Hello Illustration Lovers,
In this post I happily present my latest "sketch-book painting" which developed organically...I just started with the head shape and it grew from there. { I seem to be drawn to upside-down egg-shaped heads (no pun intended ;^P) This inclination is probably a remnant from my Anime-crazy days (I grew up in Hawaii (Oahu) and there were a lot of comic book shops that carried a lot of Japanese imports of manga and anime, so I got into the anime craze early.) My strong-adoration for this genre lasted until my community college days, but I started to get burnt-out with it by the time I moved to San Francisco to attend the Academy of Art University. I can't even begin to describe how many of my peers were totally engrossed by Anime and Manga...it got to be so cliche! (It's sad how great things get so played-out...just like a good Pop Song. :^( | Such is life! ] Anyway, I think it was good for me to explore other styles, and in hindsight--it was really unavoidable, due to how heavy my life got with all the academic foundation classes (Analysis of Form, Color & Design, Anatomy, Clothed & Nude Figure Drawing, so on and so forth)...I was forced to switch-gears and focus on more structure, detail and realism...which brings me to where I presently find myself: I graduated last Spring and I am still trying to adjust to life on the other side of University/College. I have been struggling to figure out what I really want to be creating/doing, I think it's because I haven't fully digested what I've learned/ "picked-up" from my art-education. I am slowly but surely going to figure it out, but I realized that I can't worry about everything "to-the-letter", I tend to be over-ambitious and am very particular about how I want things to turn out, but I often worry about everything from the on-set of a piece and it ends up killing my desire to create anything...so I have decided to try to stop doing that and instead to just experiment and try to have more fun with my art now that I don't have to operate under the ever-watchful eye of instructors.}
Phew!, sorry it took so much space to get that all out...I also made a decision (kind of a resolution) to be more open and honest in what I reveal to the World these days. That stuffs got to go somewhere right?!) I reckon by 'censoring' myself less (by 'censoring' I mean telling those nagging unproductive thoughts of "what should I write about?" and "I don't know if it's good if I say _____" to go take a hike, and by allowing stream-of-consciousness to have more play ^_^) I can break-on-through the fluff and empty text that plagues so much of the Inter-webs.
ON TO THE ART!
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"Somewhere Between Good & Evil"
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"Somewhere Between Good & Evil"
"Somewhere Between Good & Evil"
(Size: 5.5" wide X 8" tall . Mixed-Media: watercolor {tubes and pencils}, gouache & acrylic, created in my watercolor (moleskine-type) sketchbook)
© 2012 Jesse Young. All Rights Reserved.
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{ Keywords: girl, female, woman, mountain, volcano, eruption, erupting, cracks, crevices, terrain, landscape, Illustration Friday (IF) Topic: "Fluid", duality, golden hair, blonde, black hair, face painting, warrior face paint, Surrealism, Eccentric-Illustration, East, West, Asian, Caucasian, shells, rings, blue, yellow, brown, fur, native, primitive, savage, myth, legend, folklore, colorful sky, inspiration from Gauguin, texture, Lowbrow Art, other-worldly, occult, fairytale, fantasy, contrast, intuition, free-drawing, sketchbook painting, original illustration/illo }
BackStory:
As I wrote earlier this piece was created intuitively...I just started sketching in pencil. I usually sketch and then refine the drawing by erasing as I go (as opposed to sketching a rough and then transferring to another piece of paper to 'clean-up' for the final piece (which I do sometimes, but I like to stay on the same paper, unless I want the work to be 'super'-clean). I spent a lot of time looking at other people's art and using visual references during my college days, so now I'm trying to go the other direction, and to let my natural-inclinations guide me. There's a big emphasis on style--especially in the World of Illustration, so I know I have to travel this path in order to find what my style will grow/develop into. It's time to allow myself to do what I want to do! (Can you tell I'm saying that for my own encouragement & reinforcement? ;^P) My inspiration usually comes from that place between 2 opposites--the contrasts of this world/life, and this piece is no exception! (The most interesting and mysterious subjects lie hidden 'in-between-the-lines' just waiting to be explored.) This duality is very apparent in "Somewhere Between Good & Evil". This piece also sprung out of my emotional state at the time of working on the piece: I really didn't know what I would be creating, but I knew I had to work on something {Art is so powerfully-bonded to my whole being that I know I have to be making something or I will stagnate}. An emotional tug-of-war was going on inside of me. I was thinking is this going to turn out to be something I'm satisfied with? But while I was preoccupied with that I was also enjoying the act of creation, the going through of the motions--that familiar friend that is process--the satisfaction that comes from patience and intense-focus! Some of the piece came so easily while some of the other parts were just not to my liking, that's when I started to think about "Good & Bad" and that's where the "Good & Evil" came out of...I was 'hating-on' the parts that weren't so fun, but I was loving the rest of the experience. Volcanoes are also a recurring 'motif' in my work...it must come from my origins in Hawaii and my love of Gauguin's work (his work is on exhibit at the Seattle Museum of Art (SAM) at the moment, and I can't wait to go see it soon! More Info: http://www.seattleartmuseum.com/gauguin/index.html). Aside from all of that: Native American & Alaskan/Inuit culture and the probably faint-traces of my 6th grade reading of "Island of the Blue Dolphins" also made an appearance into the piece, 'loosely', however-- in the form of shells, fur cloak, and face/warrior-painting. There is also an undercurrent of 'West vs. East', I am half Caucasian and half Chinese (with some Hawaiian mixed in there somewhere), so this is also an interesting theme for me...and it extends to the U.S. relationship with China as well. I have been thinking upon the pros and cons of ordering from China (imports) versus buying American (and Local) ever since I began buying and selling on eBay and Etsy.com. Moving from San Diego, CA to Seattle, WA has also awakened or re-awakened a love of nature and for Native Peoples, it's hard not to be 'touched' by it in the Pacific Northwest!
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I love that this is a sketch-book piece because I wanted it to have a hand-made aesthetic, a lot of art is so flat and smooth due to digital-production, and while I am always aiming/striving for the 'perfect line and clean-surface texture' it's good to have some rough and raw qualities going on in this artwork. No matter how hard I try to work digitally, I always return to Traditional media. I feel it adds a human/child-like touch. Camille Rose Garcia's work has this feel as well, and I think that's what I love most about her work...you can see her sketch lines--she doesn't polish her work to the point that it loses it's engaging and active virtues.
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One last thing, it being 2012 and all this piece is also dedicated to all the "End of the World" hysteria that is floating around these days, and a 'Soundtrack' that goes well with all of this is Apocalypto by the Presets, I always get into a 'animalistic/world-heartbeat/tribal/primitive/Noble-savage' kind of mood when I listen to it. Please check it out and let me know if you concur ;^P
Sincere Thanks and Much <3, Jesse
{ MY MISSION: I hope you relate and gain something from my musings and art, and I hope I learn new things about myself in the process. Please visit with me again soon! }
