Saturday, December 20, 2008

The Return Of The Gods

The Return Of The Gods

My final piece for the 2012 Art Show
i waited until the last minute to work on this, dumb idea!
it took me about a week and have only slept about 2 hours over the last 2 days
i finished this morning and the show is today!!
i can swear i'll never do something last minute again, but thinking about it, i know i will
i enjoyed the process it took to create this, all the energy it took me is now al over that canvas and it was worth it!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

The Awakening

The Awakening

another painting I've done for the 2012 Art Show I will be participating in

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Most Likely Scenario

most likely scenario

This is another painting I've done for the 2012 Art Show I will be participating in

The idea came from researching the Mayan Calendar and stories from the ancient civilizations that had warnings of the Sun's dangerous cycle, as well as from information gathered from former C.I.A Remote Viewing Master and teacher Major Ed Dames.

Major Ed Dames has been able to remote view a few years in the future and describes this as THE event that will wipe out most of life on this planet, the Major claims the event will be triggered by very powerful gravitational waves that are coming form the center of our galaxy (the Milky Way)
This event appears to take place every several thousand years as the entire Solar System passes through what is called the Galactic Plane, the previous time this happened was right before the start of human civilization as we know it, who had stories and legends of a grand cataclysm that had occurred involving the Sun and an unknown planet that crossed near the Earth causing a great flood and destroying most of the previous civilizations.

Aside form that, i like the idea of this piece, we believe life to be very difficult at times and worry over the most mundane things, when in reality we are nothing but a spec of dust living on a spec of dust that is floating around a giant ball of fire.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

The Origin

Someone recently asked me "Where did you learn to paint like that?"
to which i replied:

i learned on my own, well sort of

as far as i can remember I've always been drawing, where i work i have papers full of doodles and sketches that i usually throw away.

at a place i worked at, one of my friends there was a painter, his name is Tom Balderas, and we would always talk about art and stuff.

Tom Balderas 
(Tom Balderas, "Interior with Seated Figures")

One day i asked him to give me some tips on how to paint, what to look for when you paint, i figured since i had been drawing all my life, maybe painting wasn't that hard.

I had a few painting sessions at his place, but i couldn't get it, it was so difficult, i didn't understand it, the colors were all wrong, and working with the paint was very hard to control.

attommys
(One of my first paintings, done at Tom's studio)

i kept telling him i couldn't figure it out, and he kept telling me to look for relation between the colors, look for areas of warms and cools and relate it to each other, this is what worked for him, it's how he learned, but i was blank, i couldn't see it.
To this day when i see those first paintings i made over at Tom's place, i get frustrated, i hate those paintings! they look nothing like what i was trying to paint, all i was trying to do was imitate Tom and not see what i had to see.

I even went with him to a class with the guy who had taught him, Joseph Mendez, he gave me some advice, but what i was making looked horrible, i wasn't learning anything, i was just getting frustrated cause i couldn't paint!

atjoes
(one of my paintings done at Joseph Mendez studio)

One of the things that kept bothering me was that i couldn't figure out what colors to mix to get the color you needed, i didn't want to paint how i felt when i looked at an orange, i wanted to learn how to put down the correct color to make it look like an orange! I wasn't learning, i wasn't allowing myself to learn because i couldn't get passed this block in my mind, and when i would ask Joe how to do it, he would come over and show me, he would paint part of it as i watched, but even then by watching i couldn't get it, he wouldn't explain exactly what he was looking for before he decided what colors to mix and what mark to put down, it was very frustrating to not know.
Just as with the paintings done over at Tom's, all of the paintings i made at Joe's were horrible to me, i can't stand them, yet i keep them around as a reminder of where i was when i started.

Several months passed after trying to learn and i gave up on painting, then on one of my many depressed days at home, i was looking at all my supplies telling myself "man, you bought all this painting shit, and you're doing nothing with it!"
i told myself to forget everything i had learned (or not learned!) with my friend Tommy or his teacher Joe, and start again.

