Matt-a-Palooza

Brian's Baby

2010-09-15T12:07:00.000-07:00

My good buddy Brian asked me to do a piece for his soon-to-be-born baby. For a while I wasn't sure what to, but then I realized that I could do something to help him out. I figured any time his son asks him where babies come from Brian can just show him this picture.

Brian, I hope you like it!

All in all the thing took me around six hours. I can't believe how fast I went through it and I'd have to say without a doubt that this is my favorite painting I've done. I feel like it was the most successful from start to finish and I love the way the palette turned out! I'm getting faster!

Detail:

Another Friendly Face

2010-07-26T13:49:00.001-07:00

Still moving along! I've been working on a lot more environments lately, so expect to see some of those up soon as well. I'm waiting until I have a decent amount of them done so I can aggregate them into one post. But, maybe I'll post some if I get bored. Who knows, right?

Looking back at some of the portraits I've posted I am extremely pleased with my progress. I've created some really fun brushes that I'm implementing here and there. The biggest thing I'm gaining is more of a behind-the-scenes type of thing I suppose. I've gotten a better grasp on colors, so I know what I'm doing now. There's a lot less guesswork and each brush stroke has more purpose these days. Not only has it increased my confidence, but my speed has picked up considerably. Plus, I mean, this just looks way better than that junk (minus mah boi Judd)!

S'more Sketches

2010-07-04T23:08:00.001-07:00

I'm trying to keep up the workflow and pick up the paaaahaaaahaaaace.

I don't feel like typing much. Good night.

30 Minutes

2010-06-24T20:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I got Photoshop CS5. It has a whole slew of new features I'll probably never touch, but some that might end up useful to me. Right now I'm trying to get a feel for the thing. It has some sorts of new brushes that are supposed to behave more realistically from what I understand.

So I decided I'd try to give some of them a whirl with a quick half hour portrait. It seems to me that they're not really doing anything different than the old brushes. This sketch is kinda wonky in some areas because I was trying to test out as much of the new stuff as I could think to use.

So far I'm liking CS5, but I'm not doing anything differently. I probably just need to read up more about it and keep experimenting. I want to keep doing more characters for my portfolio, but I need to start getting some environments in there too. Right now I'm in full-swing character mode, though. Oh well.

2010-06-17T14:19:00.000-07:00

Aaaaaand here it is. It's been cool just getting to paint whatever crap I feel like at any given second since graduating. Case-in-point:

I recently watched The Wrestler with Mickey Rourke and loved it. Great soundtrack and characters that felt completely believable and had a lot of pathos going for 'em. Iron Man 2 came out (somewhat ) recently and was pretty much on the opposite end of the spectrum from the Wrestler, but was still a totally engrossing feature and a fun experience. It was kind of a no-brainer for me to dream up Iron Man about to get ram-jammed to pieces after such a Rourke filled couple of weeks. Let me know what you think!

I'm Back!

2010-06-12T04:50:00.000-07:00

I hope!
Here's a little sneak preview of a piece that should be up in full bloom very shortly.

Hungry Howie

2010-01-12T14:11:00.000-08:00

In Character Development (a class I am no longer in,) we were given the assignment to redesign the Hungry Howie mascot. This was something that I thought was due day one and I suppose I just assumed it should be fully rendered. Anyway, I come into class with it and the teacher explains that he is going to give the class fifteen minutes to sketch out the project and then we would be moving to something else. I was pretty bummed.

Anyway, my idea was Voracious Howard. He's a viking with a taste for fast food as well as blood.
I'd like to keep going with this and work it into a finished Illustration, so maybe I'll get around to that. Oh, and I've changed up my blog.

Dear Angelo

2009-10-19T20:42:00.000-07:00

I hope you will still love me after this:

Sketching at the DIA

2009-08-10T19:52:00.000-07:00

Yielded this more fashion-geared piece. This had its genesis as a crappy little pencil doodle in my sketchbook and I thought it was worth revisiting. Turns out I'm pretty happy with it!

Edit: I screwed up and saved over the file as a super low-res file and had to mulligan most of it. I screwed around with the color a while longer and I think it turned out to be even better. Happy mistakes, right?

