FYI

Don't know if anyone looks at this blog...but... i have a new one! way better than this stuff.

www.AdamCejaArt.blogspot.com

Please direct your attention there.

Character Design

Week 2 of character design. Took me a little longer to warm up this time, but i was able to pull out some good drawings. You may notice that some of the drawings are similar to Disney's Mulan. Our assignment was to try and draw Mulan, on model. i had some level of success. I see some resemblance but with my own style.

I apologize for the images quality, they were to big to scan, and i was to lazy to edit together, so i just took photos of them from my phone...

Fantastic

Week two of fantastic figure. Female model.

not as successful as last week.

My homework on the other hand, i feel, turned out nicely. the assignment was to take a drawing from class and make him mummy-tastis. all the poses i drew were pretty much the opposite of what a real mummy would do, or act like. But i like my results, i went for something funny, and i managed to get a few laughs out of the class, so that's a success in my book.

here it is.

Figure Painting

This was from my spring Figure Painting class. It's the finished product from the earlier stage I posted a few months back. There's no real theme or deeper meaning behind this, just two figures i painted into once scene in some weird ass canyon some where.

i also realized how unfocused the photo is, not that I'm making excuses, but be aware.

20x24 Oil on Canvas

Over the summer I took an Animal Anatomy and Drawing class, I have a ton of sketches form the various animal that visited and that we visited but these two are final pieces I did in photo shop.

The dog is our Chow Chow Penelope, and the second is a Alligator Snapping Turtle.

Character Design 

Today was Character Design. I think it’s going to work out pretty well. The class it self is VERY similar to Fantastic Figure, the main difference is that we’ll be creating model sheets, and Fantastic Figure is more about the finished illustration. 

but day it’s day on of this class and i already pounded through a 50 page sketch book. This makes me happy because this class forces me to draw A LOT, which is something that usually makes me very lazy. 

Below is just a few of the drawings from today. all 1 and 2 minuet sketches. 

Prepare for disaster

School has return after a short two week break between summer and fall sessions.

I’m hoping that this semester will be “portfolio building” one. And as I do every semester (it’s become tradition) I’m going to promise to update my blog more often, and then probably get utterly slammed with homework and work work, and not update it again until possibly a week after fall semester lets out… But a boy can dream.

Today’s class was Drawing the Fantastic Figure. We’re on the Cintiq in that class, and today I realized that I would die a happy man if it were at the hands of a Cintiq. I’ve never used one before but it was surprisingly natural feeling and easy to use. We draw from a live model, and that’s that. Just do work.

Bellow is what I did in class today, just a few 5’s and 10’s. But the homework is to take one of those poses and fantastic-asize it into a mummy. Pretty cool assignment

I also lost a lot of faith in my school lately. It seems like every year the communication between departments and administration gets worse and worse, so the organization of just about everything goes down with it. You would think that with the amount of money that I pay (the government pays) that the school would have their shit together. For example, over the past two weeks I’ve received 3 phone calls, and 4 emails about class schedule changes, I even got a call in the morning about one class changing, then not even 12 hours later I get an email about the same class changing times again…!?!...ALL messages from different people, none of which are the instructor OR my advisor. And today’s class was one big cluster F too. But I’ll quit the ranting for now. Character Design tomorrow… prepare for disaster.  

2010 spring

I find that in the last few hours of any project I work on, all I can think about it is how much I’d like to start over. I try to see this as a positive thing, and a measurement of how much I’ve learned from any given piece. And so, this spring semester, I’ve learned a LOT!

On average, I’m producing about 3 paintings a week. It’s usually two land scapes and one figure (I’m also taking an illustration class right now, but I’ll get to that later). Painting has been treating me pretty well, after the first half of the semester I felt like I finally KNEW how to paint. And seeing wonderful works of art (that have always inspired me to begin with) in person, during the trip me and Sydney took to Spain only inspired me more. I’m excited to continue developing it.

Side note: I sent in an application for this landscape competition in Alameda, and I’ll know if I’m in or not within the next two weeks.

Here’s a few of my most recent paintings…

all the land scapes (mountains oil on panel 12x16, bay bridge oil on panel 10x10, tree on a hill side oil on panel 11x14) i painted in about an hour. the male figure (oil on panel 12x16) was a two week pose. the female figure is week one of a three week pose (oil on canvas 20x24)

Lion Oil

painting continues. and my love grows.

so i have this fantasy that one day i'll be a painter. a professional one. a masterful one. and i'll travel and paint, and i'll just call it life. this is what art does to me, and it's how i know i've chosen the right path. and so that's enough emotion for now.

here's what i've been working on.

paint

this week was glass. i think i pulled it off. there's some things to work out, such as ellipses, and some crisper lines. in time. i tried to stay loose with this one anyway. (no really, it's not an excuse)

and here's the homework that i've been working. we just had to create some kind of interesting still life and work on it for a couple of weeks. it's coming together.

i love progress photos. also. taking photos on my phone helps me check things like balance, value and contrast. which show up very well on a little photo.


and then there's heads and hands class... it's alright.

  not to self: learn how to organize photos on blog...

