Visual Art

Dancers are to floors what painters are to canvas.

The Models

The Art Table Essentials

1. GQ
If I were a man, GQ would be my bible.
The writing is brilliant,styling is impeccable,
and it's the only magazine where I will actually read
the Letter from The Editor.
Brilliant. Jim Moore, bravo I say!

2. Banksy
Ya...do I need to say more?

3. Graffiti Women
I often flip through this when I'm stuck
on color palattes. I find that female graff writers
tend to use a brighter tone than their
male counter parts. It's a nice change of pace.

4. BUA
When I first moved to New York, I picked up this book
and got him to sign it at the Virgin Records (formerly located at Union Square).
I was lucky enough to talk to him, his wife, and daughter.
All really great people and an overall interesting guy.
His inscription?
"To Vocab. Keep B-Girlin'. One Love. Bua"
Word.

5. Urban Word Note Book
They may be free, but let me tell you, the memories
are priceless.

6. Canvas in Progress
No art table is complete without one

7. WAD Issue #39
This was the A-Z issue of all things fashion/street
culture related. The history of street style well done.

8. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
Any artist whose ever struggled with their work
NEEDS to read this book. It draws
the line between an amateur and a proffessional,
and that is one thick line. Thankfully
this book tells you how to make the jump
onto the other side.

9. House Paint
While tubed paint is great, I am a fan of
buckets of house paint. I love the liquid texture,
however the smell can be quite horrid
(this one smells like burnt tires).

10. Quote from the War of Art Book
"It was easier for Hitler to Start WW2,
than it was for him to face a blank canvas"

Concept to Creation

I thought I would take the time to go from the beginning to the end of a canvas. I just finished this girl a few moments ago, however, I have yet to decide if she is truly finished. I'm the type that rarely finishes a canvas, either I will get frustrated halfway through, will come close to completing it and decide it can't be saved (as was the case with the Red Lady), or I will 'finish' it with a sense of unease. With this girl, I haven't decided if she is done or not, but I will stop working on her and think about it. She may not be perfect, but she is still mine.

Step 1: Finding a Model
I tend to use photos from fashion photography as my
main inspiration for my characters. I find a picture I like,
and adapt it to my own liking.

Step 2: Interpretation
Below is the initial sketch from the young lady above.
I rarely know what I'm going to sketch when I start off,
but somehow, it works out.

Step 3: The background
That's the hardest part for me to decide.
Picking a palate that represents the mood that I'm trying
to achieve can be difficult, sometimes it works,
sometimes it doesn't.

Step 4: Outlining
I outline my character with a white paint marker,
and then continue with a black paint marker.

Step 5: Paint?
It's hard to decipher if a painting requires color,
thankfully you can always paint over what you don't
like.

Step 6: Corrections
There were a few problematic areas I had with her,
so just like with step 5, I went over certain
areas with paint to figure out what I wanted to leave and take
away.

Step 7: Step back and figure it out
It's hard to tell if a painting is done. There are no right or wrong
answers with painting/art unfortunately. It's not like science
or math, there is no final conclusion. You could spend hours working
on a painting that looks like garbage, or 5 minutes
on one that comes out like a master piece. This painting took me about
2 hours (condensed) to complete. I haven't decided if she is
done or not, but for now I am going to leave her be.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate, Left and Right, Music and Art

I often like sketching while watching re-runs of my favorite television shows (these days I've been addicted to Sex and the City, it's my New York fix for the day). However, while I can sketch to the sound of movies and television in the background, I can not paint to the witty banter of fictional characters.

Hip Hop is the love of my life. I've said it a million times, and I will say it a million times more before I die. Whenever I pick up a brush, I've got fresh vibes flowing through my ears. Painting without music for me is like living without breathing, it just doesn't make sense.

I've compiled a list of my favorite podcasts I like plugging my soul into before I start to work on a new piece. Enjoy!


