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Today I post a digital painting called, ‘What Now?’. This painting was done as a final for my Illustration class this last semester.

It’s an important painting for me, because after one year of Art School, it’s the first of my works that I am happy with. Oh sure, I can still see the flaws, places where I could go back and improve things. But overall, I managed to use composition, color and perspective to paint the picture I wanted. Please Enjoy.

The original size for this piece is 15″x 20.” It was created with Photoshop CS2. It took me about 40 hours, spread over three weeks, to complete. I haven’t named the characters or explained their present situation. I mean, I know that the child in the painting dreams he awakens in very real and dangerous worlds, where his only friends are the his toys come to life. But how old is he? What are his toys names? Why does this keep happening? These are questions I have not answered but should have.

My excuse is that I was pressed for time, and was focused on coming up with a compelling composition and not a back story. I realize now that it was wrong of me to side-step coming up with character and story descriptions. Why? Well, making a story to go with your illustration, or to inspire it, enriches the final piece. It also makes me look like less of a thoughtless bonehead when people ask about the painting.

In other news I’m back in school. My schedule is rough. Five days of workin’ from dawn till dusk. Three days of school and two days of work. Nevertheless I have a collaborative project in the works with ThirdSPUD and another with Thee Dynamic Effect.
The first project is cover art for a CD, and the second is production art for an animation short. Good times.

Bonus: Also, my friend Gabe was inspired by our threadless t-shirt design submission, from the inspiration was born an artwork serving as promotional art for his daughter’s b-day bash. I got a kick out of it. The theme for the party was Pinata mayhem. I went. And there was. We named the pinatas Paco and Chuey. Click here to check it out.