It’s been a while since I’ve updated, and even longer since I’ve actually talked in depth about my work. This is in part because I’m lazy and also in part because I’m not sure anyone really cares to read these long walls of text. And if that isn’t your cup of tea, then hope you enjoy the art above, thanks for making it this far! For everyone else, it begins.
Beyond merely improving my technical skill, I’ve been really thinking recently about where I want to go with my art work. I’ve noticed that my art, overwhelmingly consists of very serious subject matter. Whether that be some futuristic police design or a painting of an old European town, all of it seems almost documentary-like. And for the most part, that fits my personality and my tastes. But I also have a sense of humor and fun (for real guys, I promise) that I’d like to see surface more in my work in between the serious pieces. Some of my favorite artists inject their humor into their paintings and designs and that’s something that really resonates with me.
Another thing that I’ve noticed is that many of my pieces lack a clear narrative. Since I’m really into environment paintings I often get so caught up in designing and rendering it that I forget to add a story that’s immediately apparent to the viewer. I want to be more intentional about including narratives in my piece and the easiest way I can think of doing that is drawing my characters in them. Figures in my paintings are usually used simply to get a sense of scale, but I know that this is limiting their potential. I’ll be doing my best from now on to really give character and action to the figures to aid the narrative.
I’m talking about all these points here because they were the design decisions that were most prominent in painting this piece. I knew going in that a painting of a ninja and samurai fighting couldn’t really be taken completely seriously, but rather than abandoning it, I accepted it and continued. It may be lame, but it’s also fun and whimsical.
I always tell people that one of the reasons I moved into concept art and illustration from fine art is because I didn’t want my art to be simply about making profound messages. While I was in art school, most of my teachers pretty much only talked about what I was trying to say with my art. They would tell me how painting was a platform for me to raise my voice and talk to the world and that I should take advantage of that. Needless to say, paintings of ninja and samurai would not have been greeted with favor. They encouraged me, sometimes consciously and sometime subconsciously, to focus less on learning the fundamentals of drawing because it was a waste of time. This never really stuck with me and at the time I wasn’t able to explain myself beyond just saying that I wanted to draw stuff that looked cool(something that surprisingly my teacher didn’t accept).
Nowadays I know enough to say that I’m not interested in infusing direct messages in my work. I know that I can use my art as a microphone, and there may come a day that I will use it, but that’s not the case right now. Just because I can doesn’t mean that I should. I’m literally just some dude, that can draw better than most people in the world. That doesn’t make my opinion suddenly worth broadcasting. These days with the internet, anyone can make their opinions known to millions of people at any time. It’s led to a lot of good but also a ton of bad as I’m sure we can all attest to. i want to be selective about when, if ever, I say something directly through my work. That said,I also don’t believe that my art has no profound meaning. I firmly believe that artists infuse their beliefs and opinions into their work, even subconsciously. It may not be screaming at you when you look at my work but that’s actually what I prefer.
On a side note, I’ve been considering the possibility of selling prints of my work but have yet to find a site that is of good enough quality. Let me know if you know any good ones. Thanks!
