Thirsty Pixels

Finally

2011-10-10T15:47:00.002-04:00

I apologize for ever complaining about being famous and still unable to sustain myself. It is something I mostly brought upon myself. Me and the teargas canister.

Chloe

2011-04-20T09:51:00.012-04:00

My middle name, the girl in the mirror. She is a a young shoot not a rival, and she has something to say; Chloe's Hideout (New Blog)

The Year of the Tiger

2011-01-03T14:24:00.006-05:00

2010 was by far the most trans-formative year of my life. It was filled with crazy circumstances and incredible highs and lows, and purpose and sorrow like I've never felt before. But my injury was a minor physical change in my life. My classmate at Cooper Union, Emilie Gossiaux, the only other Emily in my year (there are only about sixty of us, it's a really small school), was hit by a truck this October and has suffered something far more devastating than what I experienced, which was also incredibly profound. She almost died but against all odds, she's talking and hearing, and we must hope with all our hearts that she can see again. Her friends made her this website, http://www.emiliegossiaux.com/, to help her with her heavy medical costs. She doesn't get to sue Israel for what was done to her - it was random and un-asked for, and she really needs all our help.

DEAR LORD, GIVE EMILIE MY LOST EYE.

I like this one...

2010-12-22T19:19:00.005-05:00

...but I don't know why.

I’m available to do animation/illustration work!

2010-12-15T23:01:00.029-05:00

Just saying...

And now, for your viewing pleasure, an old, old animation test:

******************************************************************

Here’s my newest playlist - each song means something specific to me. And yes, I like Lady Gaga. And yes, I love Ben Folds.

1) Bubbli’n in my Soul – Flatt & Scruggs
2) The Fame – Lady GaGa
3) What’s in the Middle – The Bird and the Bee
4) Energy – Apples in Stereo
5) Landed – Ben Folds
6) Monochrome – Yann Tiersen
7) Thumbelina Farewell – Ron Sexsmith
8) I Don’t Want to Get Over You – The Magnetic Fields
9) I Need You Back – Ben Kweller
10) Promise – Violent Femmes
11) Gonna Move – Paul Pena

ehenocka

2010-12-02T14:39:00.004-05:00

This is my old You Tube channel from high school. I've hidden most of the videos that embarrass me, but here's a little glimpse of where my head was at in 2007 and into 2009. I was learning as I put out these opinions. I still hold some of them. I was more cynical then than I am now, and I will continue to change.

ehenocka

On my profile it says,
"Emily was unsure with two eyes, Emily is unsure with one eye, but life feels more beautiful when she believes."

Another doodle...

2010-11-20T14:12:00.001-05:00

Pedestrian

2010-11-19T17:58:00.000-05:00

Birth

2010-11-18T14:49:00.001-05:00

Hiatus Apology

2010-10-30T11:31:00.003-04:00

So I haven't posted too much recently and my excuse is that I've been focusing on this animation I'm making for Adam Shapiro's upcoming documentary. The project is finally at it's tail end, so look forward to some new illustrations popping up. I suppose I coulda just posted some pictures from my sketchbook, but alas alack, I have not. So here's a little teaser:

I'll post the animation, or part of it sometime around the film's screening.

P.S. I'm still working on the print orders and things, and I've updated my pricing. I apologize as well for my tardiness. When I get my website up, it'll be much easier and quicker to get a print from me - like the orders will go directly to the printer and they will send it off to you. So sorry for the wait, and thanks.

Letter to an Unborn Movie

2010-10-10T17:11:00.002-04:00

My film, my film! My beautiful baby film!
Intimate thoughts.

Line.
Wondrous feelings.

Color.
Truest story.

Time.
Echo my life:

Loose sight of levers.
See divided landscapes.
Reveal scars.

Looking for ultimate freedom.

Love my child.
My dearest hair-girl.

Tell them.

Color

2010-10-04T14:23:00.002-04:00

I adore red hair, but I do not want her to have an explicit race. I want her green like the ripe leaf on my windowsill.

