Project 003 - Roberts Raven Skull

I wanted to create this raven atop a skull portrait. I didn't know what style if skull I wanted or what raven would look good. The composition here is mainly indicating that two different views from the same point is possible. You can stand looking forward, anticipating what life can bring you, or you can look behind you and try to figure out what went wrong. Either way I really hope Robert likes the outcome on this piece. I'll be doing it on canvas with charcoal. 18x24.

Project 002 - Dia de los Muertos

This year on Oct. 31 - Nov. 1, I sketched a skull on a piece of paper. I am kinda obsessed about skulls, and as it is in my culture to recognize our ancestors during these days, I drew this in honor of that day. Of course I am currently working to clean it up and making it more detailed. But here is so far what I have on the project.

The faded gray area is the pencil sketch, the right hand side is the vector process Im working on in Illustrator. I have a few techniques Im working into the project, including the eyes. Im thinking of adding color, but I'll see how it turns out black n shaded. Yes, you can shade your vectors. I will post the finished 1st draft as soon as Im done.

First Post (Project 001)

So this is my first post here on blogspot/blogger. I wanted to keep an online portfolio of artwork I have done, am doing, and will be doing in the future. Just something to keep a  record, or rather somewhere for people to see what kind of work I do, and what I have to offer.

So I will start with my most recent project. A friend of mine, Najwa, commissioned me to design a tattoo piece for her. She is heavily into snowflakes and wanted one that was 'girly, elegant and more flowy' than her previous one. So I came up with a few sketches. The first three were horrible. They looked too...too...structured. Almost like clock hands arrayed at 60 degree intervals. I kept going. I drew a couple of different versions and came up with nothing.

I put down the ideas for this project and took a break. A few days later I was drawing on an index card at home and I came up with the general concept of what I liked:

I took this into Illustrator, vectorized it, chopped it up into pieces, and moved the pieces around until I got more or less what I thought looked good. I found a good balance and emailed the final piece to Najwa. She emailed me back saying she loved the piece. She getting it tattooed on her birthday, (at the end of January) and I requested to go with her. I cant wait. Here is the final piece she requested along with her initial in the middle, (also as requested):

Below and to the right is the original piece I used to create the rest.
Let me know what you think about this.