Abomination

Abomination

This was a sketch a did in my sketch book about a year back.  I started reading about conspiracies and the world ending and became obsessed with the theories.  I drew this sketch of the world ending in an urban graffiti-esque manner.  First I sketched up the mushroom cloud as a focal point, and then the cityscape in the back ground, and finally the gas mask all in graphite.  Then i took a fine tip sharpie and filled in the mask and outlined the buildings and gave that dripping effect as if everything were melting.  I kept a simple, dark color scheme of black, gray, and red.  I filled in the cloud with scribbles to make it look messy and chaotic, along with the scribbles coming out of the base.  I added a reflection of the scene in the gas mask's eye.  After I made this sketch, I replicated it onto a 4"x2" piece of plywood.  The plywood piece was the background for my art display my senior year in high school.

The Dude Abides.

The Dude Abides.

I made this on Adobe Illustrator one night out of boredom.  I had recently been watching The Big Lebowski a lot and had used the image of The Dude's face in another class, but it was hand drawn with graphite.  I wanted to use a low level of values and incorporate colors.  The color scheme and font I used were inspired by somewhat of a neon 80's look.  I'm satisfied with the way it turned out, and I liked keeping the edges rough and almost unfinished.  I feel that leaving the outline and edges that way gives it somewhat of a watercolor painting feel.  I made more copies of this image with different color schemes as well, and made a popart like banner (see below).

The Dude Abides Banner

A Clockwork Orange Book Cover

A friend of mine did a piece for the cover of A Clockwork Orange.  I really like this not only because it is a great book and one of my favorite movies, but the vintage look and originality.  He incorporated a hidden image of Alex's face in the milk glass that really gives it a good edge.  The detailing of the paper and edges adds that old vintage feel to it as well.  More of his work is also on his Flickr Photostream.

MY MOUTH

MY MOUTH

I made this a few months ago when I was listening to the song My Mouth by Rusko.  If you listen to the song, it repeats "my mouth" over and over and it got stuck in my head.  I drew the first thing that I thought of when I thought about it, a mouth.  I used a scribble technique, like in the Kid Cudi portrait, and used various colored ultra-fine sharpies and highlighter.  I put in a bubble lettering of the mouth screaming "MY MOUTH" and colored in the teeth different colors.

Mr. Rager

Mr. Rager

 

 

 

 

This is a portrait of Kid Cudi I composed.  I first drew his face with pencil, and then did scribbles of red and black all around him and on his clothes & face.  I made this because I was listening to his music and it pretty much influenced to sketch him.

Banksy

One of my favorite forms of art is street art, labelled "graffiti" by most of the public.  Probably the most famous street artists and my personal favorite is Banksy.  A London native who has traveled the world to make his mark.  Many of his pieces are found in the UK and Los Angeles.  I found The Banksy Blog and I'm not positive if it belongs to a third party blogger or Banksy himself.  In any case, it includes Banksy's work that conveys controversial images that typically attack society's norms and morals.  Banksy's official website includes pieces done both outside (on buildings, streets, etc.) and inside (paintings, sculptures, etc.).  Banksy is also very secretive and hides his identity so he is quite the mystery.  One of my favorite "pieces" from him was done in Disneyland, California.  It was during the time of the Guantanamo Bay controversies and images of prisoners in orange jumpsuits, handcuffs, and black hoods covering the face.  Banksy took an inflatable doll and dressed it like a Guantanamo Bay prisoner and tied it to a post in one of the rides.  BBC wrote an article on the stunt that includes a picture of the "art piece".  While many may consider Banksy a prankster and criminal, I consider him an artist.  I feel people overlook the messages that he conveys and simply label him as a criminal or prankster.  Either way, take a look at the Banksy Blog and his website, his artwork is quite unique.

Oh bro-what a beer!

"Oh bro-what a beer!"

Being I am for the Baltimore area, a largely known logo is the National Bohemian head.  The logo seems to be part of the culture of many in the area.  Along with that is the Maryland flag.  I did my own spin off of Natty Boh and Maryland pride and created a head that fit the stereotypical depiction of a "bro".  I drew up the normal Boh head and added features such as the hair flow, earring, and bent brim hat.  I drew up a section of the Maryland flag design in the hat and incorporated the colors.  One of the original National Bohemian slogans was "Oh boy-what a beer!", so I changed it to "bro" to fit the image.  This is one of my favorite pieces because of the cultural significance.