Skydiving to Saturn

I'm pretty pleased at how this is turning out. Charcoal and pastels, my next step will be withe some paint. I trying something different.

Astronaut 1.1

This would be the first of six. This also show the title. I was also inspired by a lot of vintage space illustrations of the past.

The Return of Saturn

This is a continuation of the Astronaut series. Something different than previous paintings. This is more of sequential narrative of a new astronaut embarking on a journey. The Return of Saturn...

I lightly pencil in a general composition.

Detailed shot of the descent to Saturn.

Next I come in with my darks, I lightly block in areas my "key" areas

Here is where I'm at now. I will try to chisel out the astronaut next.

The Vast Mind Presents: Sketchbook dump #1

Sorry for the lack of updates but I promise to do better, seeing that I have no internet and all. But here are some sketches I've been doing. Different ideas for stories that have been brewing. Not to get into too much but one is a astronaut redux. Here were some ideas that I toying around with.

I'm trapped in this suit...

The idea of an astronaut have been brewing in my "creative kitchen" for awhile now... more like two years. I'm thankful that I am able to work on it on the level that I want, as in; the growth artistic style, the maturity of the subject matter. All of this would not be possible if it wasn't for my life experience and the people that I encountered on my short time on this earth.

The Astronaut came about as a self-portrait. Right after my mother died in '09, I felt myself drifting in this void. This unexplainable feeling I thought. Who understands my pain? Who understands the hurt, the lost? These feelings and questions, that I thought no one could relate to. Albeit some times these selfish questions. Then at some point I realized that people do understand to an extent. My lack of communicating was my culprit.

mission controller…

my distress signal… Houston,

we have a problem

Then came the idea of the astronaut. This explorer, exploring the unknown with years of extensive training. The space programs puts one through a series of rigorous test that prepares you for the mission and for almost every worst case scenario. October 23, I lost contact with mission control. Years of preparation could have never prepared me for that... but it did. The Astronaut floats along the vastness of the mind, of the universe and even on his on planet.

ethereal trance

lethargic entity coax

docile subconscious

Rough line work

ethereal trance

lethargic entity coax

docile subconscious

Octopus Vulgaris

Astronaut, he is son

octopus, alien life

murky waters deep

This is a new piece that I am working on. It is a depiction of an astronaut being enveloped by an octopus.

The imagery of the astronaut was based loosely on the the sculpture by Michelangelo, The Deposition (Florence Pietà).

A blast from the past...

"A Struggle to Understand"

4ft x 9ft

This was my senior show piece at Memphis College of Art back in Dec '08. It is about me trying to cope with my mother's cancer at the time. The purple cells represented my mother.

Drawing style, it was the beginning of something special I think.

Apollo

This is a series of paintings I did for a friend of mine late last year. Each painting is 4ft x 12ft. This was a very fun project for me.

I seen an angel on the canvas... and painted her until I set her free.

The Astronaut

drift wood floats at sea

adrift, is the Astronaut

…old man of the skies

This is part of a series of that I am working on. I use the imagary of space and the astronaut as a metaphor, associated to the feelings I was confronted with after my mother passed.

This is the Astronaut...

Inside the Artist

The vast mind of a New Orleanean. I look at it as, "inner workings of my world, my creativity."