Sealacanth Studios: Smecking Litsos

If you are unfamiliar with Nadsat lingo, then you are probably confused by this title. You are also hereby banned from reading my blog! Just kidding. But you should read A Clockwork Orange. So my painting class has finally come to an end, and our last painting was a figure study using a live model. I'm truly sad that all classes can't be as great as this class was, and that this is probably the last time I can relax and take classes simultaneously, but all good things must come to an end. Anyway, here is my last piece from Painting I:

Live Model Portrait (Day1-2)

Live Model Portrait (Day3-4)

Live Model Portrait (Day5)

crazy eye

Because of my recent preoccupation with moving and working, I haven't been very productive in the art department, so I'm going to cheat and post some old stuff. I was looking through my old sketchbooks and found a bunch of portraits I've drawn, roughly between 2007 and 2010. I would like to preface this by saying you are NOT allowed to judge me based on the people I drew... Clearly I was into rock stars.

Jesse Lacey from Brand New - 2010

Thom Yorke from Radiohead - 2008

Adam Lazzara from Taking Back Sunday - 2008?

Kurt Cobain and Dave Grohl from Nirvana - 2007

Bjork - 2008

Refugee Girl from National Geo - 2008?

And, whilst looking through pictures on my computer, I found this gem that dates back to 2007. ((Start playing THIS SONG now)) These are my good friends Megan and Melissa, who I've known since my sophomore or junior year in high school. As you can see, they've been fans of my art from the start, already demanding work from me early on. All jokes aside though, I can't express how much I appreciate their support, and I feel pretty lucky to call them muh girls. Hopefully one day I will replace this smudgy drawing with a new, glamorous portrait, but in the meantime, I post this in their honor:

World's Biggest Fans, Meg and Melissa - 2007

Finally, Walton Ford is my artist of discussion (to which I thank Tumblr for introducing me to him). Ford is a current painter from Larchmont, New York, and his large scale watercolors mix the techniques of traditional naturalist illustration with symbolism to portray very disturbing allegories. In some of his works, he exposes the dark side of the fathers of natural science, like Carl Akeley and John Audubon; field researchers/artists who ironically destroyed the wildlife they set out to teach the world about. After reading this interview with Ford, it's hard to tell whether he is a true animal lover, or whether he is just inspired by the drama, but regardless, his images of birds swallowing piles of frogs and gorillas pointing shotguns in their mouths leave you with an unsettling feeling in your stomach. Ford has managed to turn scientific illustration into something more than just rendering nature, and for that reason, he is awesome.

(All of his art is made with watercolors, gouache, ink and pencil):