Art vs Art 2009

It's done! Art vs Art 2009 rapped up last night and was a blast as always. Painting #56 won, done by Mab Graves. The painting itself was the bride of Frankenstein and was definitely the strongest piece of the show. I made it much further this year, round 3, being part of the top 4 paintings, which was a significant increase from getting booted the first round last year, which is the top 16 I believe. One of the best surprises this year was the amount of paintings being bought. As far as I remember anything not taken immediately by the wheel of death sold, and for quite a bit as well, up to $500. Good times.

Logo

Here's a logo color test I did for my cousin, don't think this is going to be the final, but I liked the way this one turned out personally, so I figured I'd share. I'll post the finished when he confirms on the final, as well as some other vector based images I've been working on lately. Illustrator CS4 is amazing as well, but more on that later.

Giglionomitromicon part Deux

Another morning, another sketch

Art vs Art 2009

Art vs Art 2009 paint day wrapped up at 4:00pm today, leaving the rest up to the fans. The main event will take place on 9/25/09 at the Vogue Theater, which should be another good time as it was last year. Until then you can go vote for you favorite online at www.Artvsart.com starting Monday, and uh, vote for me. Everything done for the event was done using the same materials, ( some cheap acrylics, couple of brushes, canvas, paper towels, and water) and under a four hour time limit. No easels or other personal materials allowed, with the exception of sketches and reference items. On the 25th the ones that receive the most votes online will go head to head on stage, being voted on by the crowed and measured by their cheers, screaming, and belligerent appraisals.
The smaller images above were my sketches and ideas prior to entering the event, and the large top one is the final image. My biggest regret this year is that I didn't give my self enough time to do a proper color test before I went into the event. The result was to much red and yellow as a reflection on the robot himself, as well as the over all color is a little to washed out, and as always the drawing itself was rushed a little to much, lacking the same feel as I got on some of the earlier sketches. This is all ok though, the point of the event is to see what people can come up with using limited colors, brushes and not to great a place to sit except the floor or personal chairs ( yeah back problems, kick ass!). The colors given were primary yellow, primary cyan, cad red hue, white, and black, all very, very student grade paints from Studio 71 (its fun to watch the paint flake and clump in the water, obviously having a hard time mixing evenly, fun stuff heh.) Probably going to finish a color version of the final sketch I did in Photoshop, getting the color how I'd like it, given the chance to use more colors obviously. Check back soon for the results and winner of this years Art vs Art, wish me luck!

More stuff!

Yeah yeah, I know, " but wheres the finished images Bri?" Well its coming don't worry, but in the mean time here's some more sketches. The robot and such are still for the Art vs Art thing, but I figured I'd share some of the earlier images, since the last ones were actually the more recent. These were some of my original concepts and compositions, along with some goofy designs for the robot. The one with the unreasonably large gun coming out of his chest amused me, but just wasn't right for the idea I have, or the composition I'm going for. The digital black and white sketch has a few things I like, but over all it was the first pass at the idea. IMO the robot was way to basic, and well, lame, and the kid looks like he has a goiter or some type of perpetuity disorder with his head. Plus this was before I had the idea of him holding a sling shot, which I feel really pulls the idea together, not in the David and Goliath way, which seems to be the initial idea most people have ( gotta fix that.) More like this robot is a guardian of the kid, but some how even with all the robots high tech ass kicking skills, the kid still pulls his weight with the simplest and oldest of weapons, the sling shot. A nice contrast that I felt really helped the idea of the piece. Gives you an idea of where I get started when I'm thinking about this stuff, but now lets just see what the finished will look like.
Added some sketches as well, just some random costume designs, and maybe some witches.

Nation of Domination

Still just a bunch of sketches, all going to something bigger. The first three being more or less the witch series I've been working on and off for a couple of months, while the last is just some ideas for the upcoming Art vs Art event, of which I'm excited to participate in again this year. Last year was a lot of fun, and who can beat having a chance to win $3,500 for just four hours of work. Last year mine made it to the main event, but lost in the first of four rounds, although it did sell for $100. If you live in Indy or in one of the other cities participating I highly recommend it, with it being one of the more laid back events with a bunch of artist just poking fun at each other. Bring your game face but not your soap box, it tends to be a lost cause on this kind of crowd to get a serious message across, plus it's just a little lame if you ask me, I dunno, I just like to have fun with it.
The witch series is still heavily in my mind, although it tends to get pushed to the back of the line due to working on a few things here and there for family and trying to update my website with some more work going more towards advertisement so I can start looking for a joby job. With that though I've been spending a lot of time working in Illustrator, something I haven't done since college, but is definitely as fun as anything else is when your learning/relearning. I seem to be truly happy and at home learning new programs, I'm hoping to eventually branch out to some of the more advanced programs, like 3d modeling and such, but that's a ways off I'm sure, and when time will permit. As for the body of work I'm going for on the website, it's going to be more advertising, a mix of logos, labels and t-shirt designs. The fantasy/sci-fi work will still be on there some where, but low key, at least until I can secure a job, then its back to the concept art grind. That's it for now, I'll post an image of the piece I end up doing for Art vs Art this weekend.