Skeletal Worm

2010-03-26T10:09:00.000-07:00

fuc kfuc fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuckfuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuckfuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuckfuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuckfuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuckfuck fuc.

www.alex-carlson.com

2009-07-15T17:44:00.000-07:00

i am the happiest i have been in a very long time. Things have finally come around for me. No more shitty roommates or living situations, no more strange undefinable friendships/ relationships. I might still be in transit, but i am so happy.

the past two months have been such a strange and wonderful endeavor. I have never been so poor in my life. I've been on a 4000 mile road trip to see my parents and see the midwest and see my old friends. I have solidified my decision to be in boston. I know i need to be where i am. I have a decent job, even if i get sick of it (who doesnt?) i live in a decent apartment with good people.

I have the best of friends.
I'm dating someone who is truly wonderful to me.

I spent today at the beach and waded in the cold Nantasket water and baked on the rocks of the shore at high tide. I ate ice cream with friends, and drove with the top down. Im losing weight and getting some color from being on my bike.

it seems everyone around me is in good spirits as well. Its very liberating.

I have not been so comfortable or happy with myself and the things around me in so very long.

Thank you, Massachusetts and everyone in it. <3

moving the blog

2009-05-15T08:23:00.000-07:00

hey ya'll, im moving my main operations form Blogger to Wordpress. I like their layouts a ton more and they feel a bit more professional. Lots of editable stuff, cool layouts and the option to upgrade to a private URL. It's a good place to deal with so far, everyone should check it out!

http://alexcarlson.wordpress.com/

i like skulls.

2009-05-13T10:23:00.001-07:00

a study of a skull. The next drawing i do for degree project will somehow reflect this. I like the linework, im a bitch for brush tip pens.

One part of an ssignment for my conceptual drawing class. I dont have a picture of that (though i will) but i liked the skull and took a picture. la-dee-da.

a detail shot from my first degree project piece. Im still working on it to make it as perfect as i can. The darks will be darker, color will look better. The whole thing measures about 16x20inches and is done in graphite, ink, and soft pastel. My degree project is about the Wild Hunt in Scottish Myth. A procession of beasts and spirits that round up damned souls and take them to hell of use them as soldiers in the hunt. Really its just devolved into a reason for me to draw skulls.

Something old, something new.

2009-02-24T07:29:00.001-08:00

two things to put up today, once ive been meaning to put up since the summer.
this first one is a drawing i did while listening to the oh so wonderful Deftones (go figure). It's drawn from the song Change In The house of Flies and was done in pen, highlighter, and colored pencil.
the original drawing measures about 11x14 inches.

this second one was the first project for my typography class. (word and image) we had to create a font based off of our own hand writting, then make it consistent by tweaking ligatures, kerning, arms, x-heights, ect. When done with that we used a descriptive word to blow up and fill in with an illustration of the word. The word is about 7 inches high and 38 inches long. Entirely done by hand with prismacolor fine liners over the course of a week.

peace out ya'll.

i have ridden the moon worm.

epic work dump.

2009-02-17T14:38:00.001-08:00

i realize its been far to long since i actually did any updates.
i have quite a bit to put up as of now.
it's been quite a busy semester so far, even within the first few weeks. Lots of work, lots of thinking.
first one is for my illustration 3 class. the first project we had was to do concept work for characters from the first few chapters of Geek Love, a novel about a family of side show freaks. After doing concepts for the individual characters we then set out to design a new cover for the book. i deviated away from doing character montages and scenes because i really cant stand it when book covers or DVD sleeves just try and cram an entire movie into a little drawing or photo.

this is one of my concept pages for Leonna, a lizard like little girl who died as an infant.

then my finished book cover. One of the things that was talked about early in the book was the geek pit, where Crystal Lil would entertain crowds biting the heads off of chickens. good clean fun.
(click for a larger image)

next a few things drawn from life.

peace out!

-alex-

valentines!

2009-02-04T20:54:00.000-08:00

i colored it once in illustrator and didnt really like what happened, so im trying again later. till then, i have this version for you.

yay candy!

ETSY!

2009-01-13T20:36:00.001-08:00

everyone come look at my shop and buy things.

www.skeletalworm.etsy.com

good times.

RIP el pelon.

