Time Line

Everyday you learn something new about yourself and recently I experienced something that changed my life and made me realize that all the work I have done at the end of the day benefits others. What is the need to be so secretive when it comes to my art. A signature may be erased but the hand style & technique are also other forms of signatures. You can always detect your favorite artists work either by their brush stroke or just the finishing touches laid onto a piece. Now the recent works I've been doing vary from pen & ink as well as gouche and acrylic paints. I enjoy doing these pieces for those that I know it is truly helping them and they are appreciative of the time and effort that goes into it. Hand skill is something that is almost lost along with the thought process behind it as well.

Truth be told I remember a couple of years back I was talking to someone and he was telling me about the freelance work he was doing and how ill it is. Then he'd go on to tell me how detailed his work is and that no one out there does what he does. It really got my blood boiling because I was like, bro everything you do is on a computer. Do that shit by hand then we can talk but you know "everytime you see'em, ya know what sayin, don't front for me man, you gonna play that role, play it" © Raekwon & Ghostface. The positive thing about that is that it pushed me to get more original pieces of work out into this industry. The work being put out lost a lot of its character & originality. These few pieces here are works for Aloha Army and In4mation. I will be showcasing more in the future as I get into the true MG State of Mind.

This is a piece I did a post on a while back and the inspiration comes from Heavy Metal Magazine. When we were younger the crew always copped them. Mine and O's older brothers put us onto them when we were younger.

Yes nothing is more Americana then the pin up nose art on the bombers of World War II. For Aloha Army we just did a series and added our touch to it.

In4mation Inspiration

It's time again to show support to the In4mation Ohana. This is their spring 2010 launch. I selected a few styles as a teaser. I know I'm a bit late with it but all the other blogs won't show you the art that comes in this season.

For more on the In4mation collection click here.

I can't believe a year has gone by already. I have to say that some of the work I've been doing has taken me back to my adolescence. I haven't painted or drawn this much easily within the past 10 years (since we started Alphanumeric) of being in this industry. Alyasha always would push me to do more painting and drawing but to be completely honest I didn't see it. I wasn't comfortable with my hand style or the outcome of the product. I was being my worst critic for sure. What I've come to realize over the years is that everything was being generated on a computer. There was a loss in the indiviuality of the art/graphic. Only a select few decided to stay with doing hand finished graphics.

This is truly an eye opener for me since I lost the connection with the child within. To enjoy what I do instead of looking at it as a routine. Idle hands makes for the devils playground. So with that said I put these bad boys to work. Enough talk and here are 2 style I created. One was inspired by my favorite magazine Heavy Metal.

Here are the sequence shots of the project.

the end product.

This one was really taking it back to when I was into Hardcore Punk circa the later half of the 80's. I remember having to forge my birth certificate in order to go to the sunday matinees. You had to be I thinnk 16 yrs old. For me it was really that and Hip Hop because I am one dude that couldn't stand freestyle music. Uggghhh just the thought of it till this day. My older brother would laugh and tease me about it and then I remember recent talks with Dash 167 would also tell me I'm crazy for not liking it, color me crazy then. It was lacking a message and for me that wasn't the move. So anyways this is where part of the inspiration came from on top of the love for the things like nature channel & Nat Geo.

Man I remember seeing things in the pit where dudes would get lumped up. When there was a beef you handled it in the pit. That's why dudes would form like a pack of piranhas in the pit. Shout to Jere, MQ, Mod, Ezec, Vanz, Double O (RIP), Sasha, Nino, LD, and Eli.

This was how I started out. Unfortunately it wasnt coming out the way I wanted doing it in stipple. Back to the drawing board.

Decided to go back to using a paint brush to go for a stronger more comic book feel.

Inking in as I go on.

fin

I also realized I never showed some of the other pieces I did for the Holiday season that just passed, so here they are.

This little bad boy took me like 4 days. I had fun throwing in all kinds of izm's into it. Its lmost like a "Where's Waldo?" type of thing.

This was overall just a mix of fun things. Previous graphics all mixed in a tasty jambalaya. Had to throw in the Cheshire Cat since he's always been my fav since little.

This one is raw dog and got dropped. We were making fun of the tongue twisters and The Little Mermaid. We know we know but we got a kick out of it.