The Art Center College of Design Experience

                                               The Art Center College of Design Experience

     After receiving my acceptance letter into Art Center earlier this year it was mutually decided between my wife and me; that I would have to venture into the unknown Los Angeles landscape on my own. We simply could not bear the costs of child-care, housing, tuition, and living expenses under one paycheck. The day that my wife and son dropped me off at my new home I had brief flashback of leaving home at 18; except this time I was not packing my bag with comic books and a bottle of water. I was now leaving behind a beautiful wife and son, so that I may selfishly finish the education that I started 10 years ago.

     This phase of my life I call “The Rebirth”. I am now in solitary confinement and without any outside support I have to find who I am and what I’m capable of. I felt like this issue of Spider-Man (Issue 63 “If this be my Destiny”) in which Spider-Man is buried under a pile of debris, and while water streams into the empty room Spider-man is trapped in he finds himself staring at his reflection in the water that’s on the verge of drowning him. He gathers himself and finds his inner strength and heroically manages to lift himself out of danger. I now have the strength to lift myself into a better life, no amount of crushed rubble will ever stop me.
    

     I experienced orientation in a flurry of bagels, coffee and oatmeal, all while being shuffled around by Art Center Staff like I was a pack of cards. I made friends during orientation and found that most of the students entering school were on average 10 years younger than I was. It’s quite common for younger people to ask one another how old someone is, especially after seeing their work. “Wow! You’re so good for being 19 blah blah blah”. Although, I joked about my age in the beginning it became this long running joke within the group of friends that I had. The relentlessness reached a point in which I felt ashamed for not having the money to attend Art Center at 21 years old. Other than the age-related jokes, Art Center immediately provided itself with an onslaught of homework. This was now the hardest I had ever worked in my life, and it’s not that I didn’t want to work hard when I was younger, I simply did not have the finances nor the time to push myself to such great lengths. I love Art Center and in some weird way I hope It loves me back. I do miss my son every day though…

     People have this desire to travel the world and find any form of excitement that will fill some unknown void in their soul’s. Having the honor of being Max’s father provides an unsurmountable amount of terrifying and thrilling adventure. More than enough to fill a hundred lifetimes, and It’s what makes being away from him so much more painful. Knowing every-day I’m not sharing in his experiences; as he finds new and fascinating animals, sounds, and events. He and I used to go on daily walks, and one of my fondest memories of us is when Max saw a squirrel for the first time. I remember he looked up at me with such awe after he saw the squirell as if to say “Papa I saw something new and I want to share it with you!”. I wonder if he gives me the same look that the deer gave me, in that early misty morning on a street in Pacific Grove. My wife had delayed leaving to the hospital and while on route she gave birth to Max in the backseat of our Volkswagon Jetta. I pulled over on the dirt side of the road at 3:17 a.m. and just as the dust had settled I saw a wild deer ahead of me. That deer looked at me the moment Max was born, I knew that it was searching for my soul. The wild animal stared at me with such intensity, it was checking to see if I was ready to be a father. Am I?
     Art Center is an interesting place to be, the history that this school has is incredible. The price tag per term is pretty incredible too. All jokes aside I love being at Art Center, while I’m writing this “Why is Alex not with his family” blog post. It is almost 1 am and I still have to wrap up some work for my classes this week. At the time of this writing I have applied to 2 scholarships and 1 grant at Art Center (With several more scholarships and grants I that are still in the rough-draft stage). I have made a league of friends, some of which I am close with and if they’re reading this, they know who they are. I am also running for student council and I think we get results next week? (Vote for Alex). I love being here and I love how hard the school pushes you to do excellent work. Sometimes while sitting in my workspace in the kitchen, my eyes wander from my projects for a brief moment and I catch myself smiling. I think I smile because I feel like this is the first time in my life I can actually do the best work possible with no outside interferences to stop me. No loud nights at home, no concerns for money or places to study or live. Or maybe I’m smiling because I’m thinking of my beautiful baby boy and maybe he’s thinking of me at that moment too.

     Art Center has been a challenging experience thus far and I still have 3 weeks to go. This school is not the Ryder School nor is it Angel Academy. It is not a small studio space with a light flavor of charcoal dust in the air, and filled with 40 hour drawings of the human figure rendered immaculately with straight lines and no emotion. This school is an educational springboard for some of the greatest artists, and designers of this century. It is such an honor to be here and I hope that I can make my mark while at Art center. To add my page in its history book of great artisans. I will to get this done right and get a job so I can be with my son. Sometimes I feel that water cascading in though, and while I struggle on the late nights with homework. I catch my reflection on my laptop and I find my inner strength, slowly I feel the weight being lifted once more.

Art Center College of Design- Visual Science Studios is now an Illustration Company.