2009-01-06T20:11:00.000-08:00

rest in peace for now, el pelon.

may all the restaurants of the fens come back!

HOLLY BALLS

2008-12-02T19:02:00.000-08:00

best night ever.

Fickle....

2008-11-27T22:13:00.000-08:00

an older drawing of mine. I happen to really like this, for both its qualities as a drawing, and what it means to me. It's not done, i doubt it ever will be. It's in a sketchbook i finishes, and i dont think ive ever revisited a sketchbook after i've finished it.
This was done in ballpoint pen, marker, colored pencil, and gouache.

Tis' funny how love works. For better or worse...

work-dump, finally an update.

2008-11-25T07:46:00.001-08:00

so everyone has harassed me into finally updating again. not for any lack of work, just more laziness to type and format images, ect.
but yes, here they are:

this was done for my advanced drawing class. The emphasis had to be on hands. I kinda took it in my own direction. This is about 9''x20'' and entirely done in colored pencil. I think its one of my better drawings for this semester.

this was also done for my drawing class. The emphasis on this one had to be on a reflection. The was done the night before it was due and the idea and method came more out of frustration then anything else. I actually really like it now. this is done in cut paper, colored pencil, and crushed vellum.

and this is an extension of what seems to be my epic takeover of the 9th floor. Ive made a few shirts like this for friends and have now moved on to see if i can sell them. Any color monster, on any sized shirt. the only shirt color i have right now is white, but that will change soon.
if you bring me an article of clothing, i will put a monster on it.
a scant $20 for a custom shirt, $18 if you bring me the clothing.
if any of you fabulous readers out there want one, email me your desired color of monster and shirt size to alex.carlson@mac.com or comment on this entry.

bye for now!
-alex-

monsters and marcus Aurelius

2008-10-18T18:23:00.000-07:00

I've been quite busy lately.

between work and school my days have spent either at Dick Blick stocking shelves and wowing people with my awesome knowledge of paper and paint, or working on this and that in the studios at Massart. I have today, two things id like to share with you all.

both of these assignments are for my Advanced Drawing class.

this first one here is for assignment simply entitled "cast shadows." i wasnt really to excited for this project until i stopped caring about it. We were supposed to have shadows tell a bit of a story and be the main point, but through some extensive critiquing and mulling over my ideas, i reached this one. the shadows are there but are not really the center of the drawing, which im totally okay with.
I love my monsters, they have really become a huge part of my work recently between my drawings and the cutouts. I've also become quite known for them here as well.
This drawing was done in graphite mechanical pencil on tracing paper.

this assignment was more of a personal based assignment. we drew many everyday objects and then picked out favorite drawings and had to give that chosen object a new life or meaning. i chose a stool i drew. many of my original drawings were anthropomorphic in the fact that i had drawn the original stool with legs or fins. The idea i had before mister Aurelius here was a derby race with stools rather then horses, but i though this was far funnier.

graphite mechanical pencil on Canson marker paper.

Epic Procrastination, Part One

2008-09-30T18:53:00.000-07:00

oh five page english paper, you torment me so.

A drawing of myself based on a conversation between Beto and I.

WIP.

Cardboard Minions pt3

2008-09-27T18:21:00.000-07:00

it seems these little guys have been collecting across the studio. Ive been having a number of requests from other people in the studios to do them.
Sometimes i feel if im going to get famous it will be for all the wrong reasons, ha.
Click the images for a larger version.

The little eskimo looking man is named Walter. He now lives with Adam Tibbets in the studio. He's a bit smaller and on a thinner board.
The Little batman was more an exercise in anatomy. My friend Dave had been giving me pointers of superhero physic. it mildly succeeded on some aspects, i still need work though. Black paint with white china marker.
Catasaurous was made for my buddy Ben Z who works next to me in the studios. Due to a recent mouse problem, i found it appropriate to give him the Catasaurous. I ran out of cardboard when i made this, so he is made of a thick craft paper.
LOL Batman was derived from one of my lessons from Dave in which we drew on my desk and a sketch of batman was born which i then put a silly face on. Adam decided he wanted a big version of that, thus this cutout came to be.
lastly, upon request from a friend of mine, Nick, the last cutout was made. His name is steven and he's the tallest of the small monsters.

