unexpected

i would not have predicted it. but unicorns keep popping up in my world.

last night at a party, one boy (a machinist) was dressed as one.

today, i stopped by grsf, where megan whitmarsh had a series of drawings from a unicorn zine.


later, in clarion alley, i saw this older 8 bit unicorn painting:


then, i saw this newer painting with unicorns:


4 different suppliers of unicorns in under 24 hours. scary.

earlier this year, i saw an andrew schoultz unicorn at giant robot sf's two year show.

seems like i also saw one at the shooting gallery's erotic show, maybe by anne faith nicholls?

i saw a sara thustra-ish poster of a unicorn, by sy, at needles and pens a while back, and learned that sy published those fucking unicorns.

and recently, jeff soto posted a new painting with unicorns.

Promotional Poster

'Promotional Poster' Click art to view larger image.

I'll be teaching digital illustration again come Winter term on January 4th. This is a poster I created to hang up at the college to encourage students to sign-up. Once I start this years classes I'll be posting the assignments and all the resources I use at 'IllustrationClass.com'. Anyone can download the files and if you do let me know and I'll show your work to my class.

You'll notice several common themes I have repeated in this artwork. I've been illustrating a lot of tubes coming out of heads, snakes, wings, fire, another bird cameo and of course the token fedora. Not sure why I've been on this kick but it's fun so stop whining about it already.

I am a new CS2 Illustrator user as you'd know reading this blog. This project was only the fourth time I've used CS2 to create a project. It's getting moderately easier but still far slower then FreeHand unfortunately. One thing for sure it's getting harder to use both and eventually I'll have to completely cut all ties to the previous. I am still a little bitter with the corporate weasels at Adobe who forced this change on me. Eventually I'll have to illustrate a corporate weasel and of course use CS2 Frustrator...uh...I mean Illustrator.

dan flanagan at the luggage store

dan flanagan's solo show - crestfallen - is at the luggage store (509 ellis location).

the show includes handmade inscriptions and shields


24 illustrations of different pocketknives


and handmade baseballs


you can read my full post, on fecalface, here.

and, you can check out my full photo set and/or slideshow for the show.

the show is at the luggage store's 509 cultural center.
509 ellis at leavenworth.
their website says it is open sats 12-5.
show runs through nov. 11, 2006.

mars-one, damon soule, and oliver vernon at white walls

fecalface posted my blog on
mars-one


damon soule


and oliver vernon


at whitewalls. checkit?.

Test Your Creativity!

Only '8' Shapes.

Recently I was asked to participate in a very interesting book project called 'Vormator'. In a nutshell they have assigned the same '8' basic shapes to broad range of artists along with a pre-set list of design rules of engagement we have to follow. In essence it's a test of our creativity. Can we create a strong design when we no longer control the content? Can we take profoundly simple shapes and create something simply profound? It's a challenging quest many artists are now pursuing for this unique book project.


'Snap Dragon' Click art to view larger image.

Rules of Design Engagement - From the Author
What exactly are you allowed to do and isn’t allowed with the Elements? The following rules have to be followed when creating your artwork:

1. You’re allowed to rotate, flip and duplicate the Elements
2. You are not obliged to use all the Elements
3. Scaling is allowed, but only proportionally, so no skewing or free transform
4. You can add, subtract, intersect and group elements as you see fit
5. The use of colour is unrestricted, you can create your own colour schemes
6. You are allowed to use gradients
7. The Elements may only be filled, the use of strokes is not allowed
8. You are not allowed to use filters or effects (e.g. drop shadows)

Anyone can submit but not everyone will get in the book. Mine may not get picked either. It just depends on how creative it ends up actually being in a group of very talented submitters. I like doing these type of projects though, it's a good creative exercise and I am planning on having my illustration students do something similar for a class assignment.

