Self Portrait

This is my final drawing for my Life Drawing class. For this semester we had to pick a theme, mine was time. For our last project we had to do a layered drawing, so I did a surrealistic scattered time line self portrait . Gosh that's a mouth full. Anyways, I took some of the injuries that I have sustained over the years and exaggerated them... A lot. 

The oven mitt is from when I sustained a second degree burn to my hand. The hole in the side of my head is from when I was 2 and was hit in the side of the head by a baseball; the doctor's said I had a "y" fracture around my right eye. The trumpet looking tubes coming out of my left ear are from my six ear surgeries on that ear; I had tubes put in to drain the fluid behind my ear drum so I could hear. As for the hear in the glass, it represents two things; my heart surgery when I was 1 and from when I had an inflammation of the heart lining known as Pericarditis. 

This is the final result, I added a collage of coloured paper behind the skeleton to help it stand out more. I also added a layer of Mylar over top of the collage and drew a line drawing of myself in marker. 

Paper is 24x30 inches large

Mixed media: Pencil crayon, Mylar, Patterned scrapbook paper, charcoal, black lining markers, graphite pencil and a lot of spray glue.   

Five paintings

These are my final paintings for class done in acrylic on wood panels. We had to paint a series of five paintings that could be as a group or stand on their own. I ended up painting (non literal) portraits of my family in the form of books. 

In ancient times, instead of Gods some families would pray to their Ancestors instead of Gods (or in place of the Gods). This is still practiced today in some countries. Usually there would be busts or portraits made of the diseased family member that the living family would keep with them and pray to for good fortune. 

Instead of portraits I painted mini scenes inside each book that reminded me of the person. On the front of the book I stenciled the first initial of my family members' names. I painted portraits of my cousin, my aunt, my brother, my mom and my father.     

This is my father's portrait. He sometimes reminds me of a swarm of bees; he's a hard worker but when angered... well... let's just say bees are still an appropriate comparison. 

This is my mother, she's been through some hard times in her life and she's finally starting to get over them. I painted a dandelion for her because it's a superstition to be able to make a wish on the seeds and I'm always wishing for her to keep getting better. 

My cousin, even though she's only eight is very strong. She has been through so much, and still manages to help out her mom and brighten people's days. So for her I painted a sunflower. 

My aunt is a very important person in my life and she has always managed to weather the hellish storm she has been through. 

This last painting is for my brother. He's distant and cold to nearly everyone and really doesn't care about anyone other than his self.

Portrait Done in Class

This is one of our models at school, I'm not going to give out his name just in case, but if someone from my school stumbles upon this blog, they (hopefully) should recognize him. This is probably one of the best portraits I've drawn (and honestly, as I look at it now on my screen... I can see a lot wrong with it)...

Anyways, I needed to draw his face so my next project actually looks like him. Haha.

I probably should have put in some shading for a background to give the picture more dimension...

Graphite pencil on 8.5x11 inch paper

I just need some where to post some art.

Usually I would go to Deviant Art for posting my art, but in all honesty I'm getting sick of the the naked people/ ponies/ naked ponies. Don't get me wrong, I love naked people I draw them at least once a week for school, but I'm not a fan of tasteless "artistic nudes" that make the models look like toys to whomever is viewing the photo.

Anyways, a little about myself...

Despite my obvious wit in the above paragraph where I may (or may not) come across as lighthearted and easy going (for the most part I think I can be);  I am I rather dark person. I just choose (most of the time) to hide my- for lack of a better phrase "Dark Side" with humor to make other people in my family more comfortable. And what was once used as a way to keep myself safe, has now turned its self into a common trait in my art work (providing I’m not having a really bad day). 

Like most artist I use art as a way to express myself and vomit out some pent up emotions. Loss, corruption, death, and mental illness tend to be frequent reoccurring themes for me, but regardless of the dark themes, most of my art is quirky and humorous. It’s almost like I’m putting a physical “happy face sticker” over the problem like I do in real life. I do not take any of these themes lightly, regardless of what my art portrays. I have just found that most people to not like talking about such subjects and are unnerved by them, so I guess you could say my art work is ironic (please settled down any Homestuck fans).   

  

For the longest time I found myself soling working with marker, pencil crayon, and ballpoint pen; mostly because that was all I could afford on a regular bases. I started developing a love for acrylic paint while in my first year of college, since it was all we where aloud to use in first year painting, I kind of had to learn to like it (also being allergic to oils and not very good at water colour helped too). I still love the look of ball point pen and liners, but have moved on to executing some of my work in mixed-media. 

I think that's all I have to say for now, and when I create something that I think is worth while I'll put it up here.