WINEFEST

I have mentioned the creative aggregate known as The Factory Arts Studios previously in other blog posts, but now I have an event to write about. If you are in the area make sure you stop by, I promise you will not be remiss.

Let me give you the lowdown on what the factory is:

 The Factory is not simply an art shop but is the meeting place for people like us who think that art is also a lifestyle, it is a growing community of artists, artisans, and craftmen located in a building enveloped in history.  

One of the resident artists is Nick Beery of the beery method fame "The Factory Art Studios is a great incubator for local central Illinois artists to come together, be creative and have a venue to display and sell their work," he says. "We strive to push a greater appreciation for the arts and create awareness in our community through the catalyst that is the arts collective and our monthly events. Every artist on the floor brings something different from the next."

I could not agree more. The importance of art in a community is something that few people understand. 

It does not matter which preference towards art you are inclined to I think we can all agree that something this wonderful deserves to be acknowledged and exposed. Please take a moment to visit and maybe like their Facebook page, look at the artist's creations and  give them some feedback.

If you are In the Area make sure and stop by.

The Factory Art Studios Facebook

And check out some local tv coverage.

CILiving Part1.

CILiving Part2

In the following weeks I will be doing other posts about The Factory Arts members and their specific talents.

Procrastination

Life is what you make it and procrastination may be holding you back, but you have to realize a few things before you can conquer it.


#1: Admit that you are the problem.


Because you are. For whatever reasons led up to this point, you caused them. It might hurt the ego, but given that you've already failed a few classes, you shouldn't have much of an ego anyway.


#2: Drop the "Smart but unmotivated" bullshit.


Because ultimately, it doesn't matter how smart you are if you can't bring yourself to do something. You could be Stephen Hawking, but without the motivation to stare endlessly at the stars and perform feats of physics while simultaneously being effected by a crippling chronic disease, you're the equivalent of those theoretical kids who get D's and F's because "They just don't get it."


Fun Fact: Public High school and Middle School work isn't meant to be hard. People that fail them are most often irresponsible rather than stupid, and it's still a reflection of yourself. Don't disassociate yourself from your grades by feeding the delusion that you're "smart and unmotivated."


#3: Acknowledge what is causing your problem, then deal with it.


Professional writers are notorious for having procrastination/distraction problems. They overcome it by acknowledging what is causing the problem, and then dealing with it. This often means doing things like disassociating themselves from their vices(gambling, drinking, gaming, internet, etc.)


Video games causing you a problem? Uninstall them from your computer. Thinking about not uninstalling them? Uninstall them anyway. Still not sure? Do it anyway. Fight it. Got a console? Unplug it. Put it in your closet, preferably in a box or multiple boxes. Make it harder for you to start a game than it is to start your work. Take the game discs and put them in a single case, and give them to someone you trust to keep them away from you.


Internet got you down? Disable your access in your computer. Can't do that? Uninstall your preferred browser or delete shortcuts to your browser from your desktop and menus. Block Reddit. Filter Imgur, Youtube, and Facebook, and social media. Make it harder to procrastinate.


No, this is not easy to do. Do it anyway, because you have something to prove.


#4 Swallow your pride.


Because you really don't have anything to be proud of right now. You're a C/D student who is easily distracted. Congratulations, you're 60% of lower to middle class males in that age range. Quit telling yourself your smart, or "you could do that if you really tried." No one cares about 'what ifs'. They care about what it is you've actually done, and whether or not you're fit to do it again, or do something more.


Someone with cognitive disabilities who simply tries is more impressive than someone who doesn't want to do the work. These days, people aren't limited by their intelligence or education as much as they are limited by their drive.

Dead Head

"Dead Head" 11"x14" Brush and India Ink.

CLICK TO VIEW FULL SIZE

No sleep brings weird shit to my mind. I am going to color this and post that one as well, but I just couldn't wait to share it. I will be offering prints of the colored version in my shop later this week, also the original will be for sale for $160. The next Piece that I will do in this style will be a tutorial so I hope you are looking forward to that, because I am.

