Smoky Mirrors

Beyond the Four Walls:The Rising Ministry andSpirituality of Hip-Hop

2011-05-13T20:54:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone.

Below I present to you a book I designed named
Beyond the Four Walls: The Rising Ministry and Spirituality of Hip-Hop
by Walter Hidalgo.

Marilyn Manson's Antichrist Svperstar

2011-01-31T15:00:00.000-08:00

This is a hypothetical CD cover I did for an existing artist of my choice, as an assignment for illustrator Tim Okamura. I gotta say Tim's a stand-up kinda professor and person. He taught me tons and even more via example. There's a nice Wiki entry of him that shows some of where his paintings have been featured. And, since I just wrote about graffiti on my previous post, it's only fitting to mention that his work is very Hip-hop. To quote a quote, "...a painter who does portraits with tumultuous graffiti backgrounds....a hip-hop painter". --Nicholls,Liz (October 29, 2005).

In this assignment, he played the music from each corresponding CD that each student brought. He played Antichrist Superstar as he displayed the illustration... Isn't it fitting? :-)

This is collage with acrylic, trying to convey the character of Antichrist Superstar in all three of his incarnations, the man/boy, the worm, and the Svperstar!

Graffiti Galore

2011-01-29T13:51:00.000-08:00

The following shows my graffiti side.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but I feel graffiti is a definitive expression of what goes to the core of what typography, calligraphy, and graphic design is all about. There are countless graphic designers in its rich history that began their artistic endeavors in tagging on the wall, spraying throw-ups or wild style graffiti anywhere they could. There are also a lot of letterers, doing signs on grocery stores and supermarkets, painting on the stores' cinder blocks that would make any graphic designer jealous. These people also turn out to become great graphic artists.

Yet the determining results are the same. One tries to be legible and readable, following the rules of type in such a way that its appeal lies with how well the rules are executed, how elegant and crisp it seems with the bounds of its physicality, whether on painted plaster, chalkboards on a wooden easel, or canvas signs hanging overhead. The other is on the yang to its yin's side of the spectrum; its beauty lies in how well the artist is breaking the rules, how much can the artist abstract type beyond the point of recognition. "You can't read it? Too bad! But the letter form is there somewhere, if you look and not just see." And that probably says something more than its conventional cousin, for by stripping away what makes letterforms relate with other stylized letterforms, you're ratifying what defines that very letterform to its essential anatomy. And as they're tearing apart the constitution of graphic design rules, they're enjoying it, having their fun as they rent! You better believe that when you see an exceptional piece, you think that piece was done with fun in it, it may be a serious kind of playfulness, but you can't deny that you're looking at it in every color, in every stroke. Some graphic or type artists can learn a thing or two from graffiti artists.

I did these at different times, different spaces in life. Hope you enjoy them.

I'm working on something new, something very very new! Yup, said too much. You've probably guessed it already. Keep your eyes open and stay tuned.

Tata (Elba Piña Peña)

2011-01-18T23:01:00.000-08:00

Feel better querida Tata.

The Decade of Nothing

2010-01-01T18:45:00.000-08:00

Here's to a decade that now is part of the void that its type symbolized: the Nothings before the Somethings. No one knows what to call it. Some call it the "Naughties", others "The Big Zero" or the "Double-Os". Regardless, the nature of a name with this number-logic had a psychological effect on me. The mortality of seeing a number, a decade, counting down (or up, depending how you look at it) makes a person want to seize it before the next number. Something about '00s creates a different flow.

I don't know what to make of the decade; there were a lot of ups and downs, bests and worsts of. But maybe that's the point. Don't have an absolute claim to make in such an expanse of time, but make it bold for the next decade because you already know how it is not to. The Nothings before the Somethings, turn to the Nothing that Is.

And with that I give you a nice The Decade that Passed present. It's a free-association drawing I did in '01. I thought it fitting for I drew it in the onset of the decade (it starts with the first year, not '00, you know), a worldly, significant, sad, and impressionable year, and because as a free-association drawing, making it as you go along without consciously knowing what you are drawing, with no intentions, making it seems a lot like life itself. And also, it's a drawing of a nascent of a man waking out of his cocoon. Yes, very fitting.

Happy Decade that Passed and a Happy New Decade!
(hey, you only get to say 'Happy New Decade' once every ten years; make it count!)

PS: Thank you so much to everyone who Subscribed to SmokyMirrors! I so appreciate the love and interest. This is the kind of thing that keeps me moving onward.

And to those that are not in the know, to my first 100 Subscribers, as a big "Thank You!" for letting me into your Inbox life, I'm drawing small limited-edition sketches. One-of-a-kind drawings about any subject matter you desire, drawn specifically for you, and I'm only doing this for 100 people. I still haven't reach my first 100, so there's still time to have something cool.

Fesk

2009-12-06T11:00:00.001-08:00

Mag spread graffitiesque (or urban calligraphy/typography, as it's being called as of late). Done with color-pencil, a bit of watercolor, markers, and Photoshop for embellishment. I left negative space for the headline, subhead, and lead-in paragraph of a hypothetical article.

