I'd like to take this time to promote my fellow RISD illustration majors and college friends who have websites here at DA.

:cococonutshake: <-- Michelle Ho

:sweed84: <-- Steve Weed

VISIT THEM, they are cool.

It is absolutely imparative that I recite the most recent anecdote of my adventures, for surely it is the most surreal moment of my entire waking life. Don't mind if my writing is sloppy, I've been exposed to a number of substances far too great of a sum for me to count.

It started at a party in my college town of Providence, RI. We were about to leave but my friend John had broken a bottle and volunteered to clean it up. We left shortly after and returned to his car, but John was really pissed. The day before he had his car's radio faceplate stolen (thieves had broken into his car, leaving a pair of plyers and some sort of drilling wedge as evidence of the caper), his rear-right tire had blown, and now the broken bottle was triggering his rage (also note that John gets mad rather easily). John fell into an alchohol enduced, greatly pent-up fit, in which he yelled and cursed and broke things. We decided to leave him alone for a few minutes while he let out some steam, staying on the curb while he walked over to his car and leaned against it. After a while, the most horrible thing that could possibly happen happened: a police car slowly started driving down our street, and slowly pulled up to us. The police man asked if we knew the guy leaning on his car, and answered yes. Then he asked us where he lived. After that, the cop decided to back up and pulls over to where John is. At this point, we're kind of paranoid, thinking either A) The cop was here about a complaint from the party, B) suspected the cop thought John was planning on jacking the car, which was his own, thereby making the second run-in with the authority John has had in 2 days, or C) got a complaint about John, and suspected we were all taking illegal substances- which we WERE- and was going to bust us. We hear him cross-reference with John about where he lived, and continued to question him out of earshot. My friend Brendan walked over to John, but me and my other friend Jesse thought it would have been dangerous if John were in trouble and was answering the cop's questions with lies, and then would have said something that countered what he said. They kept talking for about a good five minutes however, until we hear John say something about "illustration." Now, John is is an illustration major at RISD with me, so I knew what they were conversing about. Incredibly confused, Jesse and I joined John and Brendan by John's car. Apparently, the cop was talking about becoming a student at RISD, and wanted to become an architect. We talked with the cop for a good half an hour about being at RISD, about the teachers there, the meaning of what art is, how to recognize talent, and general philosophies about life itself and the future of art as an institution. At first I thought he was cross-examining us, but after a while it just seemed like the guy genuinely just wanted to talk. "There are three things in life you have to know," he explained, in his thick hispanic accent, "Be true to yourself, never let money control your destiny, and be sure to recognize true talent when you see it." After that we shook his hand, and were promised that if we saw a building with the name "F. Garcia" on the side that we would know who built it. And then he left us. John had been completely sobered up, and drove us home.

What the FUCK just happened? It took me a while to wrap my head around what had just taken place. The general interaction with cops in New York City would be as follows-- They would ask for your ID, say they will take you down to the precinct for examination, and after resistance would break out their standard-issue 9mm barettas and pistolwhip you until you lose the ability to walk before kicking you into the back of their squad car. Actually trading words with a policeman wouldn't last about 5 minutes before they either arrested you or fined you, let alone talk for half an hour about art theory. Truly, we will always remember that man and that conversation. I will never make pig jokes about Providence cops ever again.

Happy Chinese New Year! It's going on all this week. It started Thursday, but uh, I didn't get a chance to write.  For the record, I'm half-chinese, half-white... That's the kind of fact you learn about someone and then go, "Oh... hm..."

I'll be rakin' in the Hung Bows all week when I get home to New York, when I'll hopefully be able to make the Lion Dance parade (also for the record, I live in Chinatown) so I can participate in it.

This was a "feh" year. I've had better, but I've had much worse, so I'm not going to complain. I'll just note the highlights:

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King - To date, probably the most extraordinary phenomena in cinema since Casa Blanca. No joke. LOTR is a) the most successful cinematic interpretation of a novel(s), b)the first series of films that were shot in a single ordeal in order to maintain seamless consistency, c) is on par or better than any epic I've ever seen, d) the best blend of high-end CGI with live action I've witnessed thusfar and should be a benchmark for all such future endeavors, e) come to think of it should be a benchmark for about a dozen other things I don't need to list. If it doesn't win Movie of the Year at the Oscars just because it's got wizards and dragons in it, I'm gonna be pissed and there WILL be a riot.