Paintlings

2010-10-02T13:19:00.003-04:00

...psst! I'm making a website! - with animations!

Echo

2010-09-30T16:57:00.003-04:00

Here she is again. She's changing. I've realized she isn't a child. Her life is so much like my own - as my life unfolds the images of this film come together. I've never had this happen before. This film, which will not be done anytime soon, is not practice like the Walkers piece. This is my baby. This is a story, this is a world that I'm visiting through drawing. Animation is magic.

I drew this on Friday when I was feeling this feeling.

My life is confusing and incredible. People keep sending me little things about the spring in An Nabi Salah and I am just astonished. I feel this responsibility to the Palestinian people; in my life, I will get to really know them and share their stories. That is truly my role as an artist. As I watch the world I create and imagine and the people I meet and my experience come together in a celebration. I am excited to see where things will go. What will I make when I am 50? What will I be doing? What will I think of this all? Will Palestine be free?

The Quiet

2010-09-28T11:30:00.006-04:00

Hey guys, I know I disappeared for a moment which can feel like forever in internet land. Thanks to everyone who's helped me out, it helps me focus on my art. I will get back to you – I’m true to my word, just disorganized. I've been through something profound and I believe I'm working on important things.

I spent the last week almost completely locked up in my apartment, trudging through a field of things, little objects activating little memories. If it wasn’t a tool, art, or sentimental, it was trash. I feel like I moved in again. The colors are the same, but the walls hold good things. I turned my desk upside-down. I got rid of the internet because I use my computer for arting and it’s incredibly distracting. No more staying up late searching for whatever, if I’m bored I can’t check my e-mail. If I have to go on-line, I have to go to the library, hey here I am!

Perhaps it will strike me to make more Palestine pieces, but I’ve know for awhile I needed to make this one. For Nariman and her family and her village, this is An Nabi Salah before a demonstration.

Feed the Artist/Meet Me NYC

2010-09-19T19:11:00.005-04:00

Feed the Artist
or e-mail me at thirstypixels@gmail.com

You support me right? I need a little help from my friends. As my life story unfolds, so to does the animation I am creating. I know it will be an incredibly powerful work. I’m making it to share my soul. My creativity is flowing and it will be ready when it is ready. I left school because when you almost die, you realize life is short and you got to grab it while you have it. I need to pay my rent and eat sometimes, or get sketchbooks. So you know, wanna donate or pre-order some prints? I’m also selling pages from my sketchbooks. If you don’t have a lot, even a dollar would help.

Have some sketches - $20 plus s&h for five pages, $50 for five signed pages.

Tell me the piece and I'll get you a Kinko’s style print signed for $150 or a high quality professional print for $1000.

If you've already requested a print from me, please send the request through paypal. I'll remind ya...

Or just donate! Even a buck helps!

Meet Me NYC

This is a super project you'll wanna help support. I'll remind you again soon with another post and a new web-page.

I love the internet because art of all forms is without a monetary value. Great art speaks to the soul and everybody should have access to it. But we can go even farther. Having a brush of fame, I have had an identity crisis. Do these people really know who I am? What I’m all about? Who are these people? I want to know. You friend-ed me because you support me and I want to met my friends and share a little art. Wanna go grab a coffee and walk around? Can you pick up the tab? I drew a portrait of you.

I’m young and idealistic and I believe art can change the world. With a little help from my friends.

Also, we’re trying to send a US boat to Gaza… you should support that too!!! http://ustogaza.org/donate/

Siege Busters Ball

2010-09-18T11:54:00.004-04:00

September 21st
Let's get a US boat to Gaza.

http://www.littlefieldnyc.com/event-detail/?id=16345
I am not responsible for the fonts...

Walk

2010-09-13T23:13:00.002-04:00

Some abstractness I drew while walking.... I think these (and by these I mean I drew a bunch of walking drawings) will be the background for something...

P.S. I am making some animations that just, feel like my real work. It's really flowing and coming together. I am pleased.