That's my tag right there.

Rammer Totem

2009-12-02T04:57:00.000-08:00

Take a gander at another Rammer logo, a symmetrical totem. I'm not sure but I think this one constitutes a bilateral/mirror-image ambigram too (can any ambigram friends put me on whether or not?). Though there are some negative space issues here, doesn't it look like a person, or if you rotate it, a fish? And the name can repeat itself vertically ad infinitum (a la wallpaper), for the first 'R' is the same as the last 'R', forever.

I'm following up my previous post's last drawing, the one with the logo and abstract lady. It was an abstract, monoweight, geometric, black/white theme I was going for.

Studying (?) in class... Sketches

2009-11-30T17:18:00.000-08:00

Here're some quick line sketches, the roads of my neurons, while thoughts on the topic at course careen ablaze. Well... It's a multi-tasking possibility. Have fun:

Oh, his one I must comment specifically. Abstract symmetrical logo doodle of, guess what website... (plus a dash of a hint of a foggy layout). I like the lady in particular.

Friends

2009-03-09T23:29:00.001-07:00

Every now and then I draw whatever I see, sometimes scapes, sometimes things, sometimes my friends. Here a some of the latter:

Joshua D. Cochran
Joshua D. Cochran is a writer. I had him as my prof for my last English class in City College of New York. He has a book, Echo Detained from Fractious Press on Amazon.com, and though I never read it, he and I share publication in City College's Promethean, the 2004 issue. His poem, Dance of the Nomenclature is one of my highlights. Google him; he's around.

This is what happens when you think with your eyes in class:

Lenny
Quick one of my boy Len, while playing cards.

Felix Luis García
Poet with the last punto.

Hristo Atanasov
The random brains behind Rather Random Reality. I play the games he designs and creates, I look at his drawings, I watch (and sometimes contribute) his animation. His latest one won him a spot on the front page and a Daily 3rd Place award on NewGrounds.com. It's called Cigar Wars: Lightersabers Collide!, and worth me reserving a post to hightlight this nice masterpiece.

This drawing says 'Aku' to the left, for Aku is the wickedest shapeshifting master. Actually, there is evidence Hristo might be this world's Aku master:

See!?

Still Pending

2008-07-12T20:50:00.000-07:00

My boy Key Soto is a man of many hats. He is Key Melodics, MC to your hearts, but he's also Key Soto, film director, producer, editor, screenwriter and the man behind Enigma Films. And yesteryear, on a cold winter night, he shot Still Pending, of which I was the Art Director for.

He has Still Pending on Key's YouTube page, along with music videos and PSAs he shot. Watching this in its fruition makes me think it a prologue for a series of movies causing mayhem and "shitting the fan." Still Pending's ambiguity, which I feel might make question marks to some people's faces, is really the verve of its mystique. Favorite bit:

Nevin: Fucking psychos.
Teddy: That's the cost for survival.

Check it:

I'm Not Here

2008-07-02T07:04:00.000-07:00

I did some storyboards for a long-time friend of mine Karly Beaumont. I'm Not Here is a very short but very potent, 4-minute film, so how can I summarize without spoilers? Let's just say that it drags a very real but very abusing reality to your pupils, one that we all know somewhere in our hearts occurs every single fucking day. I'm happy to be part of the message it brings, and to work for such a great person. I'm also happy to say that I'm Not Here was accepted to the 2006 NY International Latino Film Festival, and "has been screened nationwide at various, educations institutions, conferences and festivals."

But hey, dig the storyboards:

Below's the storyboard to still frame comparison. I was happy to see some of my storyboards make it to the final shots (like this one). Makes me feel like I did my job. Melissa Cruz knocked out her debut role. She literally was the star of the movie.

Also, if you're already itching to see this short, here's a YouTube:

Can't wait to see what feature Karly's got next.

Hys

2008-05-27T03:07:00.000-07:00

This is Hys; talented MC. Check his tracks. It's rare to bump into an MC that actually has flow and energy throughout. He has a very interesting indy music video directed by fellow comrade Key Soto. Key has a few tracks of his own (by the name of Key Melodics), one of which is a Hys track featuring he. They seem to be a natural together.

I was strolling the group of photos from Hys's page, while listening, and just saw this montage in my mind' eye. Theme Art's photographs really exercised the various angles and poses Hys can evoke.

Theme Art has a style where he controls light by obfuscating anything that he doesn't want shown. Most of his work consist of portraits and portraitures and headshots, bodies flowing in darkness... very distinctive.

Between them two, this piece had to be done. It's a web exclusive piece, since it was in the spur of the inspiration, and limited to 72dpi, alas. It needs tweaks here and there, but all in all, it was a good exercise.

Two Logos, Out of Five-Hundred

2008-05-12T10:04:00.001-07:00

For some 'really good' news, the Rammer ambigrammatic logo and the Seven Up logo (not to be confused with 7UP) are published in Rockport Publishers' Really Good Logos Explained, written by Margo Chase, Rian Hughes, Ron Miriello, and Alex W. White. This makes this heap of flesh a happy designer.