if by the end of the year (or even semester at this rate) if i have a good collection of these guys that are mine, i want to put them in professional looking mattes and try and get into a gallery with them.
Im beginning to wonder what other things i can apply these guys to. There is a world of design beyond cardboard after all....

all finished

2008-09-23T19:24:00.000-07:00

with the goat mask that is.
(Click for a larger picture)

It is completly hand sewn. There is fake fur as the base of the mask with yarn woven into it. The horns are real Ram horns held in place by foam rubber and a headband. I made little cloven gloves to go with it :-)
i did my face paint right before class and i guess that turned out alright.

i think some of my cardboard cutouts are going to be in a studio/gallery space the first week in october in West Roxbury. I'll be sure to update about that.

my first big MassArt project! WIP

2008-09-16T18:08:00.000-07:00

after a long and tedious process of actually getting into the illustration class i wanted, i was pleased to no end to discover that the first project we were to do for illustration was to draw concepts and then build a mask. Now, i love masks, so you can imagine how excited i was. I drew up four concepts, two of which im uploading, because i cant find the other two on my computer right now. There was one more ram concept, and a lion mask. i settled on the wooly ram.

with my concept chosen, i braved the wilds of two bus lines and the night time wonder of West Roxbury with a friend to go to joann fabrics to get material. Successful trip, by the way.

the mask is made entirely by hand. Its fake fur, yarn, and felt as of right now. A pair of real ram horns will be a later addition. Each piece of yarn has been tenderly placed and set by hand, and its taken quite a bit of time hunched over in my studio thus far. For critique next week, i will be doing face make up to mimic a ram (stylistically) so, another pic will come later on.
peace!

Cardboard Minions prt. 2

2008-09-11T18:05:00.000-07:00

Another installment of my cardboard takeover of the ninth floor of MassArt.

Two more little fellas. I have a little bit of a cardboard axis across the studio, it seems. A guy from across the studio asked for a piece of cardboard from me to make his own cutouts. We laughed about having a war ensue from the two parts of the studio. In that idea, i made my et tu brute hoplite.
the little squid fella was just a small gift for a friend who moved into his studio today, hes only about ten inches tall and on a thinner board. The bottom two are just ideas that formed while doodling on the masonite board that covers my drafting table. the little one eyes king is kind of a reoccurring thing. if you look back to an older post you'll see a little alien man making a burger in a spaceship, his name is Sid. The guy above is named "King Sid" pretty much the same idea i guess. The anteater alligator strange thing is named Walter.

It was a good day today. The seniors moved into the studios yesterday, and the juniors moved in today. Its nice to be surrounded by all the people i'll be calling peers from now on. I cant wait to see the studios full with work. Im feeling very inspired by the change in scenery and city, and people.

Cardboard Minions

2008-09-04T17:14:00.001-07:00

so...
its been awhile since i touched this thing. Between moving back to boston and the start up of school, its been hectic and the amount of work ive been doing has been less then satisfactory. BUT, now that i am in a studio at MassArt, ive managed to do a few things.
As a junior i get a desk and cubicle like area on the ninth floor of the building with the rest of the illustration juniors and seniors. I managed to get a good desk thanks to a freak encounter with some existing students and maintenance workers.

I felt the need to make it feel a bit more like home, and remembering back to the last time i had a studio in my senior year of highs chool, at Walnut Hill School For Arts, an idea came rushing back to me. This also was in part discovered by my reawakened love for Dave Johnson.

Cardboard Cutouts!

i had a few in my old studio, and to my great pleasure, someone had put about 10 large untouched sheets of thick cardboard in the 'freeshare' pile in the studios, so i claimed them as mine and have been enjoying the labor intensive process of cutting things out and then coloring them.

(make with the clicking for a larger image)

God only knows what the lizard thing is. just a small drawing in my sketchbook that turned into the above. The 'i like to watch' guy is something that actually began its roots in highschool. i had done a similar thing in one of the bathroom stalls in my highschool but he got taken down and eventually stolen. This guy is just his senior i guess, but looks much different. And of course, the all mighty and super sexy Hellboy.

i want to make more, i feel like this is going to become either a deep addicting problem that takes over the department (or at least my suite) and pisses off my studio mates; or in a better outlook, maybe someone will like them and take them off my hands after awhile.

They are each about 3-3.5 feet tall. Oil based sharpie paint marker for the black areas, acrylic paint and white out pen for the whites. Hellboy has some crayon and china marker on him as well.

even more robots!

