Daniel B. Dias

Hiatus...

2012-01-03T02:19:00.003-05:00

i've been in a hiatus from posting on here... it wasn't totally intentional, as my old computer broke for good and i was without one for a month. now i have a new one and i'll be back to posting pictures from china soon :) Happy 2012!

Pandas!

2011-09-30T13:59:00.005-04:00

Soooo while in Beijing, we went to the Beijing Zoo to see those black and white bears that like to eat bamboo and are occasionally good at kung fu. And it was a similar feeling to seeing snow for the first time. Because it's something I've seen thousands of times on TV, computer and books but had never ACTUALLY seen. But I concluded that they are definitely cute.

I wasn't too impressed with the condition of the zoo however. The exhibits seemed dirty and not taken care of, and there was even some misidentification of popular animals like tigers and lions. It's possible that the zookeepers had put the wrong animals in the wrong exhibit. One exhibit had signs with information and pictures of lions, however the exhibit was a couple of tigers. Its weird because I have even seen a couple of English books (made in China) teaching the word "Cheetah" but with pictures of leopards. And when I asked a friend about it she didn't know they were two different animals. In her defense though, they don't have Animal Planet here.

I was also surprised by seeing all these adults and children all knocking and pounding against the mirror of pretty much every exhibit. I know kids do that because they are young, and haven't fully developed the ability to look from another person's viewpoint or imagine how others feel. But an adult should know that banging against the wall of an exhibit where an animal lives is wrong. Don't do it! But anyways..... let's not turn this into a "blah blah feelings blah blah emotions" kind of blog...

Beijing markets

2011-09-30T05:25:00.005-04:00

yummm... sheep penis

One of my favorite things about China are the night markets and food stands. Most Chinese people I've met don't enjoy going to clubs or bars(and going to the movies or karaoke can get a bit expensive), so this is an alternative night life which everyone can enjoy. People can just sit down, eat some barbecued fish, pork, beef, lamb, chicken, frog, scorpion, crocodile, dog, cat, snake, crayfish, crab, sea urchin, starfish, worm, etc... and drink some beer or tea. I might be forgetting some of the food you can find at these places, but probably any animal or vegetable imaginable you might be able to find. In Hanzhong a student actually told me about a shop where they sell dog meat and that his mom makes a great dog meat dish. Here in Nanning the food selection is pretty different from Shaanxi, as Nanning has a tropical climate and is near the sea. I tried crocodile at a big food street here in Nanning last week (not bad, like chicken and fish put together if I had to liken it to something). Another student told me she tried rat tail at another food stand near our school... riveting!

Forbidden City 紫禁城

2011-09-28T06:50:00.002-04:00

Forbidden City 2 紫禁城

2011-09-28T06:38:00.003-04:00

The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties. You can read about it on wikipedia or a less reputable source if you want. There is something interesting people have told me about here, they are called eunuchs. Which is a guy who is castrated. Seems like the emperors of these palaces often employed eunuchs to be their servants. But "employ" is probably not the right word, I assume they were slaves or prisoners because I can't imagine many people doing this willingly. So when these slaves and prisoners were to become a servant of the emperor, they had to be castrated. According to the most reliable website ever (wikipedia), at the end of the Ming dynasty there were about 70,000 eunuchs working for the emperor. Some of which served in the imperial palace. Emperors found eunuchs to be even more reliable than other government officials, because without the ability to start a family and/or have children, they were less likely to try to seize power and start a dynasty. Intriguing...

Beijing 北京 2

2011-09-28T05:20:00.004-04:00

Beijing 北京

2011-08-22T09:55:00.006-04:00

sight seeing in Beijing

Longmen Grottoes 龙门石窟 1

2011-08-09T06:12:00.007-04:00

龙门石窟

The Longmen Grottoes are located near Luoyang on either bank of the Yi River in Henan Province. They are made up of approximately 1,400 caves and 100,000 statues. Of course some are really tiny as you can see in the pictures, but some of the larger ones are well over 50 ft high. And although most of the notable caves are on the west hill, there are caves located on both sides of the river. From what I understand, construction began in 493 AD and kept going until the 12th century. Pretty amazing stuff. It's really interesting how the natural texture and pattern on some of the cave walls "interact" or add to the sculpture themselves. I wonder if the sculptors had that in mind when choosing the location and placement of each statue. I think probably not, because a lot of the statues and their surroundings seem to have been painted at one point or another, which means you wouldn't be able to see the natural cave walls. So it might just be a happy accident now that the paint deteriorated. As you can see, many of the statues are also damaged or missing heads... it seems like a lot of this happened during the Cultural Revolution. Some of it is also due to thiefs and collectors, and apparently two murals were also removed and now hang in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Anyhow, if you want to read up on the grottoes some more you can check out the UNESCO World Heritage site: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1003