Seven Up is a logo for a column by a prominent news site for comicbooks and its ilk, The Pulse. Seven Up was an interview column orchestrated by fellow comicbook writer Len Wallace where he asks seven questions to up-and-coming comicbook artists. I figured I'd do the logo in black & white since most comicbook artists that're starting out print their comics in black & white for the cheaper price. Check out Len's latest endeavor, Love Buzz with Michelle Silva.

This is the spread featuring the Rammer ambigram, its neighboring logos, and critique from three out of the four authors/designers. I wonder why any of them didn't suggest to put the logo upsidedown for those whom aren't privy to John Langdon or the advent of ambigrams.

It's good to see that all the attention to negative space and my attempt to take Blackletter away from its current pigeonholes got recognized. The two logos wouldn't be in the book if it weren't for Alex W. White. I took the Electronic Design 2 class and there he was, ready to turn the class into a design bootcamp. Not only did he introduce me to the existence of John Langdon, or the Type Directors Club (of which White's currently serving as President), but he openned my eyes wider, and I began to see the negative space all in the world.

JetBlue Vector Magic

2008-02-09T23:57:00.001-08:00

You saw the Lavalife vector ads at the NYC subway. (Done by Marcos Chin, the guy does good work) In a similar vein, here's some vector magic as a hypothesized gig:

JetBlue ad

Yo JetBlue, get at me if you like the looks. The latest ad campaign was good (as I look at the NYC subway ads. Can anyone tell I'm from NYC?).

Fun is there if you see close enough. Done 100% vector.

Comments welcome and ilcome.

a Poster or two

2008-01-12T09:42:00.000-08:00

Yo yo yo. Whatup? Here's a poster for a fictitious reading event by David Mamet called Gems from a Gambler's Bookshelf and other Stories.

Below is a poster I did for City College of New York's SAME-TV for a fashion show they were throwing. I was art directed, so no one get any assumptions, ahem, ideas; 'very ghetto' is what we were going for. This was done with watercolor and color pencil, tabloid size.

some Book Covers

2008-01-07T22:24:00.000-08:00

Here are some Book Cover exercises I've done. These are from existing books, so they weren't gigs but still fun to do.

E.B. White's Here is New York front cover

E.B. White's Here is New York back cover and spine

The following two book covers were exercises to abstract the design to an indiscernible stage, and yet showing some kind of abstract relationship between the book and the design, and the different visual elements it bears:

Gabriel García Márquez's Living to Tell the Tale book cover

Thomas Mann's Transposed Heads book cover

Christopher North's Forever Waltz and Renquist

2008-01-07T21:04:00.000-08:00

Christopher North's Forever Waltz CD package design:
front

back

CD

Christopher North's Renquist CD package design:
front

back

CD

Let me just say that Christopher North took a chance working with me and I can't thank him enough to have had the opportunity. Go clickedy-click his site and take a listen. He's in iTunes, CDBaby, and all those musical places. He has done music for off-Broad shows as well as films, on top of his personal albums. And, guess what, yup he's at work on a double CD, Spacebar, that will be designed by whom...? Wonders of wonders, will this particular wonder turn into fact? A fourth dimension will have to tell.

Wind & Pieces mag layout

2007-12-31T19:47:00.000-08:00

Magazine Layout, Spread

Magazine Layout, Pgs 3-4

Magazine Layout, Pgs 5-6

Magazine Layout, Pgs 7-8

Magazine Layout, Spread 2

Magazine Layout, Spread 3

'08 dump... err, fresh start

2007-12-31T18:35:00.000-08:00

Oh! Lookit where the time has not! Ok, New Year's resolution: prick more blog starlets for all.

Yes, Right Eyes and Lefties, the next consecutive ~~dumps~~ posts will be art.

Happy Earth's Birthday! Let darkness and light dance, a-post-trophic Zero to Vertical Infinity.

Rammer

Rammer ambigram

2007-08-31T05:34:00.001-07:00

This is an ambigram (what's an ambigram?) logo of my name, Rammer... Forever branded!

Let there be Art, and there was Art

2007-08-31T04:48:00.000-07:00

Hey Eyes,

Allow to trudge yourselves pass a few bars of verse, to be the conduit of light and darkness, but also allow the admittance of your receptivities to their effects within the grasp of your nature.

And with that in eyes, allow me to sprinkle a sparkle of pixelated stars or symbolic doodles of abstraction turn tangible, in an otherwise silent negative cyberspace. A POST for every host, star, and ghost, and you may lead your rest via flags: the nested TAGS of blogged contellations.

Allow yourselves to imbibe the gift of sight,
and allow me the liberty to do as I might.

With love,
Rammer's fingers

Look, I, I'm bloggified!

2007-08-19T15:04:00.000-07:00

a mirror in, a mirror out
look it my head inside and out