State of the Union 4.2

If you were starting your own magazine and your livelihood depended on it selling well and your sanity depended on it being something you wanted to spend all your time on, what would it be? What sorts of  writers and artists and writers would you hire? What subject matter would you deal with? How would you want it to look?

I would want the magazine i started to focus on the emerging artists and writers coming out of college and design schools right now (2008-09/10...and beyond). Specifically focused on those artists coming out of the mid and southwest, because i feel that almost too much emphasis is put on the students coming out of the west and east coast, and not enough attention is paid to those kids coming out of the bread basket and bible belt states, and i think its time for a shift. I would hire writers and artists whose work i could get fired-up about, and whose ideas i could get behind with all my belief. I think those kids who get hardly any exposure, have some of the purest ideas. those ideas and beliefs who are untouched by anyone, but art teachers. And i would also hire those who had come straight out of art college and design schools, simply due to the work they have all put in to get to the point they have reached, and the goals they have had to realize for young artists as themselves. 

I would deal with the subject matter of today, tomorrow and further beyond our generational reach reach, the things we have thought about, and those things we have yet to consider. And i want it to resemble something of Juxtapoz  Magazine, with its emerging artists and recognizable figures representing something that every modern artist emulates and strives for in todays world. They feature everything from the up-and-coming, to the recognizable, yet unknown (Stanley Donwood), and i want to include everyone i can who has inspired me from the get-go: through High School, to my emergence from College.

10 magazines and their art directors:

Print - Jessica Walsh

Juxtapoz - Jeremy Orega

Rolling Stone - Joseph Hutchinson

GQ -  Warren Jackson

Maxim -  Sean Johnston

ESPN -  Jason Lancaster

Sports Illustrated - Craig Gartner

Billboard - Christine Bower-Wright

High Times - Frank Max

National Geographic - John Baxter

Stanley Donwood

Nishant Choksi

Jeremy Dower

 Mark Kaufman

Josh Keyes

-Stanley Donwood (6)

-Nishant Choksi (7)

-Jeremy Dower (8)

-Mark Kaufman (9)

- Josh Keyes (10)

State of the Union 4

A. Alejandro

Daryl Campbell

Mike Perry

Antonia Pesenti

Riki Blanco

List ten illustrators whose work you admire, or whose career you wold like to emulate. Provide images.

 

-Riki Blanco (1)

-Antonia Pesenti (2)

-A. Alejandro(3)

-Mike Perry (4)

-Daryl Campbell (5)

State of the Union 3

Describe your typical creative process, from getting an assignment to finished piece.

-I sketch first initial ideas

-thumbnails come next

-larger, more refined thumbnails come after i have selected two or three i like most.

-i sketch and layout exactly what i think the composition should be, i determine what i think is or is not working within this, and all of this is done at around 8x10 (however sometimes, i scan the thumbnails and re-draw them, if i feel i'll only hurt the composition by re-drawing it without guidance.)

-once the final sketch is laid out, whatever medium i've selected dictates how i go from there: if its ink, i test line thickness, and decide what kind of lines i want and where, if its conte or charcoal, i start shading and knocking in basic forms, and so on.

-Lately, scanning has become almost a requirement for me, as i don't move the actual piece around everywhere, and i like to see how the work reproduces. So i scan, sometimes tweak colors and light balance, and print.

Describe what your creative process should be like.

Using the process i have listed above, the things that i would alter include:

-more thumbnails (as i tend to get impatient with them, and always think i have the composition down the way i want it after about 15 or 20.)

-going over the larger thumbnails i pick out, and fine-tuning them more before i even start the final thing.

-and remaining vigilant of when something is too much, and when it is not enough.

Research of a professional creator's creative process: Stanley Kubrick

-He reportedly exposed 1.3 million feet of film while shooting The Shining (1980), the release print of which runs for 142 minutes. Thus, he used less than 1% of the exposed film stock, making his shooting ratio an indulgent 102:1 when a ration of 5 or 10:1 is considered the norm.

-Known for making his actors and crew make up to 120+ takes consecutively.

-Kubrick took charge of many projects, almost completely, imposing his ideas and standards on the film. Many crew members were upset by his style: cinematographer Russell Metty complained to producers that Kubrick was taking over his job. Kubrick's reponse was to tell him to sit there and do nothing. Metty complied, and ironically was awarded the Academy Award for his cinematography.

State of the Union 2

Of the artwork you have done, what is your personal favorite piece? Why do you like it?

