Mandala Painting

Golden Ratio

I made this Animation for A Design Drawing class my Second year at Emily Carr. The assignment had been to make one object morph into another. In this case, a city eroding into the Golden Ratio. I have to admit, even after all the time I spent working on this I still enjoyed every bit of it. Many of the animation students had told me I should be an animator so that I could at least get a job after school. But just because I go into Animation rather then Fine Arts does not mean I will get a job. I think people can succeed in any area as long as they enjoy and want to work at what they are doing, not because one has more credentials then another.

(Aslo see edited version of Animation under the "My Videos" tab on the menu bar)

Figure Paintings from 2009

For me, figure painting is WAY harder then figure drawing! My theory behind that is because you have the ability to close in an area before you start shading it in when working with pencil or charcoal. With Paint, You have all your different colors, and no idea where each of the area separates. Your filling space with a thick brush hoping you don't get paint where it shouldn't be.
These two separate paintings are from different classes I had at Emily Carr. The top one was when I was more ambitious with my color choices, the bottom was made when I was focusing on proper anatomy.

Thanksgiving 2006

During my first year at Collage I had left Vancouver to go to Bellingham and visit the family for Thanksgiving. In Canada and the U.S., this holiday lands in two different months. So when I left for the "American Thanksgiving" the plan was to come back to Canada by Sunday Night. Instead I became stuck in Bellingham until Tuesday because of a random snowstorm. On Saturday when My sister and I took off to hit up Mt. Baker and the Two feet of fresh powder that had just landed, we only made it until lunch before we received a call that our mom's house burned down. No one had been home, and our neighbors said our dogs were okay. The next question in our heads was "Do we finish our day at the Mountain, or should we go back to my sister's place?"

That night we were snowed in at my sister's, and the next day we met up with our mom who had just flown in from Cali. No one had been at the house sense the morning before. From that time until we arrived at the site, two feet of snow had covered the property. At our house we have no immediate neighbors, all our houses are tucked away in trees and cliffs. Our house was still standing, But we had no roof and everything on the inside had disappeared as a pile of ash and snow.

I was stranded in Bellingham for one more night, all transportation to Canada had been cancelled due to the storm. Nothing had really hit me until I made it to my apartment in Vancouver. Then it struck me, my childhood home was gone. To cope with it, I made two remembrance paintings. The first one was driven by the sorrow I felt. I had nothing but matte board to paint on, so I did.

I made this in one sitting, very late at night. Afterwards I felt much better, but it started me thinking about another painting that I had wanted to make for a long time (A year or so) but had never gotten' around to it. The image was a view from our living room, where my mom had a very large circular stain-glass hanging in our window of the Shri Yantra. It hung behind a multitude of jungle-like plants and ferns. So as my second mission, a began to paint my second picture.


I guess you could call this my moment of closure. Of course I still felt a like I had lost something I could not replace, but that would eventually dissipate along with all other objects you ever try holding onto. Yes... I miss my teddies from when I was a child, but you learn that life continues on in moments that continuously become memories. These two images are my best memories of this place.

Screenprinting

At Emily Carr I started working in the Print Making Studio in the silkscreen area. At the end of the first semester I began drawing an image on Paper that I would then scan and transfer on the computer to clear projector sheets. Once I have the image ready I cut several layers of Rubylith using a light table to see all the layers. Once I have the whole set completed and ready for printing I can mess with colors and their transparency. I can then also play with which layers I use by mixing the papers. These two Images are two out of four in a series. All were printed in the full color version and the plain version.

Taking it a step further...

There are two types of figure drawing to me: Realistic, and exaggerated. I like both for different reasons. When I first started out, I would always try to make my drawings as realistic as possible, because I thought that was what made a 'Good' Figure Drawing. As time went by and I was exposed to more and more work I realized (what some people call) Naive Art can also be attractive to the human eye. Possibilities are endless in this world. In my whole career with Figure classes, I may have created several realistic looking figure paintings. The rest was eventually morphed from a feeling to an image. Ink painting is very difficult, and from them I had to reinvent a new technique for myself. (something other then realistic) The result being an abstracted figure made using both painted and drawn techniques.

Top Image : Acrylic on Paper
Second Image : India Ink using Calligraphy Brush and Bamboo Pen

Learining The Basics

As any art student would know, Figure Drawing is a staple in understanding the human body and a tool to furthering your own abilities. Everyone can be good or bad at it, in the same day I might draw one pose worth bragging about or another worth throwing away. Whatever the case I have always loved doing it. This may be due to the lack of figures in my personal work, but whatever the psychology is behind this reason I would still suggest to anyone to investigate the intelligence behind great figure drawings throughout time.


Top Image: Figure of Man under Blanket made with Ink Pen
Second Image: Single line drawing of Figures in a room. (One continuous line)

These two top images show my work using illustration Pens. I have always liked 'line' and the simplicity of it - however, when discussing this topic within the 'Fine Art' realm, Critics often lead to its strong representation towards 'Illustration.' This comment can sometimes be taken good or bad depending on the critic or the circumstance. To make a line exciting can be difficult, but once achieved is also rewarding. so Illustrative or not, I enjoy it very much.