another restaurant review

so here's my new reviiewwwww for LOVE LANE KITCHEN in mattituck, ny. and the pequeña one is revised also... but i'll post that at a later dateeee.. ENJOY!

FINALLY A FINISHED PROJECT YAAAYY

i have finally reached a point of content and it took long enough.

enough blahbalh here's the finished piece ... the review isn't there yet but ignore the lorem ipsum i just needed fake text.

I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT STEVENSMITHART

for you steven smith i hate you so much

i dont even care if you dont like this steven smith art who doesn't even have a website, you lame ass....

SO I'M DOING RESTAURANT REVIEWS AND THIS IS PART OF THE WHOLE THING ILL SHOW YOU ALL THE FINISHED PRODUCT WHEN ITS FINISHED WHICH WILL BE MONDAY EVENING. i'm doing drawings on location of the actual restaurant and then featuring an appetizer, a main course and a drink... this is from Pequeña my fave mexican restaurant evar... this is just the inking of pulled pork enchiladas and rice and beans, i'll be adding color to it this weekend...

NOW STFU STEVE

you dont even have to say it

yeah i know its been a while. its been a hell of a whirlwind of a semester so far, and notsomuch in a good way but hey im getting by and doing what i need to do. enough of the "im stressed out venting thing" lets just cut to the chase and post some art!

here are some scans of drawings i've done in my scientific illustration class. my scanner is smaller than i anticipated it to be when i thought to scan these but i was already set to scan so i did it anyways so i apologize for the vignette-like shadows on the corners... so yeah!

skull of some unidentified animal


a dried lotus pod and an opened tangerine


my first homework assignment, couldn't find anything interesting to draw so i drew my eyelash curler

NEW WEBSITE!!!

WOOOOOOHOOOOO

so i finally have a fully completed website with all the little goodies anyone could imagine. please enjoyyyyy


and again, i'd like to note that i am currently offering my web design services for free for those who inquire! im building my web portfolio and am taking any chances i get for experience. plz contact me if you are interested!

new project.. i have too many ideas for projects..

so i always start projects and never finish, but here's one that i've started. im going to draw my way through my itunes. hm. so i started with alicia keys.. i've done adele and alanis morrisette but i think i will redo those. so here's alicia for the time being.

now that i look at it, her eyes are soo crooked. ugh. guess ill do her over again too

lack of updation

okay so i've pretty much had to most unsatisfying summer of my entire life although it sure has had its wonderfully great parts. its just really been stressful and overloaded with adult things i dont want to deal with ever but i guess i'm getting old and shit happens.

so i've been working two jobs.. one in manhattan and one at home in greenport (the easternnn eastern end of the north fork of long island). so the two days i have off, i spend them traveling so it does not feel particularly like a day off ever.

today marks the day (hopefully) that our apartment is rid of bedbugs. but i shouldn't speak too soon, i always tend to jinx myself :\

okay so thats only two things, but its hard to put into words how SHITTY AND TERRIBLE it is to have bedbugs. i dont think anyone understands until they have them and pretty much have to deal with the whole situation by yourself. exhausting is an understatement. you cannot sleep comfortably until an exterminator comes (and getting one that is actually affordable is in itself a whole endeavor into darkness) and you basically have to pack your apartment up like you are moving... clothes in bags and have to all be washed, closets have to be EMPTIED completely, and all furniture has to be moved away from the walls and the beds have to be clear of anything so they can take them apart. and you have to do that twice (if you get a reputable exterminator) because the eggs do not get killed by anything in terms of the fumigation (which is most effective) so they have to come back for a second treatment to kill the eggs that hatch after a few weeks. and figuring out you have bedbugs is difficult. for months (yes months) me and my friends and my family baffled ourselves over my strange itchy welts thinking it was an allergy cause noone else that lived with me had 'bites'. guess what... not everyone is allergic to bedbugs.. so you can HAVE them and get BITTEN by them but not have any welts, so you could have a huuuuge infestation and not even know it. luckily (but not-so-much) for my i found a dead bedbug that confirmed that was the situation. one thing to know is that the landlord (if you rent) IS FULLY RESPONSIBLE no matter how the bedbugs got into the building. they HAVE to pay for the exterminator. and make sure they dont just "have a friend" come take care of it. because the last thing you want is to go through the painful process and then have to get someone else to do it all over again months later when you start to get bitten to shreds again.

okay so basically this was a bedbugs info session and i hope NONE of you in the world ever have to deal with this shit. lets hope that this is the only learning experience i have with pests and god almighty i cannot wait for everything to be back in order. sometimes i feel like things never really do get fully back in order, but i guess that keeps my on my toes.

in art news, im redesigning my website so it should be ready soonish.

AND I AM MAKING FREE WEBSITES FOR PEOPLE THAT INQUIRE DUE TO ME WANTING TO DEVELOP MY WEB DESIGN PORTFOLIO... SO PLZ LET ME MAKE YOU A SITE!!!

