Work In Progress 2010 - 2012

 








  



  







 






 




  

 




Caricature of myself for a class project, fun stuff for sure, more soon.

Been trying to refrain from putting up any process photo's of this new piece I'm working on - so I'll compromise by putting up the photograph of whom I'm painting. This is Madlib, formally Otis Jackson Jr. who's a producer, emcee, and prolific musician out of Los Angeles for those who don't already know. If you haven't heard his music please put aside some time and listen, I'm sure he has an alias that will appeal to your taste in music.

This is the first painting of up to 8 that will depict a musician that has influenced or inspired me in some way in a similar style as the tribe series I did previously. With the last series the portraits I did were chosen solely on expression and they were more or less anonymous people. These people are well renowned musicians and chosen based on their motives, process, and basically just the fact they make great music which I have great respect for. These paintings are about reflecting what I feel when I listen to each artist specifically. More soon.

 Cover of Journal #2 - collage has taken over my thought process, more to come.

 

 
                                          Last still life for my drawing class, half way done


 Process shot of the Asmat Cannibal with my new camera

 Updated/ where I'm at with it right now.

 New canvas I'm working on for my show in November at La Petit Mort Gallery, This piece depicts a portrait of a member of the Asmat tribe situated in Papua, Indonesia who were Cannibals up until the 1950's. They were explored and founded by Dutch explorer's in the 1920's but because of there cannibalistic nature their lands were only explored to a limited extent for obvious reasons. They became world renowned when Michael Rockefeller, who's father was the Governor of New York at the time had disappeared while traveling in the region where the Asmat were situated, in search of Native artifacts; His body was never recovered.

I chose to paint this particular man because of the amazing intensity in his expression and object in his nose which I still havnt figured what that material actually is yet, but I like it.. More soon

 


Massai fam - just started and almost finished
 
Detail shot - lady bug


                            A Couple process shots of the Massai, enjoying the development of this piece a lot.
 Current stage of the Massai Warrior piece.. More to come soon


 This image depicts one of the male members of the Massai who are raised to be warriors. This photograph in particular is an example of pure originality and natural strength in my opinion. I strive to convey strength as well as emotion and mortal human characteristics in an attempt to explain the relation between me and my work.


These two images are of a man and woman of the Massai People. The Massai is a tribe of the East African region, specifically in Kenya and Tanzania. This tribe is inspirational in the fact that they are a proud and independent people; they did not cultivate the land or depend on a cash economy but rather they lived off the blood, milk, and meat that their cattle provided. When I found these two images i was immediately drawn to the individuality they conveyed through their clothing, jewelery, and overall personae that motivated me to learn more about them.


Hard to capture the detail with this camera but still in the works, better pics to come. This piece is going to be extremely detailed in the end, with many many layers and over shadowing with further rendering of the figures face and clothing.

Process shot with picture reference

Working on a new portrait, there will be many more on the way, I really am starting to enjoy painting realistically.
 This is only half of the photograph.
  I was inspired by the Photographer 'Andreas Gursky' and his photo entitled " Paris-Montparnasse. 1993" which portrayed a boxed view of an apartment complex which was amazing because the different colors and shapes from each individual window created a diverse mosaic and gave me the idea to illustrate an individual as a structure and as one may have certain imperfections or display specific inequalities that would show as a structural flaw or advantage if I can use that term. The importance here is to demonstrate how vital our peace of mind is and to get that across it makes sense to me to portray it as a positive or negative aspect through architecture and design. Not completely sure if I'm explaining my thoughts properly but I hope you get the gist of it. This drawing pulls from a different concept yet I've just began developing this idea and will continue to.

 Got a sudden jolt one night to start a new piece so I painted over Grant Green Jr. and began this. Put some hours into this over 2 days and havn't touched it for about 2 weeks maybe longer. At this point I'm unsure what to do with this, but do enjoy where its at. More soon.

Detail 1/2

 Detail 2/2



This is not directly influenced by anyone, but is reminiscent  of David Bua's Illustration, I am a fan of his work like many others. His depictions of urban life and telling stories are very well documented in his book "The Beat of Urban Art", I never realized he worked in so many drafts in the process of his paintings. That insight was very inspirational and it sunk in further the importance of development and planning to accurately portray your idea.


Started this piece yesterday, been pretty busy working on this and the piece below
 


     I painted a piece with the same concept as this about 2 years but I wanted to paint another with more emphasis on the man's facial detail and expression instead of the city or environment I continue to develop on  the top of his head. This is painted from reference of course, I continue to try and practice realism and know I will get better the more I practice. I don't usually paint from reference or photographs of people for that matter but love what it portrays as a painting. Their is a definitely a deeper relationship to the piece on a primal level because I'm trying to depict something man made.