Summer is the season of blogging!

I camwhored (with my cell phone cam) a bunch of pictures I did in art class the past year! Whoohoo! The pictures are all very bad because I couldn't find a real camera and I am too lazy to fix them up in Photoshop.

This guy was a big ass watercolor, forgot the exact dimensions. I started drawing these weird guys in my sketchbook after seeing that dance group at the Cerritos Performing Arts Center with AP Physics. This is called The Cave.
A detail shot of the bugger in front's face!
And the little babies clinging to the parental figure in the back...

This was my first concept doodle, done right after seeing the physics dance thingy.
A study practicing in watercolor. The words say something like 'Shield it with your body, offer it each phantom crumb." It's a quote from Cormac McCarthy's The Road, the only book of his I can get through it seems.This was the more developed sketch for the final. Oh, the background formation was inspired by plant cells from AP Bio! Schlerenchyma something... I forgot it already. The actual cave opening was inspired by stomata guard cells.


This next guy is called Crocodile Tears. It was my first piece where I used sewing machine a crap of a lot. I ended up playing with the sewing machine a lot last year... it was frustrating because of my incredible ability to jack up all machines around me, yet fun!Oh, and this was inspired by the Brian Eno song "Sombre Reptiles" off the album Another Green World, one of my all-time favorite CDs.
Detail shot of a bit of shoreline. I first watercolored the croc, then collaged a bunch of tissue paper and paper towels and cardboard. Oh yeah, and cut out some random newspaper headlines from WHS Aspects (RIP, Aspects D':). Then I stitched with a sewing machine over top of the whole thing. It got stuck so many times on the cardboard and duct tape... it took forever to finish!

Detail of the bugger's face! Terrible photo... haha.

My original concept sketch! This was done with my nice felt-tip markers. My original idea was about pollution. But after I did the sewing and such, I didn't feel like throwing nasty black India ink all over my hard work... haha. Also, the goose/swan thing was taken out.

This is one of my favorites from this year! I originally had this idea of doing Athena pwning Arachne in the Greek myth about weaving and spiders, and it was going to be a mixed media piece (see sketch below,haha). But then I saw this magazine from Ms. Agrums where someone prepared a bunch of pieces of paper with all sorts of collage and stuff, then made them into sort of paper quilts or tapestries. So I decided to do that. Back to the sewing machine again! But first I splashed tempura, tissue paper, gold spray paint (left over from Contemporary Media 2nd film festival) and bits of old journal entries from Dalley's class on large sheets of construction paper. Then I cut out the little buggers into cool shapes and sewed them (no glue involved!) on a large white construction paper. Then it looked too crazy so I outlined in India ink. Go India ink!! Photos are terrible. :( The thing is too darn shiny to get a proper photo. Detail of Athena.
Yay the first concept sketches! As you can see, I originally planned for Athena to be a lot smaller and for the tapestry to depict scenes from Greek mythology. But I think it would have taken me a year to finish if I had tried that.
A sketchbook thing of Athena, with some tissue paper collage. Watercolor with some Pilot G-2 pen on top.
The next guy is called Everything Divides Us. It's an acrylic painting in three panels. It's based on Bleach! Haha, actually just the Persephone myth that Bleach kind of adapted with the whole Ulquiorra/Orihime thing. Ulquiorra is supposed to be Charon, the boatman who takes Orihime (obviously Persephone) to the underworld. I first painted the middle, then the Charon and the Persephone I rushed on the day of the art final. So not too happy with the last panel, but oh well.
A detail of the middle panel. I used some sparkly gold paint. heheh. I was always frustrated with the awkward posture of Charon/Ulquiorra. couldn't quite figure out how the neck/shoulder area should work.
The middle panel. I like how the colors in the background came out. The raft thing annoyed me to no end.
Detail of Persephone/Orihime. Her nose turned out dinky and too low. >_<
Detail of Charon/Ulquiorra. I actually like how he came out. I tried to conjure up Ulquiorra's beautiful nose...The original concept sketch. Actually, I only got the idea to do this piece after there was an awesome canvas sale at Tall Mouse. The 2 skinny pieces were like $3 and the middle one was like $5.

This next guy is a study for a larger acrylic piece, but I actually like the study more than the actual! It's called Sub-subterraneans, inspired by the David Bowie song Subterraneans off the album Low. I think it's rather cute.

This one is Subterraneans. I was pretty happy with it at the time, but the more I look, the more I don't like. If only I used more color... meh. And if only I actually understood human anatomy... lol.The concept sketch, which I actually prefer. I don't know why I couldn't get that diagonal in the final piece that's present here. The words around are lyrics from the song Subterraneans.

This is a random study of sewing machine. Based on Arachne turning into a spider. Watercolor with this cool netting stuff sewed to it. The actual thing is about the size of an index card.Mm, unhappy with this one. I'm not too good at oil paints. It's called The Man in his City or some nonsense like that. It's supposed to be Tyron Deteri, a villainous character from Parallax. He's chilling out in Mephis, his hometown. This started the I-cannot-paint-in-colors-other-than-blue-and-yellow phase.

This next guy is called Three-Headed Phoenix. It's a phoenix with three heads. I got a piece of pine plywood, watercolored on it, collaged tissue paper, outlined with India ink, glued on glass, then carved out bits with a wood cutting thing. I sold it to Mr. Z at Open House. I hate to brag, but it won 1st place at the District Art Show. For which I got $100, heheheheheeh.A detail of one of the heads. This is the girliest one.
So Mr. Z bought the above piece at Open House, but this lawyer alumnus guy wanted to buy it. But I already sold it to Mr. Z ahead of time, so he ended up commissioning me to do a "similar" piece. This one I'm ambivalent about. Took me forever. Looked a lot better in my head... oh well. Got an old flat drawer thing, cut out a bird shaped stencil and then gold-spray painted the bird, then tissue paper collaged for the tail. Then I burned all those stupid scales in and outlined the bugger. Then I stuck on the lame background. The glass bits were something of an afterthought, since it seemed sort of plain.

A detail of the tail which took me an unholy amount of time.

This wasn't done in art class, but with Comiclub! It was the Mighty Muggs thingy. I of course made a little Lanat. It's rather cute, I think. Though too bad it turned out so messy... Colored all with Sharpies.

The following is a work in progress. While watching the commentary of Jürgen Prochnow and Wolfgang Peterson and some guy who helped with the director's cut of Das Boot, I got the urge to sculpt a bust of the dashing captain in ancient Crayola AirDry Clay. I think it turned out pretty well considering I've never been in ceramics... haha. I plan to add watercolor to him when he dries.
As you can see, I postured him on top of The Mushroom Hunter's Field Guide.
He looks like Abraham Lincoln in this shot...
When I was cleaning the exacto knife I was using to carve stuff for this, I sliced my thumb open! Ouch! But it was worth it... was it?




The below are bonus pictures! I found an old folder of a bunch of scans of pictures from my childhood. My mom says I haven't improved in art since then, so please tell me that she is wrong...

Harry Potter! Note the charming spelling of "professors". I like Dumbledore's expression here... I think this is circa 3rd grade? Not sure.
Another picture from the same time era. This is Harry and Hermione on Buckbeak rescuing Sirius. Aww, if I had known then that Sirius would die, my 3rd grade heart would have cracked. :'(
Ahaha, this is Viktor Krum and Hermione at the Yule Ball with jealous Ron in the background. I had this thing for Viktor Krum back in the day, before they cast that bald guy as him in the movie. When I look at this now, I think, What a waste of Prismacolor pencils!
And this is from 1st grade! A watercolor of a horse. I based it off the cover of my copy of Black Beauty, except I made it brown.