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.