Happy Halloween!

In celebration of my all time favorite day of dress-up (and the fact that I just saw "This is it" at the local theater last night....which was FABULOUS!), here are a couple thrillicious videos for your spooky viewing pleasure.

Everybody stay goulish, fabulous and (above all) safe this fine Halloween evening! ;)

"The Celtic Knot"

So, in my unbelievable rush to complete design projects admist the giant dust cloud that is my life....it totally slipped my mind that I had one third of a bar and beverage hospitality project due on Monday.

Ooops.

Thank goodness for my lightning fast design skills. ;)

It's a group project in which we are suppost to get together and essentially create an imaginary bar (from the floor plan to the advertisements and the job application....EVERYTHING). It's daunting work, but since I happen to be the only artist in the group, I suddenly found any an all "artsy stuff" being delegated to me by default.

Part of my job was to create an advertisement for our faux bar (which is what you are seeing above). It's a fairly quick poster mock up and considering how quickly I did it ( under an hour or so) , I'm pretty proud of how it came out.

The bar concept is pretty much for an Irish pub. I had no real input on what type of bar this turned into, by the way. I suggested a graphic design themed wine bar / dance club and my group members said 'no'. Oh well...

In any case, my group members (neither of whom are particularly artistically inclined, apparently) pretty much told me that since my schedule is not going to mesh with theirs anytime before the Monday due date, to just make whatever. They're only instructions were to make it green , gold and "pretty".

"Pretty" I can do. ;)

Since I was never really allowed to voice my opinon over what type of bar we were creating, I decided to at least find subtle (or not so subtle....you tell me ;) ways of creating an atmosphere with my poster that suggested something a little more modern than a traditional Irish pub.

The dark purple and the glowing beer glass actually make me think of more absinthe bar than Irish pub....but I kind of like it anyway. :)

The nice thing is that this giving me hope that I'm still capable of accomplishing something design-wise beyond my characters. The tragic thing is that this has the beginnings of being one of my better digital projects of the semester....and it's not even for a design class. Oh bother...

By the way -- the ultimate irony of me creating a poster for an Irish pub is that I'm actually not a big fan of beer. I'm more of a red wine kind of girl if you want to know the truth. ;)

Work in Progress: "Freddie and Kelly"

Before I get into the details of my newest little creation (in progress), allow me to level with you guys for a second. Let me begin by stating that this next to last semester of school is officially kicking my ass up the street and back down it again. :/

With only a little under 3 months left before I do my internship and another 9-ish months til graduation, I would be lying if I said that things aren't getting a little crazy for yours truely right now. Between the pressures of satisfying graduation requirements, my own inner desire to create innovative/ quality work and the ultimate dream for a post undergrad life that doesn't include me living in a nicely painted box on the street ...well.....I'm feeling more than a little overwhelmed contemplating how I'm going to make all of this happen.

I know that a lot of other people/ artists go through similar uncertainty all of the time. Transitions are a part of life (and particularly a big part of the life of a creative) and I've certainly experienced my fair share of big life transitions already. However, I'm not entirely sure why graduating college is freaking me out as much as it is and why I'm seriously beginning to question weather or not my current portfolio is going to help me blow up as a professional creative person or leave me with that whole painted box scenario.

Okay....open confessional over. I just needed to get that off my chest. :)

On to "Freddie and Kelly" :

This relatively quick digital "sketch" is actually the bare bones beginnings of my newest screen-print series. This whole thing started out because, for one thing, my fabulous friend, Kelly, has been requesting that I somehow put Queen's Freddie Mercury (the love of her life ;) and herself together as a "couple" in one of my illustrations.

I have been promising her that I would do this for a while but, it was only recently that I started seriously toying around with how I could do this in a way that would not only satisfy Kelly's romantic fantasy quota but would also be a piece that is funny, could stand on it's own artistic merit, and could (hopefully) become a really hilarious screen-print / illustration series.