2) I'm in my major at college, Illustration. Although to be honest that pales in comparison to the above, especially considering that if I ever go into cinema as a concept artist I'll be subconsciously contending against said item for the rest of my life.

3)I had my birthday, New Year's and Christmas to celebrate over winter vacation, which was fun. Not as much fun, I can assure you, as Peter Jackson swimming in the pool of money he has in his courtyard. The likeliness that such a plump, hairy, short-sighted man was the manifest of a cornicopia of unparalleled cinematic beauty is beyond me.

4)I got an X-Box. Yey. Now can play Soul Calibur 2 without bumming off my friends. However, the majority of my gaming time was preoccopied with LOTR: RotK, which I beat. How the hell did they get an interview with Ian McKellen about video games? He's a fucking Shakespearean actor, knighted by the Queen of England. He has more money stuck under his fingernail than that game will ever produce. Yet, here he is in the bonus features, talking about how much Gandalf owns with his "charge Y, XXXX combo attack." Seeing such greatness talking about video games is either a very very good thing, or a very very bad thing.

And now for the bad stuff:

A) The Matrix movies. Wachowski Brothers.... What the fuck just happened? You think you can just take a collective shit, jam it into a movie reel and play it in front of paying customers and think they wouldn't notice? The first one was so good, you were on a roll! I know, I know.... you tried, I'm sure. But, the truth is, I wasn't wearing shit-tainted sunglasses to the movie theatres on those fateful days... I know what I saw, and... they chugged chode, for lack of a better expression. I'll be waiting for my 20 dollars.

b)hm.... nope, that's about the worst thing I can think of. I'm gonna get seriously flamed for that, aren't I?

Okay, Here's an interesting question: Is there such a thing as digital painting?

It's a long-lasting argument that a friend and I have been having for quite some time. I argue that the process of painting requires the inclusion of hand and tool, a medium that can be mixed to create different hues, and represented compositionally on a flat surface (with the possible exception of reliefs, but that borders on sculpture).

When I do my work, I'm using a wacom tablet,  and use an electronic pen. I use Adobe Photoshop, which allows me to mix colors by placing one ontop of the other with the brush tool to create  a different hue. Lastly, it's pretty obvious that a monitor displays a flat image, and Adobe Photoshop doesn't operate in terms of 3-D rendering. So, these all fit into my understanding of painting. I feel like when I'm making artwork on the computer, it feels a lot like I am in the process of painting, which would probably be most akin to gouache, airbrush and watercolor if I were using physical mediums.

She says that painting includes other elements; that it requires the physical hand-to-surface interaction, and the physical act of mixing pigments. Also, an oil, fresco or other tactile painting has a quality that digital work can never have, which is the interaction of the painting with its environment. IE, A painting displayed in a room with a set lighting surrounded by other paintings will have a different impression than a painting found in an attic, or just different lighting and different paintings around it.... or no paintings. Also, part of the experience of viewing a painting is being able to study it from up close, far away, side to side, acknowledging the tacticity of how the painting was done.

What's interesting is that I have to agree with the last point, to some degree; a picture of a painting doesn't have the same impact of seeing the physical painting. What I find interesting is that the physical manifestation of a digital piece- a high-resolution print out, for example- doesn't have the same impact as the original artwork on the computer screen it was done on. So, although seeing a picture of a physical painting on the internet doesn't have the impact of seeing it in person on a wall, seeing a picture of a digital work on the internet is actually closer to the original work than seeing its physical manifestation. However, does that mean that a painting needs to be a physical object, or that seeing an original digital painting just means seeing it displayed in an electronic format (computer monitor)?


Thoughts anyone?

Or am I just overthinking this? I think the issue is very important, because what I believe are digital paintings are becoming increasingly popular at increasing speed... the speed of technological growth that is. As we create new mediums, so artists develop new tastes and new styles, which ultimately decides the future of the art scene. Relevant, yes? No?

Wow, I didn't know anyone was going to actually RESPOND to my last journal entry, at least not that many! I can't tell you how good it feels to know that I'm not alone in this situation, thank you so much for your comments. I was really ticked at the time I wrote it from thinking on the subject for too long, so it was a bit more hostile than I would want now. I wasn't being fair- the teacher for that class is actually a very cool guy and I learned a lot from him, and I didn't mean anything against the other students. I understand now from your comments that this isn't really anyone's fault, just the times. Time will change everything, I hope.

