So I officially have photoshop fever~  It finally somewhat clicked last week . . . any thoughts?

I'm trying to figure out how to size them correctly for my website.  I was told 72 resolution but I'm not sure if that is correct. 

HWell hello blog . . . its been a year, an epic fail on my part!  So hopefully I got a little more tech savy during this year, but I really doubt it.

So lets have a little recap shall we!  I have officially graduated in December 2011.  I am part of an 11 member art group called Outliers, our website is outliersart.com.  We had our first official show in mid December at 2 and 101 Henry Adams Street in San Francisco -

 

I wanted to try something a little out of my comfort zone for this show.  For the past 4 years I had become so accustomed to painting pieces for assignments that it was strange to be left to my own devices.  When I'm left to explore like this my ideas become pretty fluid and I constantly make changes to my concept.  

Well this was quickly the issue with this series.  

I wanted to explore the idea that energy is never destroyed, but in fact transforms from object to object.  I have always loved painting portraits and wanted to present the portraits in a energetic manner.  I split the canvases into multiple pieces and connected them with copper piping. 

The concept wasn't as solid as I had hoped it would be by the end of the semester and wasn't received very well by the art critics that saw the show.  I wasn't surprised by their reviews of my pieces because I felt they weren't as thought out as they could have been.  They're criticism has given me the push I needed to round out my concept  . . . so vandalized train cars had to be found!

 

 Good bye for now portraits . .. hello industrial composition!

So moving on with the update!-  I finally made Christmas paintings, all thanks to not having to worry about other painting projects.  A nice perk to graduating!

So after the new year I began to focus on getting ready to get a job as a Conceptual Artist.  I was told by someone who works in the field that a degree in fine art would be the best move for getting into the industry.  Sadly for me, this meant that I got little to no training in Photoshop or any type of digital painting.  As well as the skills I would need to present my concept work to a potential client.  Fine art gave me the necessary training that I need, but failed to give me the modern/business punch necessary to succeed.  

So I basically had to scrap my portfolio and start from scratch teaching myself how to digitally paint and familiarize myself with the more business side of this field.  Its frustrating but a little liberating to be forcing myself to stick to Photoshop and make my own working agenda. 

And that is where I'm at now!  So lets move on to the things that I have found inspiring!

I have been hell bent on fine tuning my drawing/painting style.  I have always had a strange attraction to old school mug shots.  They are so raw and vulnerable, especially compared to the touched up glamorous versions of people we are used to being presented with today-

I've also been drawn to ink washed paintings/drawings lately.  I've always loved working with ink, and have recently discovered how to make the paintings I do in photoshop have and ink/watercolor look to them which I'm super excited about :D

And of course you can't go wrong with a little street art and classic Steve Mcqueen-