Late Nights

2009-08-08T16:12:00.000-07:00

I randomly came up with this at 2am last week. I don't understand it either. I made it album cover size because I was listening to acoustic music all night/morning. Really, I just needed some warming up with the ol' tablet. I've got some big stuff in the works. Some that's been seen on this blog and some that hasn't. Updates soon to follow!

For a Friend

2009-07-22T18:09:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it's nearing August already. Things are about to get nuts. Senior year is going to be one to remember. I'm a little nervous, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited for it. It's going to be tough and I'll be pushing myself more than ever before in my life, but it's going to be fun and I'm going to love it.

I'm going to miss last year's seniors and I know the hallways won't feel quite the same without them. A lot of people have been saying that they're excited to see what happens when my graduating class is unleashed upon the world and I'm just as stoked as they are to see what happens. I'm going to miss my friends that won't be back this year and those who are going away for school. As a last hoorah for my friend Jessica's relationship with Michigan I painted her this:

Jessica, I hope you like it! I didn't know how else to get it to you, so I uploaded a giant JPEG here. Let me know if you want it emailed to you or anything. I hope I see you soon and I hope you love Chicago twice as much as Michigan!

On a quick side note: tomorrow is my first day at Urban Outfitters and I'm nervous. =[

Summer School Blues

2009-07-09T16:08:00.000-07:00

I've been wrapping up my internship at Kresge Arts in Detroit and filling out job applications like a madman. I've got an interview at Urban Outfitters on Thursday, so hopefully I'll be able to actually afford to live for a while. Next week is also the last week of my online history class and I'll be more than happy to check that off my list of things to do. It'll be nice to just earn money and catch up on some ideas I've been pushing around. Stay tuned for big things.

Dear Deer

2009-06-25T07:01:00.000-07:00

I painted this on a little cutting board.

Necessary Force

2009-06-22T19:33:00.000-07:00

http://www.necessaryforcegame.com/artwork.php

This is a new game that Midway is finishing up. It's in limbo right now, searching for a company to publish it. Aside from having a badass main character, a slick concept and some stellar art direction, we might never see it hit the shelves. I'm sorry, I don't know who the artist is. I'm really digging his/her work, though.

Fingers crossed.

Ayup.

2009-06-22T18:47:00.001-07:00

I think I'm gonna call this one done.

2009-06-22T05:42:00.000-07:00

I've kind of had art ADD lately. I keep starting a bunch of projects, getting about 80% done with them and then letting them fall to the wayside while I start up something else. Oh well. I guess that just means that it'll feel super gratifying when I set aside a day to revisit them all and I suddenly have 20 finished pieces on my hands.

This little guy right here is just a another character that I came up with in one of my older sketchbooks. Right now, I'm going over this sketch in Photoshop. I'll have it posted up soon. It reminds me of the old Tootsie Pop ads. I hope it turns out cooooooooool.

BLOGBLOGBLOG

2009-06-21T00:26:00.000-07:00

I'm really going to try and keep this blog updated this time. F'real.

I've been taking some general summer classes to get some credits out of the way. They're not always the greatest, but the time spent doodling in my sketchbooks is worth the price of admission all on its own. Some of my greatest ideas originate as crappy little squiggles on the back of a test or in between the text of a boring book.

I'm going to be firing up the scanner this week and going through some of my sketches to post them up here.

One of the projects that I've started is taking my random characters and doodles and translating them into full, fleshed-out illustrations. This one is about 2 hours into it, so there's still a ways to go. I'm pretty happy with it thus far, but there's a lot more that I want to do with it. I'll post the final when it's done and hopefully the original sketch to accompany it. I hope everyone is having a great summer. I'll be back soon!

Reporting In from Break

2008-12-21T23:40:00.000-08:00

I've been catching up on some work, but I can't exactly upload it right at the moment. In lieu of something new, I'm opting to post another piece from Invented Environments that I am quite pleased with.

Besides the whole boring "art" thing, I've been catching up on all of my video games. It has come to my attention that nearly every from of media is suffering right now. Most movies are either remakes or based on a comic book, for example. Music is stuck in a post-grunge rut where everything is sounding muddy, yet somehow overproduced at the same time. Video games rely so heavily on big-budget titles that if a company releases a title with even lukewarm sales, the entire staff being let go. These are troubling times. I've got more to say about this, but I'll save this for later as it's 3am.

