Red Light #1 (pic & sketch)

Rick Ross (Pic and Sketch)

Inspiration.

It goes without saying that i've been a little down. Someone posed one thing that made me question myself. Am i truly living my dream? I'm not sure if i am or not? Perhaps i'm in the place that i am because i'm trying suppose to learn a lesson? That however isn't the point of this post.

I want to talk about my current inspirations that surrounds me. I'm constantly surrounded by people doing creative things and pushing themselves artistically.

This week, i got an invite for my friends and novels' Craig and Michelle Simmons. Together they wrote a ethnic romantic novel that was geared to and spoke specify about the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. Their book was released on Lulu.com this week. Together we did a collaboration of their writes and my artwork. I'm very proud of them getting their novel published. The great part about something like that is, that's something no one can ever take from you. It's out there for the world to see and appreciate the great piece of lecture that it is. On a sad note and i'm not just belittling my own artwork. But that wasn't the best cover design. In my eyes the vision that i had and the final results were something totally different. It was so bad i'm gong to gesso over it as soon as i can. Perhaps if very soon i can create a better vision.

Outside of that, some people that i was equally impressed with were some guys i went to high school with. I knew that some of them were heavy into rap music back then. However now they are following their dream. I'm not sure if it will land them mainstream and into the life of the fame, still i found their youtube video inspiring. In their recording studio they boasted about editing music at 8am on a weekday morning. Perhaps they spend all night in the studio recording but i couldn't help but wonder what am i doing with myself. I should be drawing. Very soon perhaps i will have something positive to show everyone.

Uncle Fester (pic& sketch)

my mom raised me on old black and white tv shows that she watched. The Addams Family being among them. I was drawn to the show i believe now because the simple fact that all the members were comfortable with being a little weird or crazy. Them embraced the oddities that weren't the standard norm. As an artist, you learn to believe you're the same way. You're odd and weird and have different view points that everyone else around you most of the time. Well that is unless you bump into another artist. As i stated in my last post, i wanted to create more pen and ink master pieces. I don't create enough of them even though i love the contrast of the black against the white paper. This is just the beginning of a sketch that is done in just that style with a little bit of white chalk highlights. I know have the urge to go back and fine tune it all and put away the markers i use to darken certain areas and using pencil instead.

Sash Grey (pic and sketch)

I'm not exactly sure why i began looking up Sasha Grey. But initially it began with the concept of me trying to find a picture of her that wasn't adult related. It's no mystery that she's an adult actress or in some eye's an porn star. I wanted to find something that would show her beauty without going to the obvious. I'm 100% all for pushing the boundaries or what is acceptable for public viewing but this isn't the moment nor place.

I wanted to do something that i haven't done really in a while. i wanted to do a pen and ink drawing. My girlfriend, Cara had mentioned while she was here that her son liked my pen drawings. I actually have 2 of them hanging up in my living room. With it being so long since i did one and the perfect image coming along it was only fitting this was the moment.

I only have 2 small regrets about this piece: 1) i went to dark to quickly and had to cheat a little by using an eraser to lighting certain areas up and 2) i missed up royally on the bottom of the headphone. It's a given no one would know unless i told them or they saw the picture but i know.

Tyler, the Creator (pic & sketch)

Normally when i get bored i flip through the tv on the music channel and use it like a radio. It's a given that it loops the same videos every hour but it's mindless background music. Last week i saw a video that caused me to stop and watch for a moment as i got dressed for work. The disturbing nature of the video would cause Charlie Manson to blush caught my attention. It was Tyler, the Creator, i didn't know what the name of the song was but i decided to go look for some photos of him. What i did find was that he has a huge following. Most of them were teenagers that liked his lyrics or and style. I begin to listen to his lyrics and he reminded me a little bit of Eminem. Both artist talked about any topic that they wanted to whether it was politically correct or not.

The thing that really caused me to take notice was one of his youtube videos. In the video he plays the piano while rapping his lyrics. Even though the melody is very simple an artist who isn't intelligent enough couldn't do both at the same thing. I see him as being a smart, creative person to know where to find a fan base and appeal to them.

