2/30 drawing challenge

Day 2's challenge: a good monster. 

After not drawing out of my head for some time, this drawing was a challenge. 

I don't know the name of this monter but if the Wicked Witch of the West should of had him. He looks more loyal then flying monkeys. 

Day 1/30. Drawing challenge

To get started I just googled "30 day drawing challenge" to find a list of 30 drawing ideas. Some of them seemed pretty boring and unimaginative but soon I found one that seemed to be overall interesting. 

I'm not sure who created this list, but if it was you, thanks for the inspiration. 

Day 1: self portrait. 

The summer slump and my new resolve!

School starts up in a week. Even though I graduated my body clock still runs on the 3 month segments of time between semesters and summer. I look back on the summer and realize I have done nothing. No progress was made to move my art career forward and I am disappointed with myself. 

While I've been at work this summer, I've been able to listen to podcasts that I found on iTunes. Two podcasts in particular have been very helpful and motivating for me and I would recomend then to everyone. The first is "Achive your goals podcast with Hal Elrod" Each podcast Hal talks about principals and action steps to setting and reaching your goals. I have learned a ton of stuff and have been overly inspired from what he has taught and something that he constantly emphasizes is doing the daily little things. Taking consistent daily actions to achieve your goals. This constant reminder helped me realize that I wasn't working on my goals of being a productive working artist as often as I should, and in order to take my art to the next level I need to be working every day on something. 

The other podcast I listen to is "Artist helping artist podcast." This podcast is pretty great because it really goes in depth with a lot of the marketing and promoting side of the art business. Each episode covers different topics from getting a website, blogging, email lists, promoting your artwork on social media and so much more. I have really found this podcast helpful and inspiring. 

Like I said, these two podcasts are fantastic and if anyone out there is looking for some inspiration or motivation, these are great resources. 

Now my for my action. Inspiration is only good if there is action taken so after having been inspired to do more for my art career I have decided to commit myself to a 30 day drawing challenge to push myself into drawing and sketching more. One thing that Hal talks about in his podcast is accountability. He says to make your goals public and let others know about then. The reason for doing this is if other people are depending on you, you are more likely to follow through. So here it is my public declaration that for the next 30 days I am committing myself to drawing everyday. 

International print catalog

Just this week I received the "SIPS 14" catalog. A few months ago I submitted a few pieces of art to an international show in Egypt and got accepted. The university that was In charge of the show put together a catalogs and gave them to the artists who participated. So here it is, my 4th publication yet my first international publication!

 

Zion artist in residence

I have a neat opportunity taking place this year that carries into next year as well. Here at Southern Utah University where I attend college, there is a program designed for students called the "student artist in residence" in Zion National Park. Zion National Park hosts about 4 working artist throughout the year and then display their art in Zion's gallery space. But then once a year a student is chosen to take a week long residency in Zion. 

This year I was chosen to be the student artist in residence. I was really interested in perusing this opportunity for the experience and challenge. For the application process we had to create a proposal and submit some of our current artwork. My idea/proposal is "Get Connected." I want to illustrate ways people connect with nature, specifically in Zion National Park. In a way my idea is a play on words because in this technological time we all seemed to be connected to our technology and gadgets but less and less people are taking the time to connect with nature. So in my artwork I am going to depict people interacting and connecting with nature. I proposed to create about 30 images for my final show in March of 2015. My medium will be primarily relief printmaking. 

It has been a wonderful experience so far! Staring March 7 through March 16 I lived in Zion. 9 days of living in the national park, gathering inspiration and reconnecting myself with nature. I was able to live in the historical Grotto cabin in the middle of the park. It's was beautiful and more then I was expecting. In the mornings and afternoon the park was packed with people. That really helped me get a lot of pictures of people. But in the evenings, the parked emptied out and was really quiet. There were deer and other wild animals all around. We saw wild turkeys, mountain goats, lots of lizards and foxes. Being from the city I don't get to see very many of these animals. 

Now that I'm back in the studio, I'm working on getting my images composed and colors planned out so I can start carving. I have a few more weeks before I graduate and finish my BFA program, then I will be able to concentrate my full efforts on this project. 

Keep an eye out for more updates and progress on my Zion project! 

8x4 Print PRINTING!!

And the epic quest draws to a close!

As the months rolled on, completing my print started becoming more of a reality instead of a far off distant wish. 

Carving carving and more carving. When I started printmaking I remember hating carving because it hurt my hands and I didn't really know what the image would look like when it was printed. Now I really like carving, it comes with experience but its really relaxing!

Here it was almost done. I had all of my details printed and I had inked up one side so I could visualize a bit more what the image would look like in just black and white.

And then... TADA!! I inked up the whole image to make sure everything looked the way I wanted. 

And with that, it was finished!! Carving: check. Next step, printing.

So taking advantage of my day off from school because of Presidents Day, I made it my printing day. 

I had to figure out how to print this large print without a press because, obviously, of its size. I thought about creating a steam roller event but because I carve with Sintra which is softer then plywood I figured the pressure from the steam roller would crush my image. So I had to come up with another way. My solution: a sod roller I rented from Home Depot for $16 for 24 hours.

This method worked pretty good. I filled the drum up with water which made it really heavy and then I just walked it back and forth. I purchased a thin sheet of Masonite so that the small scratches wouldn't damage my print.

And the moment of truth!...

Nope. Too light.

I think the big issue was the type of ink we were using. For this first print I was using tubed ink which works really great when you're running a print through a press, yet not so well for this process.

Try again. We switched inks with ink we had in a can which already seemed to be better.

Round 2. I decided that it would be much cheaper to print of fabric and bed sheets then buying lots of paper so most of the prints we made were on fabric. but I did get paper so that I would have some of paper.

The challenge with fabric is the wrinkles and making sure it lays down flat.

With 2 people holding the top down and making sure it doesn't move, we had a few other people smoothing the fabric down

Rolling and rolling....

and then....

Yes!! Success! The different ink really helped the image.

The challenge of an 8 foot print is finding space to let the prints dry after printing. We ended up stringing them up to the rafters and holding them with clothes pins. That was an added blessing because then I could stand back and sigh with relief that it was done!

Hahaha but don't jump the gun too soon, it is far from being done!! That day I ended up printing 11 or 12 in total. I printed 5 on fabric for myself and I created an edition of 3 on Stonehenge paper. Then I printed 3 Printers Proofs for those people who were helping me. It took us all day; we stared printing around 1-130pm and got done at 7, so almost 6 hours of printing. By the end of it we were all tired of being on our feet and felt like we had  benched pressed 1000 lbs. Worth it? Most definitely!

Would I do this again? I had a blast doing this and so it was definitely worth the experience and portfolio piece. But maybe the next large print I do will be more my size. I think the next large ambitious print I will tackle will be 6 foot.

Thanks to Darrin, Jennessa, and Gina, my printing crew!! I couldn't have done it without you! And a special thanks to my beautiful wife Kayla for all her support and help!!

Thats all folks!

Valentine Print

My new holiday print for the love season. "Be Mine" is a silk screen print on handmade paper. The paper is old torn up test prints and misprints, so I took advantage of this recycled material and printed on it. I am really happy how the color and texture of the paper turned out.