Concept Art for the style of my Next Work

This is the style I'll be shooting my next short film in. The picture has nothing to do with the story, it's just what I chose to test the style on. Enjoy.

Through the grape vine and pushing through

Today I was given a great little link to a fantastic stop motion music video, found here. The singer is Oren Lavie and the song is Her Morning Elegance. The video is just a fantastic work of art and very befitting of the song. I've probably watched the video five times today and who knows what the rest of the evening holds. 

Videos like these are what keep me driving towards my goals. This can be done by anyone it's just a matter of thinking and doing, one shouldn't be constrained by their own thoughts. If you can think it then there's most definitely a way of doing it.

Asking for advice from my boss about my future is like taking a cold shower where the water is reality. I know I'm not qualified, nor do I have the skills to direct. I don't have the portfolio for it either but as always I have my ideas and I will push through. The only person keeping me from not having what it takes is myself, the reason I lack a portfolio is because I'm waiting for others to help me work on films. I know photoshop, flash, scanners, printing, and photography. I can be my own writer, storyboard artists, cast, crew, and editor. 

And so I've begun to write my story for my first true short film in flash. Definitely influenced by toy theater, PES and just the ability to create a truly entertaining story that Pixar brings to each film. I don't want to give too much away but my story is definitely fantasy based and deals with the imagination and creativity of a child as well as growing up, learning, but still being able to love now what you loved then.

Inspiration no matter what size

I spent over 6 hours in the theater yesterday setting up a camera and projector for a visiting show that the college theater has brought in. The group is called Great Small Works and they do toy theater. I've never really heard of toy theater, but it's great. The simplicity of their stages and characters but the ability to hold interest in the story is amazing. They incorporate moving backgrounds, overhead projectors, and balloons to create the worlds from their stories. 

Knowing this exists really inspires me to try new ways of working with scan art and incorporate their style of story telling into my work. The scale and simplicity of it all just amazes me because I'm used to work with very detailed and complicated images in my work but I've forgotten about the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) mentality.

Hopefully I'll have more time on my hands this week to begin creating again.

New Items for Sale!

I finally hooked up my new printer and got to printing some of my new work and now it's available for sale at my etsy shop! So buy buy buy!

First day back and already busy

Today was my first day back in classes, I only really had one class. Within the first minute of visiting the Digital Media Studio I was handed an assignment. Us old fart seniors were to only work an hour a week as consultants, but because the new free lance system isn't in place they put in the ol' reliables.

It feels good to be needed. Also I took another two assignments to help set up the camera and projectors for the theater on Friday and Sunday, so that means more money.

Last but not least for today, my friend Justin asked if I would produce his senior film project at school. I said yes! I may even throw it in for some extra credits.

Busy busy busy today. So now I'm off to design posters for the concert that JAB is throwing here on campus in a month.

...A little while longer

Since the art department decided to move the printers out of the main lab and the building was locked I didn't get to print today. Sadly this may have to wait until I get my own printer.

Until that point I'm going to give a sneak peek of one of my new pictures. Enjoy!

Just arrived

So I'm finally back at school and settled in. Today I'll get to go print some of my newer work and make it available for sale on Etsy.com as well as smaller prints of some of my work.

But I'm even more excited about two early birthday presents I'm getting next week. I'm getting a new Epson flatbed scanner as well as a new Epson printer. I've been needing these for a while now considering I've been using my sister's scanner and the school's printer.

Everyday inspirations

Inspirations don't always come from big moments are epiphanies. Sometimes they come from something you walk by everyday. It's these things that I try to spot and use within my work. Everyday objects also play a huge role in one of my favorite artist's work, PES. He uses everyday objects in his stop motion videos and gives them a new, sometimes unorthodox role. The idea of taking what someone knows about an object and having them reframe the object and think of it within a new frame of thought is something I've always enjoyed. 

So recently I've worked on a new piece of art, my third over Christmas break, in which I've tried to take something we all know and see and recreate from other objects. The art I've been working in lately is scanography (scanner art) in which I use a flatbed scanner to scan objects and then I rearrange them within photoshop to construct an image. My two previous works can be found and purchased on Etsy, while the other two and my new one will be up for sale within the next week or so.

So what I've tried to do within my new work is taken what is traditionally done through scanography, flowers, and try to give my spin to it. So enjoy what I'm calling a teaser picture at the top here and keep looking within the next two weeks for my new work.

Pixar my dream job...

I want this... 

Inspirations from a rabbit hole

I don't know if it's too soon to post more inspirations again or not but I'm going to anyways.  When I heard that Tim Burton was working on a new Alice in Wonderland film I immediately was interested and when I heard he was going to be more true to the book I sought out the book. So I am now reading the book and I have fallen in love with the odd pacing and storytelling that Lewis Carroll uses. The absurdity of the story itself, yet the willingness of the reader to play along is just to fun. Also the illustrations are highly amusing.

I'm sure I'm not the first to be influenced by Carroll's fantastic world through the rabbit hole but still it's hard not be influenced with it and have the opportunity to play within the world. So Im posting a few images which I found within the book. Now remember these are not my images they come from the book. So enjoy!

What's inspiring me today

I'm going to try to update this as much as possible but here are a few things that I came across, received a tip about, or came up with that I would like to share.

The first being the work of Keith Loutit. My friend as well as a phenomenal artist, Scott Thomas showed me this article showcasing one of his works that uses time-lapse and tilt-shift photography.  The guy is phenomenal and most definitely has influenced me today. You can find his web page here.

In case anyone is wondering about tilt-shift photography the lens itself is $1,000. I know what to ask for next Christmas.

Next is a picture I recently took while vacationing for a few days in Ocean City, MD.  As my girlfriend and I were walking down the beach I saw footprints going down the beach ahead of us, they stopped and there was this bird.  So I thought how strange it might be that some poor man was minding his own business walking down the beach when all of a sudden he was turned into a seagull.

Welcome to my blog...

As I start to move towards the end of my senior year at college and the "real world" begins to loom over my head I really want to start to focus on creating more digital and film art as well as sharing my ideas with everyone else. As an artist I feel like my goals are to create meaningful and fun art that pushes me to the best of my abilities and inspires other artists as well. Some of my favorite artists such as Michel Gondry, Pes, Keith Loutit, Robert Parke Harrison and Maggie Taylor all inspire me to create and push myself and my art. I also get a lot of my inspiration from friends and family.

So this is my blog. My hopes is that if anything I can inspire one other person with my work or receive creative feedback or ideas from anyone willing to share. I love hearing other people's ideas and getting the opportunity to play within their imagination.

Without further delay... Welcome to my blog!