Beware the Banshee!

I thought I would post up this creature drawing I did today.
The inspiration for my "banshee" was a horse skull. Japanese style dragons, and imagery from The Secret of Nimh the movie. Done in Micron pen and a little bit of Prismacolor pencils.

creature design : Blacktip Gatordilla

This creature of mine started from a sketch that, lets just say, wasn't very well executed. As lots of sketches start, it was just a quick idea, probably one that woke me up in the middle of the night. The Blacktip Gatordilla evolved from the original sketch after paying attention to certain references including the alligator snapping turtle and a rhinoceros.  He has the stance of a bulldog but does not move awkwardly, he is very powerful and has quite the display when attracting a mate. The quills on his back clap together noisily, he uses his powerful tail to slap the sides of trees while he stamps his paws with his powerful back legs, and grunts and hisses while showing his powerful jaws. What sexy ladydilla wouldn't be impressed? The Blacktip being a large animal still needs to use some of these 'techniques' to ward off the even larger animals that share his habitat, although they often choose to avoid confrontation. When not showing off for a potential mate, Gatordilla spends most of his time fishing and foraging for food; he would most likely not be bothered by smaller animals in his habitat and lives peacefully and symbiotically alongside the many other species in his lush forest habitat.

Gatordilla Concept Sketch

Don't mess with a Terror Bird

Stress. Anxiety. My greatest weaknesses but also my greatest motivators.

Life has been strange lately; being in "Limbo" is exhausting, but I power on and continue to create. After my reapplication to school I've been accepted to the shorter/ more advanced program. Yay, right? Not just yet. My attendance isn't guaranteed...again. Waiting on more student loan applications. You wouldn't think it will be so hard to find help for your education, but it is. I will just continue trying, my mantra lately has been "Never give up."
Never give up. Ever.

One of my latest projects was to draw my interpretation of a Terror Bird. Phorusrhacids, also called Terror Birds, ruled the Americas in the Cenozoic era. What would this creature look like living alongside giant sloths, Trigodon, saber-toothes cats, and wolves? It was a wild time for our two continents as these animals migrated across the land-bridge. Predators had new prey and also new enemies. I can imagine that terror birds were solitary hunters, they did not hunt in packs like canids, and were most likely ambush predators. Of course this is all speculation as humans were not there to witness their habits. I based a lot of the physiology of this animal on the Ostrich because they have similar appearances, BUT the ostrich live in small flocks and do not hunt large prey. This is just the process I go through creating or recreating a creature. I start with research, then ideation, and then the details fall into place. I decided that the terror bird was probably very neutral in color on the front facing side of the animal to enable camouflage during the hunt, while the back of the terror bird might have had some color and markings to attract a mate. I gave the bird bone protrusions on the head; on the front side to improve hearing, and the red eye shaped markings on the back would deter other predators while the bird is preoccupied.  The bird also has a long pronounced stripe down it's back like a sloth to attract its mate. The more prominent the stripes, the better the stock, as it goes in the laws of nature. I could think of other features I would want on this bird, but I will just explain those few. It is important in creature design to justify most modifications with some kind of advantage or necessity to the animal's survival.

Terror Bird rendering - Cody Raiza

Anatomy Studies and Dinosaur Friends

The internet is full of horrible references. That is the first thing to keep in mind when researching online. Seventy percent of the information you find on the internet is false, and most statistics are made up.

I have been working on my portfolio and studying anatomy on my own to strengthen my understanding of the living machine that is our body. Well, I got bored, and started studying dinosaurs, because lets face it, dinosaurs are way cooler than people.

I started my study of Spinosaurus Aegyptiacus finding many similarities in my favorite crocodile, the critically endangered Orinoco. This is also where things got tricky as my references did not line up. The first skulls I worked from were more dinosaurian, and the museum articulated specimen in Japan has a much narrower skull with the eye orbit on top. I was worried this skull was more like Baryonyx that had a very narrow lower jaw, but no sail on its back. You will notice my rendering is not quite accurate, the eye should be on top like a crocodile. I am looking to redo the render on colored paper with colored pencil, but wanted to reveal some of my drawings from my studies.

Remember that the best reference you could ever use is from life. Looking at a person or specimen is the only way to make true observations. Understandably, this is extremely hard when you have a subject that has been extinct for 65 million years! For these, we need to view articulated skeletons that you can find at museums while having a good understanding of muscles and feature placement to render properly. The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles has recently opened their new dinosaur hall and I look forward to spending long days drawing there; I hope I can talk to some resident paleontologists as well.

It is important that paleontologists continue to team up with artists to recreate dinosaurs or they will be lost forever. Future generations depend on us to feed their imaginations with big scary believable monsters!