I made a project for myself:
using my color palette, i only use 6 colors, i started out with 7 which are:

palette
Titanium White (White)
Cadmium Yellow Light (Yellow)
Cadmium Red Light (Orange)
Alizarin Crimson (Dark Red)
Viridian (Green)
Cerulean Blue (Light Blue)
Ultramarine Blue (Dark Blue)

but now i don't use the Viridian (Green) anymore

i setup a canvas with a bunch of squares drawn on it, and i filled a row of squares at the top with each of the colors i used, then under each square i mixed half and half of the other colors to see what color they would make when mixed, for example, the first column on the left is Ultramarine at the top with the other colors mixed half with Ultramarine for the rest of the squares in the column, I did this with all the colors, original at the top then half and half all the way down, and when i finished i had a color chart of the mixed colors.

colorchart
(my color chart)

This helped out so much! i finally had figured out how to get the colors i needed out of my paints.
From here i was able to see what would happen if I mixed the light blue and orange, which came out as a dark grey/brown, and what would happen if i then added a bit of white, or any other color to it, or if it was more blue than orange, etc.
The possibilities are endless, you can get any color in the rainbow by adding the right combination of these colors with each other. You need an exercise like this to see what can be done, i highly recommend it.

So now that i had the colors figured out, how do i start out with a painting?
i used a picture i had taken from my cell phone while i was in traffic and used it for my first actual painting.

Once again i told myself to forget what i had learned and see it in my own way, especially now that i had sort of figured out the colors. So i looked at the picture and stared at it for a while, i was able to see that if you look carefully, everything breaks down into shapes of color like a big puzzle, so i looked for the biggest shape and started with that, then when i finished with that i put in the shapes of color around it always comparing the size of the shapes to the other, i kept working like that until i finished.

The Beauty Of Traffic
(my "first" painting)

When i was done, i had this amazing feeling when i looked at the painting, sort of like a "fuck yeah!! i made that!!' to this day whenever i finish a painting i get that same feeling, it's like seeing someone that you love!

Now that i see the process i go through, i paint like the way i draw, because when i draw i do the same thing it's not a chair or a house, it's a bunch of shapes next to each other.

Since I'm still learning, and always will be, most of the time I'm not happy with the results, I'll get to a certain point in the painting where i won't like what I'm seeing and I'll paint over everything and erase it, then start again or watch a movie, eventually getting the painting the way i want it and be happy with the results. There are of course those times when everything flows perfectly, like it is painting itself, I'll be somewhere else in my mind and next thing i know, the painting is done.

it does take practice, you have to see what you're doing wrong in order to do it right, and the more you practice the better you get at anything.

so that's how i learned to paint, i had to figure out a way to paint where i liked what i was doing, and the images that come out are the result of that process

Friday, November 7, 2008

The Great Flood

The Great Flood

The Great Flood - Oil on Canvas 24 x 30

I'm finally done with one of the pieces for the 2012 Art Show i am participating in.

It took me a while to finish this, this was actually the second time i painted it, the first time i was about half way and was not liking the results so i got some black gesso and covered the entire canvas, erasing what i had done.
for the second go at the painting, i took my time, i wanted it to look good, although it was a little harder working with the black background from the gesso, i found that the black color would come through in some areas and the piece turned out a little darker than i expected because of it, but i like how it looks, and that's all that matters!

Saturday, October 4, 2008

The Bean

the bean oil painting

Oil on Canvas Panel 8 x 10

This piece was done for Karin Jurick's
Different Strokes From Different Folks blog

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Memory Full







After several years of picture taking, the 2 GB memory card on my camera is full, forcing me to dump everything on my computer and erase the memory card to start again with full memory

this is every single image (well almost all of them) on the card
i used a picture every 2 frames, which comes out to 15 pictures a second

I imagine that this must be what having your life flash before your eyes must be like...if it was set to "Is There Anybody Out There" by Pink Floyd

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Looking Out The Window

Looking Out The Window

SOLD
(Nini) Looking Out The Window
Oil on Canvas Panel 8 x 10

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Miniature, White Pumpkins

Miniature, White Pumpkins

Oil on Panel 6 x 8

This piece was done for Karin Jurick's
Different Strokes From Different Folks blog