SHRINKY DINKS

so i did my first experimenting with shrinky dink jewelry. and i must admit i'm pretty excited about it! my next endeavor is going to be a multiple finger ring of an octopus. oh babyyy

EDIT; i just realized that not everyone knows about shrinky dinks. basically its these sheets of plastic that you can color on with sharpies or colored pencil then you cut it out and stick it in the oven and it shrinks like 3x smaller than its original size and turns into a thick plasticky piece.. the duck was originally about 8inches tall so.. you can kinda figure out what it does. but its fun!

dreamy

just a little sketchy sketch i did at the gallery on saturday when it was ssoooosoooo slow!

projects in progress!

so i am working on a new project beginning today... and i'm hoping i would be able to do a show at the gallery i work at with the pieces i make. its kind of a surprise.. it's a big thing i'm taking on but it should be fun!

also, this friday is the opening at the gallery for "summertime". i have a painting in it and the opening is from 6-9, so if anyone would like to pop in, you should! there's some wonderful work there including two pieces from two of my friends. the gallery is Studio E on Front Street in greenport... even if you don't go to the opening, you should check it out if you're ever in/around greenport!

workin' workin' away

so i'm working on a painting for a gallery show titled "summertime" so i decided because i love brooklyn summer time ever so much i'd do something about bk. but i didn't know what to do until i was waiting at ganni's pizzeria (best pizza in town, i swear) and it was nice and hazy and the sky just looked so beautiful above where the sun was setting juxtaposed with the tops of brownstones and their ornate decorative architecture, and a bunch of pigeons swooped in the sky silouhetted against the burning orange and pink clouds. then i knew it. so that is what i am painting but instead of painting the pigeons, i'm doing intricate cutouts on grey paper. so, here are some of the pigeons i have cut out already!

shopping list

procrastinating at work. and i'm a bit stressed and exhausted, so i made a shopping list (apparently virgos like to make lists). it relaxes me. so then i wanted to draw. so i did. maybe ill just start illustrating my shopping lists instead of writing the words out. hmm

headboard sketch

oi i wish i had more time to spend on these drawings. i'm doing a commission this week and then its goin hard on finishing the childrens book for my moms kindergarten class, that should be a lot of work (although i have begun it)

toodaloo

bored at worko.

i'm always hungry. especially for salty things. sometimes i wish that i could draw a food and it'd magically become real because that would make me very happy. especially during times when the cafeteria at the building isn't open yet.

hungryhungryhungry

blahblahblah

so i have been doing so much art lately i just havent been keeping up with my updating duties. eventually i will put them up. but for now im a big fan of late nights, waking up early, going for a run and taking a late afternoon nap. thats my kind of schedule

wow its been a while

so, its been a very long time because i've been so damn busy with the end of the semester: lots of homework, moving around and trying to find someone to move into an empty room in our apartment. but today was my final survey. so ill post a picture of that. cause thats all ive got for ya right now.. hahah

the apOCTOlypse

for my printmaking assignment, we had to do a reduction print about the apocalypse. a reduction print is where you use the same block to do every color and you start with the lightest color first, and then cut away where you want that color to remain and do the next one, repeat, etc. i did a five color print which was really laborious but i'm so happy with how it came out. i took the apocalypse and decided to do something kind of fun, but still morbid. i based the squid creature off of the idea of a Humboldt squid... these squid are very interesting yet not that researched sea creatures... they are so quizzical to scientists that they may just take over the world one day. mwahaha!

a plethora of fantastic thangs

so i had to shoot out home to long island for a doctors appointment thursday night and i can't believe i was already back in brooklyn last night. eesh! well the weather by us was rather scummy but it made a for a gorgeous front yard panoramic! that is the sod field across the street and i love how it just seems absolutely endless. and on the left is this incredibly old and dilapidated barn that i hope they never knock down because its been there since i can remember and theres been a few barns that i loved that were knocked/fell down.

now, for another fun thing to add, i was walking home from the printmaking studio today and i came upon a crate of book in the garbage and oh my god was there a great selection. i basically took all of them, i left a history book (booooring). and i got home very excitedly and plopped on my bed and began flipping through, and out slips a polaroid picture! of very nutty looking people! hahahah i couldn't believe how a great dumpster dive turned into an even better find! woohooo

WELCOME FRIEND!

so my bff andrea totally just joined the blogging community.
and she is a very talented and enthusiastic student of jewelry design at the fashion institute in new york citttaaayy! she is also my roommate and has made me many pieces of jewels that i love to wear and show off.