New painting for the Bee Rotica show at The Hive Gallery 8/6/11

The last Art Walk I attended in downtown L.A. was absolute madness! Thousands of people crowded the streets, shoulder to shoulder, headed to art galleries, food trucks, and bars. I had to get the heck out of there, but first I had to swing by The Hive Gallery after being asked to participate in their annual Bee Rotica art show; and what an awesome space! The bee inspired decor mixed with the concoction of cool art made it a buzzing hive of culture and love. 

Their annual Bee Rotica show (yes the inspiration is erotic art and bees) should be a very cool opening and I suggest all attend if you are local to the Los Angeles area. This will be my first group show where the participating artists all adhere to a common theme, so I am interested to see how the rest of the artists interpreted their erotic honey pots filled with sex appeal. For the show, I created a small oil painting that I am quite proud of. Many more oil paintings in the works, but you should make it out to the event to see this piece in the flesh, and I will be there of course, come say "hello!"

"Nectar Baby" oil on canvas

Nectar Baby for Bee Rotica show at The Hive

Bee Rotica show flyer

Like The Hive Gallery on Facebook Here

The Parallel Universe Called "Surrealism"

The work of contemporary surrealist painters like Christian Rex van Minnen, Martin Wittfooth, and Nick Baxter continues to widen the scope of what is perceivable to the common viewer, while all the while fascinating the eye of the most scrutinous. This new age of surrealism is none to be taken lightly, especially in a time when more artwork is born of a digital nature and our minds aren't easily tricked into thinking something is aesthetically pleasing or in the case of CGI, real at all.
It has always been tough for me to classify my work into a category. Sometimes horror with a taste of surrealism, and sometimes the complete opposite; either way, extremely satisfied with not having a niche.
These other artists that I mentioned before have carved their own personal niche as well, and extremely successfully. Their niche, should it be a place, would have platinum bike racks and a giant @!*&ing gold plaque on it that says "take this diamond encrusted elevator to my top floor studio, bitches." You might think I am exaggerating , but I assure you these new surrealist painters are top notch and will shape the future of art in our generation.
I hope that I never lose touch with traditional art as I make my way into the digital world. It would be like selling my soul to that pc guy in those awful commercials...picture it in your head, so shameful.
I obviously use a lot of colored pencil, though it is not the best medium for trying to convey more surreal ideas, but I enjoy working with it and that's all there is to it.
I started this piece below while hanging out with Nick B. and I didn't really know where it was going to go. I had my photo references, but didn't have a vision until shortly after he asked me "well, what else are you going to do with it?." Sometimes your creativity just needs a little push, and sure enough, my brain started swirling.
Fascinated with bioluminescence, decay, and the power and will of life, I came up with this concept. Stay tuned to my blog to see me venture back into the land of oil painting...

Drawing Kat Von D in Wonderland

As I'm walking out the door I check my e-mail to find that I will be filmed for a tv show that day, drawing on camera, no pressure. Oh and I will be drawing with a famous painter....and Ill be drawing Kat Von D, yes THE Kat Von D, lady tattoo artist extraordinaire. Her strength has always been admirable and many of the hardships she's endured have reminded me of my journey. I could probably write a book about my youth and my pilgrimage for success and happiness someday, but for now I just draw to appease my peace of mind.

I was given the wonderful opportunity of attending a workshop at Kat's Wonderland Gallery taught by the very talented painter, Kevin Llewellyn, a master of old world technique harmonized with tragic surrealism. Kat posed on the infamous lacquer black throne with her adorable sphynx cat, Piaf, for about three hours while I worked on one of my first official portraits. Yeah yeah so what I have done plenty of figure drawing, but I have never spent three hours on a bust focusing on likeness and every little fluctuation in curve. You would like your subject to be recognizable, especially one who has their face on the cover of magazines regularly; This ain't no Bono cake from Yes Man, ya know?
A few hours into the drawing session Kevin came over for a quick critique, instructing me not to take certain shadows too literally to soften the face, and focus on skeletal structure pertaining to the planes of the skull. His suggestions simplified my process, allowing my brain imaginary airbrush tools that made my drawing turn out much smoother.

As I've mentioned before when you are drawing, especially with figure models, you zone out to where there is no longer a human at all, but a subject made of lines and gradients, a form that you must grow to understand before it speaks to you on paper. As an artist you have a special gift: You can not only appreciate someone for their beauty, but for their flaws and choose to accentuate those beautiful details that normal people may not see at all.

I was interviewed on camera for the next season of LA Ink on TLC, make sure to tune in when the new season starts to catch coverage of the drawing workshop and possibly see me stutter and not make any sense  at all.

You like that? Who needs Photoshop when you have MS Paint! I'm so pro.

Okay folks, below is my finished product from the workshop. My portrait of the artist, Kat Von D. 5/1/11 ...