22.9.10
poster process
I have just started up work on a poster design/illustration for a random contest out of the Twin Cities. I'm hoping to do about two different compositions by the end of next week. As of now I am working toward developing a more sensual atmosphere with this piece. Started out with the woman having a cigarette but as of now I am changing up the line art so that she is holding a rose instead. Should be a fun process to go through. I'll throw up my progress over the next couple days.
26.7.10
dr. sketchy"s
I recently returned from my 11 month study abroad adventure to my wonderfully familiar home city of Brooklyn Park... what a crazy feeling. I need to make sure I don't fall into my old routines because I don't want to live my old life, I want to start my new one.
But on a different note and to the main point of this entry, my parents happened to go to this bar in downtown Minneapolis called the 331 Club and they were having a cool little event there called Dr. Sketchy, which is basically life drawing for the public but with a nice Avant Garde feel to it. So my dad headed back to pick me up to participate in the event along with my mom. The models that came in were two wonderfully charismatic burlesque dancers out of Chicago. Mind you I was here with my parents, aunt and uncle, and my friend and his dad. But it was just a great time. After doing a few warm up poses the dancers would do a quick routine that ended up being pretty entertaining and then we would get into some longer poses.
It was nice to get back into some real life drawing sessions but what really hit me about this whole event was how it revealed the reason of my love for living in the city, simply to be around all the strange off beat culture and to get involved in it. Events and little things like this are what give the city-life spirit and appeal and it really opened up my eyes to getting more involved in all the fun experiences like this one.
Here is the composition I spent the most time on. I was the winner of the best color use competition and I received a free entry pass to the next Dr. Sketchy event, which by the way is happening on 22nd of August for any of the readers that are interested!! You won't be disappointed on the entertainment level. Plus this 331 Club has amazing Bloody Marys. Haha!
Enjoy!
done with micron pens, super fat pilot marker, copic markers
But on a different note and to the main point of this entry, my parents happened to go to this bar in downtown Minneapolis called the 331 Club and they were having a cool little event there called Dr. Sketchy, which is basically life drawing for the public but with a nice Avant Garde feel to it. So my dad headed back to pick me up to participate in the event along with my mom. The models that came in were two wonderfully charismatic burlesque dancers out of Chicago. Mind you I was here with my parents, aunt and uncle, and my friend and his dad. But it was just a great time. After doing a few warm up poses the dancers would do a quick routine that ended up being pretty entertaining and then we would get into some longer poses.
It was nice to get back into some real life drawing sessions but what really hit me about this whole event was how it revealed the reason of my love for living in the city, simply to be around all the strange off beat culture and to get involved in it. Events and little things like this are what give the city-life spirit and appeal and it really opened up my eyes to getting more involved in all the fun experiences like this one.
Here is the composition I spent the most time on. I was the winner of the best color use competition and I received a free entry pass to the next Dr. Sketchy event, which by the way is happening on 22nd of August for any of the readers that are interested!! You won't be disappointed on the entertainment level. Plus this 331 Club has amazing Bloody Marys. Haha!
Enjoy!
done with micron pens, super fat pilot marker, copic markers19.7.10
last days
So here I am packing up all my life, tying the loose ends of everything and preparing to leave the place that I have called home for almost a year... It is amazing how fast I can just throw everything together in my suitcases, how all that made up my life here has to fit into the confines of these four simple bags... of course there is all the things that I can't be put into bags that either stay with me as a person or with the people that I have met here and the places that I have been.
I am getting my mind ready to merge the new with the old; preparing for the clash, the adaptation, the culture shock that really shouldn't come as any surprise to me considering I have lived in such a culture for 20 years of my life... it is simply a feeling that can't be described. The worst part is I don't think this all is going to hit me until I am sitting down in my seat, ready for take off.
I think this is the last entry from me until I am home. From that point I will update everything on all the trips I have taken over the past weeks along with my future plans.
Keep an eye out for it all. Another chapter of life starts up (again).
30.6.10
the flute player
This illustration is probably the one with the most time put into it before the printing. Maybe it was also the longest and most difficult one to print as well, considering I couldn't get the dang thing to register right the first time around!! And even the second time I tried I still couldn't get it quite perfect, but all in all that is what makes it a screen print, little imperfections such as mis-registering (not really a word). The composition is based on a Hermann Hesse poem that was given to us to make one single piece in our own interpretation of the message this amazing writer is depicting.
