Update/Plans

Hey! It's been awhile. I''m back in the states feeling refreshed, creative, tired, and a little high-strung. I have some free time for the first time in what feels like forever. I want to use this to throw myself back into my art. I'm hoping that this summer will be a big time for my art. I love Industrial Design, but it's sucked up 99% percent of my time over the last year. I want to do some design over the summer, but I also want to use it to get myself out there as artist. I'm gonna set up a tumbler, artist Facebook page, and maybe an Instagram. I'm also gonna try to enter Art Walk this year, as well as look into some other art festivals and studios. I also wanna finally find a publisher for my kid's book. All in all I got some work to do, but I'm also very excited. It should be fun. Look for a lot to happen on this blog in the coming weeks and months. I'm gonna be painting a lot, and showing the process and results on here. I'm also gonna be posting a lot of sketches and photography.

With that being said, let's start with some recent sketches I've done:

Here's a quick little concept sketch I did a few days ago. Nice lines for the most part. Not the most exciting thing to start on, but I wanted to show that I'm still drawing and generating ideas every day.

I've been working on separating my work into distinct moods lately. This sketch represents one very particular type of mood I'm interested in. I want to separate my work like this so that each individual work will be more intensely itself. I feel like I'm battling different ideas too much when I draw, and I'm trying to fix that. I love the intensity of this sketch, but I don't want everything I do to be this emotionally harsh. By separating it out from my other stuff, I won't just preserve other moods I like to work with; I'll actually intensify this mood too.

Here are the same sketches with some quick Illustrator work added. I didn't want to just show the raw sketches, I also wanted to show the colors and possibilities I see when I look at them.

Time for some photography from Ireland!

Beautiful landscape in the Burren.

I like this photo. I think it has a good sense of humor. Also taken in the Burren.

Old rune in Ireland. Nice colors.

This is my favorite photo of the bunch. I really like this photo.

More runes. Nice textures.

Celtic cross. I love the little spots of moss on it.

Well that's it for now. Hope you enjoyed it. Lots of new stuff coming soon.

-Joseph Smolin