Late At Night

late night

Oil on Panel 6 x 8

Whenever I go outside at night I always have this view on the way back in to the house
I love how the electricity poles line up and look against the night sky

I had been wanting to capture this scene for a long time

Midnight Mechanic

Midnigt Mechanic

Oil on Panel 6 x 8

Mi Pa

Mi Pa

Oil on Panel 9 x 12

Not Happy

Not Happy

Oil on Panel 9 x12

Nini had to go to the vet.
they gave her the cone of silence and she was not happy,
she would sit there and stare at me with a very upset look,
she's normally a very chatty cat, meowing for everything,
but for the four days she had this on, she did not make a peep,
i think she still hates me for that.

Wilshire and San Vicente

Wilshire and San Vicente

Oil on Panel 9 x 12

I was waiting to make a left turn at this intersection, it was around sunset time and you could see all the way to the ocean, it was a perfect scene

The Beauty Of Traffic

The Beauty Of Traffic

Oil on Panel 8 x 10

I would work in Santa Monica and would sometimes have to drive for about an hour to get to work, during the winter the marine layer would come up as the sun would be setting and create a beautiful pattern across the sky, this would be my favorite part of the day

Nini

Nini

Oil on Panel 9 x 12

Nini posing for me on the couch

Monday, May 26, 2008

self portrait

self portrait
self portrait
oil on panel 6 x 8

Monday, April 21, 2008

Savannah Sunset



just as i thought, i hit another blank spot, i do it to myself for some reason, the fear of not knowing where to start stops me from working, i was ready to start on April 1st, and i finally got to work and finished it on the 20th of this month (April)
It took me 19 days to finally get off my lazy ass and do it, 19!!
well i did attempt to paint it 2 previous times so maybe it wasn't 19, maybe it was 15, but still, i did it in 10 hours, why did it take me so long to finally do it? oh well

like i had mentioned i had tried to paint it on 2 previous occasions, making this last successful one, the third
the first time i had started out with the dark foreground at the bottom first, followed by the large shape of the clouds and then the light colors of the sky, but i wasn't liking the result, i kept going over the same areas, and the dark color kept smearing into the light colors and making a mess

the second attempt started out with the large shapes of the clouds, but i kept getting the proportions wrong, and i could mix the colors the way i wanted, and when i'm not enjoying the result, i immediately grab a rag soak it with varnish and wash off the color i have on the canvas

before the third attempt, i made a small study of a section of the picture, i needed to get familiar with the colors i was mixing and what were the overall colors i was going to need, this really helped me out

I also noticed that recording myself painting it, was both a major distraction, but also helps me out
while i'm working keep checking to see if i'm blocking the camera, or if the lighting is right, and i don't put my full attention to the piece, but it does help me out, i get to see the process it takes, and study it and learn from what i've done, or what i need to avoid, and i get to show people the video!

I really enjoyed working on this one, there was so much area to work with!
i might do more large pieces in the future, but for now i'm going back to the smaller panels, i have so many!

One thing i'm planning on doing is to work on a small landscape everyday, or every few days, on small 6x8 panels, this will help me to simplify the shapes and colors, and learn to paint faster, we shall see

Monday, March 31, 2008

fernando valenzuela


Finally! after months of it sittin garound after i made the pencil outline, i finished the painting!

I got the idea for it after thinking of what to make for David and Ruchelle, i was originally going to paint them a Batman fanboy looking guy, since i know David is a comic book fan, but it never felt right, The Joker i made for Jaime was perfect for him, it was a character he loved, it had the color orange, i knew he would really enjoy it. But the Batman fanboy thing didn't fit David and Ruchelle (who are married to each other in case anyone is wondering) I really want them to have something that they will really enjoy, something that fits what they both like, so since they are both huge Dodger fans, i knew i didn't have to think that much about it

After deciding on a Dodgers theme, what was i going to make? At one point i was going to paint Dodger Stadium, but i wasn't feeling that one, i kept thinking of players i could paint a portrait of, and not knowing anything about sports, the only one i could think of when i thought about players for the Dodgers was Fernando Valenzuela.