Longmen Grottoes 龙门石窟 2

2011-08-09T06:11:00.008-04:00

Longmen Grottoes 龙门石窟

Longmen Grottoes 龙门石窟 3

2011-08-09T06:11:00.007-04:00

Longmen Grottoes 龙门石窟

Luoyang 洛阳

2011-08-09T01:16:00.002-04:00

Some photos from around Luoyang in Henan Province. The real reason to go there was to see the Longmen Grottoes, which I'll post pictures of soon.

Reed Flute Cave

2011-08-02T05:58:00.002-04:00

Pictures from Reed Flute Cave in Guilin.

Li River 漓江

2011-08-01T12:44:00.002-04:00

Cruising on a raft on the Li River.

Li River 漓江

2011-08-01T12:14:00.002-04:00

Cruising on a raft on the Li River.

Guilin 桂林 1

2011-08-01T11:29:00.002-04:00

Beautiful Guilin :) It seems like I'll be moving to Nanning soon, which is in the same province as Guilin, so i might get the chance to visit again. Its a cool city, and the landscape is incredible. It's no wonder it has been the source of inspiration for many Chinese artists. Not to mention the scenery is included on the 20 yuan RMB note.

Guilin 桂林 2

2011-08-01T11:28:00.003-04:00

Suzhou 苏州

2011-07-19T12:55:00.005-04:00

Some pictures of Suzhou AKA the Venice of the East. I don't know how it compares because I've never been to Venice, but the gardens were amazing.

Suzhou Gardens

2011-07-19T12:52:00.022-04:00

Suzhou is famous for its gardens and canals. Sometimes its called the "Venice of the East". These pictures were mostly taken at the Humble Administrator's Garden and Tiger Hill.

Suzhou Gardens

2011-07-19T12:52:00.019-04:00

Suzhou is famous for its gardens and canals. Sometimes its called the "Venice of the East". These pictures were mostly taken at the Humble Administrator's Garden and Tiger Hill.

100th post! WOOT

2011-06-15T06:46:00.002-04:00

so, these are the last pictures I have of Shanghai. Or at least i
think they are... They were taken at Shanghai's old street and Yuyuan
Garden. Up next is Suzhou, which should be a lot quicker. Since this
is the 100th post i feel like i should post drawings/ paintings, but
i'll do that on the 101st post.

Shanghai old street

2011-06-15T06:40:00.002-04:00

These are pictures from the old city of Shanghai and Yuyuan Garden.
Those big paper houses are part of a tradition here in China(and some
Asian countries) where family members get together to remember/appease
relatives who have passed away. They will buy fake money, clothes and
other items to burn, as a way to pass these objects on to a relative
who might need it in the afterlife. Wikipedia does a better job of
explaining:

"Traditionally, the family will burn spirit money and paper replicas
of material goods such as cars, homes and phones and paper servants.
In Chinese culture, it is believed that people still need all of those
things in the afterlife."

Here in Hanzhong I've only seen people burn the "spirit money" and
smaller items. But i suppose wealthy families might buy those houses
(some of which have completely functional lights and switches inside)
as a way to make their dead relatives more comfortable. A fellow
Chinese friend told me of his grandmother crying and saying "Here take
this money and go buy yourself a drink and get drunk" while burning
spirit money for his deceased grandfather. Its funny and touching.

Jade Buddha Temple

2011-05-27T04:48:00.002-04:00

Some images from the Jade Buddha Temple 玉佛禅寺
The actual "Jade Buddha" was in this chamber which you have to pay to go into. Luckily we blended into this crowd of German tourists who were all going in, and we skipped the entry fee. Unfortunately though you couldn't take pictures of it, but if you're really interested you can just do a Google image search.

上海 still...

2011-05-24T08:23:00.003-04:00

so we visited the art district in Shanghai, and probably the coolest thing about it was all the graffiti. The galleries are set up like galleries in the west, white cube sort of thing. And much like the wynwood art district in miami, it looked a little run-down and deserted that day.

I still have maybe 2 or 3 posts worth of pictures of Shanghai. After I finish those, I'll put up the shots from Suzhou.

shanghai

2011-05-18T05:38:00.007-04:00

Photoshop pro

2011-05-18T05:28:00.010-04:00

ahhh yeea

Never Eat Soggy Waffles

2011-05-05T08:15:00.009-04:00

Photos taken from the Oriental Pearl Tower.