BREAK!

2008-12-10T15:49:00.000-08:00

I'm realizing more today than any day so far that I am in dire need of this break. Between picking out my schedule and trying to get everything ready for final critiques, I've felt exhausted and achy this entire week. Today was definitely the worst, though.

I'm going to be making myself a to-do list for the break so that I can get something accomplished. I need to get my website back up, first and foremost. Aside from that I've got a couple portraits that I'm lined up to do and may start working on a comic with a couple of my artist buddies from CCS. I'll list more info on that once a plan is hashed out, since it is so far only in idea form.

Tomorrow will be an early day at school since I'll be printing my comic out. Hopefully It'll look good on paper because I'm pretty happy with it on the digital front. It is a scene from Stephen King's Pet Sematary. I drew it all out and inked it traditionally. I'm proud to say that this is my first attempt at using a traditional pen and ink method with nibs. I used Photoshop to color it. I tried to approach the process of color from a very graphic nature, using mostly pastel colors and a giving it a water color look.

"We Are Pleased with the Size of This Thing"

2008-11-29T08:29:00.000-08:00

I just recently finished a Photoshop drawing that I started way back in the summer. After a hearty Thanksgiving feast, I resigned myself to my room where I took the time to finally polish off this idea from months ago.

I haven't ever done much in the way of drawing on Photoshop before this, so take it for what it is. I'm pretty happy with it and I can't really look at it without laughing a bit, so mission accomplished. If you didn't know, this is the King of All Cosmos from the game Katamari Damacy. I wanted to draw what I thought he'd look like if he was real as opposed to:

I really only used one brush for it and all of the hairs are individually done. The textures were really fun and I feel like they add a lot to the piece. I've got to say that I really have a newfound respect for Photoshop after this and I'm going to keep moving forward with it. My next project for my Object Drawing class will be done in Photoshop and has already been started.

This Blog Brought to You by the Power of Steam

2008-11-17T19:46:00.000-08:00

A lot has happened since the last time I dusted off this keyboard and broke down a blog for the world to pore over. Now, wiser for my time, I return... BEARING GIFTS!

This is a piece I was particularly proud of that I did for a Steam Punk assignment in Invented Environments. It's all done in gouache and was probably the first true painting I've ever done with the stuff.

Anyway, just thought I'd share a little bit of my new stuff and get this old ball rolling once more.

2008-08-11T13:33:00.000-07:00

I've redone the blog, here. I got real sick of how it used to look, but I'm not sure I'm sold on this new look, either. I guess we'll find out in time! I haven't been doing much on the computer, as of late. I'm sick of Facebook and Myspace and mostly everything, save for wikipedia.com and 1up.com. I've been updating Deviant art pretty regularly. I've got a pretty decent collection of work on there and I've been talking to people through it. Check me out at http://hewhofights.deviantart.com/ .

I'm not ready for summer to be over.

Anfropology

2008-06-24T19:32:00.000-07:00

I've come to realize that I'm not going to be regular with this whole "updating" business any time soon. Alas, I've come back. And update I shall!

My muffler literally fell apart on me today, so my car is in the shop.

I just finished applying at Circuit City, where I might pick up a side job. Yes, that's right; side job.

I've been hired to work on character design for a cartoon pilot, as well as story book illustrations. I'm not going to say much about it, but I'm very excited and I hope everything pans out!

Anthropology has been an interesting class, so far. I've got a big test on Thursday. It's a class that I can put my mind on autopilot, thanks to a couple mouthy students who intercept the classroom because they like to hear their own voices. That's ok, though. It just gives me more time to work on some sketches that I can bring home to polish.

In other random news, I watched a special report that centered around Amish teens coming of age. They are allotted a small taste of freedom. After that period of time expires, they are forced to choose whether or not they would like to return home and be sworn into the church, or abandon their previous lives in favor of the rest of the world.
I find it interesting that our world's values can so easily draw other people away from their own. I think I might focus my Anthropology paper on this subject.

Website

2008-06-06T14:43:00.000-07:00

After a two-week-long tussle with godaddy.com, my website is back in business! I ended up totally redoing the entire thing, and I couldn't be happier with the results. I will be fixing some small things and updating others in the nearby future, but check out vivalamatt.com and tell me what you think!

