Small Towns, Small Minds

So for this homework I went out to Shelby farms to the Dog Lake to work there. Not the easiest place to work. Lots of dogs...that enjoy jumping on the table and walking on your paper. But that's alright. Saw a pug while there so that made my day. The drawing went pretty smoothly however, even though I tend to use a ton of ink and do lots of small inkwork as opposed to a more general style that would be much faster. But, it's alright since ink is definitely my favorite medium.

MY NAME IS STAGGER LEE

Since I sadly was not able to attend trolley night this weekend, I thought I would post up some work of some of my favorite artists.

Takato Yamamoto

I really do not like anime or manga or anything like that in it's original sense. At all. The exception to this however, would have to be Takato Yamamoto. He has some of the most beautiful and intricate ink work with the most delicate washes. The intricacy and attention to detail in his work just makes me drool. One of the most interesting things about Yamamoto's work to me is how simple the overall subject is. This was a statement from an interview with Yamamoto.

"My basic theme is the image of the universe operation that has repeated the circulating generation (life) and dismantlement (death). I express symbolically the image to be a man's

body as the main motif, while taking the image of a plant, an insect, and other various objects."

David D'andrea

A forerunner in the poster design world is David D'andrea. Take any old poster from around the 70's and think of it in a more modern way with some darker imagery and you get D'andrea's work. I own three screen prints of his that are beautiful and which I stare at on a daily basis. I find myself completely pulled into these intricate designs that are so meticulous and time consuming. Seems to be what I spend the majority of my time doing and looking at.

Vania Zouravliov

Vania's work is my all time favorite. If you couldn't already tell, I love the most detailed pen work possible. And Vania captures that. He is so prolific for the amount of detail that goes into each piece. He wears where he is from (Russia) on his sleeve, and it is extremely evident in his work which I think I do with my own work as well. I could drool over this stuff for days. I got his book for Christmas which contains tons of his work. Best present ever.

Marching to the beat of a dead horse

In terms of animation dealing with positive and negative space, this video doesn't have too much but when it does it really hits it home. This is one of my favorite videos of all time also. I saw it as a kid on MTV when they actually played music and have loved it ever sense.

this video is definitely worth checking out. Some pretty sick animation work so if you get a chance to actually see it then I highly recommend it.

this is a pretty interesting one. Deals with planes in a more collagey kinda way, but it still breaks them down none the less.

WORTHLESS FUCKING NIGHTS

I think I spend probably 50% of my free time looking at artists and trying to find new work that I enjoy. Among the many artists I look at daily, I think one of my favorites would have to be Florian Bertmer, an illustrator whose use of contrast in certain pieces is perfect.

Contrasts is one of those aspects of art that is constantly preached, and for good reason, however one of my all time favorite artists avoids contrast in certain ways. Takato Yamamoto has some of the most intricate work I have ever seen without having to use any hard contrasts, just negative and positive spaces. I w

ould give my left lung to own a piece of his.

Lastly, I thought I would add in this game that I think is beautifully rendered. Some really great silhouette work.

http://www.arcadenoid.com/a-crow-in-hell.html#

Devil Boots

I have found through my first semester of school the things I really love doing. And I have found inspiration for doing these things. Everyone needs to research more artists. I find myself spending hours daily looking at work my from my favorite artists and always searching for some new inspiration. Go check out David D'andrea. He has some really beautiful illustrations. I actually have four original prints from him that I stare at constantly. This semester is full of the one thing that I do nonstop and love. Drawing. Last semester I managed, somehow, to have 3D design, IPC, and intro to computer graphics as my studio classes. Not nearly enough drawing or time to do so. Now that I have the classes that require the drawing life seems all around better.

WATCH THIS

Everyone needs to take 15 minutes to watch this video. There is something about it that is quite inspiring, especially if you are a fan of mythbusters/Adam Savage.

ONE

I'm Gino, if that was not clear already. I have lived in Memphis for most of my life and don't plan on leaving any time in the near future. My reasons for coming to MCA are pretty simple.

1. It is in Memphis. I live in Memphis.

2. It is an art school. I like art.

As of right now I plan to major in illustration, but wouldn't mind doing a double concentration in illustration and printmaking. I believe I will be staying at MCA for grad school as well, hopefully to receive a Master's in art education. I would obviously like to be a gallery artist and just work for myself, but rarely does that work. So the art education degree is where I will most likely end up. Cool.