Let's Begin in Shanghai

2011-05-05T08:10:00.003-04:00

Ni Hao!

2011-04-28T08:09:00.005-04:00

When you start on a long journey, trees are trees, water is water, and mountains are mountains. After you have gone some distance, trees are no longer trees, water no longer water, mountains no longer mountains. But after you have travelled a great distance, trees are once again trees, water is once again water, mountains are once again mountains.

-Zen teaching

Heard that somewhere before, just found it again while surfing the internet. But anyways, I just got back from the trip with my parents. We went to Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Guilin, Xian and Luoyang, so I have LOTS of pictures. I'll be putting them up little by little.

In other news, it's obvious from the look of this blog that drawing and painting haven't been the most ideal media for capturing my time here in China. Photography is much more useful for capturing as much as possible in a limited amount of time. So I've been taking my photography more seriously as another side of my work, and luckly I'll be included in a photography show in May. For more info go here: https://www.naplesart.org/content/camera-usa-national-photography-award-0

Thats all for now, pictures to come!

Rape Blossoms

2011-03-31T14:24:00.002-04:00

Halfway home from halfway around the world

2011-03-29T13:09:00.002-04:00

I'm now past the halfway mark of this journey! From a quick calculation I came to the conclusion I've been living here in China for 200 days now! I still have 5 months to go, but now that time seems so short. The weeks are going by quicker and it feels like I don't have enough time to do everything I want to do. I remember back in December and some of January I was pretty miserable because of the cold and the hassles of adjusting to a new culture (not to mention being away from everyone I love for the holidays). But now things are looking alright, from what I've been reading this must be the "Adjustment phase" of culture shock.
http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cultural-services/articles/cultureshock-stages.html;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_shock
I remember a couple of months ago I could only think of the foods, people and places I missed from America. I wonder now what I'll miss from China. It feels good to come into a new country and know that if I absolutely had to, I could make a life here. Unfortunately though, I don't feel I could every be fully integrated into the culture and become "Chinese" as I was able to move from Brazil and become an American. America is so diverse in it's demographics that it really doesn't matter who you are and what you look like, anyone can be an American. An American could not come into China and be seen and treated as a local, like a Chinese immigrant could in America. Even a foreigner completely fluent in Mandarin and the culture. My experience is limited to my city however, which is considered a "small city" in China. I don't know how foreigner's are reacted to in big cities like Shanghai and Beijing. Not to mention I was also raised in South Florida of all places and not the Midwest. But this is how I feel as of now, maybe that too could change in time.
On the other hand though, it's sometimes nice to be seen as a visitor. I've been attending the local university's painting classes up to twice a week without having to pay or be a student. It's an observational figure painting class which they labeled as western painting; all the students like to watch me paint and the teacher doesn't mind having me over. I wish I could take part of art classes in American colleges for free too. I've been spending more time there recently, it's interesting to see their notion of western art.

My time here frequently feels like a lucid dream. I constantly find myself saying in disbelief "I am in China...". I imagine some of it might have to do with the lack of personal contact I have had with anyone I know from America. I only talk to friends and family through the computer or phone, and it's funny to think that they're usually sleeping while I'm awake. Gives me even more of a sense that this is just a long dream. This weekend I'll be heading to Shanghai to travel for 2 and a half weeks with my parents across China. I'll write and upload photos of that trip when I get back. This is enough rambling for now.

Oh, Spring!

2011-03-16T11:57:00.002-04:00

汉中

2011-03-09T03:18:00.002-05:00

西乡- Xixiang

2011-02-22T00:36:00.001-05:00

西乡 Xixiang

2011-02-22T00:34:00.007-05:00

Recently I took a trip to one of my student's hometown nearby Hanzhong. It was the end of spring festival and he invited me to spend a few days there and participate in their celebrations. During spring festival (which lasts 15 days if i remember correctly), everybody returns to their hometowns and spends time with their grandparents and family. There's a big focus on cooking a lot and eating a lot; and for the men, drinking a lot. They also take time to remember family members who have passed away by this ceremony/ritual that involves burning fake money or something of the sort (I'm not too clear on how all that works). During New Year's eve, families usually sit around and watch CCTV. CCTV stands for China Central Television, and it consists of a network of over 15 channels (all controlled by the State). Some are geared for kids, other for women, etc... but every New Year's Eve there is a big program that brings together many Chinese actors and performers which takes place in Beijing. This is all televised and ends up being what most people watch during the day, waiting for 12:00 o'clock. At midnight there is an insane amount of fireworks and noisemakers going off everywhere, and most families participate with fireworks in some way. I don't know if I should compare it to Thanksgiving or Christmas/New Years in America, as in some ways its a mixture of both. Most Chinese don't celebrate Christmas, and those who do are in the sort of manner one might celebrate Valentine's day. No content, just for fun/out of boredom/excuse to buy or receive gifts. But then again, maybe that's how most people in America celebrate Christmas too haha. I really enjoyed it, and it was especially fun for me because I celebrated 2011 twice! Not to mention, this is now the year of the rabbit, which means good luck for me :)

on a side note:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chunyun
there's a wikipedia entry about the massive amount of traveling done during Spring Festival. I guess the time period is referred to as Chunyun.