It didn't hurt that the thought of having Kelly and Freddie Mercury canoodling in a weird alternate universe made me laugh.....which is something I haven't done enough of in the past couple days. Ah, stress.....

In any case, the above illustration, admittedly, doesn't look like much. It's not that much. There's no sugar coating it, kids. ;)

The above illustration is basically an illustration of Freddie (circa 1991) and an illustration of Kelly (circa.....whenever ;) placed next to each other. Theres a little bit of prospective starting to happen here (that I'm pretty happy about) , but not enough hot n' heavy-ness going on between Kelly and Freddie to write home about.

Frankly, if this is suppose to be Kelly trying to get it on with Freddie Mercury (which, of course, could ONLY happen in an alternate universe for several reasons ), then this piece frankly suffers from some serious issues with believability.

However (in my defense), this is a quick n' dirty illustration that I did for for a screen - print for a critique. It's nowhere near "finished" to my standareds....but considering recent time constraints, it was "done enough" for the critique. ;)

Despite having brought an admittedly half realized idea to a critque setting, I was actually happy to get feedback that is turning out to be a big catalyst for pushing this little "sketch" to an insane and interesting level (both technically and conceptually). The idea of having Kelly chase Freddie around with a butterfly net , for instance, is just something that is just too funny and ridiculous to not bring to fruition somehow. ;)

I also get to bring joy to Miss. Kelly who not only gets to play house with Mr. Mercury in my alternate universe, but also totally got an illustrated boob job and tummy tuck in the bargain. It's my pleasure to bring these two crazy kids together.:)

Speaking of Mr. Mercury -- here is "I'm Going Slightly Mad". This is video that partially inspired the illustration and also just happens to be my all-time favorite Queen video. :)

Now that I'm thinking about it, it's also a pretty pitch perfect summation of life on "Planet Christy" at the moment, as well.

Hold on to your soul....we've got a long way to go. ;)

Oh -- one more thing : Did anyone else realize that Elton John is in the gorilla suit? That just makes me giggle ;)

"California"

Seriously -- how in the world did I nearly forget all about this video? This clip is practically artistically orgasmic!

In any case, Spike Jonze is one of my music video heros. Furthermore, I sincerely believe that "California" by Wax (circa 1995) is one of his most epic creations. Let's watch, shall we? ;)

Work in Progress: "Gangsta Octopus" ?

So would you believe that this (as yet unfinished) character is the end product of me practically banging my head against my sketch pad and listening to a lot of Queen?

Okay --- so maybe a little N.W.A. and Tupac snuck in there too.....but seriously, it was mostly Queen. ;)

I'm going to level with you guys for a second. Lately, I have been having such a hard time trying to mine my imagination for something new, conceptually challenging, or at least fun in terms of my digital bread and butter.

It's not that I hate creating digitally. I just feel as if (especially since being back in school and having so much on my plate this semester) that I'm beginning to just go through the technical motions of creating digital work without actually producing anything that has my heartbeat in it. I really hate that because then I begin to feel so detached from my art.

I strive to create characters and worlds that reflect facets of who I am as an individual. I'm not claiming that my creations are genius or anything. However, without that unique voice -- my characters would be as cold as the digital media that they are produced in. That's just a completely unacceptable outcome to me at this stage of my artistic development.

This illustration doesn't fall into that category for me and that's major a relief. As simple, unfinished, and crude as this is -- I'm honestly just glad that I'm back to actively producing *anything* that actually feels like me.

In a way -- I lose interest fairly quickly in projects that I can't seem to bring my own personality and flavor to. Tragically, that has been the case a lot lately and this tragedy has been leading to a lot of creative second guessing on my part. That second guessing has led to what I feel is a loss in substantial creative output from me lately. Frankly, that's a dangerous place for me to be creatively this close to graduation and I know it.

Hopefully this little octopus sketch is the beginning of end of my creative dry spell.

As for this particular digital sketch is concerned, I am excited because it's been the first of my characters in a while that's so insanely silly and preposterous that I can't stop giggling at it.