In the meantime, I'll be going to the street fair in Detroit this weekend, and so should you. I'm going on Sunday. It should prove to be pretty fun. Go support Mike Chabot, who is doing a sidewalk chalk drawing of a peacock! I know I will! I also know I'll accidentally spill my drink(s) all over it, too. Seacrest out!

NEW ART

2008-05-30T19:14:00.000-07:00

Psyche!

Well, sort of.

I ended up making a deviantART account. I used to have one waaaaay back in the day (I'm talking middle school, here,) and I now have a new one.

Anyway, there are a few of my pieces up on it, as well as two completely new ones that I just did today. Comment me, favorite me, add me as a friend. Just let me know yours so that I can return all of the favors!

That's all for now; I've got a thunderstorm to watch out my door.

News at a Glance

2008-05-28T09:01:00.000-07:00

So, GoDaddy scrapped my website. That was nice of them. No worries, I've just got to renew it, now. In case you didn't know, the website is vivalamatt.com and it will be up and running again very soon. Speaking of which, my website is about to get a lot better, since my friend Donald is completely redoing it for me.

I just submitted a logo for a contest at the University of Windsor. Hopefully I'll see something good come of that! That's about all, for right now. Just wanted to get in some quick updates. I'll post some art up real soon.

News

2008-05-23T20:23:00.000-07:00

S U M M E R

I've been lazy. Haven't updated like I said I would (like I knew I wouldn't). Sorry for that! I've been laying around and playing videogames, but that's what summer is for, anyhow. Because of my foray back into gaming, I've actually been influenced quite a bit - games are what got me into art in the first place, after all!

After playing Ghosts 'N Goblins I began work on a painting centered around the game. No pictures, yet. I was debating taking some process-work shots, but never got around to it. I should be done with it fairly soon, though. That's all for now! How's everyone else's summer coming along?

Crank It Out

2008-05-09T02:40:00.000-07:00

BE AN ANIMAL WITH IT;

Words that will define, forever, my second year of CCS. If there was a single phrase that would sum up my past year, here, it would undoubtedly come from Erik Olsen. That guy is just full of quirky catchphrases that are dying to appear across motivational posters and T-shirts.

School is officially out for summer. Reviews went swimmingly, to boot. Dave Chow and Mr. Steve were my reviewers, and they both seemed to genuinely like my work. They pointed out a few things, but overall, they said I was where I needed to be, at this point. The next steps, they told me, would be to incorporate typography into my work and to start expressing full stories. The latter of those two things has me very excited for Sequential Storytelling this Fall.

Dave, in particular, gave me a lot of hope for the future. He said I need to go out to Cali with him next summer and show my stuff at Comic Con. That was a real boost! I really hope that this is something that happens.

I've come to realize that I look at art in a much different way, now. A year ago, art had stopped being a hobby and become work - what I had to do. Now, in everything I do, I take some form of pride. But, the main draw is that as much as art is my career and my con, it has become my hobby once again. I've got a much more intense drive this year, and I intend to keep moving forward with everything I have learned.

I would like to thank everyone that has talked to me this year. I am so grateful for all of the people I've gotten to know, and the ways in which I've gotten closer to the old ones. I joined a group on Facebook called the Illustration Family, recently. More and more, I'm beginning to feel like I do have a family at CCS. But, my family runs much deeper than just Illustration.

On to the art! This kid, here was taken from a sketch I did in the back of art history. I ended up really liking it and painting him in Corel. I showed it at my review and the response was positive. Everyone seems to like him. I've kind of become attached to him and I'll probably continue to use him. I already did a series detailing the stages of his life at different ages for my bookmaking class.

Sorry

2008-04-22T16:53:00.000-07:00

It's been quite a while since the last time I posted. I'm sure that I'll have this updated on a much more regulated schedule soon enough; school is out next week. It hasn't even hit me that the end is near, though. I'm not sure why, but I don't feel any different. I can't wait to hang out with all the people I've met and gotten close to at school.

On another note, I've been trying to be as eco-friendly as possible. Staying green is something that I honestly have no way of doing, seeing as how I have to drive forty-five minutes both to and from school, but I'm doing what I can in other ways. I've donated some money, raised some awareness and been more self-conscious. I've always recycled, but now I've made it even more of a point. I've started unplugging technology that isn't currently being used. I donated a two computers to foundations earlier this year so that someone can use them and so no lead from them gets into landfills. I'm going to see how long I can last without putting my air conditioner in, but I'm not making any promises there - I get hot very easily.