I should take this time to also thank all the people that visit me, especially the ones that regularly comment. You all comment differently and notice different things, so it's interesting to hear what you have to say. Mind you that I read every single one, thanks to the DeviantArt Notes system. I wish I could be more active on DeviantArt than these monthly visits but it's hard with all the work I have.

I have a lot of artwork to show, since I'm in my major now(illustration) and I'm allowed to do assignments that are keener to my interests, thereby DeviantWorthy. However, the process to get those pieces onto my computer is gonna take some time, considering a lot of them are graphite drawings and -gasp- oil paintings. What? Oil paintings?! I can oil paint?!!! No, not yet... but I can show you my failures. Won't that be fun, guys?



Thanks again, you guys are awesome!

AAAAAAARGH, I ANGER

I recently had an art critique at my school, where I had to bring in the personal work I've done over the summer. To be frank, it's always weird- almost embarrassing, in fact- to show them that I'm a fantasy/science fiction artist. I mean, here I am, drawing chicks with big guns and dragons, when everyone else is experimenting with impressionistic portraiture, or playing with line tension in photography, or trying to portray anger as a color or whatever. It makes me feel belittled, even though I know I shouldn't be.  I think the main reason why my genre is looked down upon so much is because people feel it's not contributing to the art world; that it's repetitive, overdone, and not looking into anything "deeply" enough. During the critique, people were only discussing the subjects of the picture... Not the art itself, or how it was executed, or the colors I used, or the way I portrayed space. Just things like, "wow, that gun is pretty big. You like drawing women, don't you?" and that really fucking pissed me off. I feel as if they tolerate scifi/fantasy work simply so they can compare their own work to ours, so they can feel more important.

3 Things: One, our line of work is one of the OLDEST GENRES OF ART EVER MADE. There were fucking rennaissance painters, nay, cavemen doing this shit long before Picassos and Matisses started showing up, so maybe they can have an ounce more respect for a field of art based in tradition. scifi/fantasy not part of a fucking shallow stepping stone to "higher" art, it's your ROOTS. Second, just because it is steeped in tradition doesn't mean it can't change. Sure, it is based on a system of realism, but these realities are all shown in different ways. I've seen scifi/fantasy art that touches on areas like futurism, impressionism and other types, styles that make realities work even though they shouldn't by any means. There are many artists that do convincing work without having to use photographic realism. Do you know how mind-numbingly complex it is to make a 200 foot robot look convincingly part of a reality? Do you know how much knowledge and creativity it takes? The reason why so much focus is put on the subject of scifi/fantasy pieces rather then the technique used to execute the picture, is because the technique is so flawless that people look past it. They understand the reality SO SEAMLESSLY that they don't understand it as art- they understand it as another world. And yet, it isn't real at all. Our ability to manifest reality is our specialty- How we manifest these realities is what makes us individually unique.

Second, just because it's not based on anything real doesn't mean it can't deal with real issues. Like photography works with the "been there" experience, scifi/fantasy works with the "are there" experience. The impact of being in an imaginary scene where something unspeakably awesome and moving is happening hits you like you are a spectator watching it happen. The problem with some people looking at a scifi/fantasy piece is that they won't allow themselves to be put in this reality, even though they are already doing so involuntarily. This is probably out of fear of being lost in an alternate reality that they can't get out of, and that dettaching themselves for a little while will do permanent damage to their psyche and harm their touch with reality, or something else equally retarded.

My art was also digital, so it also pissed me off that they kept saying things like "computers can do so much these days, they can make wonderful things," like I had just scanned the picture and Photoshop magically did everything else for me. I fucking HATE that! It's as if no one can respect computer art as an artistic medium. Little do these people know that the computer will dominate the art market within the next decade, if that. But, that's another story.

Sorry about my soap box, I'll calm down now...

'Been a while since I've posted anything, but then again it's been awhile since I've actually drawn. Art college broke my drawing hand, figuratively speaking, and I haven't had the strength to exert creative energy in a month. I'm recovering now, and accepting commission jobs to pay for my extensive entertainment prerequisites. They're tedious and boring, like drawing farms and shit, so I'm trying to procrastinate on these assignments for as long as possible while I try to put out a short comic of my own(which I need to do before I have to return to school). I'll try to post that up here as soon as possible.

Thanks for the comments and critiques as always, I really appreciate them!