That's usually when I know I'm at least half-way onto something....if I can amuse myself with it. ;)

In any case -- I have big plans for this little guy. He's one piece in a much larger (and equally silly) narrative already in progress. However, for now, I'm going to keep the details of that to myself.

Why a 'gangsta octopus' ? Why not?

You guys are just going to have to wait and see how this one all pans out. ;)

In the meantime, here is a fantastically random selection of a few tunes that I seriously just can't get out of my head lately :

Too Busy for Halloween? Say What?!

I hope not.....but it certainly seems that way this year. :(

Anyone who knows me personally knows that Halloween is my all-time favorite holiday. Not only does October 31 satisfy my love of all things creepy n' kooky, but dressing up for Halloween usually turns into an epic event that's usually months in the making.

I've definately been known to start planning for a Halloween costume in Ausgust or September. For the most part , it's a pretty massive (and time consuming) process :)

Unfortunately, being that this is my last semester in school, a lot of my time, energy and money are being tied up in landing some sort of job, a quasi-comfy place to live after school and maybe something with wheels to roll around in.

In short -- real life issues are trampling all over any chance of me glorifying my inner child come the 31st. It's a little depressing, isn't it?

It's actually pretty sad for me that we are almost three weeks away from Halloween and I really have no clue what I'm going to be! That pretty much never happens. I always, ALWAYS have my costume pretty much set in stone by this point (unless I'm purchasing /searching for some final finishing touches).

This year -- so many other things are gong on that I seriously almost forgot that Halloween was upon us. How lame is that? :(

In any case -- I'm not sure what I will be able to pull together for Halloween this year (if anything). I have a couple of things that may work on the cheap / with limited time....so we'll see.

In the meantime, lets take a quick trip down my (recent) Halloween costume memory lane :

Halloween 2006 : Prince

Halloween 2007: The Magician

Halloween 2008: The Punk

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"Angry Black Artist" Screen-Print Series

Say hello to some more of the work that I have created on my way to 'screen-printing nirvana'.

Remember that little "Angry Black Artist" doodle that I shared a few posts ago? The one that is now prominently featured in "Out the Other Side's current header?

Well....the little guy now has a home of sorts. ;)

There is a lot that needs to be worked out with this series . I think that it could be conceptually pushed more. I also eventually want to re-invent this series of smaller prints into a series of much larger -- poster sized prints.

However, besides the things that could be worked on...I am pretty proud of just being able to pull this one off technically speaking in a little over a week. The entire thing is comprised of 13 individual tasty layers and a lot of extra hours in the print studio to work out the bugs.

Not bad for a first run, but I'm really itching to see how far I can push this idea . There's still plenty of ink to be slung, my dears. ;)

Stay tuned for more from this series, and in the meantime, enjoy these other selections from the series!

Screen-Printing : My Sweetest Escape

My senior year of undergrad has not only brought along with it a crazy workload (and all of the stress that comes with that) , but also a blessed opportunity for me to get down and dirty in my art department's printmaking studio.

More specifically, I can barely contain my excitement about spending part of my last semester on campus screen-printing. I have been given almost total carte blanche by my fantastic print instructor to screen-print to my heart's content and I seriously couldn't be happier about that.

I LOVE screen-printing!!

It's not that I love creating with digital media any less. On the contrary, I actually have an incredible interest in integrating old school printmaking techniques with current technology.

I greatly enjoy how digital media can inform and influence the traditional techniques. I also like seeing how traditional printmaking and digital imaging can diverge and take separate (and sometimes , complementary) paths from each other.

Having said all that, however, I must say that I really just like getting covered in ink and seeing what happens. ;)

As much as my Macbook Pro is my baby and I am certainly a digital girl at heart...here is a physicality to digtal art processes that is definately next to non-existant. I firmly believe that screen-printing is a nice remedy for that.