We Funk Radio:
My friend just recently put me onto this one, hip hop and funk at the same time, how could one go wrong?
www.wefunkradio.com

Dj Skeme Richards:
Ya...the man just knows. The Valentine's Day edition is my favorite so far!
http://djskemerichards.podomatic.com/

Circle Research Show:
Hip hop mixed with a dash of funk, very bboy friendly.
http://thecircleresearchshow.podomatic.com/

Deviation/ DJ Rich Medina:
This is a link to my FAVORITE podcast of all time. DJ Rich Medina is the King of parties, I was lucky enough to find this podcast one day when I was desperate to get my Medina fix. Remember Santo's Party House when he played with Q-Tip? Oh those were the days!
http://deviationmusic.net/blog/?p=476

A prayer

I've been waiting patiently
Matter Fact
Meditating
Nah
Been Praying
Hands Clasped
Trying to massage the finger tips of my
Soul
Before I could think to touch you
Too many boys talk about
"Scratching" you
But Baby
Don't Worry
I'll be gentle.

Woops

woops

Battles

My sketch book is often my best friend. Christians have the 'good book', I have my black book. Maybe it doesn't bring me closer to God, but it brings me closer to myself. Sharing your art with people is like having a therapist record your session and then play it on the radio, you're really putting yourself out there. Creating your art live in front of people is even crazier, it's like showering in public. So I agreed to do the Toronto version of art battle (nyc version: www.artbattles.com , toronto version www.artbatteto.com). I had always admired the people who did the battles in NYC, and always wanted to try it, so when I got the chance in Toronto, I jumped on it.

Above is my creation. We had 20 minutes to create and finish a painting and she was the result. She wasn't perfect, but she was mine. It's kind of like going through labor: it doesn't matter if you're doing it for 5 minutes, or one of the women who is in labor for hours, at the end, you gave birth to a child that is entirely yours. You thought of it, created it, and then gave birth to it, and you could only hope others will love it the same.

Above this text is the other painting, the woman I was competing against. When I saw it, I almost blew a sigh of relief. My round, was the destruction round, the audience would decide whose painting should be destryoed and whose should survive. I knew mine would be well received, so I did not worry.

So there we stood, the two of us, facing an angry mob of people (well, not angry, but somewhat intoxicated) hell bent on the destruction of a painting. The hosts asked us if we were ok with the losing painting to be destroyed, I said no, the other artist said yes. After the audience decided that they wanted blood, the MC's announced that a painting would indeed be destroyed for the first time at art battles, and they said it was to be mine.


I watched them pour paint all over her. Saw my own creation be murdered in front of my eyes, a woman beside me asked "Turn away! You shouldn't be watching this!" One of the organizers then came up to me and said "You can still go up there and try and save your painting if you really want!" And then the other organizer told me that his niece was crying when they destroyed my painting because it was her favorite. Other audience members came up to me and offered their condolensces and then their guilt for ordering it to be destroyed "we thought the other painting was going to lose!" they said, but ultimately it didn't matter. That night I learned something: people will always try and destroy what you built for their own entertainment. The only thing you can do is rebuild; stronger, and better for the next time.

And more sketches

The sketches

Joining the bandwagon

You know that old saying that parent's used to ask their kids on after school specials when they were about to give into peer pressure "Well, if blah blah was going to jump off a bridge, would you?" I don't intend on jumping off a bridge, but since everyone has a blog, and since I am here in Ottawa mildly bored, then ya sure, why not?

This blog is mostly just going to be posting my art, more so a way for me to document my progress and where I'm at since I have a tendency to throw out/loose sketches/paintings. Once something is created online, it can never truly be erased (unless of course computers all over the world crash, then we're fucked).


As my first post, I'm going to upload pictures of a canvas I'm working on and the original sketches. We'll just dub her the red lady for now, I plan on finishing the rest of her tonight.

red lady canvas and sketch

Like most novelty ideas, we'll see how long this lasts before I get bored and move onto something else...perhaps something actually important.