-DC

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Care-Free Awareness

'Been a while since I've posted anything, but then again it's been awhile since I've actually drawn. Art college broke my drawing hand, figuratively speaking, and I haven't had the strength to exert creative energy in a month. I'm recovering now, and accepting comission jobs to pay for my extensive entertainment prequisites. They're tedious and boring, like drawing farms and shit, so I'm trying to procrastinate on these assignments for as long as possible while I try to put out a short comic of my own(which I need to do before I have to return to school). I'll try to post that up here as soon as possible.

Thanks for the comments and critiques as always, I really appreciate them!

-DC

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Care-Free Awareness

I am going through such HELL right now. It seems I only post when I'm in a deep, dark rut and procrastinating from something else far more important, doesn't it? Well, I am. I am running on 36 hours climbing, I finished a Liberal Arts test on Japanese Prints yesterday (who the fuck can remember those names?!!!? Wakazashi Yamatosamasan?!!?!) and I have a 4 week long 3-D project due today PLUS  a midterm on Art History (which I've spent a total of maybe 2 hours studying for). I'm not going to even mention the 2-D project I have due on Wednesday... Oops, I did.

The only thing keeping me in mere spirits was the Daily Top Fav I got 2 days ago. Yeyyy! Thanks guys, you're the only reason why I haven't had a nervous breakdown!

-DC

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Care-Free Awareness

How am I? Pretty chill, if I don't say so myself. I'm taking an "Introduction to Maya" course for my winter-session class, which I'm half-way through now. Ya ya, "What the hell do you need a course for, that shit be easy, blah blah"... Well, forgive me for being retarded. ANYway, with any luck I'll muster up enough skill to start putting some 3-D artwork here. Don't cream your pants just yet, all I'm making now are furniture models and "landscapes"-- but, before you know it, I'll put up something really kick-ass. I promise.

Anyway, here is some music that you can download for me:

Zero Seven- Down-tempo/Acid-Jazz/whatever the fuck you want to call it, I like it. This recommendation came from the acclaimed David Yip, who has a penis that is so large he can blind God with it.

Love- Good rock band, but hard to find. I mean, shit, how many different song titles and bands have the word "Love" in them? All you need is Love, LOVE. Love is all you need. Noah gave me this one. He has dreds.

Badly Drawn Boy- Sort of ecclectic, but some of their songs are some of my favorites now. Just trust me.

-DC

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Care-Free Awareness

no phrasing... no words can describe my relief. Okay, it was fun and I learned a lot, but damn did this semester hurt. I think I honesty did something permanent to my nervous system with all the coffee I ingested over the course of the many, many all-nighters I had to pull.

Now I can sit back and chillax. I highly doubt any artwork will be put up over the next 20 days or so, I don't even have access to a good scanner anyway. BUT, when I get back, there will be more-than-ever awesome art for me to put up because I'm taking 3-D modeling courses with Maya next year! yeeey!

-DC

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Care-Free Awareness

I am currently in New York City right now, my home town. This is the first break I've had in 2 months.

When you think about it, art college is really just a really fancy trade school... it's just that our trade has a bit more respect than say, air conditioner repair. I have studio classes that last from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm, for just one class. I have class assignments that last for 4 weeks of development. This place is hell.</i.> Fucking Brown university, 5 blocks away from us, Ivy-fucking-league, doesn't have to work this hard. They have their own BAR on the campus grounds for christssake. They have like, 10 fraternities, 7 sororities... We have a fucking lego club. If you had some strange misconception that art college is somehow more leniant than regular colleges, than you can give yourself a dummy-smack.

Current projects:
-A stain glass window for 3-D class. I'm working with glass, metal, LEAD, hydrochloric acid, GLASS... when I bought the glass, I kind of felt stupid for having just purchased 5 new ways to cause serious bodily harm to myself.
-Drawing 100 hands for Drawing class. I can't even think of 100 different poses for my hand, let alone 100 different ways to draw it.
-Doing-whatever-the-hell-I-want-as-long-as-it's-huge-as-fuck for 2-D class. This assignment is AWESOME. I get to do whatever I want, yeeey! My picture "Plastic Pipe Dreams" is the assignment, a dedication to "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" (the book that Bladerunner was based on? ring a bell?). The catch is, I have to blow it up to 6.4 ft tall x 2.5 feet wide, and print it out. Theeen, I have to cut out shapes from acetate and make transparent holographic/glass affects ontop of the print so as to incorporate a physical medium.

