42nd Annual Juried Student Art Show

Wow. This past month has seriously been all sorts of crazy!

Between applying for summer internships, planning a major move, padding out/fine tuning my portfolio and dealing with excessively strange weather "mood swings" here in the southeast, things have certainly been eventful for yours truly.

Hopefully, that at least partly explains my sporadic posting here on "Out the Other Side" as of late. ;)

In any case -- a call for entries went up for Western Carolina University's 42nd Annual Student art show this week so I decided to submit a chunk of my newer digital pieces.

Among the stack of things that I submitted were several illustrations including Takin' out the Trash (see above). I also submitted my Breathe & Bleed and Buggin' motion pieces (see below).

The judges are currently picking pieces to officially be displayed in the show and honestly, I pretty much have no real expectations in terms of weather or not any of my work will actually make the cut. Experience tells me that this is probably the most healthy attitude to have about the whole thing. We'll just have to see what happens.

Wish me luck and I'll post an update {when time permits} when/if anything actually makes the cut. ;)

In the meantime, here are all of my art show submissions:

Buggin'

Breathe and Bleed

Mother of Violence

Self-Medication Gone Wrong

The Sharkbait Tango

Life Drawing

CoCo and the Chin in Late Night Hell

New Illustration: "The Princess and the Pea"

Just a quick update -- here is the finished-ish version of "The Princess and the Pea" children's book cover illustration that I first previewed here a couple of posts ago.

You can check out the first rough version of this one right over HERE. ;)

I'm pretty pleased with how this one ultimately came out. I tried to stay with a more pastel color palet than some of my previous work and did what I could to keep black out of the equation altogether (although it does pops up in a few places here and there. ;)

The night sky (which was originally a very bright blue) wound up getting toned down considerably. When I went back and compaired this version to the rough one that I posted to "Out the Other Side" earlier, I'm wound up being really glad that I kept the sky muted. I figured out quickly that the pale pastels on a much more understated background just helped everything pop a lot more. The sky is actually my favorite part of this piece now. :)

The only thing that I'm not 100% trilled with is what the princess' eyes are doing in this illustration. There's something a little scary/hypnotic going on there that I can't quite put my finger on at the moment. I tried really hard to give her a facial expression that came across as frustration or unhappiness (due to the giant-ass pea in her otherwise cozy bed in space).

However, I think that she just looks like she's in some sort of spooky little trance. I believe that I am going to go back into this one later and work out the issues with her eyes.

Ultimately, since I've been working on this one for so long now (nearly a month and a half on and off) I'm kind of ready to move onto another project entirely right now.

I've noticed that this often happens to me. I sometimes get really ambitious with a particular project but ultimately I'll get to the very end and discover that the project is so ambitious that the time it takes me to make the damn thing is way long the original spark of ambition...haha.

Leave it to me to spend so long with a project that I ultimately bore myself. This is why I run into a lot of projects that I ultimately have to call "done enough" just so I can move on. If I didn't do that, I would ultimately obsess over projects that I'm already tired of for months and months.

Does this ever happen to anyone else?

I dunno. I think I'm just weird like that *shrugs*. ;)

New Illustration : "CoCo and The Chin in Late Night Hell"

Wow -- talk about being extremely tardy to the party! Is my newest illustration even relevant anymore?

Well... based on all the suspense surrounding Jay Leno's tragic return to the "Tonight Show" a few nights ago and all of the excitement still being generated on the 'I'm With CoCo' Facebook group (and elsewhere), I'm going to say 'yeah'.

'Yeah' -- this is still pretty relevant. ;)

Let me first apologize for being a bad 'COCOnut' and not posting this one to the blog sooner. I actually leaked it to the aforementioned "I'm With CoCo" Facebook group about a week or so ago. However, as I prepare for an internship this summer and a big move shortly thereafter...lets just say that life sort of got in the way of posting anything substantial about it here at "Out the Other Side".

Damn that life -- keeping me away from writing my blog and reading CoCo's sweet tweets :

(Click image for larger screenshot ;)

Oh well...