2008-06-17T17:17:00.001-07:00

again, another drawing i did. for this one i wanted to put together more organic forms with the mechanical. maybe next step will be mechanical forms over organic forms or vice versa. some greater integration of the two.
This was drawn with a ballpoint pen and colored in photoshop.

(click the thumbnails for a larger picture)

more robots!

2008-06-15T22:01:00.000-07:00

another venture into the land of the mechanical for me. I've been looking through books trying to concentrate on more realistic moving parts and joints. I dunno how well i succeded with this one, i think the arms are looking alittle less cartoonish then ive drawn them before, but i did have fun with this guy.
He's a Terrain Recovery Bot, hence his big wheels. He's able to rotate his body while remaining stationary 360 degrees and can overcome most rocky or steep earth. He's meant to recover the parts of destroyed equipment and vehicles.
Im including both the original drawing and the colored version of this drawing below.

the original sketch was done in bic ballpoint pen. The sketch was scaned and brought into photoshop where i did the coloring with a graphics tablet.
enjoy!

post 15

2008-06-02T19:15:00.000-07:00

Robots!

these were some doodles i did for fun a few days ago (along with some marker testing in the center of the page) that i scaned in and decided to make into finished illustrations. Ive been folling around alot more with digital coloring and making textures and personality to coloring. IE rust and dirt. I want to start looking at some actually machinery like the landing gears on planes and construction equipment to get a better feeling of how arms and legs would attach and then move. Also work on lighting conditions and getting a feel for true to life shadows and highlights on a form, especially ones that are metalic like these.

Post 13

2008-04-28T21:52:00.001-07:00

For my final assignment in my figure drawing class, we were brought to the Body Worlds Exhibit in milwaukee. Our assignment was to draw a figure from the exhibit and have that interact with another figure.

My level of interaction is the group of kids behind the horse. I was doing alot of studies of the middle and high school kids and all the strange or ignorant things they were saying. Most of them congregated around the horses back end and snickered among themselves about the horses tid-bits.
The linework was done in graphite and ballpoint pen, color was done in photoshop.

post 12

2008-04-11T11:44:00.000-07:00

did this sketch in my spare time.
This is the arcangel micheal as a chicken.

i got the inspiration for this in a kinda strange way. I was walking between classes one day and i looked at something from a wet media class that was hagning in the hallway and a swore that i saw the arcangel micheal as a chicken. i did a double take and walked to it and it was nothing like what i though. Taking that, i decided to take it upon myself to draw what i wanted to see.
This was done in graphite, ballpoint pen, ink pen, gold paint, and marker.

Post 11

2008-04-09T16:00:00.000-07:00

an assignment for school. we had to design an olympic poster in a year and city of our choosing as long as the city had not hosted the games before. We also had to have a landmark from the city, mine is the angel pillar that also acts as the I in Kiev. (written in ukrainian.)
i drew up the yak mascot, his name is Kubec and they are skiing. Done in adobe illustrator.

Post nine

2008-02-06T11:22:00.001-08:00

been awhile since i updated. Havnt really been doing to much ive wanted to upload, but ive got a few recent things to put up now.
This first one is a page from my sketchbook. i had an assignment for my illustration class to do a magazine cover that depicted a famous person with either an animal that relates to them or the person displying the animal likeness. I chose to do Jack Horner whi is a palientologist who disovered the Maiosaur and also came up with the theory that dinosaurs were good parents (among other things.)
These drawings were my studies done for the dinosaurs and also ended up being the only part of the assignment i though turned out well . I'm not happy with the final peice, though i may redo it later on.

The next two are some figure drawings i did late last semester. both were done in mechanical 2B graphite. The first one is rougly 18 x 10 inches and the second is 18 x 20 inches.

hopefully i wont go another month without a post.

post eight

2007-12-23T19:34:00.000-08:00

Awhile ago i was givin the assignment to do a memorial piece for a family friend of mine. About two months ago her son, Staten died in a car accident and in memory i did a poster for her of her son.