What I got out of the poem titled "The Flute Player" is that the reader is to enter a world where he can hear a song being played through nature itself; the trees, the birds, the stars and moon. There is something that resides in this amazing song that is so new and wondrous but at the same time it sounds so familiar that the reader just wants to reach out and touch it, become a part of it.
More to come soon! Enjoy!
28.6.10
where did the month go?
So the month of June has basically vanished into thin air. What does that mean? It means that I have exactly 3 weeks left here in Germany...
School has been absorbing my time like a fresh sponge, and the rest of my time has gone into getting whatever I can out of Germany and the people I have become so close to. In the past 2 weeks my small 5 student class and I have been working up a storm trying to get everything done for the Absoventen Katalog (Alumni Catalog), a catalog of all the graduating students' final projects. All I can say is that I haven't been much more stressed than I was over those couple flashing weeks. Spending the time with my friends here is really becoming a huge priority now that my slavery to the professors of the catalog course has been broken.
As of now there is only 4 days until my birthday is here. 21... it doesn't mean squat over here in Europe and on top of that, neither does the 4th or July so I can basically kiss the anticipation of seeing the blazing grand finally of the midnight fireworks show goodbye this weekend. Dang, what a bummer...
The realization of my time here getting shorter and shorter sparks up the feeling of being a little lost. Kind of strange considering I have found out more about myself in the past year than the whole span of time from my first day of high school through the end of my sophomore year of college. The feeling of being lost is that of me knowing even though I am going to feel great seeing all the old parts of life rush back to me all at once, I will still miss everything about this place, this time, the people, the experiences and all the rest. Its as though I have gained some place here in Germany, a place that allows me to live happily from day to day. Don't get me wrong, I think I am well due to see all of the things I left behind: my friends, my family, driving! Ha ha!! But all in all there is going to be a piece of me that stays here, planted at the station waiting for the next train to take me on a new adventure into unknown territory, or sitting at the lake watching all the people fly by on bike or grilling or walking around and drinking beer in public! Its all here to stay and the next time I will meet up with all of these great things will most likely be on a short vacation as a tourist... its really a funny thing to think about.
The month of July is going to seem like it were pressed, strained and bottled into the containment of a week, I have no doubt in that. I will have to sip and enjoy every precious second of it.
School has been absorbing my time like a fresh sponge, and the rest of my time has gone into getting whatever I can out of Germany and the people I have become so close to. In the past 2 weeks my small 5 student class and I have been working up a storm trying to get everything done for the Absoventen Katalog (Alumni Catalog), a catalog of all the graduating students' final projects. All I can say is that I haven't been much more stressed than I was over those couple flashing weeks. Spending the time with my friends here is really becoming a huge priority now that my slavery to the professors of the catalog course has been broken.
As of now there is only 4 days until my birthday is here. 21... it doesn't mean squat over here in Europe and on top of that, neither does the 4th or July so I can basically kiss the anticipation of seeing the blazing grand finally of the midnight fireworks show goodbye this weekend. Dang, what a bummer...
The realization of my time here getting shorter and shorter sparks up the feeling of being a little lost. Kind of strange considering I have found out more about myself in the past year than the whole span of time from my first day of high school through the end of my sophomore year of college. The feeling of being lost is that of me knowing even though I am going to feel great seeing all the old parts of life rush back to me all at once, I will still miss everything about this place, this time, the people, the experiences and all the rest. Its as though I have gained some place here in Germany, a place that allows me to live happily from day to day. Don't get me wrong, I think I am well due to see all of the things I left behind: my friends, my family, driving! Ha ha!! But all in all there is going to be a piece of me that stays here, planted at the station waiting for the next train to take me on a new adventure into unknown territory, or sitting at the lake watching all the people fly by on bike or grilling or walking around and drinking beer in public! Its all here to stay and the next time I will meet up with all of these great things will most likely be on a short vacation as a tourist... its really a funny thing to think about.
The month of July is going to seem like it were pressed, strained and bottled into the containment of a week, I have no doubt in that. I will have to sip and enjoy every precious second of it.
11.6.10
sk - sk - sketching!
There are far too many of these too look through in one entry... need to make a habit of getting these up more often so my posts aren't tirelessly long.
