Elements Posters / SubSurface Flyer

Elements is a monthly night of Hip-Hop fellowship. The goal is to rally the community of DJ's, MC's, Breakers and graffiti artists in support of each other; keeping the spirit of SubSurface Graffiti Expo alive year-round. I designed and illustrated the posters and flyer below.

Recent Work

Illustration

 

 

Much of the last year has been spent developing my painting skills; both digital and traditional. It made sense for me to immerse myself in digital media, specifically Photoshop, as a way to create much richer illustrations and save time doing so. Without the limitations of the physical tools, I can try everything I want in terms of color and texture. You can manipulate the entire image or only specific parts. And, of course, once I acquired my own Cintiq, the drawing aspect itself became nearly seamless... Nearly. As a result I have been working on portfolio pieces over the last few months and here are a few that stand out right now. The last piece is one I created as a concept for the ebook, Every Walrus Can Fly. Written by my good friend Brian Phillips, Art Directed by myself and Executed by just about every member of the great team at The Basement.

Fine Art

As for traditional media, well that's not really an accurate term. I have done a lot of study using acrylic in the last year. I like to do plein air paintings as well as the occasional portrait or still-life, but for the work I'm really exploring I tend to leave representational imagery out of it. If there is something specific I'm trying to get across I will usually go with an illustrative approach. abstract painting appeals to me because paint itself appeals to me. The joy of pushing paint around to build ambiguous but dramatic space is very compelling. I also prefer to incorporate spray paint into each piece. I really like aspects of both and when there are  well-matched acrylic and aerosol colors on hand, there are nearly no limitations at all. In fact, it's almost like having the freedom to choose brushes and effects in Photoshop. At this point, after a year of consistent study of both, the digital and traditional are really beginning to inform each other.