Rick Ross ( pic and sketch)

I like listening to music which would explain my next 2 post. Rick Ross is a hip hop artist that raps about drug selling, getting money also respecting adults and elders. Which in itself is mixed messages in my eyes. It goes without saying that he is one of the most respected artist putting music out today. He is almost as popular at this moment at Lil' Wayne (they are both promote to different messages). Rick's body mass is pretty close to that of another late rapper, Biggie Small/ The Notorious B.I.G which leads to comparisons. I wanted to go a little crazier with this caricatured having his body more flow outwards like a pyramid. In the sketching stages i began to pull the drawing close to it's actual picture. Ahh maybe next time

my craft

It's hard to motivated the unmotivated. That's the way i feel at this moment. i don't want to draw when drawing is exactly what i need to be doing to relax. I've used the excuse of having company in town for almost 2 months for my lack of posting and drawing. That isn't fair to my company nor my craft. With the ending of August i expect some small changes that should cause huge waves within my life. So followers be patient.

dirk nowitzki revisited

Rarely do i get comments on my post or drawing. Actually whether they were bad or good i would appreciate them from what they were worth. But recently i got one that forced me to think a little bit more than normal.

An Anonymous person said : "Dude excellent opportunity build push your darks with this one. Nice rendering but would love to see more contrast. "

At first i thought, wow my artwork is a very touchy subject. I only show/exhabit online because critics can be harsh. However i realized he was right. I was cheating myself of doing a good drawing by giving up half way through. i notice that i do that from time to time. I treat my drawings as sketches and vice versa. There are a long list of excuses why i don't push the enevelope of what i can do. So after a little deliberating and staring at this picture laying next to my drafting table i picked it up and finished it.

baby blue (pic & sketch)

I had forgotten that i had this picture tucked away that i never finished. This past weekend, my friend Mike reminded me of a c0-worker that we knew at Old Navy. His words reminded me how much i missed her friendship. As i picked up my pile of many unfinished sketches i came across this one. I wanted to put some closer to this drawing and on a hot and humid day in Virginia there's no better way to do that than draw.

Crybaby (pic & sketch)

This is my sisters favorite movie and i'm thinking it lies closely to the musical theme and it has Johnny Deep in it. Still i attempting to give a rough sketch of him in his Cry baby role.

Norfolk Drawing Group #86 : The Return

I didn't realize how long it's been since i been to my staple, my pillar Tues night drawing session until i looked at the photos. It's has been almost 4 months. For an artist who needs/desires to draw more frequently simply as a stress reliever it's sad. Especially since it's one of the rare Tues that i had off and nothing major planned i felt i deserved to go drawing. So armed with my typical color pencils (which i won't bring next week) i went out to create. The atmosphere was the same even though i could feel something was changing. Not me but something wonderful was happening. New artist with different style levels and skill sets have came out in the name of art. Overall for me getting back into the groove of things i wasn't a complete waste of an evening. However next time i expect better results.

more Wiz Khalifa

Yet again i'm not here to judge if he's a good artist or a great artist. I'm just there to work my ability to create and draw. The funny thing is that i didn't even spell his name right, which is odd for me. My main idea was to do something clever with him trying to spell his name in his weed smoke. Somewhere along the line Khalifa became Khalia... oppps Since posting it on Tumblr i did correct it but what's done is done.

Caricatures

I think it's always cool to draw caricatures and how i may never be the guy in the theme park drawing until my hands are sore it's always fun. I had a job offer that actually make me get interested in drawing them again. It eventually fell through but for the best reasons i imagine. Therefor since i began with concepts and ideas why not complete them.

Kim Kardashian is a very curvaceous model that i believe most guys would go nuts over.

Then there's public enemy no. 1 at the moment, Casey Anthony. I know everyone and there's mother (literally) has a comment, idea, or view point on her . My job as an artist and a post modernism thinker isn't to always comment and look at both sides of the coin. This isn't easy but i must say for the time being, i'll save my thoughts on her.

McKinnley (pic & sketch)

I don't know what to say other than McKinnley takes really good self portraits therefor i had to draw this.

Ashley Sky

As i generally do i was drawn to the flirtatious pose that Ashley was in. Therefor one day at lunch in Lynnhaven Mall i began to draw this sketch. Nothing major and it's not even completely finished but it still is a sketch

Wiz Khalifa (pic & sketch)

Wiz Khalifa is another rap artist that i don't quite understand as well as others. Most of the teenagers and [weed] smokers love him because his entire first album was dedicated to the topic of smoking. I guess my life has been a little to squeaky clean to be drawn to it all. So in an attempt to understand him more, i drew him. I'm not sure if this drawing falls into the category of cheap pops or simply pop art but it's done.

Dirk nowitzki (pic and sketch)

It's no big surprise to anyone that knows me that i was glad that the Dallas Mavericks beat the Miami Heat in the NBA finals. I could list a laundry list of reason but i will simply stick with the easiest. The entire playoffs of all the performances of the greatest stage, Dirk shined the brightest. He was truly a clutch performer when his team needed him. So even a die hard Spurs fan can give credit where it's due.