Road Haven

2010-09-10T12:08:00.002-04:00

I drew it on a road-trip to Alabama...

Bus Nerves

2010-09-06T23:22:00.002-04:00

Jordan

2010-09-05T21:19:00.000-04:00

Floater

2010-09-02T22:27:00.001-04:00

September - Doodle Days

2010-09-01T22:17:00.004-04:00

I have a ton of sketches I need to go through and clean-up and such and internet birds to feed, so every day, or every-other day, or at the least every-other-other day, I'll present you with a sketch.

Claire

2010-08-28T12:27:00.018-04:00

Taking my old musical love out of the case I have trapped it in for so many years, I found a new love for Jewish folk music. Of course my rusty clarinet fingers aren't even close to holding a klezmer melody, but with enough fiddling I'm sure I'll get... closer. Shock and awe, I am a Jew; why else would I be so often battling feelings of guilt and anxiety and adore stand-up comedy? Let that be a reminder; wishing for Israel to treat Palestinians with full rights and freedom doesn't mean I hate my cultural background. How'd you think this would sound; a klezmer-dabke fushion?

P.S. I've been working on animations and such, so that's a sorry for not posting so often... I'll get some photographs of some paintings I did this summer up and about soon!

Honesty

2010-08-18T17:10:00.003-04:00

This mountainous moment in my life is fully documented. I am allowed the out-of-body experience of watching it happen from every angle. Apparently some new footage proves I was lying; apparently other footage shows me directly getting hit and a Ha’aretz reporter who claims I was targeted. I can’t watch either video. Sometimes, I can’t believe it happened. I’ve gotten used to the new face in the mirror. But I wonder what they claim I was lying about. Was I lying about spending a week in the hospital, barely able to move, my jaw wired shut, an indented fracture in my skull, not a word of apology from Israel, coming to terms with the compressed visual world I would now view through for the rest of my life?

I have become a minor symbol of solidarity and the occupation, and for this, people are interested in me. I never expected my first shot at recognition would be shrouded in scandal. Sitting underneath our basement staircase in my childhood studio, I dreamed of becoming a great artist. I want to go to this next place where I feel work and love flowing out of me. I want to create commercial art with soul. I want to become a “subjective journalist” - an illustrator traveling, experiencing, remembering, and communicating. But whatever I do, however am perceived, I am an artist. It is in the core of my being.

Animation Teaser

2010-08-14T13:59:00.008-04:00

I'm looking for a musician/sound designer in New York City with a playful narrative sense to collaborate with me on my animations; I have one old old film that simply needs sound, and I'm working on a new exciting, albeit disorganized film and I'd like the sound to be truly integrated with the piece. I don't have any money; I'm asking for collaboration on a work I can really see going places.

Please send me an e-mail at thirstypixels@gmail.com with "sound" in the subject.

Thanks!

My name in Arab-esc:

2010-08-08T13:10:00.013-04:00

Google thinks the words most associated with my name are, "facebook, blog, new york times, jewish, youtube, washington post, video, cnn, 21, eye." It clearly doesn't know me, but it does know something happened.

Stormy 2

2010-08-06T20:26:00.002-04:00

or: Dad, 1789

Stormy 1

2010-07-29T00:15:00.000-04:00

A beautiful storm cut off our power for two days. I really needed the vacation from the internet.

In the past month I've been feeling that feeling a lot of people get when they get back to the States - what am I supposed to do in/for America? I have maybe three more illustrations half finished from over there, but that's it, I'm not making any new memories from my trip. There's something so uncomplicated about Palestine - if you want to help, meet amazing people, and see the land, it's a no brainier.

I Miss You Palestine

2010-07-22T13:20:00.012-04:00

The week I got home, I got my energy back, and I was giddy with the joy of being alive. I walked my dog and bellowed out this song in the woods. I'm no musician, but the soul of the moment carried my voice. When I came home I got out my computer and recorded this in a message for my good friend Nick… but what the heck, I want to give it to the world!