Spring festival

2011-02-21T13:04:00.004-05:00

Some pictures of the Han River. I think it's the largest branch of the Yangtze River, very peaceful and soothing. It was a clear day and by the side of the river there are many ping-pong tables, basketball courts, volleyball/badminton nets. So many people were enjoying one of the first sunny days in a long time.
The round red lanterns were part of spring festival decorations at this little shopping plaza. You can see them often here in China. From what I understand however, if you see one of those with a pink light, especially after dark, it signifies a brothel haha, and also from my understanding (not personal experience), foreigners are not served... I've heard some guesses as to why, but i'll let you make your own.
and last but not least, a picture by the big bell :)

Snow Days!

2011-02-21T04:34:00.001-05:00

So, we had like 2 or 3 snow days here in Hanzhong this winter. I was really excited because this was actually the first time I saw snow in person. At first glance, although I knew it was snow(we were expecting it), it felt like my brain was trying to make sense of it and it just seemed like somebody dropped a ton of baking soda on the trees haha... and although it was really exciting, i'm happy we're now coming into spring and I can stop wearing 2-3 pairs pants, socks, sweaters, etc...

Terracotta Army 1/2

2010-12-13T10:17:00.002-05:00

Pictures from my visit to the terracotta army! The site is about 1 hour away from the center of Xi'an, but it's worth the trip. Supposedly warriors are still being excavated, so i'm guessing the pits are constantly changing. Although when I was there, nobody was really working on any of the pits.

Terracotta Army 2/2

2010-12-13T10:08:00.002-05:00

Some more pictures from my visit to the terracotta army. The last 2 pictures are of some souvenirs you can get after the sightseeing! Hopefully you wouldn't though...

Xi'an, Bell Tower

2010-12-09T14:18:00.002-05:00

Some shots from around Xi'an :) There are much more sites that i haven't gotten around to taking pictures of, like the Drum Tower and the Big Wild Goose Padoga, but since Xi'an is only 3 hours from Hanzhong I'll have time to see them again in the next 8 months or so... I DID get some pictures of the terracotta warriors though! I'll put up pictures of that in the next couple of days.

Xi'an hostel

2010-12-09T14:11:00.002-05:00

This hostel was so nice i decided it needed its own post. Plus it was right next to the south gate/wall!

A trip to the park p.1

2010-12-09T14:04:00.002-05:00

This is a park we visited in Xi'an, it was very pretty and it was such a nice day. A good change from the persistent uncomfortable cold weather in Hanzhong...

A trip to the park p.2

2010-12-09T14:03:00.002-05:00

The last pictures are of this more residential area near the park.

Trip to Plank Rd. Part 0.99

2010-11-09T13:38:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone, these are pictures i took on a trip to a place called Plank Rd. near the city. I went with another foreign teacher, a Chinese teacher and our class we have together. It was definitely a beautiful place and a great trip :)

Trip to Plank Rd. Part 1

2010-11-09T13:36:00.002-05:00

Trip to Plank Rd. Part 2

2010-11-09T13:31:00.001-05:00

Trip to Plank Rd. Part 3

2010-11-09T13:25:00.003-05:00

A trip to the supermarket

2010-10-27T12:47:00.003-04:00

So here are some pictures of the plaza the supermarket I go to is on, and some things of interest from inside. Oh, and from what i understand i think they use the seahorses for medicinal purposes. Oh, and eating cats and dogs only happens in a select few places across the country is what i've been told.

from Xi'an to Hanzhong

2010-10-25T11:38:00.002-04:00

sorry for some of the blur, i took all of these from inside the bus...

