figures...

The last one is my wife's great Aunt, getting her hair did in the living room.  After feeling less than successful with my portraits done at the school I went for Aunt Donna and felt better about myself.  Enjoy!  Feedback welcome! Thanks for looking!!

sketch update

Mike Patton(s)

Here's my entry for the conceptual portrait contest on the VLP.  It is due today, did it all in the past two days--I should have made better use of the time allotted, but a part of me wanted to test my ability to bang out an illo in a short time period.

Watercolor wash and graphite on primed bristol paper, tweaked in Photoshop

sketch update

Posemaniacs.com and imaginary portrait

Self Portrait...60 min.

 This is a photoshop master painting copy I'm working on.  I wish I knew the artist's name...forgot to save the jpg with a name.  Anyone know?

Still not sure what to do for the conceptual portrait contest.  Without proper internet at home, I may have to work harder to get this done with the references I need.  Oh well--at least I have some sketches to show. 

allenginsberg

working on conceptual portrait of allen ginsberg

Stuff, things, etc.

I have been somewhat artistically inactive lately, but I'd like to mention something I'm really proud of.  I just found out that my contest piece for the VLP won second place!  It's so honoring to have incredibly talented professionals judge my work as worthy.  After dismissing most of the art I made during 4 years of art-school I'm on my own as I try to become a better illustrator...BUT I do have help and encouragement from the peers and instructors of the Illustration Academy, et al.

I just added a fine and inspiring art addition to my home/studio, pretty excited about that.  Thanks Francis!

I have been sketching a bit, to keep my hands and eyes in touch.  Here's a sample page featuring a lazy greyhound and a baby cypress (my scanner is no more, and can't find the camera.)

**Found the camera**

I'd like to credit shorpy.com and Chicks and Bikes for supplying some sweet photos on a regular basis.

art sale!

original artworks by me!  I'm Aaron Rossell!  affordable creations!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/aarossell

first professional commission

I just found an image of the first paid commission I ever did as an illustrator.  It was half-way through my senior year at Kendall College of Art and Design.  Someone had posted a want-Ad for a wedding photo painting as a Christmas gift.  I applied, as did a few others in the 3rd floor studio where the ad was posted.  They liked my work and gave me the job, and the photos to work from.  I chose the one they liked best, did minor tweaking to the composition and color, and made an oil painting!  I think I remember spending about 9 or 10 hours on it.  On the day he came by to pick it up I realized I forgot to take a picture of it for personal portfolio---so I had to use my mom's crappy camera to snapshoot this awful pic:

Upon reflection (although I shouldn't try to study such an awful photo) I think the hands could have been handled better.  There are some confusing elements creating illusions of extra fingers, or super long thumbs.  And the little whites of the nails / rings are a bit distracting.  But not too much...what do you think?

DRSKETCHY'S GRANDRAPIDS MICHIGAN

Lots of fun again.  Won a role in the model's upcoming film.

Dr.Sketchy's GR.

Good Little the Kid

L.E. Phants

Donating a piece for a good cause:

livingdrawing

Drew my wife with watercolor and ink while she sat at the computer for a few minutes.  I think the turn-out is better than I expected...still some marks I could have put more thought into.
Also I need to stop using my Mac's camera for artwork...

old faces

Found a great photo on Shorpy.com to do drawings from.  Didn't get as far as I wanted, because I kept getting distracted doing different things with each drawing.
Struggled at first to make anything remotely decent, then started getting semi-decent.  I have a long ways to go, but I'm hungry for more.

odosketch

Tried the Odopod.  Sketched an amazing image found on The Big Picture

chew toy, other doodles....

...from the other week.

Our dog got a hold of my book while we were gone for a few minutes.  Luckily, and amazingly, the only page she tore out was the last one, which was the only blank page in the entire book.  Thanks, Elsie, for being so considerate with your destruction.

Some of the images are taken from Shorpy, like the tattooed girl on the right and the Junior Marines shoveling trash.  The self-portrait with a screwed up eye is on the top left--the facing page is an image of Aaron Rosell, a musician with nearly the same name as me.

watercolor sketchbook doodles

I realized after I started drawing the top image that I was basically ripping off a Daniel Adel illustration I used to have hanging in my studio.  Oh well, I guess that happens.  Right, Sam Flores?

Metamorphosis

Recently found some old woodburnings I did for assignments at Kendall.  The assignment was to illustrate the opening from Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis I especially enjoy this one because it marks the first live model reference I used for an illustration assignment and it turned out well.

I wish now that I hadn't been so frugal with my resources, because this could have been more interesting in a standard rectangle format.  At the time I reasoned the found wood's shape to be a vignette, but it's not...not really.

Contest piece

I've been working on this contest piece for the Visual Literacy Program.  I think it's done, but thought I'd post it here in case anybody has any thoughts on what could be tweaked, or totally redone.  I'm submitting it later tonight, so probably won't change much.

The contest is to design a young adult's book cover.  The book I chose was The Body by Stephen King, otherwise more popularly known as the film version, Stand By Me.

***Edit***

Made some minor edits before submitting.  Lowered the contrast in a few spots, colorized it sepia and faded that a bit.

woodsy

I was asked to help wood-burn some images into a large sheet of wood on the door of a water-softener insulator.  Their budget wasn't very high but I stuck with it and worked out the image the way it was intended after we first spoke.
I hadn't wood-burned since maybe 2006, and my experience with it was limited.  I had been using my older brother's cheap crafty wood-burner since I was a kid, and there was only one dirty old tip.
Even after buying a new one with multiple tips it was clear after a couple hours I would need to up the ante.  We busted out a blow torch and burned it up.
The plan was to minimally illustrate some items he was picturing based on the natural shapes of the grains and knots in the pine.  It turned out to be a lake scene.  The photos I took are unfortunately awful...they don't show most of the nuance of the burns values.

He plans on staining the sections outside of the picture, but my job here is done.

These are some sketches I did in front of him to make sure we were on the same page.  In the end, the birds were nixed and the waves / sky weren't filled in.  The natural wood grains looked magical enough. Can't mess with nature.

portfolio review

These are some potential images I will use for portfolio review by Wes Burt and George Pratt on Wednesday, 11.4.09 at conceptart.org

down town

Man, I'll tell ya...I have not been feeling myself lately.  I have been sick, however, which is part of the reason for my lack of action.

***

I don't know where I'm going with this rant....I think things will get better as soon as I stop being sick.  And there's a contest on the VLP I'm working on.  Here's the value study sketch I did today:

I really hope this piece turns out well.  I'm going to put a lot of effort into it, with shot references and preliminary studies.

Give me some feedback if you have any!