Also, if someone could remix this or re-sing this with piano, that would be brilliant.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is my "Of Gold," playlist because Yerushalaim Shel Zahav kept popping up in my head.

1) You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone - Flatt & Scruggs
2) Spain - The Legendary Jim Ruiz Group
3) Seeing Other People - Belle & Sebastian
4) The Rollercoaster Ride - Belle & Sebastian
5) Hearts and Bones - Paul Simon
6) Police and Thieves - The Clash
7) Box of Rain - The Grateful Dead
8) Fish to Fry - The Ditty Bops
9) Georgia on my Mind - Ray Charles
10) Born at the Right Time - Paul Simon*
11) Back on my Feet Again - Randy Newman
12) Don't Think Twice, It's Alright - Bob Dylan

* My magical hospital song.

And now for something completely different...

2010-07-20T17:30:00.006-04:00

P.S. This is (a shitty photograph of) my current pair of glasses; designed by me this winter, doodled by me this month, and carved out of wood by the incredible Scott Urban.

T

2010-07-17T12:13:00.007-04:00

Finding a job is hard, so I decided in the meantime to try to get this little diddle on a Threadless tee. Check it out, and if you like it, why not give it a nice score. It's a photoshopped-up version of a drawing I did during a community meeting at the Jiftlik where I felt kinda like these fellows; wishing to listen in, but sadly not able to understand Arabic (but I'm learning!).

Score My Design: "Listen In"

Square Times

2010-07-10T05:56:00.004-04:00

A sketch from my film.

The Tent

2010-07-05T20:18:00.006-04:00

My old plane ticket was set to bring me home today. I've spent so much of my life in this house, sometimes I forget it's only been a month since I arrived. Palestine can feel like a distant concept from my past, but this remains familiar:

And for the Sheikh Jarrah-ians, I miss you, and I'm sending you my love.

Apropriated Memory 2

2010-07-04T11:52:00.001-04:00

I never saw this in Hebron.

Apropriated Memory 1

2010-07-02T18:33:00.005-04:00

I was too distracted by the smell of tear gas to see this:

P.S. I just got all my drawings back from my travels and I am busy scanning... P.P.S. I was away for the good part of last week... P.P.P.S. Nothing like a whole lot of free time in the quiet suburbs to get the animation juices flowing! I have some finished work, but it needs sound and what not...

Graffiti

2010-06-19T19:26:00.005-04:00

We were supposed to paint THE WALL that day. They weren't supposed to attack the flotilla. I at least got to draw this admittedly experimental piece:

Here was the design I had in mind: She won't let that big bad thing behind her contain her curiosity.

Ni'lin

2010-06-18T13:30:00.017-04:00

I have a confession to make. I am an artist. I am by no means an expert on Middle Eastern politics - which isn't to say that I don't know a lot or have very strong opinions on the matter, but these illustrations I've made and am finishing are a reflection on my observations. I was attracted to this activism by the cause of fighting against injustice, but I pursued it for the people and the images they make in that awesome landscape. I have sketches upon sketches that are awaiting me in the mail from over there. I make them as I experience life - as I'm waiting for an action to start, taking to the Shabab in Sheikh Jarrah, sitting on a bus, lazing around the apartment listening to someone bring life to a guitar. My work exists within the society that surrounds me and the society inspires me to create. With my more overtly political work, I can only hope to show people the disturbing reality I've seen - to let them know that beyond all the jargon, there is a human issue that is both beautiful and horrible. Where we go from here, what you can take personally from this work, I can't know - art is an interpretive force. Perhaps emotion can lead to reason.

And now, the next in the series; Ni'lin. (I'd say it's worth it to see it big.)

Swings Again

2010-06-17T11:34:00.003-04:00

Long overdue edits...

Cyclops

2010-06-15T08:42:00.012-04:00

Having one eye is really just a design problem. There's even research that suggests that "Stereoblindness might prove an asset rather than a disadvantage to an artist." Sure, there's prosthesis that look so real no one would ever know you are different, but they could be so much more - an eye for every occasion; abstract, cartoony, solid colors, etc... I could even have it be the ultimate spy camera. Then of course there's eye patches. Black is classic and I do really love simple design, but there's a million different ways you could drape your face to cover that creepy spot. Hairstyles must also be considered. And when I'm feeling bold, there's always going natural. And what about one-eyed glasses?

