Tinkering with the Machine

The past week, I decided to brush up on my tattoo equipment, seeing as I have sealed a performance interview at one of the popular tattoo studios in my city. 

Here's what I did with my old machine whilst waiting to purchase the new ones online (will do a review on this whole other topic another time and let you guys know more about my profession!) but for now, I shall leave it at this as I have done quite a bit of work today. 

I apologise for not having to blog often! I have been busy with projects inside and outside Uni. I will post some of the work from my Product Innovation  (Industrial Design) Bachelor Degree as well! 

The Kony Project: Ponder a thought with me? Something's not right

The KONY Project, you say? I second guess.

Hear me out, I am for humanitarian intentions.
I would like the best for Uganda as much as anyone.
But something just doesn't sit right with this 'humanitarian' intervention of the US.

When the video first came out, I remember joking about this issue with a couple people, sarcastically mentioning the US finding another OIL RESERVE in Uganda. If the US genuinely cared for this issue beforehand, they would have done something sooner, not suddenly, later.

The humanitarian intervention involves sending armed troops in Uganda to help capture Kony. Somehow, it  seems like it's just an excuse to worm a way around the international law system, to send troops into a foreign land.


I'd like to encourage more people to speculate on this issue, and the KONY project, if you can see what the US might be doing here. See any pattern? Seems familiar?

• '... with 2.5 BILLION barrels of oil ALREADY CONFIRMED'' (2011) Read more

• '... US Foreign Policy disguises self-interest as altruism. When we see oil and humanitarian crisis, we act: Iraq, Libya, and now Uganda.' (2011) Read more

But don't just listen to me. I suggest you do look into it more, and form your own opinions and conclusions.

Hope this post has been enlightening , Ciao!

Back Again for the New Year!

After being absent for so LONG, I decided to go back because, well ... I have done something related to art today, without any influence of Uni work and such. It all started when I started to clean my room again. I ended up gathering a lot of paint, and making something out of my time.

In my arsenal
Just thought I'd gather my spray paint and put them in a nice section of its own. I didn't think I still have a handful, plus the 4 other ones I bought earlier on in the year.

Spraying Space

After finding my weapons, I wanted to experiment. Couldn't wait to get my hands on them and spray those buggers on a clean white surface and cause trouble. I suddenly found myself thinking and recalling a technique to do with spraying space scenes. Right on the spot, grabbed my stuff, and within minutes, I had myself a space scene! I was surprised to see the result myself. Might do a detailed entry on this one day.

PS. Gonna interest my girlfriend to do this with me, it would be a fun little project to do.

Spraying Practice: Cutting-back

With the little spark of interest still going strong, I decided to to take a risk and go head on with some freestyle graffiti - NO SKETCH.

Always been surprised at how my work turns out when I just freestyle some spray on the spot. It ends up like an experiment progression. To add to that, I still need practice. So I just apply, cut-back, apply and cut-back.

Cutting-back: this is the method of graffiti where the lines are defined cleaner, neater and have angular, sharp edges, compared to normal lines. These lines can go thinner than the tin tips and are ideal for smaller details and canvas artwork.

Anyway, here it is. My little suttin'-suttin'.

Space Rock!

I decided to continue working on one of my ongoing projects last year - a designer toy sculpture. Originally, I couldn't decide on what the colour and/or pattern of this guy would be, I even painted on random colours just for fun.

Originally, it was just a boring tan and black colour. But you know what else was pretty good about today? It was nice I was feeling a little space-y, so I decided to stick to the theme, and make it look dope. But it was just lacking something. I just wanted to give it a kick, you know? So I made his head gold, fading into a midsection of magenta space and stars, fading out into black for the legs.

Check them out and see for yourself.

I even torn some empty cans, which I stuck on his back, and made him wear some custom AF1's.

Still in progress, this project is something I cannot rush. So watch this 'space'! :)

Early Stage

This concept was originally going to be a drawing of a baby. But I messed up somewhere and decided to make it a clown instead. I wanted to show the idea of,

It's all fun and games til you hit your head on a carousel

A bit of sarcasm, hence why the dry expression. He was having too much fun, banged his head on a carousel, and now he's out of character. Thinking of switching it to a jolly comic vibe instead of this, so will postpone this composition til I come back to it later on in the year.

I would elaborate more on this but I decide to take this drawing further next time, maybe re-draw it a few times because I like the idea. So for now, I'll keep it short.

Equipments:

- The orange really pointy Bic pen!

- Photoshop 7.0 (2002)

- Wacom Tablet

Not Everyone Sees Your Struggle

The concept of this is inner war and inner peace (see previous sketch entry). It takes most of its inspiration from the battle in within ourselves, the battle of judgement, conscience, perspective, the good and the bad.

You can see a man with Zen-like mind state in two different lights. But notice he has a crack on the shadowed part of his skull to show the struggle and the war that was happening within. His conscious, judgment and other thoughts fight a fiery cognitive battle, unseen in the outside world.

This can be applied to what typically happens when trying to achieve tranquility, where fleets of thoughts fight throughout the arena of his cerebrum. His past demons battle toe to toe with his guardian conscious today, his history with his present and future.

Note:
I started with an intent to draw something with a completely different meaning. Then halfway, it becomes clear to you what that whisper in between the pencil lines is trying to say. It's like the artists draws a teacher and learns from him.

Equipment:
2B Mechanical Pencil
Photoshop 7.0
Wacom Bamboo Tablet

Previous versions:

 

Inner War, Inner Peace

Just another impulsive sketch looking at overcoming 'war' within; war of the soul, war of judgement, in our conscious, the good and the bad in ourselves.Emergeance from shadow.

But for one to exist, the other has to co-exist. War will not be war without peace, it would be 'norm'. Peace will not be peace without war. Balance.

Will likely take this project further, there are proportional imbalance. I think I'll keep them for identity. Lips might need modification though.

Tile Department

So what do you do when you're:

- bored
- in a hardware store
- at the tile department
- seeing a handful of teeny little tiles unattended by staff?

You make this.






















I don't know what it is. But you make it. And you can just imagine them smiling when it's time to clean up!