Cat Skull Watercolor - ARIZA Promo

ARIZA 2016

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

The American Museum of Natural History: Drawing studies of the Great Wooly Mammoth Skeleton

The Great Wooly Mammoth: Drawings and Studies

I went to the American Museum of Natural History sometime in mid-July to draw some bones with my old personal trainer and friend, Warner. He didn't have much time to stick around and draw with me for too long since he had a booked schedule at David Barton Gym, but it was fun nonetheless to draw with a fellow artist.

I stood drawing for quite a few hours. My back began to hurt after a while, and I barely got any real drawing done. Doesn't help that tourists feel the need to stand right in front of you when they can clearly see you are drawing what is in front you of. I wish there was an easier way to go about this, but to my knowledge, there isn't! One day, though, I'd like to have the museum all to myself to draw every single thing that is in there. All of it is quite beautiful. It is by far my favorite museum in New York City.

Here are two of the most "finished" drawings I was able to complete during my visit. The scans came out strange and two toned for some reason. One side looks warmer than the other. Not sure how that happened.

These last few days living on my own has really helped me find out what I really want to do in life. I want to get into online marketing. I'd like to be a few things, actually, all of them relating to the internet. I've been teaching myself to code learning HTML5, CSS, Bootstrap, and even began the daunting, intimidating behemoth that is Javascript. I've been using Codeacademy to learn these different languages. My roommate, Allan, has been learning to code for a over a year now. He has encouraged me to try it out myself.

Eventually I would like to show some of my progress and web creations on here to show that I'm not wasting my time learning this. There seems to be quite a lot of opportunity for coders, UX/UI designers, and internet marketing folk. I want to immerse myself in that world, and change my lifestyle of uncertainty into something much more manageable and career oriented. Illustration is a wild profession that I just can't break into. The more years that go by, the more I realize it is not for me.

It's quite relieving to realize that. I am at peace with it. It took quite a bit of rejection and "going nowhere" to finally get the message. I appreciate art. It will always be a part of me. To make it a profession is ridiculous, especially when there are people far more talented, and far more driven to succeed than I am. I'd like to say that I gave it my best shot, but I know in my heart that it is a lie.

Be authentic. Be realistic. Know how you can be useful to others. I finally figured it out, and now it is just a matter of getting started in that new direction.

To those of you still chasing a dream, good luck!

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.

Is Drawing People Without Their Permission Ethical?

Today I read an article my friend, S.B. Kosinski, posted on Instagram about a woman asking if artists have the right to draw people without their consent on the subway. The article was featured in The New York Times Magazine. Their ethicist, Chuck Klosterman, reviews this question:

" I was sitting next to someone on the subway who was surreptitiously sketching portraits of fellow commuters. I once spotted someone opposite me doing this, and actually changed cars when I suspected he was eyeing me as a subject. Being present in a public space does not seem akin to offering permission to record your likeness without consent, despite the intended (lack of) audience or purpose of the final piece. Unlike being captured in a tourist’s random photograph, this act seems to involve a level of scrutiny, focus and invasiveness that makes me uncomfortable. Is it ethical to draw someone without his or her permission or knowledge? CHRISTIANA MAVROMATIS, BROOKLYN"

When I first read this, I couldn't help but laugh at how petty and strange her complaint was. It was utterly ridiculous! Being an artist myself that draws people on the train quite often, I can say that my actions are of pure intent to practice and sharpen my observational skills, not to judge the person.

I find it strange why she would feel so uncomfortable for someone to draw her, that she feels the need to deem the practice unacceptable and goes as far as saying that her rights have been violated. Perhaps she has some sort of lack of self-esteem or some personal body image issues.

Whatever her reasons, I'm glad Chuck Klosterman took the time to answer her question. He basically says that a drawing of you is merely an artist's construction of what they believe you look like, and that if you are in public, people are allowed to look at you.

There are no rules or laws prohibiting people from looking at each other. Except, maybe, the unspoken rules of the street in a rougher neighborhood where looking at someone is a direct threat, or a silent agreement that you have "a problem."

Anyway, you should read the New York Times Magazine article, and let me know your opinion on the matter.

Skull n Roses

Painting a green skull is tricky. I sort of wanted to avoid having that cheesy 80's metal album cover look, monster truck feel, and comic book/cartoon skull from Scooby Doo appearance. Not sure if I came out victorious wrestling with the color green. Let me know in the comments if I have to work on the cheese factor. Now I want to eat some cheese...mmm.

If you have any cool TASTEFUL examples of green skulls please link me to some.

Painting was done with acrylic on canvas board. I hate hate hate canvas board, but I experimented with prepping the surface with Golden's Fine Pumice Gel  using a palette knife to cover the crappy canvas texture a bit. I strongly recommend using it to give your surface a smoother more "concrete" or "plaster" sort of effect. Golden makes Pumice Gel in fine, course, and extra course. Extra course is excellent for that rocky or sidewalk sort of look. OH! Also, the Fine Pumice Gel feels great to draw on with graphite.

For color reference I used a bunch of different images, but this one from Stanley Kubrik's, The Shining, proved to be extra useful.

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!

Native and the Bird

Lion Headed Man

Lion Headed Man acrylic on wood 2013

TOONS Performing at Arlene's Grocery Concert Poster

TOONS! East River Jellyfish Swallows Williamsburg Bridge

I had a lot of fun drawing out this concert poster for the band, TOONS. I got to draw the Williamsburg Bridge getting swallowed by a giant mutated East River jelly fish monster. The Williamsburg Bridge is the lovely connection between Brooklyn and the Lower East Side in Manhattan. It is my favorite bridge in NYC because the J train goes over it and takes me home! I love walking or riding my bike over it enjoying the gorgeous view of the city. I plan on making a larger scale version of this idea and selling them as prints.

If you'd like to see more process shots behind this wacky jelly monster poster check out my website alexarizaart.com

The TOONS logo was originally hand drawn. I went through many variations until I ended up with this little gem.

One shot deal, all the letters came out legible enough, the spacing was decent, and the style was fun. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I thought the text had a strong energy it. You can tell it was done quickly. It captured the "boldness" and "confidence" of the band's sound. Anyway, I thought it was suitable, the band loved it, and that's what counts.

After scanning it, I took it into Adobe Illustrator and used the live trace tool to create a vector image. From there I was able to make any modifications I thought were necessary.

Using Adobe Photoshop I removed the notebook lines to make it easier for Adobe Illustrator to live trace the image.

Vector version of the logo.

The vector version of the logo is super helpful when I need to design things in all different sizes. You wouldn't be able to have that much freedom if you were stuck with just a normal bitmap or rasterized imaged.

I've been doing hand drawn logos for a while now. I really enjoy having that extra bit of control in graphic design instead of having to slave away on a computer messing with paths and all that other nonsense. It feels more natural to me, and of course, in my experience, my work flow is far more efficient for getting ideas out.

For a more in depth look at the Live Trace tool on Adobe Illustrator check out the Adobe website!