P.S. My profile picture is me in a costume I made freshman year. I've had it since I made this blog and it's proven oddly predictive. The older I get, the more ridiculous life seems.

For the Jiftlik

2010-06-09T03:44:00.005-04:00

Before my injury I was working on this piece after having visited a most wonderful village in the Jordan Valley. They literally are building the resistance and with mud, one of our Earth's most excellently fun substances. They live across from a settlement community which, completely illegally, cuts off their access to water and their right to expand. You might look at a fence made partially of a sign to Nablus, crates of various sorts, wires, tarps, and various car parts and see poverty, but I doubt my neighborhood in Maryland has half of their character.

So here you have it, the only proper thing to post now - what I had meant to before my bump. And yes, I really did see a plant shaped like that.

Me to then Me

2010-05-30T15:52:00.001-04:00

And...

2010-05-20T05:49:00.000-04:00

That Mood...

2010-05-20T05:01:00.001-04:00

They Can't Imprison Your Mind

2010-05-17T13:20:00.010-04:00

Obstruction

2010-05-13T12:57:00.006-04:00

As per Ellen's suggestion, I bring to you:
Walaja Cake!

Ingredients; One layer of determined activist over a layer of obediently angry army men, and a layer of camera people (to give it that worldly flavor) with a bulldozer on-top!

Bulldoze

2010-05-13T12:48:00.002-04:00

Swing Diptych

2010-05-02T20:37:00.005-04:00

Memories from two weekends ago...

Walaja
As we leave a demonstration that would ultimately end in arrests and beatings, two men obliviously chit-chat on tire swings.

Sheikh Jarrah
Amongst the chaos of the military and settler's attempts to squander our ability to paint a mural, a little girl sadly sits on the swing set.

I Love You Silwan!

2010-04-27T09:27:00.000-04:00

Counter Demonstration

My Apartment in Jerusalem

2010-04-26T12:24:00.002-04:00

I got really hyper one weekend...

Falafel Delivery

2010-04-26T11:57:00.005-04:00

A Treasure map to the police station!

The brown is the demolition site (that morning they bulldozed a family's playground to build the wall around their house), the green is where the soldiers held us up (because we wanted to, gasp, visit the grieving family after all the damage was done*), the yellow is the serveace that took us down the black path to the white-ish blob (the house), where we delivered falafel (to the horror of the mother), and swiftly entered the black zone, aka arrested.

*When I asked them why they wouldn't tell me and all the sudden, Kafka made sense to me on a whole new level.

Catch Me if You Can!

2010-04-15T18:12:00.002-04:00

I made some fixes to some recent posts...

My Favorite Road!

2010-04-13T02:17:00.003-04:00

I made this image last year based off of my enumerable trips on the Chinatown bus from New York to DC and back. I tried to make it into a woodblock, but I like the digital version better.

O America, my America... stop making weapons to test on demonstrators in Palestine.

P.S.
My flickr - Now with more life drawings!

And on a less political note...

2010-04-09T17:31:00.008-04:00

Sheikh Jarrah

2010-04-05T15:30:00.007-04:00

Hasidim taunting children with prayer.

I organized the heck out 'em...

2010-03-30T17:42:00.006-04:00

...although I'm always drawing more, and I have two completed sketchbooks to scan (where are interns when you need them?)

The groups Landscaped and Walks will be used for animation backgrounds. With the groups Wiggly, Blob Mob, and Stick I see a movement emerging. I think I can take these drawings, some from as far back as 2008, and create a sort-of animation-collage. Same with the heads (Frontal Faces, Profile Faces, and Other Face Views) - I could create a character who's head changes when he moves, or when someone passes him or something. I don't know what to make out of the fact that I've scanned 82 images of faces with legs on them...