Some of Hanzhong

2010-10-25T09:47:00.001-04:00

:) ok k k

the apartment

2010-10-25T06:38:00.002-04:00

Hanzhong, China

2010-09-15T23:08:00.006-04:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanzhong

I'm moving there...soon...

woah

2010-06-02T21:26:00.003-04:00

Best Ofs

2010-05-02T16:27:00.008-04:00

Hi! So the year is practically over and i'll be graduating in less than a week. I will put up images of my thesis sometime soon, but not too much. I have some plans of what i want to do with it in the future, and i'll be developing it further in the next couple of months, so i want to keep it mostly under wraps for now (unless you already saw it at the senior show). But here are some images from this year's Best of Ringling! Got into Best of for the 3rd time in illustration woot woot, and this year i was fortunate enough to get into the Best of Fine Art show too :D I was really happy to be a part of the fine art show this year because being a fine art minor has had a huge impact in my work. Taking that first FA painting class beginning of Junior year has been one of the defining events for my time here at Ringling. Overall, my time here has been great, and i feel like i am right where i should be.

Best of Ringling Illustration '10
Juror: Gregory Manchess and Irene Gallo
my work is the one on the right. You can see a better image of it some posts back.

Best of Ringling FA '10
Juror: Jay Davis
My piece is the tiny one in the middle, i'll try to get a scan of it later or something. It looks so insignificant and overpowered on that wall, but i like that.

work in progress

2010-05-02T15:52:00.003-04:00

This piece was shown at the Drag and Drop show at Keating 2. Its still a work in progress...
photo cred goes to Kris Brian

dusk

2010-04-23T19:05:00.002-04:00

thesis show is april 30th!!!!

2010-04-08T02:10:00.006-04:00

heres a peek at some things i'm doing!

yes

2010-02-17T22:52:00.004-05:00

just some scans of my work from the show last november
i'll get the other ones later

Thesistime

2010-02-09T22:19:00.002-05:00

so, in this next couple of months i probably won't be putting much work up since most of what i'm doing is leading towards my "thesis" project. I might put up pictures of the process, things of interest, maybe sketches, etc... we'll see... i definitely want to make this blog more personal and more of an extension of my work and ideas instead of just documentation.

more studies

2009-12-16T16:47:00.006-05:00

more studies from this past semester ya

Luz

2009-12-14T23:37:00.003-05:00

this is another painting i did in the beginning of the semester that i'm just now getting to upload it.
It was exhibited in the Junior Painting class show "Open" at Crossley Gallery.

studies

2009-12-14T23:31:00.003-05:00

some figure sketches/ studies... i have some other ones too that i need to take pictures of that i feel are more resolved than these.

The other ones i need to scan are also missing faces but at least i gave everyone nipples haha...

Turn Into Something p.2

2009-11-18T15:14:00.010-05:00

My half of the show at crossley gallery. I'll scan the smaller works later to get more high-res versions of them. For the other half of the show check out Miss Ashly Lovett.

Turn Into Something
November 13th
Crossley Gallery, Sarasota, FL.

Turn Into Something

2009-11-17T23:39:00.008-05:00

Just want to thank everyone who got to come see our show! we really appreciate it. I want to thank Mike and Jenna for taking pictures of the show for us, my parents for all the awesome help setting up and making things look great, and Ashly for having a show with me :) thank you guys!

November 13th!!!

2009-10-28T20:20:00.003-04:00

Crossley Gallery Show
Ashly Lovett & Daniel Dias (me)

The communal identity

2009-10-18T01:38:00.005-04:00

Thank you to Ashly, Sarah, Cheryl, Brittney, Paul, Trisha, Therese, Matt, John, Riza, Haylee, Keyla, Custode, Alexandra, Megan, Dannielle, Kris, Julienne, Mirald and Charli for helping.

Money tree

2009-10-11T16:24:00.007-04:00

Hi

2009-09-12T22:14:00.005-04:00

Updated Website

let me know what you think.

narcissism

2009-06-10T16:16:00.006-04:00

its summer, im about to be a senior in college, so i was looking back and found some amazing work i did during high school. Heres some kind of time-line of self portraits i found, starting all the way back in 2002 (9th grade)!

wowzers
anyways, below are some more "recent" ones.
started this one last year but never got to finish it...

This was one of my portraits for pratt's 30 portrait, 30 days assignment (which i never put up any of it now that i think about it)

observation

2009-05-02T15:19:00.007-04:00

these are probably the last figure paintings i will put up in a good while since i'm not signed up for any figure/ portraiture classes next semester.

acrylic and oil

oil

acrylic

Best of Ringling 09

2009-04-28T00:27:00.006-04:00

This Boy, acrylic and oil on canvas

Juror: Shawn Barber

Was fortunate enough to be able to show in this years best of ringling again. Much more to come soon as the semester wraps up.

Mock book cover

2009-04-26T00:06:00.005-04:00

for Shakespeare's A Midsmmer Night's Dream

gaudy font, excuse it.