If you'd like to read more about this book project and see who is participating visit their web site at 'www.Vormator.com'.

dustin fosnot and ryan boyle at steven wolf

ok. fecalface posted my blog on dustin fosnot


and ryan boyle


at steven wolf fine art. checkit?.

coming up this week

on saturday i went to see a number of good shows. and, i am going to try blogging on fecalface. i will post links.

one show was dustin fosnot and ryan boyle at steven wolf fine art. view my photo set and/or slideshow (the slideshow includes a six frame shark jump)?

another was mars-one, damon soule, and oliver vernon at white walls. view my photo set and/or slideshow?

more later.

the amber room at luggage store gallery

on saturday i went to see the amber room at the luggage store.


the show included 4 artists.

wang wei (beijing) 's "untitled" piece was amazing.
made of scaffolding


it has the look and feel of a temple



liu ding (beijing) 's "forevermore"


words written with peepholes,
looking out onto market street at 6th


with many vantage points to engage the active viewer


shirley tse (la), "sinks like a submarine,"
polyurethane resin, brass, copper wire, jade, 2006


won ju lim (la), orange extension cord, plexiglass, mirrors, light 2006


it reminded me of an architectural model.


one component was the lighting and shadows. they built a room to house the piece. i didn't photograph it in the chosen lighting, wasn't equipped with a tripod.

i have to love the luggage store. this show was incredibly labor intensive. they had to bring "7000 lbs. or more of scaffolding up [and this week, down] the steps of the luggage store." they built a "temporary" room in the gallery to house one work. and, i appreciate it. it was a good show to see in person.

view the slideshow or the set?

and, i see a lot of artists at the luggage store checking out the exhibits. i got there between 4 and 4:30, the last hour of the exhibit. it's closed now, sorry. i had finished photographing. i was talking to jennifer. it was just the two of us. and then a large group of people showed up. lead by michael arcega. an international group of artists who were on a panel with him or something like that. jean-ulrick desert told me that his apartment costs $200. in berlin. seems like a good tip. nice fellow. and ricardo richey was returning a ladder he borrowed during the day, painting a new mural on turk at market.

great place. they have more info on the show here. their photos show the art more.

mary joy scott at needles&pens

i went to see mary joy's scott's "stitch in time" at needles&pens on saturday.


the show includes a number of works on handkerchief
(pronunciation: 'ha[ng]-k&r-ch&f, hankerchifs (sp)).


andrew from needles&pens told me that handkerchiefs are used for drawings in prison (or something like that). the show also includes work on paper. and some paintings on the wall.


i am not a fan of skulls, even of the tattoo graphic variety. maybe this also fits with the prison experience.

this piece

reminds me somewhat of tiffany's owl painting from her recent blk/mrkt show. bad time to be a mouse with raptors around.

her attention to detail is impressive


view the photo slideshow or set?

or, go see the show at
needles&pens
3253 16th street (btwn guerrero&dolores in the mission)
"usually open" tues-sun 12pm-7pm
(the show runs through halloween)

open on sunday is nice. thanks needles&pens.

and, as petalum commented on my flickr, "let's hear it for needles and pens!!! always something good in there. breezy and andrew are working pretty hard to keep the mission district's art and culture scene alive, and interesting."

speaking of, they have a nice photo blog with info on the show. and, they have an online store. the pricing - from $100 to $675 - is great. more so for compelling work with this much attention to detail.

my favorite is missed me! (first photo of this posting).
ink and graphite on paper, 12"x14" framed, $350.

Top Ten Favorite Themes!

Fire Squad
A friend of mine asked me to create a logo for his sons engineering team that builds robots so they could get some t-shirts printed. Like most artists I jumped at the excuse to create some new robot art. This made me think about popular themes that artist enjoy creating around.