But anywho, if you, the fine people of the internet, see anything you'd like to see composited or colored or animated or something, just let me know.

P.S. I have a lot of life drawings, but they are not up on my Flicker.

One step closer to understanding them.

2010-03-28T11:36:00.006-04:00

<-- I organized my Flickr a bit.

My name in Hebrew script!

2010-03-17T09:49:00.007-04:00

Zing!

Okay, I'm done.

2010-02-26T16:01:00.002-05:00

For now...

I like 'em both.

2010-02-26T15:35:00.010-05:00

Squiggles drawn while watching TV...

Colored.

What I meant to tell you about New Years

2010-02-26T15:08:00.028-05:00

space
I left the party and felt the space between and beyond the people.

A resolution of sorts -

To enjoy the silent crevices.

Sketchbook - a set on Flickr

2010-02-26T07:28:00.003-05:00

1,760 doodles, and counting...

Long time no post, no?

2010-02-26T06:03:00.010-05:00

I sometimes do this thing where I postpone a new idea until I finish the old project... but then I don't finish the old project and I end up with nothing. Like with animation - I felt like I had to finish some old pieces before I could allow myself to start this piece about a girl with magical hair (maybe you got a glimpse of her in my "Walkers" short?)

I've been meaning to post something about how I actually started this year with an epiphany, literally in the wee hours that occupied a new years party, but I wanted to finish coloring in a complicated picture to go with it.

Two months have passed.

I've been to, and the places in-between, New York City, Birmingham Alabama, Columbus Ohio, Chicago, the Washington DC area, and most importantly Tel Aviv and Jerusalem Israel. Israel! I finally started at Bezalal!

Seeing all these Jews has me doodling this:

It's good to be back.
Be thee prepared for the postathon.

Walkers

2009-12-25T13:59:00.004-05:00

Stills

2009-12-20T05:35:00.011-05:00

I put together a finished piece to show to class, even though my project isn't finished yet. While I'm considering whether to post that attempt on the internet (and having trouble compressing it without the colors getting washed out,) here are a few stills to tease you:

Made it Move

2009-12-19T14:39:00.008-05:00

Four seconds to stare at...

...or I still haven't finished my essay.

Animation Teaser

2009-12-14T17:18:00.004-05:00

Three seconds to stare at...

...or procrastinating on my essay.

I really love the computer - I truly believe it is a revolutionary technology... but sometimes I wish different applications were different physical machines.

Making it Move

2009-12-08T16:48:00.002-05:00

Just thinkin again...

2009-12-01T18:38:00.010-05:00

A few weeks ago I was walking to the subway on the Lower East Side, and I passed by four cute, bright, and boxy large plastic toys with over-sized heads and undersized instruments representing the four members of the Beatles, and I wondered:

When do we cease to be real, and instead become the malleable ideas of others?

Or are we always that way, it just isn't so apparent?

Update and Portfolio Picures 3

2009-11-25T00:02:00.018-05:00

I've been animating up a storm, but none of it is ready for the eyes of the internet... I have this short short, "Huggabear" that I basically finished in I don't know, September maybe, but I have yet to fully finish the clean-up and coloring of it... shame. I guess I've been too busy working on my longer short, "The Conjurer of Spheres." It is kinda like my first film in that it is a collage of little bits (I swear, someday I'll spend three minutes with one or two characters, promise,) but it has color, some camera movement, and the eerie feeling like there might be a plot. "Huggabear" is succinct, has cute characters, and is a story... which is probably why I'm reluctant to finish it. Or again, maybe I'm just too goddamn busy. It's at that time of the semester when school has become burdened with deadlines and I fear I'll never finish my sculpture. Damn Cintiq, you've got me so 2D... literally, I mean do pixels even have depth? Lines don't exist in the real world, and neither do my paperless drawings.

