Markers!

Hey guys. Just a short little post today. Gonna show you a few quick marker concept sketches I did.

Here's a cool little robot. Nice lines. I named him Ted.

I really like the feel of this one. It reminds me of illustrating my children's book. So fun. Shout out to Corban for letting me use some of his markers and cool, textured paper. My next post will probably be about my last Industrial Design project. Be on the lookout for that and stay cool.

-Joseph Smolin 

Sketches/Ideas

Hey guys. Today I wanted to show you some sketches, and talk a bit about how I generate concepts/ideas. First off, I should say that I draw a lot. Not only do I draw a lot for Industrial Design, but I also draw a lot for me. That doesn't mean I'm always super focused when I draw. Sometimes I just doodle. Here's some proof.

This is what most of my notes look like. I don't really think about what I'm drawing. I just sort of let my hands move and they draw things for me. Recently I've realized that in their own small way, these doodling sessions contribute to me being a better artist/designer. Sometimes I'll find some real gems in notebook pages like this one. For instance, I really like the guy in the bottom left corner of the page. I don't really like anything else on the page that much though.

Alright get ready for some sketches...

Alright so here's a sequence of concept sketches I did sometime over Christmas break. They're obviously a bit rough, but I love some of the ideas and images. They definitely spark my creativity when I look at them. I did all of them in a short period of time while listening to music. The story and the characters just sort of came to me. I was drawing pretty manically too. In my head, I fleshed a short story out of them. I'm always kicking around a story or two in the back of my head. Sometimes I get the opportunity to bring them into the real world, but most of the time I just try to record it in the form of some quick sketches or notes, so I can come back to them later. Sometimes I wish I could just reach into my head and bring out the story as I see it. For whatever reason, that's just not the way things works though.

Here are some more recent sketches on the some subject matter. Just trying to expand upon the visual ideas from the first pile of sketches. Hopefully I'll get to do more with this later, cause I really like the vibes it's sending me. Alright well thanks for reading. I'll try to post again soon. I've just been soooo busy lately.

-Joseph 

Crayons and Other Stuff

Hey sorry it's been a while. I've had a super crazy week, with a big Industrial Design project due on Friday. I'll write a post on the project soon, but first I need to get some pics together.

Anyway back to business. Today I wanted to talk about crayons. I looove crayons. They're like super cheap markers with built in textures and a wax finish. Don't get me wrong, It's pretty much impossible to get good detail with them, but used in the right way with other tools, they can produce crazy good results.

Here's a cool crayon drawing I did a while back. The composition isn't perfect, but I love the way the crayon lines blur together to create complex textures and colors. I like the melting door and dresser. Trying for a Van Gogh type thing there. Overall I think it's pretty cool.

Both of these drawings were produced through the same process. I get some clean copy paper, a pen, and some crayons. I get some good, loud music going. I usually try to capture the energy from a particular song or album and get it onto the paper. My hands move fast and I don't think too much about what I'm doing. I'll go through pages like that. Not only is it tons of fun, but It's also the best way to kick around creative thoughts and ideas that I know of. I basically do the same thing when I need to come up with sketches and ideas for Industrial Design. Once I loosen up the ideas start coming pretty fast, and I can get some good work done. Typically I generate a lot of bad ideas, a fair amount of ok ideas, and a few really good ideas from a session like that. 

Man, it feels like so long ago that I did this one. Really it was less than a year ago. I did it for an art class final. Fun stuff.  A bit silly maybe, but it has a certain neon bluntness that I admire. From what I remember, it was lots of fun to do too. It's still on display in the upstairs hallway of the art building at Samford University as far as I know.

I wanted to leave you guys with this simple little drawing I did on illustrator a long time ago. There's a lot to be said for analyzing visual art and figuring out what makes it tick, but at the same time, there's a lot of mystery that has to be maintained too. Sometimes I spend hours sketching and come up with nothing I consider to be good. I did this sketch in probably less than ten minutes, and now years later it still makes me stop and think. I don't know why art works this way, but it does, at least for me.

Alright thanks for reading. Will try to post again soon. 

-Joseph 

Hello World

Hey! Welcome to my art/design blog. I'm Joseph Smolin, a young visual artist from Birmingham, AL, currently enrolled in Auburn University's excellent Industrial Design program. I plan to use this blog as both a means to put my work out there and a creative outlet. Expect to see pages from my sketchbook, pictures of Industrial Design projects I'm working on, and any other visual pieces/ projects I create or dig up. Keep in mind that this is not an online portfolio, a lot of the stuff I post will be rough sketches, or concepts for larger works. The point of this blog will be to document my creative process, not to store my best work.

With that being said, I thought I'd kick things off with some older pieces that I'm fond of.

This painting has grown on me a lot since I did it a few years back. The style is bit simplistic even for what it's trying to do, but I enjoy the different patterns and textures shown. I also love the colors. Overall I think it remains a solid painting.

Here's a neat little found object sculpture I did for an art class about a year ago. I think it came together really well. I love the motion of the wire limbs as well the feeling of the whole piece. The main body is a cork, the head is a upside down candle, the eyes and heart are buttons, and the limbs are made out of wire. I heated the wax to soften it so I could place the eyes on, I also burned the cork body for texture. Fun stuff.

Here's a cool album cover I did for my brother's band. My brother picked a similar drawing out of my sketchbook and also came up with the central concept. It's simple, but effective. The design has actually grown on me a lot since I first did it. Good stuff. Oh also you should check out Ocean Liner; They're good.

Here are some different views of a mobile I did for my Industrial Design studio last semester. Overall I think it's pretty successful. It's hard to capture a moving sculpture in still photographs, but these pictures show off the angles of the mobile pretty well.

This last one is from a children's book I wrote and Illustrated, doing the brunt of the work in the summer of 2013. It was a wonderful process to work through, and I'm proud of the end result. Unfortunately, finding a reliable publisher has been a struggle, and I'm still trying to figure out the best path to follow. It's looking like a longer and longer road, and it's getting harder and harder to find time to devote to it. I, however, remain hopeful that the book will, one day, find it's way to the right publisher. It's definitely something that I need to devote more time to soon.

Alright that's it for now. Hope you enjoyed it, and I'll try to post again soon.

Thanks for your time,

-Joseph