Fernando was the best pitcher for the Dodgers in the 80's, or so i remember, i don't even know if they like him as a player, but the decision has been made, and Fernando V. it is

After doing a few sketches to get familiar with the shapes of the picture i was going to use as reference, i worked on the layout on the panel i was going to use, then when i sat down to paint...nothing, i wasn't feeling it, i couldn't force myself to do it, i let it rest for a few days, then sat back down, i had started painting the face, but it was not going well, i wasn't liking it, it felt wrong, and i washed it all off
It sat aorund for almost 2 months! Everytime i would sit infront of it to get to work, i would go blank and did not know where to start, it was very frustrating, i felt blocked!
i looked up information on how to help myslef snap out of it, all i could find were people describing the exact way i felt, but offered no actual help.

Finally on wednesday March 26, 2008, after taking a nap, i was going to watch a DVD but didn't feel like it, i kept telling myself over and over how much time i had been wasting, so i sat infront of the easel, set the camera up, squeezed out some paint, and started. 5 hours later i had to force myself to stop because i had to go to sleep and wake up early to go to work, but i was very pleased with what i had done, i had blocked in all the major shapes and colors, and had completed the face, i had that "fuck yeah!" feeling, like, "look at that, i made that!"
I don't know if i was really blocked, or i had made myself blocked by over thinking about what i had to do. When i wanted to work on it before, i did not like that empty feeling i kept getting, i hope not to go through it again, but i know i will, next time i'll just try to ignore it and work through it, maybe that's all i had to do the first time i sat down to paint it, just start working and move through it

I had to work the next couple of days after i had started it, and finishing it was all i could think of, i didn't want to work on it and sleep for a few hours, i knew i would pay for it the next day, so i let it sit for 2 days, and finished it on saturday night

I love this piece, i know David and Ruchelle will enjoy it.

Up next, i'm going to work on a painting for my older brother, he wants a painting of a Savannah Sunset that he would like to hang in the living room which has sort of a safari theme, it's going to be on a canvas that is 24 x 48, which is the largest canvas i will have worked on to date, but it should be easy, it's a landscape, which has more longer similar shapes, and a sunset which is primarily in orange, yellows, blues, greens and dark silhouttes, this should be fun

the 40/4 challenge


I received a video from Janeczka that was titled "40/4"
it was a surreal video, with a text over it, it was a poem that was both in english and french, it talked about snow and the night, it was very random and artsy, and cool!
after watching the video, i noticed it said it was a reply to the video "The 40/4 Challenge" by SilentDilemma, i remembered i had seen seen another video with this title the previous week from another user named Nezoone, which was also kind of weird, she was sitting on a park bench, and there was snow all around her, there were words under her on the snow.

I had to see what this was all about, so i checked out SilentDilemma's video called "The 40/4 Challenge" in the description he wrote

"40 seconds. 4 lines. That's all it takes. Just create a 40 second video, with 4 lines of text. It could be anything: poetry, or just some random thoughts. Then post the video as response to this one. I'll create some compilation videos soon!"

so this was what their videos had been about!
At the risk of being unpopular and because it sounded like a good idea, i brought out my camera once again, and put together some sounds i had in my collection and put this creepy 40 second video together

The tough part was coming up with the 4 lines
i wanted to create something that would easily explain how i felt at the moment
i hadn't painted anything for almost 2 months, and felt blocked, the more i thought about creating something the more i didn't do anything, like there was an invisible force stopping me, and i was feeding it more and more with my fear of wanting to create but not knowing what to do, or that i didn't feel like doing it

this project was extremely entertaining and fun to work on, this was a great idea SilentDilemma!
can't wait to see the compilation!

tagged!


i was tagged!
the tag game had been the craze on YouTube for a while a few months back, i was surprised to find an email from "Tesapie" (as she calls herself) she's one of the many artists whose videos i like to watch.

