Last week at the park, I was in the mood to paint a motorcycle. I wasn't exactly sure which type of motorcycle. I after a quick image search, I decided to paint a Kawasaki-ish 80s bike. I thought it was sporty, but also a good excuse to incorporate different materials.
A few weeks ago, I went to the graffiti park and spotted a couple of friends. They invited me to paint in a spot thats front and center. One idea had in mind was to sketch some "industrial design" arrows. I started out loose and wispy, and then worked my way up to something defined with nice contrast. It was definitely fun to work on!
I've put off posting this due to a crazy past few weeks! A couple weeks ago at the graffiti park, I decided to paint a Japanese style robot. I'm very pleased with the results.
I was talking to a friend at a party last Friday about doing some sort of exploded view at the graffiti park. The next day, I decided that I was going to do a robot. This was a lot of fun and I now feel more comfortable with linework. With this painting, I wanted the various robot components to come together to form a spray painting robot.
A couple weekends ago, some friends were in town and I suggested a couple of places to hang out. One of those places is the HOPE Outdoor Gallery. I brought some paint with me and decided to paint a Spitfire fighter plane. I really liked that sketch I did a while back and thought that it would translate well into graffiti. I'm really pleased with how it turned out and enjoyed having good company.
The head of the Cleveland Institute of Art ID department asked the alumni to produce sketches for a time capsule in honor of our respected teacher, Richard Fiorelli. Fiorelli is retiring this year after being a longtime faculty member. He's taught many great designers that I look up to.
I had Fiorelli for perspective drawing class and learned a lot from him. What I've learned from that class became the foundation for my techniques that lead to my career in industrial design. In honor of Fiorelli, I decided to produce a ballpoint sketch of graffiti letters set to a single point perspective. Its a little looser and not too labored, which is what he preferred. I made a few mistakes, but I'm very pleased with this sketch and I hope Fiorelli likes it too!
I was actually surprised to see that last weeks piece remained as intact as I saw it. Usually, murals get painted over fairly quickly.
I really enjoyed doing a car last time and was in the mood to do another. A photographer that documents whats happening at the park really enjoyed the loose sketch before it was colored. What I thought was really neat about that sketch was how the graffiti was able to show through the car sketch.
With the next mural, I wanted to have the cars "paint" be the graffiti that I was painting over. The first car was more modern and sporty. I wanted the next car to be more cartoony, which is why I went with the Ambassador. Its an iconic Indian design thats been around for 60 years or so. As I was painting, it drew a lot of attention from the Indian observers at the park. Overall, I'm very pleased with this piece.
As usual, there was great work at the graffiti park. I wanted to try something else besides robots, so I decided to attempt to draw a car with spraypaint. It was a lot more challenging than expected! It was difficult to work on a larger scale, and draw consistent lines that are more than 5 feet long, but I think I've made it work. The design itself is a little safe, but the overall painting was successful. Next Sunday, I'll like another go at this.
As usual, there was some really great work at the graffiti park. I had another attempt at graffiti with my robot. It turned out pretty good, despite not getting enough of certain colors. I still need a lot more practice with controlling my lines.
My attempt at graffiti and some Halloween themed sketches
Last weekend was pretty action packed. A very talented artist had her first independent show and there was a lot of great work.