I'm trying to keep this as an art blog, but I guess it won't hurt to include other topics every so often. I'm sorry if this sounds like a rant, but it's something that is very important to me, and something I feel very guilty about. I want to leave as small a scar on this earth as I possibly can.

To further my point, I'm not going to post any art in this entry. It will be back, no doubt, but I'm keeping this post devoid of it. I'll have much to show after school is out.

RON

2008-04-01T17:57:00.001-07:00

If you don't know this man, I suggest you educate yourself.

This was done in Figure Drawing last Friday. Pen with some colored pencil thrown in for good measure. It took about an hour and forty-five minutes.

Killing Time

2008-04-01T10:57:00.000-07:00

So, I'm waiting for paint to dry on my miniature wooden table for design concepts. I've been watching a documentary on meth, which was pretty interesting and scary. We live in strange times. As I was typing this, the documentary ended, and was proceeded by Yo Momma. Strange times, indeed.

I've been working on and off on my paint studies for Figure II. Personally, I hate doing the charcoal drawings and studies before a painting. I just feel anxious and I'd rather get started on the painting, itself.

I'll probably upload some pictures of some art later on. Right now I'm going to go apply another coat of paint.

Figure Drawing Final

2008-03-27T18:45:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't think I actually worked on this for the correct amount of time, but I still like it. The idea is that I regaling a friend with a story of how I faced a dreaded Dragon barehanded, after having been disarmed. I'm a badass.

In other news I went to the DIA again, today. I think I'm going to make a habit out of going there. I love it.

Apology

2008-03-23T21:11:00.000-07:00

OK, I'm sorry. I haven't done a very good job of keeping this updated. And I've done an even worse job of putting up my art. To make up for it I've got something for youuuu!

Assorted Thoughts

2008-03-11T20:05:00.000-07:00

I have two dollars left in my wallet.

I spent twenty on spray paint for taggin' today.

Human Giant is back on!

I started painting my self portrait.

It looks like ass, but it's getting done at least.

I need to start working on my Design Concepts work.

I'm going to see if I can get a haircut before break is done.

I'm hungry.

Break!

2008-03-11T14:04:00.001-07:00

It's finally here! So far I've done nothing worthwhile besides managing to squander all of my spending cash. Awesome. Today I toned the board for my self portrait painting. I'm going to have it at least outlined by the end of the night. I also got a few cans of spraypaint so that I can spray some color on my design concepts foam sculpture and possibly practice tagging on my shed in my back yard. I've worked on some sketches, but nothing too major so far. We'll just have to see how much I get done this week.

I was supposed to go to State on Thursday, but I'm not too sure if I'm going to follow through with that plan or not. If I did, that would get rid of two days of my break, which is to say two days of homework-doing, relaxing and seeing friends. I'm still undecided, but I'm leaning toward staying home. I was really looking forward to it, too.

Right now there's a thing on MTV where these dance crews are interpreting Michael Jackson's Thriller album in their own way. I have to say that it's pretty impressive, overall. It's Thriller's 25th anniversary which is just crazy. It feels like that album has been out forever because it has proven to be one of the most influential works ever. I'm so stoked for his new record.

Nostalgia

2008-03-04T19:07:00.000-08:00

The nineties, over-saturated and fashion-unconscious as they were, were a great time for TV. I miss it so.

I'm just goofin'.

2008-03-04T08:30:00.000-08:00

New blog goofin'.

So, I suppose I may have just jumped ship. Depending on how well I take to Blaurghspot I might totally abandon my Tumblr account. Even if it was much simpler. And prettier. And I already had a good amount of postings on it. Damn.

Other than that, I'm just getting over being sick for four days. It's Tuesday, so I get the day to myself, to just recouperate. Hangin' with Mr. Cooperate. The icing on the cake is that I don't really have much homework to worry myself with today. Just some sketchbook junk.

Next week is break and I'm trying to find some sort of Zen balance between getting a lot done for school and staying away from home, hanging out with people. Only time will tell how that will work out.