So what the heck, why not some old analog drawings to spice up the night:

With an old digital one I made this summer for good luck:

Looking back at this one, I'm fairly certain I was influenced by the colors in Paul Driessen's "The Killing of an Egg." Noticing that is the same feeling I got when someone pointed out to me that I used an idea from Jan Svankmajer's "Dimensions of Dialogue" in a flipbook. I've been concocting up a whole bunch of walk cycles and I'm sure it's not just from reading and watching Richard Willam's "The Animator's Survival Kit," not just from my own curiosity and desire to develop my skills, but from seeing Ivon Maximov's "Fru 89" a couple months ago. How good it is to subconsciously connect with great artists, how bad it is to copy...

The Promise Land

2009-11-08T11:21:00.002-05:00

I'm going on exchange here next semester!

And while you're there, virtually, check out the film "Beton." I think it's the reason why I started using TVPaint Animation Pro. I know I should learn Flash if I ever want a job someday (although I did have an animation internship this summer, but they used Photoshop, which I really don't recommend,) but as a pencil person, lines that can undulate in texture and opacity are very important to me. Plus, it's really nice to not be using an Adobe product. Plus the interface is pretty much intuitive as long as you know how to animate and use alpha channels. But back to that film, it is gorgeous, uses perspective in surprising ways, has many frames you could pause and hang up on a wall, plus it really makes you think.

Moab or Portfolio Pictures 2

2009-11-07T14:44:00.014-05:00

I made this:

Plaster, Paint, and Canvas on Plywood

7'8.5" x 5' 8"

Wearing this:

Grey Zentai Suit.

Still from the super 8 film, made to play along with the piece,
The Making of Moab.

Someday I'll go to Utah and see Mars.

Welcome to November!

2009-11-01T13:43:00.002-05:00

To christen this wonderful month I bring you a picture of me from a year and a day ago.

Just thinkin...

2009-10-31T18:56:00.001-04:00

At what age in an artist's life do they become, if so lucky, the person who made the art they are known for?

When do we become real?

The "Real" Great Falls

2009-10-25T12:48:00.006-04:00

I went home on Rosh Hashanah and drew some rocks by Great Falls. I transfered the image to a block and created this woodblock print:

(Note, the edges have been trimmed because of the size of this scanner.)

Summer Reminiscing

2009-10-24T17:31:00.008-04:00

It's officially coat weather. I have my first official cold, and I have finally allowed myself to accept the inevitable weather change. Oh for strawberries to be back in season! This past June, I went strawberry-picking with my mother in a field spotted with five-year-olds. We found this incredible fruit there (which I drew when it was still composed):

This picture evidently doesn't look better with paper, or at least the paper I tried it with... but this one does:

Life Drawing

2009-10-23T23:46:00.004-04:00

It's hard not to take Richard Willams' word to heart. If you don't know about him, he was the animation directer for Who Killed Roger Rabbit, and with his Animator's Survival Kit, he has become know as an absolutely amazing teacher. So I've been going to life drawing classes (and hosting some) every week or every other week now for the past two months. I'm not out of practice, but not exactly in it either. But it does help, I can feel it in my work. I still listen to music while I animate though... (And if that last sentence made no sence to you, well, read the book.)

Check out the magic:

Life Drawing

Dead Pixel

2009-10-18T17:24:00.000-04:00

Poor Cintiq-i-poo.

Portfolio Pictures

2009-10-13T11:36:00.005-04:00

I just (a week ago) put my portfolio together for an abroad program to study animation. Instead of dumping all the pictures in one post, however, I'm going to post it here bit by bit. (On a side note, and that side note pertaining to the word "bit," I'm taking an engineering course at our engineering school in digital logic design a.k.a. circuit building.)

So in this first installment I will present to you the precursor to my animation. I bought myself a huge piece of paper and covered it with whatever popped into my head - creating a Bosch-like landscape (loosely based off of Great Falls, its namesake).

and here are some details:

RE: Paper Epiphany

2009-10-10T15:58:00.004-04:00

More magical up close:

Paper Epiphany

2009-10-09T16:25:00.006-04:00

I "painted" in this sandwich drawing on Wednesday.

