Ink Master inspired piece

So I've been watching the past few episodes of a show called 'Ink Master' on Spike TV. As an artist, I can really appreciate the amount of work that goes into these tattoos as well as the outcome of the final product. The fact that the show is also hosted by Dave Navarro is a nice touch. So the show got me inspired to maybe try and build a tattoo piece of my own. Here is the first part: Colt Python

First character with no reference

This is actually the first drawing I've done without using some form of reference.

Graphic Translation practice

27th letter of the alphabet

Kind of interesting in-class project done in Typography. Using the existing letters of the alphabet as reference, I was tasked to design a 27th letter to the alphabet. For my design, I removed half of the space from the "O" and then added the dot from the letter "i". It looks like some kind of alien symbol you'd find in crop circles.

Golden Section Visual Research Project

It's been a long time since I've had to do one of these things. I got a few of the pictures I took myself, to use as assets to complete the project. It would be easier to go on to Google Images and just save them to my hard drive, but I figured, I have some of the objects needed to complete the project. Why not use them? It was a great chance to help build up my photo cache as well.

I will admit, I was wrong about this project being boring. It was actually kind of interesting, especially, the "biomimicry" and the "Golden Section in Nature" sections were actually kind of cool to research.

Positive/Negative Space: Typography

Experimenting with positive/negative space with characters.

Final pointillism project

After a few weeks work, here's the final product. Medium: black ink pen. Canvas size: 11x17.

It's a project that can yield some very interesting results. In order to appreciate works like this, you kind of have to stand back a bit and let your eyes mix all the dots together to form a smooth, uniform look of the object (known as optical mixing).

Graphic Translation: Take 2

Second attempt at graphic translation. I feel that this attempt was far more successful than my first attempt.

Initial trace

Pencil Mock-up. I didn't like the fact that the shadow along the face joined with the shape of the lip. It looks like she has a "joker smile" going here.

Final product done in ink. Pushed the shadow up and scaled it back slightly. Problem fixed.

GRA130: Type Trace 2

Round two with the type tracing. This one took a little less time because I was able to set the kerning via InDesign as oppose to setting it by hand. This trace, I feel, went better than my last attempt.

GRA180: Hand drawing

I've done more of these drawings in last 3 years than I have in my whole life. This drawing takes me back to 2009 when I was fresh out of highschool and looking to enroll in Art Fundamentals, Animation and Illustration; they required hand drawings either as a portfolio requirement or as part of an on-site drawing test.

What made this drawing interesting was the fact that the hand had to be drawn through a piece of plexiglass, hence why there are white marks on the knuckles of my hands; the sections pressed against the plexiglass. You more or less had to draw while closing one eye, otherwise you'd be trippin' balls trying to get the line work done. Certainly made for some interesting line work, perspective and foreshortening.

The Negative Space project

After working through about 16 thumbnail sketches, I decided on this design. I choose these items because I like the "awkward" shape of the teapot and the curvature of the handles for the tongs. Roughed it out in pencil to get a better idea of the negative space in the composition.

Final copy, black outlines only.

Final copy, solid black using brush pens. I'm fairly happy with the way this composition turned out. I think there's a nice balance between positive and negative space in the composition.