Realized now that even though I love drawing these faces I think that I need to push my efforts and concentration more toward my love of editorial design so that I can gain some ground on my ability in that area. I will always be able to sketch but I seem to always get stuck on some of graphic design things that I need to do because I don't practice these other fundamental elements in the designers batbelt. Time to step it up!
Enjoy the new faces of the bunch
Realized now that even though I love drawing these faces I think that I need to push my efforts and concentration more toward my love of editorial design so that I can gain some ground on my ability in that area. I will always be able to sketch but I seem to always get stuck on some of graphic design things that I need to do because I don't practice these other fundamental elements in the designers batbelt. Time to step it up!
Enjoy the new faces of the bunch
10.6.10
florence and cait
No, Cait is not another city in Italy. She is one of my best friends from home who I spend about 2/3 of my time at Stout with. I haven't seen her for nearly ten months save for a couple skype video chats here and there. So when I heard that she was planning to do a two month long summer session in Florence, Italy my head almost exploded with anticipation!
So this past weekend I was able to head south one of the most beautiful country sides that I have seen so far, the wonderful Tuscany landscape. Landing in the Pisa International Airport threw me off a bit considering it was about the size of a football pitch with no more security than one. They didn't even have a customs check, which disappointed me because I couldn't get my passport stamped. The one good thing about flying into a country is getting the stamp and I got jipped... Oh well.
The train ride between Pisa and Florence was the perfect way for me to get acquainted with the amazing place. There is something about Italy that was just kind of dirty and messy, but in a beautiful way. All the houses are very old, with the plaster facades chipping away in multiple places revealing faded clay bricks beneath. There are window shutters hanging lopsided on one hinge. And the vegetation grows ramped throughout yards. But then I noticed some old buildings that just weren't used anymore and half caved in, which had to have stood there for a long time because there were huge cypris trees shooting out of the interiors through the open roof. It hit me that the civilization has some quality where it blends into nature seamlessly.
Once arriving in Florence Cait found me right away and I couldn't have been happier! She brought me back to her extremely huge apartment, which was situated right behind one of the cathedrals in the center of town, and I got to meet the whole spectrum of her roommates. Over the weekend I was there we really took it easy and just explored the city through the narrow streets, more just site seeing and not doing too much of the tourist stuff (ok we explored some of the churches and the like). I was really enjoying seeing everything considering Italy was one of the important ones on my travel list to make and I was finally there but I was really just there to see Cait again and experience a bit of Europe with her.
I do wish I would have been there a bit longer so that I could have seen some more of the Tuscan landscape but I couldn't complain when I got a beautiful view of it all from the Ryanair jet. I am sure I will be heading back to Italy sometime in the future to take some more in. All - in - all it was an amazing trip!
So this past weekend I was able to head south one of the most beautiful country sides that I have seen so far, the wonderful Tuscany landscape. Landing in the Pisa International Airport threw me off a bit considering it was about the size of a football pitch with no more security than one. They didn't even have a customs check, which disappointed me because I couldn't get my passport stamped. The one good thing about flying into a country is getting the stamp and I got jipped... Oh well.
The train ride between Pisa and Florence was the perfect way for me to get acquainted with the amazing place. There is something about Italy that was just kind of dirty and messy, but in a beautiful way. All the houses are very old, with the plaster facades chipping away in multiple places revealing faded clay bricks beneath. There are window shutters hanging lopsided on one hinge. And the vegetation grows ramped throughout yards. But then I noticed some old buildings that just weren't used anymore and half caved in, which had to have stood there for a long time because there were huge cypris trees shooting out of the interiors through the open roof. It hit me that the civilization has some quality where it blends into nature seamlessly.
Once arriving in Florence Cait found me right away and I couldn't have been happier! She brought me back to her extremely huge apartment, which was situated right behind one of the cathedrals in the center of town, and I got to meet the whole spectrum of her roommates. Over the weekend I was there we really took it easy and just explored the city through the narrow streets, more just site seeing and not doing too much of the tourist stuff (ok we explored some of the churches and the like). I was really enjoying seeing everything considering Italy was one of the important ones on my travel list to make and I was finally there but I was really just there to see Cait again and experience a bit of Europe with her.
I do wish I would have been there a bit longer so that I could have seen some more of the Tuscan landscape but I couldn't complain when I got a beautiful view of it all from the Ryanair jet. I am sure I will be heading back to Italy sometime in the future to take some more in. All - in - all it was an amazing trip!
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