Creative Observation
I've mentioned it in passing in previous posts but have never really dedicated a specific post on the topic and that is 'The Top Ten Favorite Themes' of artists. It's not so much something I set out to discover but rather something I have observed over the past decade or so. Artist are most certainly a unique group of creative minded folk and I've noticed a handful of themes that tend to be common favorites they choose to do design and or illustration work on. Mind you this is by no means an iron clad list but just the most obvious ones I've noticed and have participated in creating myself through my own art. The latest offering above is no exception and motivated me to post this thread.

Top Ten Themes
The following are what I consider to be the top ten favorite themes of artists when creating their art. The order in which I have listed them is not according to popularity but rather just what came to mind when I posted this. I am sure I'll miss a few obvious ones but that is where you come in. Feel free to post others I may have missed or ones you think should be replace with another and I'll re-tool this list over time.

1. Robots: Evil, Benevolent or Humanoid it's all fun.
2. Monkeys: Ape, Chimp, Gorilla or go ape and do a 'Robot Monkey'.
3. Naked Women: No explanation needed.
4. Skulls: Or skeletons for that matter. It's all Bona-fide fun.
5. Monsters/Mutants: Home grown or universal the scarier the better.
6. Paranormal: Aliens, Angels, Demons, Ethereal forms etc.
7. Surrealism: Popularized by Dali, captured by most artists in doodles.
8. Dogs: Flea bitten art inspired by mans best friend.
9. Human Head: All matter of zany things have popped out of heads.
10: Machines: All kinds of mechanic contraptions and devices.

If an artist can combine several of the above into one composition then it's a dream project.

A couple other common elements used by artists are 'Flames' and 'Wings', but they tend to be integrated into the work of a given theme more then a theme in and of themselves. Someone had mentioned 'Pirates' which I agree is a most enjoyable theme to work with. But I think it' recent craze is due to the recent Disney movies. Of course every child at one time or another drew 'Dinosaurs' and all though another fun theme to work with it's not as popular as the ones in the list.

As you can see most of what drives us creatives tend to be very character driven.

I've had many artists email me on this list and I've adapted some content from their input. If you have suggestions let me know.

coming this week

mary joy scott at needles&pens
(view the slideshow or the set?)

amber room at the luggage store gallery
(view the slideshow or the set?)

white walls & shooting gallery

the third show i went to this past saturday i went to twice.

two days of painting at whitewalls/shootinggallery. the galleries were divided into artist's stations. the walls, or beams, or whatever around the artist's stations held some of the artist's other work. so it was live painting plus group show. they fit a lot of the artists they work with over the year into this kind of show.

at 4pm, there were lots of people. many like me, documenting (still, video). music. party atmosphere. loud. comfortable.

i saw artists working. i came back later.

adam5100.



shawn barber



kim cogan



richard colman



sam flores



sylvia ji



henry lewis



damon soule



at 10:30, most of the artists had left. i got to record the end results of day one. and fill in additional information, photograph more of the paintings on the walls.

i think this was a great idea for an open studio.

i put together a slideshow (reset the time to 2-3 seconds) and a set with a lot more artists, work, photos. it ran saturday and sunday (i hiked on sunday.)

fecal face blogged the show. they open with the postcard, which lists many of the artists.

immediate future at sfac gallery

immediate future is the show for the 2006 murphy and cadogan "fine arts" fellowships. chosen from recent graduates from the local art and other colleges.

i like ryan pierce.


the full painting has nice color balance and nice detail work.

edmund wyss.


(his technical virtuosity reminds me of this coro painting, which i saw later saturday)

brice bischoff put together a 49 polaroid portrait called "disappeared (new orleans skyline)"


it lights up in person. i like polaroid constructions.

the postcard piece is a video by bessma khalaf titled "this land is my land."


i put together a 5-picture slideshow to give you the idea of the video.

there is a bunch more work in the show. this is a great chance to see who some folks think are the pick of the current crop of recent graduates with bachelor of arts degrees.

the show runs until october 28, 2006.
sfac gallery is at 401 van ness at mcallister
(across van ness from city hall)
they are open weds-sat 12-5. "always free."

my set includes a few more photos.