Oil and Water

so it's week three of school and i already feel like time is running out. There's a lot to be done in a short amount of time. But I'll manage, as i usually seem to do. But even at this point in the semester i feel like I've got a lot to show for, and i always feel good about my self when i can see progress in my work and i really think I've made a big jump this semester. There's plenty of room to grow but I've got a solid start.




and this of course

Untitled from Adam Ceja on Vimeo.

the spacing is a little bit off, but i feel that i achieved the movement i wanted. im going to go back into this and ad a few more in-betweens' and should also help the timing

lion oil

so my oil painting virginity has been lost. and it's been amazing.

i have a still life painting class at the academy, and i've never painted with oils before but i've always wanted to. as much as i love animation and film, i know im a fine artist at heart. and i always love my studio classes.

painting with oils is like no other medium i used before. painting wet on wet defently takes some getting used to. but once you get a basic understanding of how the paint works and how to apply it, the painting pretty much paints it self.

but more painting to come, and other class work! I'll post some videos later today.

another semester

so i officially started school yesterday. it's going to be a very time intensive semester i predict. but i'm ready to do the work and put the time in. here's my very first oil painting, ever... in the history of the world.

not tooooo bad. it's pretty good if you just look at it really quick. and don't pay much attention to the detail.

cool SF graffiti to come.

I'll be getting some of my OWN work up here soon...

So this past week I took a long needed vacation with Sydney. The two of us went to Hawaii. We stayed on the island of Oahu at her parents place. Which is bad ass. And let me just list a couple of perks that come with Hawaii, at no additional charge or fee.

1. It’s always about 85 outside.


2. EVERYTHING and everyone is relaxed. From the people, to the radio, to the freeway. (which can get annoying if you’re used to, oh I don’t know, normal freeway speeds)


3. Food is more delicious


4. Everything is slightly cheaper, due to a lower tax


5. And most importantly, you can sleep till 1pm our time (CA), at its only 11 am there. Which is amazing

And so while we were exploring the island (in the ugliest dam rental car ever) I couldn’t help but notice some of the local writers and painters. But I think what stood out to us more was the efforts made to paint over and cover up graffiti. It’s was like a where’s Waldo’s graffiti, but all you saw was mute paint swatches. Every freeway, center divider, over pass, sides of buildings where just covered with blobs of gray paint. And I think I after seeing that I was able to slip into a different perspective. It was almost like a feeling of guilt to see a beautiful place brought down like that. But how could it not? It’s an island. There’s going to be graffiti and they’re going to run out of space. It’s not like San Francisco, where we have this big city, with a ton of graffiti artist, but there not confined to the city. They’ve got north or south. Endless freeways and overpasses. If there were massive walls holding in the city and all the people (in addition to a lot of other crazy shit) we’d see a lot more graffiti, just everywhere.

But either way, I saw some cool work and here are a couple of photos. I'm sure it's not the best the island has to offer, but good stuff either way. I'm a particular fan of Clit.

at last

well well well. who do we have here?

as i was driving through the city i managed to catch a shot of two of favorite bay area writers. pork and phaze. phaze has really developed in style over the last couple of years. i remember the first phaze throwie i saw was off of 92 in San Mateo about two years back. i know he still hits that spot every now and then cause he'll paint over his own piece. it's like he's updating.

and pork is just awesome. i've mostly seen little tags here and there around SF, and one or two etchings. but i've also seen him getting some ups with some larger graffiti like this one. i think what i admire most about pork is the name. hah. but in all seriousness, i love finding writers with cleaver ass names that make you go "dam, that's a good name. why didn't i think of that?!?"

then i also got a shot of this one right off the Vermont street exit. aparently... some one is not to cool with Sick and his buddies. crossed out... that's cold man...

chile

i just remembered that i took this picture back in '07. me and Sydney went down to Chile to visit the various land marks and homes of her (and now mine) favorite poet, Pablo Neruda. we flew into Santiago and spent a day or two there before we jumped on a bus and toured around Chile's coastal towns. but while walking around beautiful Santiago i couldn't help but take pictures of all the awesome graffiti. i have a ton of pictures but for now i'll just post this one.

this wall of stickers and wheat paste caught my eye. the thing i appreciate most about stickers and wheat paste is...you can't mess it up! you make that shit at home! there's no excuse. or as my cousin likes to say "there aint no wack shit!"

this is going to take take a while...

so i had some things to take car of in the city today and i was driving through harrison and 17/16th ish. i ALWAYS find some cool stuff around there. and i realized a couple of things.

thing #1. it's really hard to take a photo on your phone and drive at the same time.
thing #2. this project will be totally bitchn' cause san francisco graffiti is something that will never be depleted.  

thing #3. there's a s-ton of classic graffiti in san francisco that has survived being demo'd, pinted over, torn down and so on. so i'm going to make an extra effort to take some photos of that.

the first thing i was able to snap a shot of today was this top to bottom box truck fill. i know in the past i've seen that type of tree thing used, but i can't remember if it was this same person. either way. i like.

i know some of these a little tough to see. lousy zoom... and not having it... but here's some heaven hits. sweet spots.

and here's something from downtown san mateo. i was walking back to my car and i had to take a picture of this tag. what a sweet spot. this door was clean, with bad ass lighting and just asking to be hit.

 and i have some good news. im charging my camera finally! i can keep it in my car and take actual photos. with zo0om and about 10 more mp.

the new thing

so, here's the thing, i want to blog more, but i have very little to say. or i guess i have a lot to say, but other than my own work i have nothing that's worth reading or writing about. but i have an idea. i've always wanted to somehow document the kick ass street/guerilla art that i see around the city and in my travels. so that's what i'm going to do. there's just so many artists/painter/writers that really inspire  and impress the hell out of me with their styles and ideas. and i also like to fantasize and live vicariously through someone else's graffiti life style...

AND SO

to kick start this new thing of mine. i bring you "chan". usually, no matter where you are in the city there's sure to be a chan throwie somewhere. he's got this distinct style of these tall letters. this photo was taken almost a year ago, but i continue to see him all over the place. keep an eye out next time your in the city. no doubt you'll see him popping up somewhere. street signs, roof tops. most of the time i'll see his stuff along side "phaze" of something, but a little throwie like this can be appreciated all on it's own.