Giants and Martians

2009-04-19T23:12:00.009-04:00

2 new illustrations from this semester. First one the concept was suppose to be 'waking the giants' and i wanted to make an image more about the "giants within", and the other one is just an illustration inspired by the Mars Attacks! -the exclamation mark comes with the title, and not my need to exclaim anything.

this piece was exhibited in the Illest of Ill show '09
Juror: Andrew Hem

...on a side note, im officially a Fine Arts Minor yay

Fade Together

2009-04-04T23:01:00.002-04:00

Acrylic and Graphite on Canvas
exhibited in the Big Box Painting Show, Student Center Exhibition Hall

Identity Assignment

2009-03-21T18:04:00.009-04:00

series exhibited in the Big Box Painting Show, Student Center Exhibition Hall

Illustrationsss

2009-03-14T20:37:00.003-04:00

In mr. pratts class we've been doing some 3 hour illustrations. That is, we come into class 8:30 in the morning, get a topic and by the time class is over at 11:15, we're suppose to have a finished piece. its great practice and i'm really glad he's been making us do it. So here are some of them, and some not 3 hour illustrations.

This wasn't 3 hours, i would say around 6. The article was about the Somali pirates reaching the big time at the high sea. I decide to put some pirates at the top of composition and a large amount of "water" to go along with the high sea idea; and to play around with the idea of them reaching the big time i decided to put the dress the ships they hijack as poker chips, hence the water being green like a poker table. I thought it would also add the aspect that they are gambling with lives and alot of money. Sort of corny i suppose.

This was one of the 3 hours ones. It was about a terminator gene in plants that makes them unfertile and affects new crops, unfortunately i don't remember much about the article. But i wanted to have a young plant dying as if viewed through a sonogram to show that the plants will stop growing and eventually die off.

Another 3 hour one. This was about a Nazi doctor who took refuge in a town in Brazil and claimed to be a vet. He did experiments in animals and claimed he could make cows more likely to give birth to twin bulls. Eventually he also acted as a doctor in the town and many of the pregnant women he treated were much more likely to not only have twins, but the babies were also more likely to be blonde with blue eyes.

and this was an open assignment that i have no explanation for...

while theres still time

2009-03-11T21:54:00.005-04:00

some sort of recent thangs.

watercolor. Hope you can guess who it is because i'm not telling. cooler than the Joker imo
exhibited in the Illest of Ill '09 show
Juror: Andrew Hem

The following are from the beginning of the school year. In my painting class we had to do a painting a day, so it gave us a good chance to sharpen up what we "know" and try new things.

ya ya, more figure paintings

2009-02-26T01:42:00.010-05:00

i have things i do other than just figure painting that i can put up, but thats what i have scanned for now... all of them are about 3 hours, first 2 are oils, other 4 are acrylic. I decided to start painting with acrylic more recently. I think i've just always leaned towards oil more because of the over 1000years of tradition it comes along with, and that ever since the first time i used oils, it never really let me down. I've always felt pretty comfortable with it and i've always been more sucessful with it than other medias. But for the sake of being more efficient and being able to push work further and faster, i think i'll be messing with it for the rest of the sememster.

^tried to focus more on giving the illusion of the light behind the models head.

^this one i was just trying out some mediums, dont really care for it.

hopefully next time i post it'll be some illustrations or something.

FIGURE PAINTINGS!!!

2009-02-08T16:22:00.005-05:00

When i start a painting i always try to approach it differently because every moment is unique. I feel that approaching painting the same way every time or having a "formula" sort of takes away from the beauty of the specific moment in time. In this case, they are 3 hour long paintings, so i'm painting thousands of specific moments that happen throughout 3 hours into one condensed moment. I feel that because of this they each become a persistent specific moment in time.

on this one ^ i ran out of white haha

sorry for some of the lines you can see going through the images, i dont know what was up with the scanner...

figure drawings

2009-02-08T14:47:00.002-05:00

we did a couple of "academy style" figure drawings in pratts class last week and this is the result. Its a nice approach that i'd like to explore some more.

pratt drew alot on this one ^ kinda showing me how to keep the texture on there to add interest

so yea, i have a couple of figure paintings to put up also, so i'll be doing that soon.

last figure study from the semester

2009-01-10T02:00:00.003-05:00

well, spring semester is about to start so i figured i'd put this up before the new stuff starts rolling in. Hope everyone had a good break :)

Illustration

2008-12-27T19:32:00.006-05:00

This is my handmade book about Jungle Gardens. More specifically about parrots, problems that arise with keeping one of them caged without mental stimulation and miscellaneous (but interesting IMO) facts about them. I build a little crummy looking cage with an origami parrot to present the book.