My favorite piece, or at least one close to the top of the heap is a cut-paper/ink pen piece I did for IPC in freshman year, using an abandoned building i had previously made work about earlier in that same semester. It's my favorite i think because of the thinking and theory behind it. It dealt with the creative process, especially in that class, as well as creating a parallel between this process and mankind's ability to abandon structures carefully built and considered for a specific purpose. It means alot to me, and how i work as an illustrator.

What piece do other people like most? Do you agree? Why do you think they like it?

Other people's favorite piece would have to be the scratchboard piece of the whale and ship from the story, Sinbad and the Seven Voyages, I did in Illustration 2. I mean, as far as craft goes, its perhaps one of my best, and it is one of my favorites, but I still have technical problems with it. It's intricate, and there are nice features, and i think perhaps that's why people like it.

What piece surprised you the most?

I think the letter 'B', a photo i shot for a found typography exercise in Design 01, along with the rest of the alphabet i captured surprised me, because as i did the assignment, i began to look beyond just getting all the letters of the alphabet themselves in a collection, and i began to look into each letter as their own single entities, and i found that to be rather beautiful with some characters, namely the 'B'.

5 sketches or doodles I like as much as any finished piece:

State of the Union 1

What media do you like working in?

-Cut Paper

-Scratchboard

-Pen and Ink   

-Micron            

-Conte Pencil         

-Pencil            

-Ball-point pen

-Charcoal Pencil

What media do you hate working in?

-Ink & Brush... (lack of control, unforgiving in a way)

-Colored Pencil... (at times makes work too childish looking)

-Watercolor... (I'm not good a it, again can make work too childish looking because of this)

-Oil Pastel... (messy, and yet again, childish)

What media would you like to try, but haven't?

-oil paint

-colored ink

List three non-Illustrative classes that have influenced you and/or your work positively.

-Drawing Composition (helped me with composition, arrangement, details and realistic representation of subject matter)

-Life Drawing (helped me to increase my interest in drawing and accurately reproducing the human form)

-2D Design ( helped me consider textures of environmental subjects, as well as composition and arrangement.)

How has the work of your peers influenced you and your work?

-Many times I have found myself saying, "man I wish I could do that", or "I wish I could make things look that way." This was almost to the point of frustration at times, because I felt like my work didn't have the quality and consideration that was required to make me a successful artist, specifically an illustrator. However holding my own work up to the work of my peers has also given me confidence and reassurance, especially when I find myself in the mindset that, "I can do that too". It has also pushed me into exploring new media as well as pushing the detail and complexity of my work. And I've been been warned many times against developing my own 'style', but I do believe that the forming of my own style would make me confident in the work I produce, maybe not, I can't be certain.

What sort of subject matter do you like to create work about?

-Machinery/Manmade things (vehicles, technology, machines, etc.)

-Urban Landscapes

-Animals

-People (sometimes - and is something I am becoming more and more comfortable with)

-Storyboards for my short films (planning scenes, laying out composition, and cinematographic ideas)

What sort of subject matter do you like to read about?

-Dark Comedy

-Science-Fiction

-Horror

-Novels about the human condition

-Band Biographies

What kind of music do you like? Why?

-Alt. Rock (what i gew up on, and went through puberty with)

-Progressive/Experimental Rock (something i began to like in High School, the medium is free and follows a specific structure even when it seems like ti doesn't)

-Classical (it's relaxing, and it's almost a window to another time and place that i will probably never understand, but nonetheless it has always fascinated me with it's beauty and complexity)

-(some) Hip-Hop (It's upbeat, motivating, and i like the fact that it doesn't always take itself so seriously)

-Blues Rock (it's raw and unbridled, andbeing from the south, i'm used to the blues, this just kicks it up a notch.)

-Garage Rock (once again, its raw, and powerful, and alot of times it's a bunch of kids peeling the paint off the walls of someone's living room...good stuff)

-Old School Punk (something from my high school days, it always inspired me to go against the grain, and to not do what everyone else was doing, and I think that's infinitely valuable.)

-Classic Rock (cheesy at times, but still fun, and i've always heard it, so it's been a part of my life)

-Surf (this is thanks to Remy Miller, who introduced me to the likes of Dick Dale, Link Wray and others... it sounds cool, and it emphasizes the electric guitar, plus it's another time and place yet again.)

What non-art related interest/hobbies/ skills do you have?

-Guitar/Bass/Drums/Programming

-Walking Movie Database (actors names, movie titles, soundtracks, etc.)

-Extensive knowledge of beer

-I collect beer bottles of every variety

What is something that you like that nobody else likes?

-The films of David Lynch

-Tequila

-History

If you had the run of the world's museums, what three works of original art would you like to own?

- Standard Station - Ed Ruscha

- Guernica - Pablo Picasso

- (View of) Munich - Gerhard Richter