ANARCHRIST; thoughts & progress

Above anything else, this drawing was inspired by Kien’s song “ANARCHRIST.” When I first listened to the song, the composition itself and the title intertwined in my mind to create the prototype idea for this project. Naturally, willingly, it glided up to me from within the chaos of the song. Guided by the effect it produced within me, I wanted to create something that could capture the qualities of the music itself. It took a while before I felt like it was the right time to work on this, but it came earlier in the year. Up until this point, music-related/inspired drawings I have worked on have been heavily based on references of band members and/or song lyrics. This is especially true if I think back to the GDS collaboration stage (already writing my own history book, it seems), during which Alex and I spliced together lyrics and screen-capped references to create something very collage-like. I wanted this to be different, I wanted it to stem from the music itself.

If I think about it, I am not used to listening to vocal-less music. I am often charmed by the vocalist’s voice—its intensity, its message. Not having words layered over the music track, however, allowed me to take a different approach. I paid attention to what otherwise might have been muted from my field of hearing, and it was from the structure and atmosphere of the track that I worked.

Chaos, repetition, progression. A sense of spiraling further into something uncontrollable. Multi-layered complexity, aggressive determination, something beautifully savage, almost offensive.

As I’ve written before, I am not a supporter of clear, precise definitions within my drawings. In fact, I do not really want to address the symbols I have included directly, partially because it would amount to a list of potential interpretations that in the end may be completely irrelevant. I should point out that there are certain themes I worked with; namely, the arbitrary meanings we embed into symbols and gestures, the power they hold in various contexts—politics, religion, personal affairs. The circular form as a vehicle inherent in human history, in cultures across the world. And of course, I could not refrain from the grim notes of mayfly symbolism.

To address a personal issue than will inevitably rise from this, I will say only this: I cannot help but go along with whatever calls to me, whatever inspires me at the moment and lifts me out of myself. To be more straightforward:

Alex, I am sorry if this somehow hurts you; that was honestly never my intention, and I hope you understand.

Kien, I hope this does some justice to your composition. Please continue writing music, I’m always looking forward to hearing more.

Philly Comic Con & NYC

I would like to say that I feel somehow more awakened, but I think it may be just the desire for an awakening that is propelling me. I think that what I feel instead is a heightened sense of urgency about my life and am not quite sure what to do about it.

My trip to Philly Comic Con and NYC is a very bittersweet kind of experience. In a way, it is an epitome of “a mixed experience” that I seem to have so often when I travel to cons—a mix of good and bad that, in the end, all forms into one complete experience that I would never give up.

In New York, I got to stay with Sasha for a couple of days. The McQueen exhibit at the Met completely overwhelmed me—overloaded my mind and dissolved my insides. I allowed myself to be dissipated, to melt into it, whatever “it” is. If I think of the right public words, I will describe my experience there.

Over this past week, something broke down and gave way to something else. I don’t know the specifics, but I can feel it. Whether it grows into a cankerous monster or a beautiful leafy tree (is there a combination of both?)  is up to me.

Shame on me

What a horrendous lack of updates. A couple of new things coming soon~

More sketches from work

For the first time in a long while, I want to do something in colored pencil:

 Some kind of jellyfish creature:

Re-hatching of an old idea:

C2E2: Brief Notes

I’m not going to write a novel about this, but C2E2 was a completely different type of show for me. Setting up my grid cube display on Friday morning, I felt very out of place. That feeling lasted throughout the whole day; doing everything solo and running on one hour of sleep of course did not help, but a good night of sleep led into a very good day on Saturday. I couldn’t help but be a little sad every time someone bought one of the two bestseller pieces (both about five years old by now), but I also couldn’t really complain.

Because I was running the table alone, I couldn’t really leave to walk around the Artist Alley, which ended up being my biggest (maybe the only) regret. I felt bad that I wasn’t at all familiar with the big names in the world of comics, but just being aware that I was in the same space as some pretty renowned artists was very humbling and encouraging at the same time.
The crowd as a whole seemed to care more about art and actually had a budget for it. I am used to people asking for smaller versions of prints. Not here. Here the question was: “How big does it come?” More than a few times, people told me to just keep the change. It felt surreal, in a very pleasant way. The general demographic was a bit older, a bit more mature.

I also took on a few sketch commissions; a couple that were super quick (more like doodles) and also a couple that were a bit more involved. The people who wanted quick sketches just told me to draw whatever (Friday); the ones that took a little longer were of original characters (Saturday). I normally never ever do con commissions. The closest I’ve come to it in the past was doing a couple of art trades with Coey at Youmacon, but I had never actually done paid at-con commissions before C2E2. This time around, I decided, “Why not?” I think part of it was linked to having developed my own style a bit more, to knowing my abilities and limits a bit better as well as being comfortable with them. Also, of course, there were more people looking for sketches from artists. I still feel a bit iffy about taking on larger commissions from other people unless they completely resonate with me, but to put it simply, doing sketches for people can be a fun way to pass the time.

Definitely not as many costumes as at anime cons. I felt overdressed even in my very casual clothes with my very casual hair and make-up. Also, there didn’t seem to be nearly as many girls in the Artist Alley. A lot of guys in jeans and T-shirts, very serious business. *__*
All in all, I felt very, very lucky to have been presented with this last-minute opportunity; hopefully, I can participate again next year. And even though I came to the con by myself, I got to hang out with a few people I don’t get to see that often, which was pretty nice. :)

A doodle from Saturday morning:

Touched up a drawing from one of my sketchbooks, to be inked later:

Finally got around to drawing this silly thing for Jim:

Sketches from work

Getting ready for C2E2 last minute is not the most awesome experience, and I kind of need a break, so I'll make this bs post, which I actually meant to make a few days ago. :\

I decided to start bringing paper with me to one of my jobs just in case things get slow, and I think it was a pretty good decision---one that saved me a great deal of boredom last week. :P

The first three sketches are from last Thursday--I drew them on Strathmore wet media paper, which feels pretty thin to me, so I'm not sure how well it will actually handle washes, but I guess we'll see~ The last sketch is from Sunday. Would've drawn more that day, but I remember my brain hit some kind of mental wall.

This all feels like recycled imagery to me, but I might return to these later~