-DC

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Care-Free Awareness

I'm behind schedule on my comissions for customers... I'm really "distracted." And yet, despite parties, Morrowind and watching sexy women on TV, I somehow am able to squeeze out another Deviant. Almost inhuman, no? Impossible? Fantastical? No, no... procrastination skillz, my friend. and that's with Z.

I stayed up again. I woke up at 7pm yesterday. Shit, just as I got my sleep schedule back on the ball, it topples again like a sad, disfigured clown. Most likely my crash time will be in the next 2 hours, posibly forcing me to miss my friend's going-away party. Such is the fate of Devon.

Here are songs I recommend:

GABRIEL, by LAMB- If you're a guy, you might feel a little gay listening to it, but I reeeaally like it. Then again, I wear my hair in a pony-tail...

SUPER BON BON by SOUL COUGHING- Can't diss Soul Coughing. Listen to this song on your headphones when you're walking down the street; you feel like the man of the hour.

NEEDLE IN THE HAY by ELLIOTT SMITH- You might reco'nize this song from "The Royal Tenenbaums" soundtrack. It's a really cool song, but sort of depressing. Not NIN "Hurt" depressing, but meloncholy sort of depressing. Oh, just listen to it.

-DC

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Care-Free Awareness

-DC

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Care-Free Awareness

Okay, so i did get into RISD. Right now I am at my friend Vinny's house in Brooklyn. It is as boring here as it at home. I feel like I want to slit my wrists, just to see a different color from my grey and dull existance. Please, kill me.

On a lighter note, we're going to see a video. It will be the highlight of my fucking day. A DVD, no doubt... with surround sound. Yey.

When I go home, I will stare into my lap and contemplate on how infinitely shallow the world is, and then sleep. Hopefully, I won't wake up the next day. Bye.


... And Vinny says Hi. He also says he's on crack today. He is currently convulsing , covered from head to toe in his own vomit and prancing around with a mexican tequila hat on his head. It hurts me to look at him so. Now Vinny says, 'fuck you.'

-DC
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Care-Free Awareness

Okay, so i did get into RISD. Right now I am at my friend Vinny's house in Brooklyn. It is as boring here as it at home. I feel like I want to slit my wrists, just to see a different color from my grey and dull existance. Please, kill me.

On a lighter note, we're going to see a video. It will be the highlight of my fucking day. A DVD, no doubt... with surround sound. Yey.

When I go home, I will stare into my lap and contemplate on how infinitely shallow the world is, and then sleep. Hopefully, I won't wake up the next day. Bye.


... And Vinny says Hi. He also says he's on crack today. He is currently convulsing , covered from head to toe in his own vomit and prancing around with a mexican tequila hat on his head. It hurts me to look at him so. Now Vinny says, 'fuck you.'

-DC
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Care-Free Awareness

Woot. I got accepted to the School of Visual Arts and Parsons, now I'm just waiting on Rhode Island School of Design. I'm also getting a lot of scholarships in, so that's cool too. I doubt I'll get into RISD because of my grades, but you always have to have something higher than what you have, in order to look forward to.

I'll post art soon, I promise. It's just that I'd rather put up only quality color work rather than drawings, and color work takes a lot longer to complete.

Ciao fer Now.

-DC

-DC
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Care-Free Awareness

I'm in school right now. I just did a fuckload of work that has prevented me from sleeping for over 40 hours. I need sleep. Badly.

I've had over 600 mg of caffeine within 5 hours, which I believe is just under overdosing. I see colored spots in my peripheral vision, and I am fading in and out of spontantaneous delirium. My body is trying to reject the excessive amounts of hazelnut coffee I've ingested, making my stomach want to lurch at random. I need help badly.

-DC

Oi vey. I'm just procrastinating now, I should be doing my Western Philosophy homework. Oh, fuck it. I'll do it in the morning.

My friend David Chen told me a joke once:

"What did the raver say after he ran out of drugs?"
"What?"
"This music fucking sucks!"

AHAHAHAHAHA....ha........ha... well, it was funny when I first heard it.

Anyway, apparently I'm not done with all that "college shizzle", and I have to do this God damn book lay-out for a client by March that will take an eternity to complete, so apparently I don't have any free time. I hate responsibility... someone fucking kill me.

P.S.- I promise never to use the word "shizzle" in any of my journal entries, posts or further context ever again. I am sorry.

I'm finishing up with college interviews and all that bullshit, so now I have more time to do what -I- want to do.

I don't know if I should bother putting my pencil drawings here yet, I haven't decided.