Return to Sender

Hey all, I'm heading back down below the Mason Dixon line tomorrow. Which means frantic last minute packing. Also means that I'm gonna be without internet access for the next three days or so until I get to the dorms and get my computer set up again.

See you all next year.

Surreality and a Pen #1: New Beginning

Attempting to revive an old comic that I used to do in High School. May need to borrow Frankenstein's lab for this one though...

And for anyone who is interested in drawing comics, I highly recommend Scot McCloud's books, Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics and Making Comics. It is a worth while investment in your craft.

Rejoice, The Sun is Born Again

Happy/Merry holiday of your choice.

Been busy working, both at my seasonal retail gig (yay book store) and getting portfolio/cards/samples/etc ready to ship out, as well as a few other projects that need to be addressed.

That being said, it's nice to get some time off to spend with family (and new kitten, will post pics when I can get her to hold still long enough to grab them).

I decided to make things for my family this year, as opposed to buying them the same things I always get them. Was fun, and I think they'll like the artwork-slash-pictures.

On another note, it dawned on me that the various holidays that take place around the Winter Solstice, when you boil away the religious flavorings, are all about the same sorts of things. Family and friends coming together to lift everyone's spirits as the shortest night of the year is past and the warmth will return with the sun.

That and you see lights pop up over and over again.

Hanukkah and Kwanzaa use candles in their celebrations; Christmas has the Christmas tree lights (which used to be candles); Yule has the "Yule Log", or a big chunk of wood that would help to keep the hearth fire burning longer; the Humanists (a predominately secular philosophy) have a candle lighting ceremony for HumanLight, their winter time holiday.

It's always amazing how much is there when you look at the similarities between us instead of the differences.

How does the saying go, "it's always darkest before the dawn"?

Let's hope that holds true.
I for one would love to see what lies on the far side of the daybreak.

[P.S.-interpret the title as literally or metaphorically as you want, you're probably right]

Preponderance of Professional Preperations

Tomorrow I'm heading into New York to go check out Pratt and Parsons, both schools that I am considering for Graduate School. The former for Design Management and the latter for Design and Technology.

In other news, I finally have my base portfolio built, just need to add and tweak as time goes on. Now to finish up my buisness card.

[Edit]

Well damn.

I have my card finished and portfolio ready to go. I'm starting to feel like a legitimate Illustrator now (bolstered by the fact that I have a friend who has asked me to design a half-sleeve tattoo for him).

[/Edit]

Pondering Personal Potential

I'm in the process of getting my portfolio assembled and I had an epiphany.

I can do this.

Not I think I can.
Not maybe.

I can and will.
I can and will go forth and be amazing.
I can and will blow people's minds.

That being said, I know I'm never going to be able to stop learning because I've "learned it all". I'm going to have to keep learning, keep experimenting, keep growing and changing.

To do anything else is to give up. If I were to do that, I would probably be driven insane by the creative spark that is lurking somewhere in my gray matter, intimately entwined with the very essence of my soul.

That is who I am.
That is what I am.

The question now is what will I become?

The only way to know is to become it and find out.


Also, it is incredibly satisfying to see and to hold artwork that had until just moments before had existed only as information encoded onto silicone and copper with electrons.

-S.B.

Chromatic Application

Took a crack at adding color to the black and white version from before, and I think it's a pretty successful result. going to have to play around with this more and see where this takes me. I may have stumbled onto a new personal technique for generating artwork and Illustrations.



Please let me know what you think, comments and critiques are for me what spinach is for Popeye. Metaphorically speaking of course. It's be impossible to use my Wacom if I had his fore-arms.

Artificial Paradigm

A very interesting blog post by artist/illustrator James Gurney about the possible fundamental differences between humans and both our current and future artificial children.

Yesterday, when I was photographing that sketch of the security guard, my camera automatically switched over into portrait mode. Its face-detection software responded to the sketch as if it were a real face, even though it was looking at pencil scratches on paper, and the “face” was in profile.

It sent a chill down my spine because I sensed the emergence of a mind.

You can read the rest here.

Sketches

Hey all, enjoy these complimentary sketches for your viewing pleasure.

-Some random sketches in an effort to keep my artistic mojo flowing.

-Playing with possible style for a comic that I have in the works, I like where these are going.

I like the design on his shirt and may try to make some like that.

Yay for latex goth vamp. Need to work on the shiny, but I think it works pretty well as it is.

Frosty the Illustrator

Happy/Merry [insert winter holiday here].

Between finals, shipping back up north for the winter and my general laziness (which is something about myself that I really hate), there have been no posts as of late, as I'm sure you've noticed.

In any case, I'm in the process of sending out job applications to a number of companies who (hopefully) require the aid of an Illustrator, specifically me.

If anyone is interested in my services, please contact me at bordertowndirector (at) gmail (dot) com. I will respond as promptly as I can.

I'm also looking into Graduate School, ideally somewhere that has a program that will help me in pursuing a career as an Art Director. Pratt, Parsons, School of Visual Arts, and Mason Gross at Rutgers are all on my list to look at.

Wish me luck, I have a feeling I'm going to need it.