Peaceoffering

I'm glad this week is over. Here's a new piece for my untitled somewhat non-specific book.


edit: Some changes incoming...maybe, this is either complete or at 85-90%. I'll have to look at it again once I've printed it out to see what needs to change.

Minor changes, I toned down the cloudiness of the water and enhanced the darks around the floating head, I also muted the organ shapes behind it to make the eyes pop even more. I also cleaned up a few lines.... I have to remind myself not to work when I'm exhausted. I'm a lot more satisfied with this version. Thanks to Shawn on DA for the suggestion!

New:

Featured illustrator on illustrationmundo.com!!!!

I was picked as a featured Illustrator on illustrationmundo.com! INCREDULICIOUS. There's no other word for it. Now back to pondering existence and art creation!

Oh and here's the BW version of that last piece I finished, I actually prefer it to the colored one...but that may be because I spent more time with it between sketching-erasing-cursing-sketching-drawing-inking.

The Meat Market

New work... more flatish colors, and more red.
edit: not really sure why the quality is so terrible?

I never said I was perfect..

A few quick sketches that I'm not happy with. Sometimes you have to draw just to get the crappy drawings out of your system before you get to the good stuff.




Also a bit of self reflecting.


It was the most amazing drawing of the Ninja Turtles I had ever seen, and it was in my hands! I didn't draw it though, but no one needed to know that unimportant detail! I didn't want to disappoint all my fans. The truth would shatter their kindergarten hearts. "Whoa Raymond! That's so cool! " - "Draw me one!" I responded with a calm collected okay as my order list grew by the second.

"Sure it was easy!" A lie never tasted sweeter.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) my teacher, Ms. Carpenter, noticed my flock of follower's and praise and immediately saw through my facade. I of course assumed she approached to join in my small artistic worship circle. "Oh wow Ray! Did you draw that?" - "Yep!" ...No hesitation at all, I'm pretty sure I believed it myself at this point. "So I guess you wouldn't mind drawing another one?" she asked. I quickly realized my plan had many holes in it when she set a brand new box of crayons and a sheet of dull large lined notebook paper in front of me. My followers gathered around in awe. I froze.

"So... you didn't draw that did you?" Goodbye fame, hello infamy.

"Um.... no."
"You shouldn't lie. Now apologize to the class."
"Sorry..."

My pride wounded, a few minutes after "timeout" I began to draw. I still can't draw Ninja Turtles(without reference now I suppose),... but I'm pretty sure this is one of the many reasons why I haven't stopped trying to draw anything and everything to this day.


Here are a few drawings I did when I was.... what, maybe 10-12? MJ looks pretty axe-murderish if you ask me.


New work coming soon I promise, I'm still digesting the work of Lucian Freud and other greats from my recent trip to MoMA

pet the sharks

This may or may not be entirely working but...eh I'll find out soon enough. I don't know what it means yet, it was fun to create though. (Beasts with pointy teeth and ladies is an under appreciated genre.). I think I'm getting faster...



And a sketch just because it was fun to draw....I think she inspired the above piece.

thought... processing

Over the last couple of days I've become very interested in minimalistic compositions with dense areas of detail or bright color. It's too tempting to use what little money I have at the moment on expensive books so google image search will have to do....

An artist that has peaked my interest that I've always looked at and known about but never really examined is Toulouse Latrec. There's no way I can compare to this guy, ever, but I feel there's a lot I can learn from the economy of line and shape employed in his pieces. Must buy book of prints. I love his compositions and how much he can say with a simple shape or a few select colors! His paintings are really where it's at for me though. It seems like the same ideology behind his prints is in his paintings yet he manages to keep the movement contained or barely contained within his figures. A still moment of his may as well be exploding with life. Yes, I'm really just that entranced.





Another artist is Hokusai, but I do own a book by him so finding images to study and dissect won't be so difficult. I enjoy the decorative and balanced compositions in Hokusai's work and I can literally spend hours just picking apart the lines he chose and the shapes of black he left in his work. I wish I could get my hands on a good Hiroshige and Yoshitoshi book so I could compare. I'd love to figure out what really worked for them, I'd like my work to be as memorable some day.... (wishful thinking ha)

Below are a few bad drawings and a terrible portrait of John Hendrix.