My direction in Life

I am an illustrator that can take an idea and create an image that comes to brand it - so I guess that's like designy/illustraty ( I know you like my words). I want to have a career that includes all aspects of my artistic talent - so in that since, I won't just be considered an illustrator but also a hip hop artist. My current work has been only working on the promotion of my group and some nice portrait paintings ( I like painting portraits). My body of work is about to reflect my activities now though because I feel like I have a more solid concept that encompasses what I like to do in all aspects. Ten images that would enhance my portfolio are the ones that I have been sketching. I would upload them but they are so small and vague that they need me pointing things out for you to understand whats going on. These images include the formation of the idea that represents Red Planet also out musical events and struggles. My theme is pretty much going to be this artsy/ musicy feel. I want to do techniques that involve mix media and similar to the look of Edward McSwine, as well as focus and out of focus techniques where I get loose in my style and back to controlled. As far as formats go, I want to direct myself toward a comicy/ blog feel to where it feels like you are following a blog post by experiencing my illustrations.

What would I do?

- If I had to spend my whole life illustrating one book, it would be, The Empire Writes back. It has so much information and it is basically a life journey because of all the information in there and the challenge of applying to one's life. If I could apprentice with any two artist in History, I would do it with Leonardo Da Vinci because he seems very adventurous, but do I really have to explain...he's the renaissance man. The other artist would be Pissarro because he is considered the father of impression which pretty much sparked off a lot of the modern art we know today, plus, I would have a great time with nature and possibly kicking it with his 9 or so, children.
- If I was banned from doing art I would either be an engineer or a psychologist, because both involve breaking things apart and possibly making them stronger.
- If I had one month and a thousand dollars, I would make an effort to gather artistic talent ranging from ages 9 and above together to paint a huge mural about how they interpret Red Planet within the confines of the mask. Their idea a collective group making strides towards understanding perspective realities.
- If I had six months and ten thousand dollars then I would invest in Red Planet. Creating the necessary buzz by making a tour for block parties and clubs.
- If I had one year and one hundred thousand dollars I wouldn't starve for at least a year...I would invest into RLC art, creating a platform for visual artists, rappers, poets, and dancers to be apart of. I would provide an avenue for those things in the community, helping to build it up. It would be a launching pad for those areas, as far as getting kids motivated. And yes, it would be competitive to be apart of. Try out would happen every year. It would be like a gang of extraordinary talent.

My Imaginative Magazine is Called Collab

Lets make a worthy magazine that someone might actually pick up...hopefully...maybe. I was thinking that what if there was a magazine that appealed to collaborative performance pieces. That means a dance, sidewalk art, or murals. If it was something that happened over a span of time, we would need great pics of the whole process - film wouldn't be bad either. I would have a site dedicated to the footage. I would need a couple energetic and some sarcastic writers and artists. I would want it to have a clean feel to it, almost like how some websites are. Juxtapose maybe a good example as well because it has an image, three names above that and the magazine title. I would want the feature piece to be on the cover or maybe a close up of it. I would prefer if the words didn't overlap and I'm kinda shaky on whether I would want the cover to have the same format every week, or have the words fitting the art every time.

Non magazine clients that I would like to work with.

The first that comes to mind is Mark Zuckerberg because of the pull he has in the social media and the possibilities of making a large collaborative project that involves tons of people. 

Kanye West - I believe he is a visual artist as well and based on the video that he produced about his whole album, I think he could bring a lot of creativity to the table. 

Bansky - It would be dope to work with him because he could make murals and tags about some of the ideas that RED Planet employs. 

Jeff Zimmerman - The amazing murals that he brings to table could also help in these efforts. 

Edwin McSwine - Another Mural artist  - I could see us working together to make the art scene larger than it is in Memphis. 

Hot Topic would be great for me for selling t-shirts. 

I would also like to work with CJ of Memphis College of Art and I plan to.
Justine that is the musical leader for Stax. I saw him directing those kids and I could see him being apart of future projects that I dream of.
I think of more later. 

Observing and moving my pen.