And this is my mock book cover illustration for Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradburry.

Last Synergism assignment: Squonk

2008-12-17T00:14:00.005-05:00

What is a Squonk?

Just my interpretation, fairly happy with how it turned out. Especially since it was one of those overnight finals, started it Tuesday evening, done by 8am on Wednesday. Much more to come (i think), i got some stuff that was done for Pratt that i never put up, computer illustration, my last figure painting and stuff from my arts that are fine class. Happy Holidays BTW

Boobies

2008-12-13T14:28:00.004-05:00

2008-11-24T20:42:00.003-05:00

corel painter assignment, i dont like it very much but w/e. I rather just use the real thing.

These are some oil sketches i did during the summer, i sort of like them, and i dont think i ever put them up, so here it is. Just for fun ya know?

Latest paintings/studies

2008-11-15T20:42:00.002-05:00

Naked People

2008-11-13T17:13:00.007-05:00

Some older figure studies. The two of the females are about 3 hours, the portrait of the guy is more like 5-6.

i'll be putting up some more recent paintings real soon.

Computer Illustration

2008-11-12T01:24:00.006-05:00

Last two assignments i finished for Computer Illustration class. Both could use some more refining, but I'm fairly happy with how they came out. I've been using computer illustration class as a way to get more comfortable doing these goofy, weird characters that usually take over my "just for fun" sketchbook.

Book Cover for The BFG by Roald Dahl

Character Design project. His name is Eleanor (even though thats a girls name) and he is a psychic-4-rent who flies in a magical frying pan with his crystal ball.

Much more to come.

Darts of Pleasure 0:08

2008-10-23T22:16:00.006-04:00

acrylic on canvas

The proposal:

Beauty, whether seen on the surface of a pretty person, or inside like a selfless action by a stranger can be appreciated by everyone. However, some of the prettiest things of all, in my opinion, are the ones that take an extra second of observation and thought to appreciate. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, and what I plan to show in this painting is the beauty of shapes. I’ve always liked the concept of when approaching a painting, to look at the subject matter abstractly, as a combination of many unique shapes of different colors, values and textures. Some of the technology today does beautiful things, the painting I plan do would be an image from a compressed video such as ones you see on Youtube.com. When enlarged, those videos are essentially made up of large shapes of different colors and values moving around on the computer screen, which we take in as a kind of reality. Since this is a painting, I will pause an image of a video that I find interesting shapes and colors. I believe that the subject matter will not be important essentially, but just a vehicle for me to find an aesthetically pleasing arrangement of these shapes and colors. Just as although Monet painted haystacks and the Rouen cathedral, his real interest was the light and colors.

just a launch pad, it felt nice to be able to make a concept i was interested in, and make something out of it. I might do some more of these in the future, like i said its more of a launching pad for many other ideas, but i want to do something more instinctive next time.

Funktopus re-worked

2008-10-12T00:33:00.006-04:00

acrylic & ink on paper

Barboooosaaa

2008-10-04T16:17:00.002-04:00

Our most recent assignment for comp. ill was to do a portrait in Illustrator. Doesn't matter who, just do a portrait without using lines. So i did captain Barbosa and his monkey, as Mr. Brandes says, if an illustration isn't working just add a monkey and everything will be fine.

More Figure Painting

2008-09-27T23:56:00.004-04:00

Some more figure paintings. Although all of these were done quicker than the last ones i put up in the last post (which was around 8-9 hours), i find them to be somewhat more sucessful. I think my problem comes when i slow down and try to plan things out.
around 6 hours

3 hours

3 hours

3 hours

"The important thing is to remember what most impressed you and to put it on canvas as fast as possible." -Pierre Bonnard

back 2 school

2008-09-21T18:15:00.008-04:00

Just some of the first couple of projects i've completed recently, this one is for computer illustration class. We had to do 3 spot illustrations, the subject was pretty open and i like drawing animals, so here they are:

Some of my first figure paintings in oil:

For my synergism in illustration class.
The Funktopus:

I need to rework some more funkyness into it, i got kinda carried away with showing the lighting that i lost alot of the funk.

Summer

2008-07-01T15:02:00.008-04:00

Trying to paint a little when i'm not at work or school. Trying to focus on paint quality/ application more, basically just paint with paint! I assume most people have read this, but if not then its good(necessary) to check out:
John Singer Sargent notes
from Craig Mullins' site.