Tattoo Art.

Ever since I was thirteen years old I have been interested in tattoos. The interest has only grown as time has passed, but where I was thirteen and saw it as a rebellion against social norms, I have come to appreciate it as an art form.

From time to time I will do tattoo designs for friends and family (often for free) and really enjoy it. I aspire to someday try my hand at actually tattooing, but with the anticipation of my first child's birth and the amount of work I have had lately it will have to wait.

I have not posted any of my tattoo designs so I figured now would be a good time.

This is some line work for an unfinished personal piece. I sketched it out with a regular HB pencil (I  use Dixon Ticonderoga; I have tried a lot of different pencils, but these ones have a very nice graphite grade, and they sharpen well) then I scanned it in and went over my lines in Adobe Illustrator. 

Still trying to figure out how I want to color it digitally so I might do it digitally then color it with colored pencils or watercolors or some other traditional medium.

 I look forward to posting more tattoo art, as well as having you look at it.

N-Kay

Ok, guys I have been under a lot of stress and emotional burden dealing with a recent tragedy in the family so I have not been able to work let alone paint for the blog. I do not think this should keep me from providing well established content, so I have come to a compromise that will hopefully balance things out.
Some of you may know of Nicholas Kay, if not let me give you a lil' reference.

Nicholas started using Photoshop around 2001 and professionally as an artist in 2007. Last year he obtained a MA in Game Design.

His original style consisted of heavy line art, but he has experimented with different styles.

He has worked for

• 40K Radio


• Alderac Entertainment Group


• Bell of Lost Souls


• BySwarm


• Dark Art Miniatures


• Disney


• Electronic Gaming Monthly


• Fantasy Flight Games


• Game Night Productions


• Lone Shark Games Inc.


• Miniwargaming.com


• Neverstop


• Paizo Publishing


• Pixar


• Qubop Inc.


• Say Design


• Sephora

• The Creative Group

Most importantly though Nicholas is bringing his knowledge and experience to any one who is interested by sharing tips and demonstrations through livestream sessions, which he then posts to youtube. 

I have not been able to attend one of his livestreams yet, but I will soon. Allow me to share a few with you now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sTWGnM43ss&feature=plcp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5_nwYW_s3k&feature=plcp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjAIW6fAlYk&feature=plcp

 Also be sure to look at his other work you can visit  his website: Nicholaskay.com

Thank you for viewing and hopefully I don't lose too many viewers to Nick, peace out, word to your mother and other outdated ways of saying goodbye.

Psuedo-Study

So I have tried to upload this pic about 15 times now and every time there has been parts that are corrupted, which is frustrating me. Nonetheless I decided just to post this anyway, since the problem areas are not overwhelming.
        I have the idea that painting images is a great way to figure out how people structure their painting. This method can also teach the person doing the study a great deal about how they themselves paint. This is my attempt I found this really gorgeous painting on conceptart.org while browsing through a sketchbook, unfortunately firefox crashed on me and I lost to whom the painting belonged to, but after a little searching I found out who the original belongs to.
       Viktor Fetsch is his name and Oh Lawdy! is he amazing. 

Here is his version (above), I think I got it pretty good and close to his likeness. Though I wanted to see about leaning towards warmer colors. I don't know how well I did that, I was really pushing my colors towards the hue of Viktor's at some times so I screwed up, but hopefully I worked those areas out so that you can't tell.
Check out more of Viktor Fetsch's work, this is not a request, do it.
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?179065-Fetschbook
http://fetschart.blogspot.com/
http://fetsch.deviantart.com/
and if you want to follow him on twitter he's @ViktorFetsch
Thank you for viewing!!!