so... follow her! comment her! woohooooo

CLICK HERE

IF: poise

yesterday morning was nice and relaxing, poised in the kitchen with a book and some tea. i had a very relaxing day of drawing and reading. today i have to go to the sculpture studio and throw 20 cylinders on the wheel for tuesday. oh joy! (click for larger images)

coney island parachute jump print

so our first multiple-block assignment was to do a three colored landscape. we were showed a 'rainbow roll' (which makes me want sushi) but its a certain method of creating a gradient between colors by rolling both colors on the same brayer. so i made my sky fade into a lightblue/white color. i've always loved the silhouette of the parachute drop from coney island. i never knew what it was exactly, ive just seen it so many times driving into brooklyn, going to coney island and from seeing images of it. i never realized it was an actual ride at one point! it sure was a pain in the ass to cut out all the little shapes from the linoleum but it really paid off because i loooove how the print came out. i made a t-shirt too that my roommate wore yesterday. i have 10 prints, but some of the others have really bad registration, so i think im going to elaborate on those and draw directly on the print to continue making it an interesting image.

sweet yo

subject sketch books

so i bought a bunch of sketchbooks and journals from kate's paperie a couple months ago and i got this pack of 6 little sketchbooks which all had different types of paper. one has vellum, the other has natural paper and there all different kinds and they're GREAT. so i decided i was going to make them subject books and draw certain kinds of things pertaining to the subject in all of them. i've started, and i've been working on it slowly.. i'm still trying to figure out other subjects i could do for them. (just to clarify, the 'trains' book is drawings of people i see on the subway or the train that i draw right then and there.)

IF: intricate

here's some intricate houndstooth from a girl that sat in front of me in math class

more sea life

i like sea creatures, what can i say?

familia primero

this is for my most recent illustration assignment, we had to "tell a story about our family" and of course, food is involved with mine! i was chatting with my mom (who i talk to every day!) and i was really stuck on what i was going to do for this assignment and we were just talking about things that are pretty distinct in our family and as soon as she said the word "paella" a lightbulb just went on in my brain (the right side, because that is the creative side of the brain, hahah)

our family loves to eat. on my mom's side we're very spanish... like 99% at least. and we spaniards love seafood and meat and yellow rice (and who can omit sangria) and paella just combines all our favorites into one amazing dish that takes all day and lots of family to make. paella never ceases to bring family and friends together in our closely-knit crowd, even if some people just stop by to eat. i remember every "paella day" we had. i especially loved the ones in my grandparents/aunt & uncle's backyard when i was younger, we did the macarena before it was completely played out by the radio stations, and i always tried shrimp even though i didn't like them (but i do now!).

even on my dad's side, i can't remember anyone who refused paella. it's always been a thing that has brought us together, and i love my entire family tree, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, mom, dad, my brother Mike, and even those who are just as close as family minus the blood-relation, and i treasure each and every one of these people in my life.

sorry for getting a little sappy, but i hope they all know how much i miss and love them!

ending with one of my favorite sayings,
"Familia Primero"
... "Family First"

DWI: Do it With Illustration

so last night I attended a lecture at FITnyc for $5. it was a panel of illustrators all in the business. one of them (christopher silas neal) was a professor of mine last semester, and i did some really cool things with him in that class. it was a great q&a, really informative about the business, and all over just really fun and interesting. i felt very inspired and educated about the illustration business after leaving.

new media

so in my new media illustration class we are doing a flash animation. i am still in the middle of working on it, but i'll give a little screen shot just to tease all of ya.

and yes, of course there is an octopus in it. (would you expect anything less of me?)

jackalopes

so, i haven't updated in a while, and i have plenty of new things to post, but i am lazy. so here is a picture i finally took of the jackalope i painted to andrea for christmas.



it currently resides on our living room wall above the television.

first illustration of the semester

alright errbody, here is my first assignment for illustration of the semester. we had to do an illustration for the cover of time magazine and of course, it had to be about obama and what's next. mine is basically just showing that obama is going to have many influences and people trying to tell him what to do, i mean, he already does. so, yeah! here we go!



now i'm off to class for a critique on it, seeya

mixed media!

so, the great thing about art school is that, even though you major in something, you have the wonderful freedom to take classes in something completely different from what you may be doing for the rest of your life. this semester im taking ceramics and printmaking.. and i've been in the ceramics studio quite a bit in the past week and so far this is what i've done:



we had to pick something out of nature and simplify it into basic shapes, and of course i chose a squid. so the first one is representing their internal beak where the tear apart meat and flesh for food and the second is representing their gills and where they suck in water. i guess itd be considered their nasal passages in a way. so yeah, these are done being shaped and we're going to glaze them, fire them, etc. so i'll post updates i assume

long time no bloggo also...ILLO FRIDAY: PALE

well hello, long time no blog because i've been traveling so much! no time to relax and i've also been looking for a new job or two.

i was in long island for christmas, brooklyn for new years, pennsylvania the weekend after new years and then on the 7th i flew down to florida with my brother for a bit, then back on the 12th, brooklyn on the 15th for a job interview/concert and now i am in long island for a day then moving back into the apartment tomorrow! jeeeeez

the concert i went to on the 15th was ida maria, who is prob one of my faves because she is just so crazy and fun and wild. the show was great. she's norwegian but lives in sweden and has this great accent. she's sooo beautiful too- pale skin, blue eyes and dark brown hair. so here's my entryy for illustration friday, for once!


sayonara!