six of my best pieces of art! (and by "best" I mean "favorite")

Hello Internet!

I think I speak for most artists when I say It's hard to rank your work. Especially in college, when you're making such eclectic pieces for every which course, in addition to pieces you just randomly decide to spend a couple hours on. Here (in no particular order) are my 6 favorite.


1. foxbear (a series)

A project for Illustration class where I combined two animals (like a mad scientist) using different mediums. (From left to right: acrylic, cut paper, watercolor and ink, ink)


2. still life (in graphite)

Wasn't a big fan of this class, but this was by far my favorite piece. It's got my Green Lantern power battery, my favorite Mets hat I bought in New York, and my white PS3 controller! (All of my favorite things!) And since I'd never done anything like this, I really like the way turned out.

3. party cannon

"Party Cannon" was just some MLP fan art that got out of hand. I did a little pencil and ink, a little bit of crosshatching, and ended it all with some watercolors, and a touch of colored pencils. My favorite thing to do is get a well-known character and give them a little darker twist.

4. ecocord

Another Illustration project based on an eco-friendly conservation message, focusing on solar power. The tedious/fun part of this piece is the ridiculous amount of wires (and the cast-shadows in between them). 

5. Mickey Avarice Mouse

Again, I love making recognizable character all grimy and ugly. And if we're talking big business, Mickey isn't the cleanest character to start with. (I worked for the mouse for over a year, and it was... an experience). If you don't get the image, it's a comment on DIsney (who already owns Lucasfilms) tempting Stan Lee (Marvel Comics) with money in front of Disney Studios. . . . (figure it out)

6. TRUST ME (a series on doubt)

A piece I did over the summer. Oil on canvas with two LED light bars, and wood to block out the negative of the letters. I did everything on this piece from scratch. I cut all the wood for the back piece, the negative letter space, installed the lights, added the switch to the light's cord, and nailed the whole thing together. I really enjoyed the result of this random idea in my head, and figured I'll probably do a couple more using different phrases and faces. 

Well that's 6, and this is a super long blog entry, so I'll post more stuff later. But that's all for now!

-Lantern

labor day weekend! (end of week 1)

Hello Internet!

Unfortunately, I didn't get into the Friday class I wanted/needed/could probably take next semester, and I was pretty bummed. I was seriously looking forward to learning about drawing heads and hands, buuuuutt the good news is, I got into an even better, more relevant class! Sequential Art!!

So being the future comic book superstar that I am, Sequential Art is essentially 
Lantern's Future Career 101 (or rather, 367). 

This class looks so freaking amazing. I get to pitch a couple comic ideas that have been floating around in my head, I get more practice on my inking skills, improve my visual story-telling, improve my portfolio; making it more relevant to my field, and basically get a first-hand look into the industry that will one day be paying my bills. (And the professor is pretty cool too.)

Mickey Mouse and George Lucas's newest addition to the Disney family. 

(Mickey, the years have not been kind.)

Other classes include graphic design (where I have no idea what I'm doing... yet), life drawing (but painting), and of course, digital illustration (with that same pretty cool professor). 

As cool as all these classes are, I've got a ridiculous amount of homework, so I'm gonna go ahead and start on that. I'll keep you all posted! (Next up, my 6 best pieces of art).

-Lantern

I exist! (an introduction)

Hello Internet!

So I'm pretty pumped. I've got this new blog going, and I couldn't start it at a more exciting time in my art career:

THE BEGINNING!

Okay so on the surface, it looks like I've got absolutely nothing going on, I'm just another art student with a crappy portfolio trying to get that fancy piece of paper that says "Hey look! The last few years of my life were very expensive!" But that is not the case!

This semester is the beginning of a whole new outlook. I'm going to make my portfolio sparkle! I'm gonna learn all I can about my industry! And finally, I'm gonna get someone out there to notice that my art exists!

(I know, I know... it's not a huge goal, but we've gotta start somewhere, right?)

Oh, where are my manners? Here I am going on and on about not being another face in the crowd, and I haven't even introduced myself.

My name's Gabe! Carrasco.  (the exclamation mark is necessary), but my close, artsy friends I work with simply call me Lantern. (and I've come to rather enjoy the nickname)

Anyway... back to me existing and what-not, (as the title of this entry is called) I exist! and although it seems like the most obvious statement one can make, the trick is getting your industry to acknowledge your existence.

I've applied to a few internships over the summer, hoping to get at the very least, an interview, but to no avail. Two major cartoon industries here in LA both gave me the digital cold shoulder. But meh, I don't blame them. There's a lotta guys out there who's dream is to draw for a living, and this is my first real attempt at existing, which means I'll only get better from here, right?

Anyway, I feel like I've rambled on enough for one post, and you all get the hang of how these entries will go (or at least what the plan is). A lot of conversation-style monologues (a lot of interjecting parenthetical comments), a little gumption, a little this a little that,

oh, and some art!

It's like a fox and a bear had a baby.

(and then that baby grew up and became violent)

Thanks for sticking around!

-Lantern