Rest in Pieces, Big Figment

Brooklyn four piece band, Big Figment has called it quits. It's been months since their break up, but I never got around to posting the last few pieces I created for the band. In fact, there are a bunch of pieces still stuck in progress that probably won't see the light of day.

So this post is for those poor lost little souls, and an informal farewell to a strange, challenging, and glorious band. So long, "Biggie Figz", it's been real.

FIREBELLY SALAMANDER MONSTER DESTROYS BROOKLYN BRIDGE! Big Figment Poster Art by Alex Ariza 2014

I've always wanted to draw or paint the Brooklyn Bridge being destroyed. It is a gorgeous bridge, one of the most iconic structures in New York City. It's not easy to draw or paint, though, at least not for me. There is a certain quality or style that I envision in my mind's eye, but I keep missing the mark.

I want to focus on shapes and form over line quality now. It is a skill that I completely overlooked during my art school days. I got too comfortable and content with just drawing outlines of figures. I've always been intimidated by shading and trying to make things look three dimensional. Lacking any formal training, yes even in art school they don't teach you HOW to do it, I sort of neglected learning how to create space through values. Don't even get me started on lighting. 

I suck. I really, really suck at painting because of this flaw! I want to improve by challenging myself to step out of my comfort zone.

Less lines, more shapes!

Once again I had the band Big Figment in mind while creating this.

Digital Painting of a Giant Fire Belly Salamander Destroying the Brooklyn Bridge by Alex Ariza 2014

A Guy From Queens Now Living In Brooklyn. Traitor? Trend Sheep? Pros/Cons?

I have left my home town of Richmond Hill, Queens to live in Greenpoint, a hip, up and coming neighborhood in Brooklyn.

I live right by the East River and can wave hello to Manhattan from my apartment. Never thought that would happen! Honestly, I've always thought that I would stay in Queens.

Some of my friends now think my hipster metamorphosis is complete. Once I get my bike from home and lock it up here I may have to agree. I will miss Queens, but something tells me I won't be away from it for too long.

I just hope I don't get too drunk one night and make my way all the way back home to Richmond Hill instead of my new apartment. That would suck!

I still need to get my art supplies over here, I'm just afraid of being overwhelmed with the lack of space I have here. My bed takes up about 80% of my room. I did bring my music recording gear, though, and that already takes up a lot of space. 

This will just force me to work digitally to pump ideas out. Before leaving my childhood home for good, I made this poster for the band Big Figment. The inspiration of this piece came from a Wikipedia article about an Eel City that my friend Peter Longofono had posted up. The image I had in mind was far more involved, but for the poster's sake, I had to simplify it to make it readable. 

I originally had the colors much brighter...which was okay, but the top one definitely matched the darker tone of the band best. 

Once Jennae, the lead singer of Big Figment, approved of the design, I added the show info.

The font, for those who care about such things, it's called Bebas Neue.

I explained the creation of the band logo in an earlier post.

Big Figment Concert Poster

Big Figment is a four piece indie rock (sorta pop) band from Brooklyn with a lot of funk and grit. They're a bunch of fun to watch, and they're pretty strange, interesting individuals in my opinion. You can listen to some of their stuff on their Bandcamp site.

The image itself was inspired by a cousin of mine who was five at the time. He had a pretty wild imagination when we played pretend. One time we were under a table in his dining room and he kept saying we had to hide because of some large glowing creature floating above us. He described it loosely, like a kid usually does, but I was so intrigued by his "fear" of this thing that never existed. I'm pretty sure he was making it all up as he went along, but he had some pretty great details in it's features.

Kyle drawing with chalk describing a battle. 

I used tempra paint and gouache for the image itself. I grabbed some pretty vibrant fluorescent colors from DaVinci's Art Supplies Store near School of Visual Arts. These sort of colors DO NOT mix well with other colors. I think they are meant to stand on their own, and come straight out the tube/container on to the page.

The brand of tempra paints I used were cheap, and honestly not the best choice if you are going for high quality.

I did upgrade to the good stuff to use for future images.

These acrylic paints by Golden are pretty dope.

They are much thinner in viscosity than your normal heavy body colors. Some colors feel more like a fluid acrylic paint. I'm  not sure why that is, but it probably has something to do with the chemistry of these sort of materials to get that kind of vibrancy. These are colors you simply cannot replicate with regular paint, so you'll just have to deal with the lack of body they provide.

The other thing with these sort of colors is that they aren't terribly opaque at all, which is good and bad in a way. You don't really need water to do "washes" with these guys. If you want an opaque, solid color you'll have to build it up with layers.

For the Big Figment logo I hand drew the text with Yasutomo sumi ink (the waterproof kind) on regular printer paper. I do a bunch of different takes. Sometimes I gotta Frankenstein a logo together because I like how certain letters come out on some takes, but not so much the other ones. I'm pretty impractical when it comes to designing typography.

Hand drawing typography reminds me of recording music. If you fuck up a section, don't cry about it, just punch in and fix that section. I do the same thing with designing type. I have piles of failed attempts going for the one shot kill, but rarely do I have that magic moment when it all flows out beautifully. Thank god for Adobe Illustrator and the live trace tool. Once your type is scanned you can digitally manipulate everything far more easily than you ever could on paper. 

The "BIG" was done on the back of a time sheet. Like I said, just regular printer paper, scraps, anything to write on to get the idea out. Once it's down, you scan, and can work on it on the computer. Ain't technology swell?

Once live trace is used on Illustrator you can "expand" and then make any alterations needed. Then you have the ability to do all sorts of cool shit like change the color, the size, the effects used (glow, shadow, etc.) You pretty much do whatever the hell you want with it.

Words of advice!

• If you are going to be making hand drawing type: Use the darkest black paint, black markers, black pens, black pencils or whatever you use because live trace will have a much easier time picking up pure black than anything else.
• Try to avoid smudges that fall into grayscale, they don't really reproduce well as a vector with live trace.
• Use white paper only! Once again, it just makes it easier for the live trace tool to translate your real life image into a vector image.
• If you are using a grid, make sure it's the non-photo-blue kind! It's a real pain to delete a bunch of skinny little black vector lines from the grid, so get the kind that won't reproduce after scanning!
• Live trace isn't going to make everything perfect. Sometimes straight lines come out wobbly. You'll have to make adjustments yourself, so don't think it's gonna do everything for you!