The Plastic Beach Series - Empire Ants and Future Additions

I recently finished the second addition the the Plastic Beach series with "Empire Ants - Marching On."  Please pardon the watermark.

A LOT of tracing done here. The giant ant that was used as a mask with the W11-2 sign characters used in repetition where all outlined and turned into vectors that I made much use of. I made different variations to the same image to be used in a repeating series.

The song itself comments on how society moves on with it's routines like ants marching on (hence the the secondary title). But I interpreted from the lyrics that the song is saying as individuals, we have the choice to free ourselves from routines society places on us. It all depends whether or not you have the courage to leave behind the security of a daily regimen and jump into whatever.

Speaking of marching on, this makes 2/15 pieces done for the series! Still a long way to go, but I think I can finish it. Although trying to make each piece not too similar is rather trying, in fact I might have already failed. Either way, I have high hopes for the remaining pieces. Currently drafting "Melancholy Hill" and "Rhinestone Eyes", but the ideas are very illustration heavy (not my strongest suit, I'm still quite amateur when it comes to drawing things on the realistic or biologically correct side). I'm also thinking of using photography for some of the other pictures, but I fear that might come off as a more minimalist approach.

Plastic Beach aside, the Speech series might be getting a new addition in the near future. Been working with people like Ghandi and Mother Teresa, but I think it's time to try someone outside the lines of advocate for peace.

GN-002 Gundam Dynames - Model

For the past couple of weeks I have been off and on building a Japanese robot model, fashioning it to become something much more interesting. And nerdy. But let's just skip over that part for now . . .

1/144 scale HG Gundam Dynames model I picked up at a comic store nearby, set me back close to $20. Still cheaper than the internet, so that's a small victory for me. The mecha is from one of the more recent series "00 Gundam." So you can imagine my purchase was inspired by fandom and the need to not only buy my own toys, but to build them as well.

Cutting the pieces with a small knife, I got several cuts. Painting sections with model paint that according to the label with give me cancer. Inhaling far too much Goo Gone and brush cleaner than I can even recall and it's only 45-55% complete. As crappy a picture as the one above is, I'm sure it's enough to grasp what I have done so far. I kinda like how it looks now, all exposed and incomplete almost as if it has been ravaged and horribly mangled. Nothing at all like how it would be completed:Shouldn't be too much longer till I finish Dynames up nice a pretty, progress will be posted.

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach: It wasn't what I was expecting

Plastic Beach, the location on the globe where all the collective rubbish and trash has been collecting for hundreds of years. Formed by debris and scraps and held together by oil and muck. Sounds interesting, very much like the album it's named after.

It's been 5 years since Gorillaz released their album "Demon Days", which climbed up the charts with it's single "Feel Good Inc." You can imagine that when I heard that they were close to releasing a new album, I was very excited about it. I picked up the Experience Edition of Plastic Beach the day it came out at FYE, since they sell most of their CDs for $10 or less. I had read previously that there would be a lot of talent on this album, Bobby Womack, Lou Reed, Snoop Dog, Mos Def, etc. It seemed to me that they were pulling all the stops to make this album as good as it could be. I'll admit that it made the album seem much more exciting to me. It was all very eclectic, but then again this album is named Plastic Beach.

However, this idea of bringing so much talent in also comes at a price. Nick Butler of sputnikmusic.com brought up a good point when he wrote that the album was a "identity crisis caught on tape."

"It all comes down to the massed rank of vocalists here, ultimately. There's no doubting that the most fun thing you can do with this album is put it on, having never heard it before and never looked at the tracklisting, and wait in amazement for the moment you say 'holy crap, is that Bobby Womack?', or 'wow, Kano!, or 'seriously, Snoop Dogg is on this?'. It's the defining feature of the album, but it's also the biggest failing, because it destroys this band's own personal identity." - Nick Butler, sputnikmusic.com

Although a very valid point is made here, it doesn't change the fact that this is still a Gorillaz album. I've listened to it several times and I am more than qualified at this point to tell you that it's got some good sounds. With every piece of criticism that comes with this album, there is at least one good review to match it. In fact, most of the reviews I have come across have given this album AT LEAST a 7 or higher.

Ratings aside, I found the album very enjoyable. It's got a very pop-like beat, but the lyrics are what really give it depth. Songs like "Rhinestone Eyes", "Stylo" and "Superfast Jellyfish" are good examples of this. Then we have tracks like "Broken" that I personally have not interest for, the beat is too slow and the singing really doesn't do much for me. I have to say that the instrumental work was nothing short of classy, making tracks like "Cloud of Unknowing" even more interesting to listen to.

It's not the same as Demon Days and depending on your point of view, this could be a good or a bad thing. The only thing I wish Plastic Beach took from Demon Days was how it used it's guest talent for more instrumental purposes rather than vocals, I'd rather enjoy listening to Damon Albarn's singing voice. Personally, I don't think it was worth the 5 year wait, but it has grown on me. This will definitely be a good summer album, with it's overall beach theme they are running with. If you are a Gorillaz fan, I would recommend this for your listening pleasure and if you haven't listened to them before, it might be best to start with Demon Days or even their self-titled album from 2001.




gorillaz.com
sputnikmusic.com review

Current Ideas and Project

Over the past couple of years, it seems that there have been several times when I tend to unknowingly create a series of images. It wasn't until recently that I felt that any of that work was worth showing off.

And Asterisk
My first attempt in abstract typographic work from last year. I used the characters "*" and "&" to create these images, which explains the title of this series. Using the Baskerville font gave these images a sort of elegant look with the serifs on the characters. These images came off to me as some sort of abstract baroque style, with their simplistic yet graceful appearance.And Asterisk - Emblem

Plastic Beach

With the recent release of the Gorillaz newest album "Plastic Beach" (which I will address later on in this blog), I've been completely caught up in some sort of (for lack of a better term) "Gorillaz fever." That being said, their music has begun to inspire me to do a series based off the songs on the album. The example shown here is for their single "Stylo". I'd prefer to make them so they didn't look too similar to each other, or seem like a direct translation from the song lyrics. These works will be seen in the near future in this blog.

Stylo - Yippee Ki Yay

Speech

Another recent series that I have been playing with. The idea I want to explain is that people live on in their words. The example I show from this series is one of Martin Luther King Dr. whose image is constructed from the words of his public speech "I Have a Dream" from 1963. The shaded letters on the color background form the image. This particular series has received a decent amount of praise, although getting the image and the speech featured to work together isn't always a walk in the park. I'm looking forward to continuing these series.
Dream

Please visit my DeviantArt page if you want to see better quality versions of these images and their respected series. And my apologies for any personal rage you might experience by dealing with DeviantArt.

Entry

I would think that the first post in this blog should be more on the momentous side, but I personally can't think of anything special to put up to make this any more glorified. This is a blog for my work, be it art, writing or otherwise. It'll be dorky in one way or another. Here's to the first post.