Publix Poster

2008-06-09T16:26:00.004-04:00

Hi, i got a job at a supermarket in the beginning of summer as a cashier and i told them i go to art school; the manager wanted me to make a poster to promote the fact that every saturday and sunday morning they give free coffee/ pastry for free. Not much concept here. I did the graphic design too, but i like the illustration by itself better, so here it is:

Just a fun/quick illustration, skipped all the process work and just set up a little still life in the kitchen. Pastel on newsprint and then i messed with it on photoshop. Theres really no idea behind the artwork but they loved it, so im glad. Plus i got paid, i think this is my first paid illustration. Hopefully there are many more to come, but not too many, because then i would have to turn jobs down and if someone likes my artwork enough to ask for a commission i'd hate to say no.

Nosebleed Re-worked

2008-05-30T00:47:00.004-04:00

Since in school i never get the time to play around with glazing and taking my sweet time to screw around with my illustrations and paintings, i figured summer would be a good time to do so. First illustration, Nosebleed phobia:

yuck

after messing around with it past week or so

i like it alot better but i still think it could use some more atmosphere, however im tired of it and i want to mess with some of the other ones for a while.

Sophomore year is over...

2008-05-06T23:03:00.000-04:00

So heres some of my last work of sophomore year, some paintings.
House on Oak street i think

Bayou

Our last painting homework, i wanted to paint the bathroom sink

Figure class stuff, mostly just having fun with it. My main focus most of this semester has been giving the sense of an underlying structure to the form and making it cohesive and "live" in the environment.
pastels

Acrylic

Acrylic

Acrylic

These are my 2 digital paintings for my Concept class. I entered the class with no experience in any digital painting, so this class was a real help. Plus it let me try out some concept art, which i'm not sure if i plan to go on with or not.
This was my first one, its suppose to be like.. an alien attack.

The concept with this one was these weird monsters thing breaking out of test tubes in a science lab or something. I went for more of a "film noir" feel with the black and white to give it some drama.

And here are some of my illustrations that i did this semester. I plan to re-work all of them but this is what they looked like when turned in.

2 more days...

2008-04-26T00:53:00.002-04:00

i have a LOT of things i wanna put up soon, but i'd rather just put it all up at once, so i'll probably do that wednesday. All my horrible illustrations, last paintings, figures stuff, concept, etc...

Best of Ringling 2008

2008-04-04T15:40:00.009-04:00

well, i've been fortunate enough to be a part of this years Best of Ringling show. Its really a great honor, and i can't wait to see my piece up in the gallery. I heard this was an awkward year, more pieces of juniors were selected than seniors and very little sophomore work was selected (i think only 3 sophomores illustrators got into the show and i think there are 100 of us), so it makes me very happy to be a part of it. Well heres a little picture of my piece that got in:

Juror: Reel FX Creative Studios

i'll probably put pictures up from the event when it happens April 18th :)
hollah

Newish and a clown

2008-03-26T12:53:00.007-04:00

clown in pastels

Just some more recent paintings/illustrations.
Did this one during spring break on a cloudy day

cloudy day

brighter day, with colorful tables using a pallet knife.

the Commons

i also have 2 illustrations that i've finished, but i dont have pictures of them yet.

Pre-Spring Break

2008-02-29T19:17:00.007-05:00

Just some of the more recent stuff i've been working on. Im not too happy with the plen air paintings ive been doing, just getting more bored of it, but whatever, i usually go through these time periods of disliking my work and it passes after a while (i guess whenever i start working differently). But here are 3 of the ones i've done.
2 trees

Boring skyline composition, i usually have kinda of a hard time working with really geometric shapes when i paint, so i decided to practice by painting the Sarasota skyline.

heres another one by the bay.

These 2 posters were for Graphic Design class and we were suppose to make 2 different poster for an exibition at the MoMA. One in the Russian constructivist style, and the other more modern. Both of them are pretty busy, but i kinda like that look. Critiques always welcomed, especially when it comes to Graphic Design, which i still know very little about.

The Russian Constructivist one.

This is an illustration i did trying to show somewhat of a disgust by all the unnecessary reasons we kill animals. It's not really a position that i feel super strong about, in my opinion as long as you're getting as much as possible out of the dead animal then i dont see a problem, skinning an animal just for the fur though seems really unnecessary to me. Food is necessary, Fashion and decoration are just luxury. btw, her face is butt-ugly, i think during the summer when i have more free time, i will get all the illustrations i did this year together and just mess with them and try to fix crap that is really bugging me.

Oh, and i dont know how many people even read this but every illustrator should check this out if they get a chance: HAWT
Its at the Orlando Museum of Art which is only a mere 2 hours away from Sarasota.