Hi All,
Its been almost a year since I last posted on this blog. I have made some big changes to my career and have weaned myself off of pursuing a career as a portrait painter and decided to use my skills towards illustration in the entertainment industry. I am now enrolled in the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. I started my first term of school this past September and I am currently 7 weeks in my first 14 week term. I am considered a transfer student and I am in my second term at Art Center. Also, I have decided to cancel my solo show at the Pacific Grove Art Center and decided to focus entirely on Art Center College of Design. The workload at the school is incredibly high and so is the quality. I know that I couldn't do both things at the same time so I will have to revisit my fisherman work in the future.

I wanted to share a short essay I wrote on completing the Block-In method of drawing. I wrote this paper for my English class and thought it was well written enough that I can share it with others.

Pictured above. A Figure drawing example using the block in technique. 

Learn to Draw using the Block-In

There are multiple ways to draw a figure, some are observation based, while others use a conceptual thinking process. I want to focus on the observational way of drawing the human figure. This process requires multiple steps and can be broke down into a simple way so that anyone can draw in this method. This method of working is called “The Block In.” As we progress through the stages of drawing you will begin to understand why it’s called “The Block In.”

The first stage is to look at the figure carefully and establish where your gesture and placement will be on the drawing. Do not many any marks on the paper just yet. Just look at the figure carefully and make mental notes on what you are seeing at this moment, the process of mental drawing will help you think before you act. Next you may establish the gesture of the figure and look for the points and counterpoints on the major joints, such as the elbows and knees. Once the gesture is established, you can move towards defining the figure drawing.

Start by using a straight line and measure on part of the head, such as the nose to the chin, or the forehead to the chin. This first line is very important in that it will give you a basis on which every other line will be measured against. Now that you are confident you have the first line accurate, move on from shape to shape correcting each aspect of the drawing using that first line as a standard of measurement. At this stage of the drawing your figure should be fully outlined and we can move onto the shadow shapes stage.

Using the same method that we did to reach the outline of the figure, we will find a visual anchor in the drawing and ensure that our shadow shapes are accurate. Begin by building in your shadow shapes slowly and when putting in the outlines keep your hand light. In this way of drawing you can carefully build the overlapping atmosphere of the shadow and can set yourself up for the next drawing stage. At the end of this stage make sure to take a step back and confirm the drawings proportions are accurate.

Once the outline of the shapes is complete, begin to mass In the shadows using the side of a piece of charcoal. Keep the shadow masses all in one tone and, at this stage you can also darken your core shadows to get the form to turn. Once that is complete, you can even add some highlights to the figure so that the drawing can be visually balanced. Begin to wrap up the drawing by checking your edgework in the lights and darks to confirm the accuracy of the drawing. If everything on the drawing feels accurate the drawing is visually balanced, then you are at a good place to stop.

I hope this has been helpful for you to understand this particular method of drawing. I stated previously that there are multiple methods of drawing the figure and I find this method most beneficial to me. It’s not the “right” way to draw as there are many other methods I didn’t cover. However, if you want to accurately draw what you see without conceptualizing the figure, then this method is for you. Thank you for reading and as always, practice makes perfect. So, draw everyday!

Gundam Commission-Progress

Some progress on this Gundam Commission I am working on. I also wanted to share some of my process on how i complete commissions. 

I always start with gestural studies and doing a refined study of what I will be working on. This really helps me cement what i will be producing especially if it is a new idea. Since i usually work in traditional formats (portraits, figures, landscapes) I wanted to get an idea on how a Gundam is designed. I noticed a lot of straight simplified edges, and smooth lines.

Next I did a full study on what the actual design will be. I then use an old Reniassance method to transfer the drawing to the illustration board. 

 Here is the final piece in progress, i have done the transfer and refined any points of interest, as well as confirmed the composition. Now i will establish the overall design using line quality and i will use an undertone in watercolor before i move to finish the piece in full color.

Stay  tuned for more!

6 pages of sequential art

Just did these 6 pages of sequential art, comics are fun to draw.

Model in session

 "Model in Session" 18x24 oil on linen.

I wanted to explore the idea of the artist at work in the studio, here we have the model elegantly posed for one artist and in the corner we have another artist hard at work with a hunched back and using a small window of natural light to capture nature at its grace. This was the last oil painting i will complete as i will be in the middle-east working on a new body of work and teaching classical drawing techniques. I will be focusing on doing small watercolor studies and really refining the hell out of my ability to draw with great accuracy.

Study of a fisherman

Small portrait study i did for a larger format painting, i like to resolve any technical issues and concerns by utilizing studies. This gives me a better understanding of the issues ill face when i complete the final piece.

Natalie, group show, magazine!!

new piece, i completed this a month ago but ive been busy moving back to Fremont, CA. We will be leaving for Jordan this Fall for 5 months and i plan on working on a new body of work while i am abroad. In the mean time i am working on a rather big commission i just received!

Also i was published in a magazine from Monterey, CA and i will be showing my Hobbes piece at a national oil exhibition.

Hope you are all well...whoever is reading this.