday, we were to go to Ellis Island. We got there, on time for the last ferry to the island, but for some reason, almost everyone brought their X-acto knives. And for some reason, Ellis Island/Liberty Island security is tougher than most airports'. So everyone in the group missed the last boat that day.

(I think I would go into more detail, it was really funny and exciting, but it's nearly 5am, and I'm trying my best to avoid typos.)

I was able to go yesterday (Saturday), and before the museum closed, I managed to sketch out something in the inside cover of my Ellis Island Sketchbook:

It's a neat opener to the book, I think. I hope to finish the drawing of the luggage sometime soon.

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William Low - http://www.williamlow.com/index.html

Ellis Island - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_Island

X-ACTO - http://www.xacto.com/Catalog/Knives/Knives

Back in Your Head

Here's who is probably my best friend for millenia to come, Stephanie Herrera, who, by the way, just started a blog! Hooray for Steph!

You can't lie and say you don't have trouble drawing women. Pretty ones, at that. I was considering using her as a model for one of the characters who gets intimate with Caution, but then I thought it was really, really weird, considering Caution is based from my younger brother, Manuel Espiritu. The hunt continues for that character opposite Caution.

Anyway, this image is a breakdown of how I continue to struggle with Stephanie's drawn version. At least, MY drawn version. I'm not necessarily asking for help, but it is welcome.

I just wanted to post this because, I think Steph's a great artist.

And I like Stephanie Herrera.

A lot.

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Stephanie Herrera - http://sherrera-art.blogspot.com/

Is it me, or do I like a lot of comic artists from Brazil?

I was flipping through the newest issue of Wired I got in the mail a couple of days ago. (Yeah, I still subscribe to magazines. You should, too!) February's Wired is dedicated to the underworld. Essentially, all things secret, illegal, unknown or infamous--all things associated with what most people would call the "Dark Side".

One article that caught my attention was titled, "Criminal Code." It was about cyber criminal tools (keyloggers, phishing, denial-of-service, etc.) and how they're now all available for purchase. Interesting enough, right?

What really arrested me was the spot for this article by Rafael Grampa.

I looked him up, and I think I became a fan within minutes of scrolling through his Google-translated blog.

It's not just the work.

Ok, it is the work.

It's energetic. The same reason I like Paul Pope, Nathan Fox, Becky Cloonan, Paolo Rivera, Marcos Martin, Fabio Moon, Gabriel Ba--there's electricity in their ink.

(Ironic, since lightning is bright and ink is dark.)

I think I wanna do this with a group of friends one day. And everyone should be restricted to ink!

Alright! Back to the gig.

All images (c) Rafael Grampa - http://furrywater.wordpress.com/

Blow'd Up

Crazy night at the Society of Illustrators in NY on September 10, 2010. Tomer Hanuka, Yuko Shimizu and Sam Weber were all featured in an exhibition called BLOW UP. I only realized why it was called Blow Up when I got there.

One, the place probably could have blown up, since the amount of people in there made it hot enough to start a fire from all the friction. Two, each of the artists' selection of paintings and drawings were "blown up" to be larger than life. It's a really neat sight, considering that most of these illustrations are only seen in magazines, where the biggest image you might glance is no larger than 8.5x11. It's really cool to see each illustrators' work this large.

The basement floor of the Museum of American Illustration displayed some of the illustrators' sketches and preliminary processes when it comes to composing such wonderful images. Also exhibited was Weber's, Shimizu's and Hanuka's sketchbooks, tools and references. I think I liked that part the most. Seeing all the steps necessary to create something that seems so flawless and inventive. (And seeing that "wonderfulness" doesn't appear out of nowhere is reaffirming.)

While the Air Force exhibition was upstairs, and it was considerably more comfortable, temperature-wise, it was not as populated as the event on the main gallery floors. The art upstairs was just as excellent as the stuff on the walls on the first floor. I appreciated it. Both exhibitions provided me with the same amount of inspiration. That's all I can say.

The one thing I noticed when it came to the three illustrators featured in Blow Up is Hanuka's larger-than-life prints. They didn't necessarily translate as well to a larger size, compared to the smaller sized environments in magazines and other editorials.

At the end of the night, or by the time that I had to go, I wish I could have seen more. Or maybe just spent more time with the prints. Maybe I'll go to a Sketch Night @SI sometime soon. Anyone up for it?

His name is Harvey Pekar.

1939-2010

Cleveland.com