10 Artist I admire

The Art that follows are pieces that I like and do not necessarily represent the client lists but there work was able to attract what their clients were looking for. I have to aim to stand out enough to be looked upon, and then do some pieces that target the companies that I want to do work for.
Edwin McSwine

He added me as a Facebook friend not too long after I saw his mural Downtown Memphis. 

How Sweet The Sound Mural Project

Francis Vallejo

Clients Include: Playboy, Dr. Pepper/Snapple, Push LLC

Playboy Piece

Jeff Zimmerman 

Clients Include: Bad Boy Entertainment, Dreamworks LLC

Dope Mural for Memphis Commissioned by Rhodes College 

Patrick Rosche

Well couldn't find clients, so I found agents and pretty diverse illustration websites that he is hosted b by: East Wing, Bright Theatre works, Arena Illustration

Michelle Hoefener

Clients: CheeseCake Girl, Soda Pop Miniatures, Custom Screen Printing and embroidery

                     Takasha Murakami

Clients: Louis Vuitton, Kanye West (damn, if he likes it...)

Chuck Anderson 

Google (well Damn...need to get better at photoshop), Mountain Dew, Nike 

Johann Fouriner

Nik Ainley

Clients: Depth Core, Evolution, Digital Arts

Jules Arthur

Red Planet Sketch

Taking journeys through creative processes.

My typical creative process when I receive an assignment usually begins with me writing down ideas and sketching which leads me to talking to other people about what I came up with. In this process, I don't do a whole lot of doodling until I talk to someone. Once I talk to others, I am able to flush out ideas more on paper where I will come up with 20 to 50 thumbnails. I go from there to taking one of those sketches to a larger scale - i wish that I would experiment more during this process with mixed media - that way I can have more versions. I should also try more angles of the same subject matter which I did employ a couple of times. Once I have a nice sized sketch, I translate that over to the scale that I plan to work at. No matter what media I use, I first block in areas that the shapes will occupy then I actually block the forms in. From there I bring the piece to a more finished state, taking breaks, sometimes pictures, and getting advice from friends. Those friends include with art education and those without.

I met this dancer who described her thesis to me. I was surprised to hear that she didn't actually perform it. She composed a conceptual composition based on her experience in life and especially in college. She spoke about how she first brain stormed ideas and came to the conclusion that piece had to be about her experience staying motivated and inspired in the mist of other creative minds and sometimes restricting instructions from teachers. She developed this dance that expressed the task of taking the skills that she learned and making them a natural experience. She did this by creating an imaginary jello wall in the middle of a dance stage. So there are three parts to the stage distinguished by color. From left to right, a red side, yellow strip, and blue side. The dancers all occupied the blue side dancing in a stiff manner and each dancer pursued the other side through the jello wall to a side that allowed them more grace and freedom over their moves. The only problem is that, with each artist that went through the wall, the thicker it got until the last dancers needed the help of each other to get through. This came to symbolize how hard it is to shine once others have made themselves a success but came from the same place as you. It becomes your responsibility do something even more impressive.

The most impressive thing about this piece to me, is that it was never performed.

Lets talk about my art.

My Favorite personal piece is a collaborative mural done with Jason Hunt and David Brown. The mural is located on Midland (off of Hollywood) and Buntyn Memphis, Tn in the Beltline community. It gave me experience with large scale painting and took my painting abilities to a new level. I was able to employ the skills that I already had to help my teammates and also allow myself to learn from skills that I feel like they had better control of. Also, I really did some amazing portraits.

I think people really like these three close ups I did of myself because they are attracted to the detail that I put into it. 

I like it but I see now that though it was detailed, the proportions were off so that aspect turns me off. + they were done my senior year of high school. 

The work that surprised the most recently is a dresser that I found on the sidewalk. It was white when I started and looked pretty bad. It had dings here and there - as well as raised areas (due to rain). I renovated it to something for my girlfriend because she loves spiderman. I was very pleased at the outcome and how professional it looked. 

Five doodles that I like just as much as finished pieces.