Remembering

Finals

Its finals week, which with only two classes requires a lot more discipline to fight early winter break mode. Here's my final from my conceptual illustration class, we made a zine with the theme "myths of the future." Mine came from how orange the night sky looks in San Jose and what that kind of progression looks like in the futureeeeee.

rungs

I painted this self portrait. To me it perfectly expresses that best point in the artistic process, where you achieve that balance of pride and satisfaction at reaching a new level and determination to improve even further.

I am surrounded by amazing people who inspire me and help me grow. So much to learn and do.

More small paintings.

Some self-portraits, a plein air, and some speedy guys from reference. There's this Nathan Fowkes post where he mentioned his practice of studying color and composition every day. I think about that when I do these, and it makes it a lot easier to work on my gaps in knowledge, and have fun with something I really struggle with. 

Always learning! 

Semester's almost over, and things keep speeding along! Gotta keep balanced footing to make it through! 

GIF

Put to Practice

Here's some unused ideas from our most recent project, wrapping on Tuesday with a gallery show! Click to see them in full!

and some daily paints 30 -60 minutes

I went to CTN this past weekend, learned a lot and met a lot of amazing and inspiring people! Currently working on putting all the great critiques I received to practice!

Happy Turkey Day! 

luv, bjet

Fan Girl

My friend Peter Le has been unwittingly acting as my creative muse lately. This post is a tribute to him:

My new favorite game

My friend, Steven Celiceo, and I have been playing this game lately. In acts of vandalism, he'll scrawl doodles of male genitalia on my pads of paper - creating a challenge for me to turn them into something other than a phallus. Here's two from figure drawing:

And here's some figures from that self-same session!

bjet OUT

ps put a bird on it

Looking all around me

"A change in value means a change in color"

More Revisions. More practice. 

doodles

doodles from class!

Bits!

So I've just completed my first illustration project for my conceptual illustration project - the class is all about loving the process, so MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. He asks us to work in a way that is totally intuitive to my style, just putting stuff down and letting those decisions guide you whereva! This first project was called "Generations" and involved exploring how one thing leads to another thing leads to another thing, which was reflected in the creation process - we created 6 individual illustrations, and ultimately smushed em together for one piece. Check it outttt:

And the comps for putting it all together, created by playing with black and white versions of the bits. 

And the final piece: 

Now back to BFA work. Its so hard, you guys! 

<3 bjet="bjet" p="p">

Log Rolling Contest

So now I'm in my final year of schooling! I'm taking two awesome classes, conceptual illustration with Baron Storey and my senior project class, commonly referred to as BFA. Both challenge my ability to think creatively and execute skillfully...while managing my time and working as a mentor for two classes.

So far the semester feels like this: 

So let's see if I can stay on the log, suckas! 

So the first two weeks of BFA we had to create a one minute introduction video: 

And a 3 to 30 seconds of animation based on the prompt that the finished product be labeled, "The Chair," the following is my effort on that account, my apologies that its just a link - the formatting of the blog makes the video embed funny: 

https://vimeo.com/49059721

That's all for now, got class in the morning! 

<3 bjet="bjet" div="div">

Some work resurfaces!

Cafe Game Wrap Up

So this past Saturday was the wrap up party for Courier Cafe, the video game project I've been working on. I felt super lucky to be part of such an awesome project with awesome, hardworking people. Some of the awesome, hard-working people are still working away, to program the game and get it ready for the world of mobile apps. In the meantime, here's some of the art from my contribution to the project!

 This is a background painting that you'll see in the window of the cafe. Painted flat, but in layers so there'll be some nice parallax as you move through the cafe.

Some color explorations for the game menu you'll see below

The game menu is an ACTUAL CAFE MENU! The final render and a turnaround for modeler reference. 

The logo for the cafe. This was probably the toughest part, with a lot of things I'd like to fix. To get design like this just right requires a lot more noodling and refining than we had time for. 

Some little drawings for the bar shelf.

This project was a blast to work on, and now its time to work on my portfolio and website! Learning a bit about html and coding, and it's real tough! We'll see what happens! 

BJET OUT

Expanding upon my visual language

Dear Blog,

Summer has been rocketing along in a mess of work, friends, art, and the ever-expanding realm of adult responsibilities. Last week I made two experiments in the realm of embroidery, taking advantage of the massive amount of embroidery floss I've acquired in ways mysterious to even me. 

The first project was a birthday present for my dear friend Erica, who has taught me a lot about what it means to be a part of a community and helped me to grow more in sync with the world around me. This one was a free hand design, using the back stitch and a smattering of the french knot stich. 

This second one is the counselor appreciation cape from my work, which I was honored to receive last Friday. Since I was visiting family that weekend, I had a lot of time on public transportation to work on a badge that is a combination of the Tech Museum and Galileo logos. 

I've found embroidering to be a relaxing and meditative exercise. Got to get back to my other projects, though!

Bjet Out

Keeping Busy

Summer just kicked into full gear! I just started my new job as an assistant instructor at Camp Galileo teaching kids video game design. Its really cool and challenging, the camps really emphasize creativity. There's so many parallels with the design process I've learned in my visual development class. My teachers have always said that  everything we learn comes from the same base of knowledge, and its really great to constantly see new examples of how true that wisdom really is. 

In other news, I recently did this poster for an event for the San Jose Bike Coalition, the Cafe Tour. Its pretty cool, the ride is going to go to all these different cafes around San Jose and Santa Clara - I friggin love coffee so I can't wait. If you're in the San Jose area, definitely come out! 

Pinnacles National Park

Practicing with watercolors these past few weeks has forced me to practice more thoughtful execution of paintings, which I applied to this acrylic plein air piece I painted at Pinnacles National Park. Acrylic is of course more forgiving than watercolor, which really paid off in this painting. The June day was unusually overcast, we actually got caught in the rain at the peak of our hike. The views were choice, but we were unable to paint them due to the inclement weather. HOWEVER! The weather eased off as we reached the parking lot,  so we still got our painting day after all! Towards the end of my painting, the sun began to peak out and friggin ILLUMINATED my chosen piece of nature. I worked quickly to rework the lighting, plein air adventures amirite?

czech it out!

Speedy Paints

 This week: beautiful weather, celebrating the end of the semester, celebrating friend's graduations, and relaxation! I've also been getting to ride, run, and hike everyday which is the BEST but my poor muscles are pretty out of shape so its also been the most PAINFUL. 

I was also lucky to go painting at a few cafes and the Japanese Friendship gardens this week, but painting with gouache and watercolor is pretty unforgiving so I wasn't too inclined to scan those guys. 

Gonna go keep jammin'!