A Nice Little Preview

when i started this piece I was just doing some facial studies from one of my friends. I did about 20 or 30 small thumbnail sketches with a 2H, an HB, and a 2B Pencil in one of my sketchbooks. Then i got the Idea of trying some techniques I learned about from watching an Erik Ryan Demonstration on painting the head. Needless to say It progressed even farther. To be honest I'm not sure where I want to take this. I know where I could, but I'm strained between keeping the sensuality of the piece and not distorting it with the things that pop into my mind.
I might do some more color sketches and see what you all think, but I want the end image to have that feeling of sensuality that makes you go:

Well I guess we will just see how that goes.
Some things to look forward to are my Test based tutorial which will be very in-depth and a couple of speed paintings with some painting tips.
Thanks for visiting!!! Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Blood.

I decided to finish this piece with some blood. The imagery felt sufficiently creepy enough with out it, but I have never painted dark and glossy blood like this before. It wasn't too challenging (I covered my face with fake blood blood made form corn syrup/water/red dye for reference) but I think I will benefit from this little study.

BScribs

Hey everybody!
                          Here is a video from one of my friends for my hometown of Sullivan, Illinois.
His name is Ben Scribner and he has a hobby of making short videos; they are at most times nonsensical and humorous, but he has some other great vids. After the video make sure to check him out out youtube and subscribe. www.youtube.com/user/ABProductionsYDG < This is the channel.

Repainting

This right here is the culmination of dedication, perseverance, and imagination.

This is a piece that I am currently working on. It is a piece that i am recreating from a mural I did about a year ago up at The Factory Arts Studios. It's one of my favorites so far and rightly so. It measures at about 45 by 58 inches.
Admittedly this is just a teaser, because I have gotten further in the process than what is shown above, but I wanted to show a simple start of the painting first. I plan on uploading a comprehensive walk-through on how this painting came to be later this month, keep checking in and I'll provide you with more content until then!
On another note this will also be a print available in my shop. There will be two version one will be a regular version with the usual options (standard, archive, canvas); the second option will be a highly archival museum quality print on dense weight paper or canvas but limited to 25 or so prints. Each will be numbered and hand autographed by me.

If I may take a moment I would like to thank all those who have looked at my blog (even in passing), have hired me for a commission, or have bought a print from my shop. It really means a lot to me. Seriously.
I have work, then I have this. While my work is constructed around art, it can be tedious and mind numbing, but when I get to make art for myself it is kind of like when you walk hoe from school and when you get home you take off that ridiculously heavy back pack and park your ass on the couch and chill out to some after school Tom & Jerry.
For every person that gives me money or supports my blog by sharing on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, etc; you give me a lil' more enjoyment in life and that is never a thing to be granted.
Make sure you come back real soon I'll be posting a High res painting you can download (or just right click> save as) and print off at home then hang on your wall.
Word to your mother.

Gremlins and wierd boobies...

 Let me just say that I have been busy with client work and with other freelance work so I have sorrowfully been neglecting my wonderful blog. But I am here to shower you with doodly goodness. The first pic is a lil' gremlin dude I just stepped away from so that I can come back to it with a fresh set of eyes. Been working on that for the last couple of hours. The second one is a color render I am doing. I was browsing deviant art and saw it and was like dang I gotta render that shit. I cannot for the life of me remember the deviant who did it, but I will find out later and with the finished piece give credit to the original artist cause credit is due.
The 3rd, 4th, and 5th ones are just a piece I'm doing for practice and what my screen looks like while I work most of the time. The last one is a small piece I did in photoshop just for practice. i recorded the process and threw it up all over youtube (link below) The way I worked on this one is by just opening a canvas and jumping right in. I had no plans about subject matter or lighting. I didn't think I just jumped right in. Which is why if you watch the video you'll see me fucking around for a lil bit before realizing that I'm retarded. I'm not too familiar with working in photoshop so I don't know how to go about things that I would normally paint traditionally or in Corel.
Check out the vid here:

Hory Crap

HORY CRAP!

This will be a large dump of old photos and artwork I have done. They have poor resolution and are not that great. Check em' out anyways.