The rules of the game were to give 5 facts about yourself, then tag 5 people at the end so they could do the same

Coming up with 5 facts about myself was very hard, i couldn't think of that many!
a few came to mind very quick, but other than that i was blank.
I looked around and checked out other people who had done their 5 fact videos already. There were so many, and they all had such interesting facts, i wasn't even half as interesting as these other people were

After thinking about it over and over i came up wit my 5 facts and worked on the video.
The video was fun to make, i hadn't really used my camera like an actual portable camera since i had bought it, and once i started using it, everything fell into place

then came another tough part choosing 5 people to tag. I wanted to tag 5 people who hadn't been tagged before and who i had some sort of interaction with on the site, i didn't want to choose 5 random users! so i looked in my contacts and subscribers pages, and checked out hose who had regular comment interaction with me and the choices were easy from there

overall this was a fun project to work on, i want to thank Tesapie for tagging me, otherwise i would have never done it.

this was my heater


My heater had stopped working a few months ago, i had used it every night for about 2 months non stop, i guess after so much use they give out

I didn't want to throw it in the garbage can, i didn't know how to get rid of it, so i put it away in a corner of the room and let it collect dust for a while, finally when i decided to just throw it in with the rest of the trash, i got an idea to take it apart and see what i could build with it

I wanted to make a robot, i knew that. I had sort of an idea of what i wanted to do, but when i opened it, it didn't have as many wires or parts as i had imagined, i slowly took ever piece apart seperated them into piles and looked around to see how i could make something out of this mess.

I found some pieces for the head right away, and i knew the fan part was going to be the upper torso, with the fan as some sort of wings, but the rest was difficult, i wanted to use every single piece the heater had to offer, and the only external things i wanted to use were wires and glue.

It sat around for a day as i kept studying the left over pieces and trying to figure out how to put it together, once i got the base figured out, it all fit together like a puzzle, i finished it in a few hours after that.

now it sits on a shelf collecting dust like it was doing before i took it apart, but now it's a work of art...or so i'd like to think

long beach museum of art



I got a phone call from my friend Tommy, he invited me to check out a painting demonstration featuring Sean Cheetham, Jeremy Lipking and F. Scott Hess

After thinking about it alot, like i always do, i finally decided to go, i figured if i wasn't liking it, i could just leave.
It wasn't bad, when i got there it wasn't crowded, the artists had just started painting, and i was able to walk around and get some pictures, plus i got to hang out with Tommy, who i hadn't seen in like 6 months!
Watching them work was very inspiring, i got to see how they started, what they looked for, and it was 3 different artists using the same model, so it was 3 separate points of view of the same subject, and 3 different styles of painting and techniques
the one thing i kept thinking and i know i wasn't alone, is how slow they were all working, I'm not the best in the world, but they were taking too long!
After a while of sitting out in the sun, more people started showing up, and like i always feel in a huge crowd, i started to get my anxiety feeling, and began feeling very self conscious around all those people, so i asked Tommy if he wanted to check out the inside of the museum
The portraits inside were amazing, they had a special exhibit on portraiture by a ton of current artists including the ones outside painting, i took as many pictures as i could, while i was taking some pictures a woman began talking to me, she had some problems with her camera, and we were talking on how old our cameras feel now, even though they were only a few years old, once her camera began working, we were going to take some pictures but were approached by someone from the museum staff who told us picture taking was not allowed inside, oh well, i had a whole bunch already!
I figured i should leave, i had seen enough for one day, the crowd outside was too much for me to handle, so i said goodbye to Tommy, and took off.
I'm glad i went out and checked it out, it was cool while i was there, i got to see something i would have regretted not seeing, and it wasn't bad.

Monday, March 3, 2008

The Stare

due to the popular demand of my Make Art video, and because i've been lazy with the current painting i've been working on, i decided to make another stopmotion drawing using my favorite Koh-I-Noor sketch pen..enjoy!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Pancho Villa

Pancho Villa
Oil on Panel 14 x 18

SOLD

the joker

The Joker

Oil on Panel 14 x 18

SOLD

Friday, February 15, 2008

Make Art



This drawing was made as a response video on YouTube
I had been wondering for a while why YouTube had no "Art" category on their site
there's a category for Pets, Cars, Animation, Film, How-to, Etc.
but no art, why not!