Facebook break...

It's official again. I'm taking a break from Facebook. I can't really find anything constructive to tell others about myself that will be worth the finger typing energy. My boycotting comes pretty close to completely deactivating my account but some of my friends can only reach me by facebook.

so if you wish to catch me, you'll have to track me down on tumblr

random commissions

My sisters have been bugging for me commission pieces. Not that it would take a long time to complete thing because what they would was rather simple. It amounted me to putting in actually work to complete them. Over the last couple of weeks that is what i created for them.

my youngest sister, Courtney wanted a wolverine drawing for her boyfriend. Therefor i found the grittiest drawing that i could find of him and put my own spin on it.

I'm proud of my pencil drawing because this is the first one in a long time that i actually completely focused on a drawing. Not just simply drew a sketch and threw me hands up and claimed it to be complete.

Macho Man and the birth of INTER

This piece came about in a very interesting way. I wanted to a tribute piece to Macho Man Randy Savage, the former spokesman of Slim Jim. I blogged before about me being a huge wrestling fan over the years. When i mention that i'm one to most people they almost always comment that 20 years ago or more is when they were really fans but they grew out of it. Well i'm one of the few that didn't but that is another story.

Macho Man passed away due to a heart attack after a car accident on the same day that the world was projected to end. This sparked a lot of savior style artwork proclaiming him to be Christ-like. I'm not here to comment on it religiously because everyone has their own beliefs even if it's not to believe at all. I simply wanted to go another direction. I drew inspiration from graffiti artwork. A fellow artist that i met lent me a dvd that he owned on the graffiti movement. Over the years i've been a closet graffiti artist. I remember sitting in church with my cousin, LJ spelling out our names in block form on a piece of paper. I wanted to create something that is probably more commercially acceptable and mixes the 2 genres.

No piece would be complete without the tag or name. I chose something a little different for my name, Inter. So one day if i even get a t-shirt design or create a line of clothes for myself Inter was be my name which is short for Intermission. Still i feel that is a whole other topic.

Where is the modesty?

I love old photos and i especially like the grittiness that can be viewed in black and whites. As i do quite often i found this photo on tumblr and i was drawn to the image. The female is pale skin fights through the background and her silhouette gets lost in the shadows. The vintage woman is something that i yearn for currently. My definition of a vintage or timeless beauty is a women that is attention grabbing in its truest sense. She's pretty and sometimes powerful but doesn't always need to over stimulate the male eye into proving how sexy she is. Simply by the way she carries herself others can tell by her personality that she simply is that way. Somehow all those things are gone long and lost in an era of a sexually aggressive society. Is modesty really a lost art?

Good Morning Daddy (pic & sketch)

This is one of the more emotionally jerking sketches that i've done in some time. I will never go into great detail on what i feel or felt at the moment when i began it. However i can tell you that i crossed a whole spectrum of emotions. Honestly i believe it was good to confront my feelings and deal with the problems because it isn't always as easy and simply as we would like it to be. So even on a Tuesday like this, when the weather is warm, the sun is shining, and the wind creates a slight breeze i'm aware. I know that everyday is but a journey and begins with 1 step and it's to late to turn back.

Noir Pop Art Phrase ONE Part 2

Since i didn't make it out to drawing one of my free Tues nights i stayed at home to paint. I went over all the yellow and brown i had used to block in the image with black.

Unhappy with the idea that i would take simply black with enough to get the image down. I began actually painting it. So my idea goal is to be completely done with the 1st phrase close to the middle or end of next week. It's going to take me putting time and effort into doing but it can happen.

Noir Graffiti project : phrase ONE

The past month i've been inspired by graffiti artist that i know. Whether it's a completely unknown artist or someone that my friends know, I'm move by the expressive strokes and my ability to attempt to create so free form pieces. About 20 years ago anything was possibly, my mind wasn't limited by any major restrains. However know i struggle with creativity but i feel so trapped into going with the norm. Therefor i think graffiti is a easy way to branch out a little.

Which brings up to my latest project, i came up with the grand idea that i wanted to turn a board of wood into a a piece of art. At work if shelves are damaged we generally throw them away. I found a board that would've been discarded by normal standards home and tucked it away some years ago. Little did i know that this lightening bolt of inspiration would hit me and gave me an idea. Only with a slight concept in hand of what i wanted things to look like, i began to paint on the board. Sadly enough it will have 2 stages of painting. The photo realism stage then the creative graffiti stage to follow but i'm still moving at a pace. Not the quickest of paces but i'm still moving.