Toned Sketchbook Exerpts

Hey guys, got some new sketches for you today. These are all (with one exception) taken out of this little gray toned mole-skin I got. I like the look, although I wish I'd gotten a larger size.

I did this one in studio, while other people were presenting. It's sort of a spiritual self-portrait, I suppose. I like how it manages to seem cocky and tragic at the same time. 

I hope I get more time to work in this sort of style in the future. One evening all of these of these crazy energetic images started coming to me, and I tried to get something out of them. It's not bad, but it doesn't really do justice to what I was seeing in my head either.

This is just a miscellaneous drawing I did really fast that stood out to me.

This one is somewhat based off of this sculpture I did in high school, which looked like this: 

I had a sort of "neon-decay" thing going on then that I sometimes miss in my more recent stuff.

I did this listening to "Dollar Days" by David Bowie. It's far from perfect but I like something about it.

Thanks for reading,

-Joseph Smolin

New Drawing

Alright, finally getting around to updating this. Been really busy. Here's a crayon drawing I did in class. It's called "THINKING IS NO FUN" and it comes from personal experience.

Be back soon!

Love,

-Joseph

Happy Valentine's Day!

Quick crayon drawing for you guys:

 More to come soon. I actually have a lot of stuff; I've just been totally bulldozed by Industrial Design lately. On top of that I've been pretty sick. It's been rough, but I'm finally starting to feel better. Should be back on top of things soon though.

Love,

-Joseph

Toned Illustration No. 2

Hey guys! Yesterday I did a sequel of sorts to the piece I put up right after new year's.

This sort of ties in with a story I've been making up in my head. Maybe someday it'll turn into a real book, who knows? Anyway, really enjoying this new style with the toned paper. The look of this piece was heavily inspired by the Goya print "Will She Live Again?" which looks like this:

Love,

-Joseph

Some New Sketches

Hey guys, got a few pages out of my current sketchbook to show you:

The return of the gas mask guys I used to draw. Entitled "Waiting (Isolation Suits)."

Crayon + ballpoint + Highlight pen. A very physically satisfying piece to do. Actually ripped through the paper in a few spots from manically scratching the paper. Also inspired by the Bowie song "Dollar Days."

Entitled "A Gentleman."

Crayon + ink. Entitled "Rat Boy Tries to Fall in Love." Pretty self-explanatory in terms of content, or at least I would imagine so.

Love,

-Joseph

Bowie Portrait

Hey guys, tried my hand at a Bowie portrait after I heard the news. Here it is:

His death hit me pretty hard. I've known "Five Years", "Lady Stardust", and "Life on Mars" for as long as I can remember. Listening to "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" all the way through for the first time as a young adolescent changed everything about the way I related to music and art. For a long time afterwards, my main musical input consisted of slowly working my way through his 70's albums. Bowie also had a huge influence on my visual art. I'm almost unable to draw without listening to the "right" music. Bowie took it a step further by guiding me though visual worlds I would never have discovered on my own. For a long time, I thought that my art consisted of nothing more than a translation of the music I liked into visual forms. The majority of the time this meant turning my new favorite Bowie album into pages of frenzied sketches and concepts, just trying to figure it all out.  

Rest in Peace, Bowie. Your family lost a loving man. The world lost a incredible artist.

Love,

-Joseph

Toned Paper Illustration

Hey guys! Here's a new drawing I'm excited to show you.

I went for a more illustrative "storybook" style on this one. Something I haven't done in a while. I also used tone paper with marker + pencil + ballpoint + highlight pen for a much more layered look. All turned out pretty well. Good start to the year!

Love,

-Joseph