This peice was done in adobe illustrator with the help of a Bamboo Wacom tablet and printed 36 x 24in. I refrenced a photo of Staten for the face and pose, the shirt and type were all hand done. The lyrics to "In My Life" by the beatles is running behind him.
Seeing it framed was something new for my work. I rarely ever see my own work framed, seeing as if i hadle my own work i choose to keep it as far from my own eyes as possible. It was nice seeing this one though, especially knowing it was going to someone who would really understand it and have a connection with it.
This was also done knowing that within a few days ALOT of people would be seeing it for chirstmas parties and what-not.
With that in mind this came along.

this is my make-shift business card. As mentioned above, knowing my work was going to be in the public eye i figured i'd submerse myself in the party prepared. If the poster caught anyones eye i could at least leave them with something. This was also done in illustrator with a photo refrence.

Post Seven

2007-12-14T18:25:00.000-08:00

One update today.

this is a drawing i did for my figure drawing class. We got a list of seemingly nonsensical/ nonsequitar phrases and we had to pick one and draw it. Some of the phrases were Blue and Greasy, devil skinner, free range woman, every other hung up person, owl people, shadow man, ect. I choose Owl People.
My refrence photo was of my uncle and his family that i posed how i wanted them to be. It measures 14 in x 18 in. This was done in 2B graphite, ebony graphite, white chalk, and india ink.

Post Six

2007-12-04T13:35:00.000-08:00

Updated today is the finished skateboard i did for my illustration class. As stated a few posts back, the assignment was to design a deck based off of a classical novel. Mine was 20,000 leagues under the sea.

I appologize for the size and kinda wonky formating on it, the long shot was the only wa to show the details in it.
This was done entirely in acylic paint with a clear coat of spray polyeurothane. I couldnt get a good shot of it without having that awful glare along the top of it.
A more in depth description is in Post four i think if you want to know more about it.

Post five

2007-11-28T20:23:00.000-08:00

So the following is a drawing done for my Figure drawing class. The assignment was to take a photograph and recreate it as closely as possible. We were allowed two class periods with one of our new models to work with them and take pictures. The photo i drew from was taken with a cannon powershot something or another, 8.0 megapixel, 10zoom (which doesnt do shit.) Its a good camera though. I took a few proccess shots, kinda to show my work as it moves.

i was really upset and frustrated before i even started doing this thanks to a terrible week. From the way it turned out, maybe i should get my self angry before i do any drawing. I got into a really good groove when i was doing this, its bassiclly entirly crosshatching. Ive been taking alot of influence from a few kids in my grade who are awesome with that technique.
Its done in graphite, 2B and ebony.

Post Two

2007-11-18T12:31:00.000-08:00

I have a few to put up today.

This first one is a work in progress; im doing it for my own enjoyment and to hopefully have finished to put in a portfolio before february.

This is a smaller peice, its 9'' x 5'' i think with a two inch boarder on all sides. Its done in 2B and 5H mechanical graphite. When its done there will be more skulls of different types behind the figure (which is me) and i havnt really decided if i will have any solid shade behind me or just cast shadows.

this peice was done for my illustration class. We had to pick a superstition and illustrate it. I originally started with it was "good luck to run upon three sheep."

When i started drawing it i was going with the idea that the foxes had the good luck of coming upon the unattended sheep and ate them. After i got the skeletons in i liked how the stacking of the bones and skulls was looking so i decided to change my idea alittle. There was another superstition that it was "bad luck to run upon a group of foxes." Easily enough it was just a mater of putting a few more skeletons in there and placing the foxes.
This is 10'' x12.5'' and done in marker, ink, colored pencil, and water for blending.

This last one is a little older. This was done early this year for my figure drawing class.

I love cross-hatching as a technique and think this is a good example of it. This is the model Alice, and it was done in india ink with a fine point nib. It's 20'' x 18''.

Post One

2007-11-17T17:17:00.000-08:00

so i guess i want this to be an art blog for myself so i dont have to deal with a website right now. Every once in awhile i'll upload things im working on or finihsed peices.
First peice i want to upload is something i finished a few months ago. Its done in graphite.
We had to take two pictures and then seamlessly put them together and then add a self portrait. my two images were photos i took in Beijing at the dirt market. One pic was of two huge pho-dog statues, the other picture was of a ton of small buddah statues. Im among the buddahs.

i like how it turned out ,the original image is alittle lighter overall then id want it to be, so i boosted contrast in the computer. It measures about 10.5 x 12 inches.