This whole illustration originally came about through an assignment I was recently given (and ultimately, went a little wild with ;). We were challanged to look at old broadside literary and/or political posters and then create one of our own.

With a world full of real-life problems, there was certainly a lot of heavy subject matter that I could have dissected and used as fodder for a poltical-type poster. However, I decided to keep the overall theme fairly light and instead opted to use 2010's epic late-night war as a bouncing off point for something potentially awesome.

Awesome or not -- this was a lot of fun to do!

Not only did it give me yet another excuse to drag Conan kicking and screaming into another one of my art pieces, but I also seized the opportunity to try out some new things technically/visually.

I embraced a lot of hand-drawn type and an intentionally sketchy/ hand drawn look in this piece. I believe that if nothing else, the end result is a great deal more organic looking than some of the stuff I've done in the past.

I am definitely excited about the prospect of utilizing more organic / hand drawn elements into my finished pieces. I think marrying these aesthetic ideas with things that I've done in the past will certainly make my visual vocabulary that much more richer in the end.

Now -- lets get back to the "I'm With CoCo" Facebook group for just a second, shall we?

Personally , I think it's just incredibly cool how all of Conan's fans have taken to the internet in force (and I'm including myself here) to show their support of Mr. O'Brien and his staff.

I believe that the whole "I'm With CoCO" movement (which was initiated by LA based artist Mike Mitchell), is about the coolest and most productive way for Conan's fans to come together and weather the 7 month drought without our favorite ginger kid.

I know that for me that the Facebook group dedicated to this cause has both been a tremendous source of entertainment and nostalgia.

It also happens to be insanely distracting ... but whatever.

I'm just going to have to learn to have my CoCo fixes in moderation, I guess. ;)

Anyway, I do want to say one thing about Conan's fanbase overall. Not only are Conan's fans some of the most intensely passionate around but it particularly strikes me that his fans are also some of the most creative , fun and intelligent kids that you could hope to run across on the internets.

I'm pretty sure that's why I felt compelled to dedicate part of a blog post to their ever-growing Facebook group. I sincerely believe that the continued fan support of Conan online is the truest testament to how moronic NBC really was for giving us "The Jay Leno Show: Part II".

If we ever needed any more evidence on how out of touch Jeff Zucker and company really are, then this this is probably it. Nearly a million fans (and counting) can't be wrong.....right?

I also believe that Conan (who has recently taken to entertaining us on Twitter) is a very smart man for taking advantage of social networking in his own right. In a world of webcasts and general internet entertainment, Conan should definitely use his online resources to his advantage. There are plenty of ways that Conan can play his cards in the next 7 months that would continue to keep him viable and comedically limber.

While Jay continues on with his very safe late night show, Conan could take the next 7 months to reinvent his act for a new network while continuing to build his fan base in various interesting, innovative and hilarious ways.

That's not even touching on this possible Conan O'Brien stage show that I keep reading about.

Obviously -- Conan is going to be a-okay in the long run, as will his loyal fans. I'm positive that in the coming months that he's got many fun surprises up his sleeve for all of us. I seriously can't wait to see how the "CoCo Online Saga" eventually unfolds.

In the meantime -- here is a list of ten of my favorite CoCo clips that have been happily circulating around the web recently.

Watch em' now before the trolls over at NBC make em disappear! ;)

#10) Conan and the 'Super Mario Set'

#9) Oscar Party Photos (and impromptu strip tease ;)

#8) CoCo vs. Stripper Pole

#7) Conan Bobs for Apples

#6) Robot on the Toilet Malfunction

#5) Norm ruins CoCo's promos

#4) Labamba drinks Tofurkey Soda

(Sorry about the crappy video quality, but it's totally worth it:)

#3) Jeff Goldblum and Conan Exchange 'Eye Jelly'

#2) Conan 'Takes it Off' for Mary-Kate Olsen

#1) Conan REALLY Likes the Lower Back Tat!