BASEMENT RECOVERY

I've been cleaning up my basement lately...getting rid of a lot of stuff that I don't use anymore to make more space to work and keep my musical instruments in order. I ran into this CD full of old drawings I did in college for Karen Santry's class. I still wonder if this is any good at all. You can be the judge of it.

Native Ghost

Ghost Graphite on 9x12 paper 2012

Native Ghost Floating Through Forest, Acrylic on Paper, Alex Ariza 2012

Fred's First Car

Made a new watercolor/gouache painting for my buddy Jenn. She just moved into her first apartment, this is her housewarming gift.

Fred is a toy shark we found in the office I used to work at, it became our mascot and source of entertainment/humor during trying times and boredom.

I'm sure she'll appreciate it.

Fred's First Car

MASSACRE

My good comrade, Stephanie, is currently teaching a silk screening class at WORKS IN PROGRESS NYC 

I'm totally looking forward to screen printing again, I loved doing it in college and I'm sure I'm going to love it all over again this Saturday. 

I decided to go with a robot theme, since that is what I would wear on my shirt naturally, hopefully if others are interested I'll sell a few. 

Here's my process of coming up with my ROBOT SILKSCREEN MADNESS.

It all started with the idea of a robot getting shot from behind:

 Here are some explosions I tried out...

this one looks like Jesus rays

this one looks more like hair...

A little too cartoony for my taste, but just right for the occasion.

Here's what it looks like together:

BOOM! Robot Exploding!

I showed my buddy Colin who has been my critic and partner since high school. He's brilliant at taking my simple ideas and turning them into awesome ones.

Conquistador firing squad.

Short Stocky Robot

Long Lanky Robot

Top Heavy Robot

That poor robot native never knew what hit him...

Merciless.

 Even with all that, Colin thought it could use more...

"...a dead robot on the floor is a must, and pieces of dead robots strewn all over, slag and oil everywhere."

I wish I had more time to finish up that amazing image. I started on one of the dead robots, but I know to make this really work, it needs to be ridiculous. 

Yeah, I'm influenced by German Expressionism.

That's what I got for now. Unfortunately, Saturday's lesson is only going to be working with one color. I can't wait till I can start playing with more COLORS again.

Till next time... MORE ROBOTS.

El Oso Luchador

El Oso Luchador Climbs Into the Ring!

Oil paint, I would use you more if you didn't take so damn long to set up and work with. Maybe when I move out of New York and have more time to myself I will once again use you. Wrestling bears...how god damn original. The painting has a very soft children's book feel to it, since I wanted to be a children's book illustrator at one point at FIT. Maybe I'll do more of these style of paintings down the line to build a solid portfolio.

Finding More Stuff in the Back

ha, wordplay.

Another Batch

Bear taking a dip in the river

 Back when I was learning to paint with oils in college, I did a whole bunch of stupid little practice paintings on surfaces not intended for oil paint. This one was done on foam core. 

 

Children's book character that never took off, Pablo the Heron.

 I started this painting of Pablo the Heron back in 2009. I worked on it some more in 2011, and then never finished it cause I'm a lazy mother fucker. I should start a new painting for this guy. The story is about Pablo the Heron who goes through people's kitchens in the middle of the night and starts making a racket. He then flies away when people come to see whats making all the noise. Pablo is such a jerk face heron.

Preliminary sketch for a poster I never even made.

One of my projects from school was to create a series of posters for a concert or band. I chose the Mars Volta. This piece is supposed to show children as sheep and the two major forces that control them, religion and politics.

Some Old Shit

Found a few things that hasn't gotten much viewing or fresh air since college. Decided to scan them and put them up.

ink and oils on watercolor paper

little baby preliminary paintings, acrylic on crappy canvas paper

ink with red gouache...just playing with them lines and shapes

Billy the Goat

My spacing/composition sucks so damn much. Need to give more head space to this little guy. I guess it's back to drawing frames for me. Perspective was kinda fun, but a total pain in the ass as well. If you look real close you can find some discrepancies here and there, but I'm still pretty happy with how it turned out. My humor is equivalent to a boring school teacher from elementary school as you can clearly tell from the text. Whatever, I thought it was cute. 

I read this funny article from CNN about art.

Happy New Year

My sister and I sat down again to come up with these drawings. We got into an argument about something stupid just now, until we resolve our differences, our collaborations will come to a short halt. Sad.

SCANNER!

Got my Epson Perfection V30 scanner today...this is a HUGE upgrade from what I had before.

Here's a cute little drawing of the Brooklyn Bridge I did a few days ago that would have looked like poop if I used the old scanner. Shit is CRISP!

My sister and I sat down together and came up with these characters...

Total Rip-Off of Plank from Ed, Edd, and Eddy. I know.

Saps could use some bees flying around him...

This guy is boring...

This one is just lousy and half-assed.

Maybe I should start making more detailed background scenes since this scanner can capture EVERYTHING.