A user by the name of "cheeckychen" had been bothered by it as well, as many users probably were too, and did something about it, he made a video asking for all the artists on YouTube to join in a collaboration to make videos displaying artwork with the words "Make Art" incorporated in it, he's probably planning on putting all these videos together in a massive video and show it to YouTube.

At the moment there is still no "Art" category on the site, but hopefully this collaboration will change their mind

is it wrong for us to ask for an art section?
it would make it much easier for people to find art and artists on YouTube
we shall see

oscar goes outside - the hive gallery



I visit The Hive Gallery in Los Angeles

At the request of a friend, who suggested i get my lazy butt out of the house and to a gallery, i decided to go to the one gallery i was dying to go to, The Hive Gallery!

I was not disappointed
all of the artwork was amazing!
the poeple there were super nice and friendly!
there was parking conviniently across the street from the place!
And, they were filming a scene for the new Knightrider TV show, and i got to see the new car they're using...i should go out more often!

thank you Amanda!

music by:
Craig Ventresco & David Boeddinghaus - Won't You Fondle Me Medley, from Crumb (Original Soundtrack)

Pancho Villa



Doroteo Arango Arámbula better known as Francisco or "Pancho" Villa, was a Mexican Revolutionary general.
His charisma and effectiveness gave him great popularity, he was provisional Governor of Chihuahua in 1913 and 1914.
Villa and his supporters, known as Villistas, employed tactics such as propaganda and firing squads against his enemies, and expropriated hacienda land for distribution to peasants and soldiers. He robbed and commandeered trains, and, like the other Revolutionary generals, printed fiat money to pay for his cause.
While his violence and ambition prevented him from being accepted into the "pantheon" of national heroes until some twenty years after his death, today his memory is honored by many Mexicans.

This painting is for my brother, he loves Pancho Villa, he collects old photographs and memorabilia of his favorite historical figure. So even though it's not authentic memorabilia, i hope he enjoys it...he better!!!

I really love this piece, it was my third attempt at Pancho Villa, i just wasn't getting his likeness right at all, it was bothering me so much, i did sketch after sketch, and those cam out great, but when i put brush to canvas, it got lost, i would go on painting, and get to a certain point, hate it, and get some turpentine and completely erase it!
Finally i figured the third time's a charm, i did a light form and shape sketch, nothing detailed, and began sketching it with my brush instead, the result was this beautiful piece that has become one of my most favorite pieces, i did it n 2 days (work got in the way)

I did use a refernce picture, and i wanted to give it an old fashioned, antique look, it came out great!

the joker



I started this painting at the very end of last year, and finished it within the first week, it took me a while to finish mainly due to my lazyness, i still can't et over being lazy, it's so much easier to just not do anyhting!
I chose the Joker as a subject for two reasons
1. It's a gift for a friend, i was thinkng what i could do for them, i didn't get them a gift for christmas, and wanted to do something, before that i had been strugling a bit to figure out what i could do, and thinking of what the person would like, i remembered the Joker was one of their favorite characters, so i decided to go with it

reason 2. The Joker to me, represents the ultimate drive of human achieveness and awakeness (as i like to call it) Here is someone who is no longer connected to the great hive mentality, they figured it out, sure the Joker is a fictional character, but what it implies is brilliant! He sees that he could truly be whatever he wants to be, it manifests itself in the form of a criminally insane person, who knows that life is nothing but a joke, and a game, not to be taken so seriously, and that in order to be what you want to be in life, you must become it, otherwise it will not be..does that make sense, it does to me...moving on

When i started painting this i began shooting timelapse footage of it through my computer, after a while of painting, it was probably like 45 minutes, i checked to see how the timelapse was going, and it haad stopped on it's own due to lack of space on my computer, it took up so much space!! and i had a bunch of movies taking up hard drive time as well, so instead of going through all the movies and deleteing them and then getting back to the painting, i did nothing for a few days, then began painting but took pictures instead until i finished

Overall, i like this piece, it's my first piece where i didn't use any reference, it came completely from my imagination, and i love it!