On Thursday I went to my paper-making class and the teacher gave me a bunch of old student work she was going to throw away. I scanned in a sheet, gave it a little curves correction, and multiplied the image from the other night over it.

Magic.

Unknown Relationship

2009-08-22T03:19:00.010-04:00

Here's a little animatic I did a year ago based on my misperceptions:

Were they lovers...

...strangers..

...or just good friends?

Sketchbook

2009-08-13T19:53:00.005-04:00

After scanning in over 1000 and counting doodles and drawings from the past year or so, every night as I lay in bed, a delicious new image pops up in my head, only to be forgotten and undrawn by morning.

After days of digitally pulling pencil from paper and six audiobooks, I’m getting sick of scanning but I’m burning to finish.

Feel free to browse my rough work while I venture to employ myself with a more creative activity.

Sketchbook Part 1

Sketcbook Part 2

You’ll soon see these drawings cropping up in different ways; collaged, colored, and put in motion.

Farm

2009-07-20T01:36:00.012-04:00

My generation is at this indecisive point between old and new technology. I learned how to print photographs with chemicals, I’m going to learn woodblock printing and how to make paper. I learned the whole process of lost-wax bronze casting and other techniques involving some crazy don’t-let-it-touch-your-skin chemicals. And yet I’m going digital, partly because I don’t want to cut myself off from the momentum of graphic technology at such a young age. Still, all this computer stuff has been driving me a bit crazy. The programs have yet to sink into my regular process. I needed to get away from it and clear my head. So I went to a farm with two friends and worked and drew some things analog. Of course I scanned them in and colored them:

Life drawing. I actually did see some clouds like that (though not by the mountains).

The face in the tree – a half from life, half from imagination fabrication.

And cartoon memories of my friend in the lake.

Landscapes

2009-07-09T02:25:00.001-04:00

I’m always an artist at the core, but revolving around that I have these phases of side-interests; For a while I was extremely interested in how understanding the science of how we see can be used in understanding how to make what we can see (art), sometimes I focus on (especially on the subway) what is the meaning of and the use of the time between an action and the result a.k.a. what is the role of waiting and its subsets of boredom, side-tracking, anticipation, and dread in our lives and our perceptions and acceptances of time and mortality, then of course sometimes I think about nothing, sometimes I contemplate my thighs, and lately I have a new material interest in mastering graphics software and using them for animation and illustration. I haven’t really started my new animation yet (which worries me – I felt stuck and scared when I tried to really dive into it) but I have been editing some of my scanned drawings such as these in this little landscape diptych:

I really love the control the computer gives you over color but I’m still a little wary over its materiality.

Hello!

2009-06-30T15:20:00.000-04:00

I draw a ton of weird stuff, but it’s been hard to figure out what to do with it all. Last summer I cut out a lot of these drawings and pasted them into a scroll that would act as a surrogate sketchbook, but I soon realized that that was a dumb idea - it damaged the works and did nothing more to them, although the mechanism I made for viewing the scroll was kinda cool. Then I discovered animation, and I realized that I could, instead of working out every detail of a drawing, elevating it to art by making it on fancy paper and finishing it to look all polished (and stilted) I could instead integrate these works into an animation by using them as character designs, poses, etc. In this animation, because no one taught me anything in that class, even though I supposedly go to the best art school in this fine country, I recorded my careful line drawings stop motion style with a lousy DV camera. It has no layers, no color (except on the cut-out parts), no computer effects, and yet I’m fairly pleased with it:

But now that I’ve discovered animation, I’ve discovered what’s been right in front of me for so many years, my computer. And so, I am now beginning to archive my drawings via my new scanner and edit them in Photoshop and Painter via my brand spanking new Wacom Cintiq 12WX which I don’t know what I did without. This summer I’m taking a digital compositing class that essentially teaches me After Effects, I’m deciding on whether to learn Flash or Toon Boom, and I’m making some stuff that’s fun to look at. And so this blog will be a sort of process journal and showcase of my work as I move into the twenty-first century with my 2D artwork. Enjoy!