A lot of people (particularly those of us who fancy our computers more than paint brushes) aren't so keen on having to deal with the time-consuming and often messy nature of screen-printing (or traditional printing in general). Isn't that part of the charm of being a digitally based artist? You get to emulate the print techniques of old without the fuss and mess. What more could you want?

I , on the other hand, am really enamored with the fabulously dirty process. For me, the screen-printing process is a big part of the reason that I'm drawn to it so. I seriously believe that screen-printing satisfies the same part of me that was drawn to Play-doh and finger paints as a kid. In short -- screen-printing is not just another medium. It just so happens to be my current favorite escapism.

Also -- I think that the process as a whole is pretty cathartic and relaxing. Lately, I've been finding myself in the print studio more and more when I am heading towards critical mass with the rest of my life.

For me there is nothing like being elbow deep in screen printing ink in a darkroom with my ipod on or slinging ink on a screen and building an image by hand.

Music blaring. Creativity flowing. Great stuff. ;)

In any case, here is a couple of close-ups of my first big "warm-up" screen-print of the semester. More fun stuff from this medium to come, I assure you.

(And yeah.....it's Michael again ;)

My First {Complete} Motion Graphics Project

So this one is a pretty big blast from the past for me and another retro treat for all of you guys. :)

This video is the end product of final project assignment that I received in my first undergrad motion graphics class in around 2007-ish. The gist of the assisignment was that we were to take our favorite book and pretend that said book was being given the big screen treatment. We were then suppose to create an opening title sequence for said imaginary movie.

That's pretty much how "Kiss Me Like a Stranger" (THE fake MOVIE!) was born. ;)

"Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art" is the autobiography of actor, writer, director and all-around comic genius Gene Wilder. It is a very earnest, funny, sometimes heartbreaking and sometimes brutally honest re-counting of Gene's incredible life. It also just so happens to be one of my favorite books to this day.

When I was told that we were making a make-pretend title sequence based on our favorite book, my book of choice was a total no brainer. If you haven't read it ( or heard of it) , you really should check it out. It's certainly an intriguing and engaging rainy day read. :)

Getting back to the motion piece -- this certainly marks my first completed end product of ambitious Adobe After Effects noodling. Because of that, it permanently resides in a nostalgic soft n' squishy spot in my heart. :)

Unfortunately -- I believe that the fact that I was practically an "After Effects virgin" at the time that I created this piece is painfully evident.

I can count a million technical issues that I wish that I had the time to fix right now. I know that it's not excactly akin to a Tim Burton or Chris Milk production or anything. I'm not going to pretend that it is.

However, despite the tech issues ( plus the cold hard fact that the soundtrack needs to be swapped out for an original creation a.s.a.p), I'm pretty proud of how this came out overall.

For a first major effort in Adobe After Effects, I think that it's basically sucessful considering how green I was to the software when I created it.

I employed both good old fashioned stop-motion animation (which took FOREVER) with a few photos of Gene and a few basic effects. I think that in the end the marriage of all of these elements was a happy one (despite the need for fine-tuning).

The song used in the piece is "L'eclipse" by Sean Lennon (featuring French pop juggernaut, -M- ). It should also be noted that this motion piece was featured in Western Carolina University's 31st annual juried art show.

Unfortunately, it didn't win anything. Oh well...

I may come back and further explore/self critique this piece (good and bad) in future blog posts. In the meantime, sit back and check out my "Kiss Me Like a Stranger" opening movie titles.

In the end -- it was a lot of fun to do. I hope that you guys enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed working on it.

Also-- stay tuned for more of my original motion pieces here on "Out the Other Side". :)

Work in Progress: "Kate"

Allow me to introduce you to my new character (still in progress) , "Kate".

"Kate" is the first character illustration that I have done since around late August. I recently began sketching / digitally manipulating her and although she is still in the beginning stages, I'm pretty pleased with how she's turning out.

What do you think?

In the end, I hope to showcase "Kate" in a big way in my forthcoming "Out the Other Side" portfolio website.

Stay tuned for more details (and the completed version of "Kate"). ;)