When You Look at it This Way....

It's no secret I hate rap. I've heard some people say rap stands for Retards Attempting Poetry haha. Some of it is good, but the majority of it sucks in my opinion. One of my friends tried to convince me otherwise. She found some videos of rap in other cultures and this is what she found. 

Japanese rap:

You can tell he's gangsta by how many times he puts his hands to his head and acts frustrated. My favorite part is the random shot of the dog near the end. Rap seems way less aggressive in Japanese. This was just funny.

French rap:

This one was even funnier than the Japanese one. The French language is too soft and precious to be taken serious in rap. Parts of it do sound cool though. 

And then you've got your typical American rap. 

I didn't put up the official music video cause I didn't wanna offend anyone. Rap videos are usually a little risque. 

I guess if you look at American rap in comparison to rap from other countries, it wins. I still stand by the fact that if you compare American rap to most other American genres, it loses. But it does have a time and a place, I'll give it that.

Anyways, enjoy the ridiculous rap videos in other languages :)

Two Foh One, What A Bargain

In case whoever is reading this hasn't taken Psychology from Mr. Fong at Mountain View High School, the blog title is supposed to be read with an Asian accent. 

I really got into calligraphy when I was learning about it in my History of Graphic Design class, and I went and bought a calligraphy set and everything. I tried it out, sucked at it on the first try and forgot about it until recently. 

I had an idea involving Chinese characters and lyrics that embody the meaning of the character. Here are some trials I did. Just trying to feel out the idea and see what works and what doesn't before I make the large version I want to do. 

This is the first one I did, you can tell cause it's kinda sloppy. 

The character is Love/Affection and the lyrics are from the song Tonight by Seether.

This is the second one I did. Looks like part of the top got cut off when I scanned it. Whoops.

The character is Beauty and the lyrics are from True Colors by Cyndi Lauper. 

 

This is the third one I did. I made it specifically for my sister Amy. 

The character is Dance and the lyrics are from I Hope You Dance by Lee Ann Womack. 

I am probably going to make more in a little bit. I have to stay up till midnight so I can register for next semester. I usually stay up until two anyway so it's not a big deal. 

Here is a random doodle I did of my name. 

Anyways, enjoy

Just a Couple of Bikers in a Barn

So......my latest Illustration project was to create a collage to go along with an article. My teacher emailed us six articles to choose from, and I chose one about these bikers and cowboys who go to church in a barn. 

Here is what I came up with:

The building in the back is the Harley Davidson building in Lindon which fit, cause it looks like a barn. 

The picture of the guy, other than the edits I made, is from the Sons of Anarchy t.v. show and I give them full credit for that so I don't want anyone trying to sue me for copyright or whatever.

And the cross/wings design on the back is from a random Google search so there ya go. I edited everything though, and the whole thing was done on photoshop. 

This is one of my favorite projects, just cause there were so many things I could do with the subject matter. I also really liked the color scheme, I think it fits together well. 

Anyways, enjoy :)

Putting My Stuff Out There

Hey everyone! I normally don't solicit anything.....but I really need your votes haha. I entered Volcom's t-shirt design contest on PacSun's website and I really want to win. 

Here is one design:

And guess what. Literally like, five minutes after I submitted this design, some dude submitted the exact same design, except black and grey instead of colorful. I couldn't believe it. So don't vote for him! Vote for me! Please please please! 

Click HERE to vote for Volcom Star! 

Here is another one I made:

Click HERE to vote for New Perspective!

And I made another one! Haha apparently there is no limit. I could make a hundred of these things. 

Click HERE to vote for Fracture! Please vote for all of them! It will give me a better chance of winning. 

And I just made another one. I can't stop myself lol. 

Click HERE to vote for Target Practice. It may be my favorite. 

Thanks so much. You won't regret it. If I win, my design will be sold in stores, which is a baby step towards my dream lol. You wouldn't say no to helping somebody's dream right? 

So vote! 

Today is an Artsy Fartsy Day

I have been studying for my History of Graphic Design midterm for the past three days. I'm taking a break because I just remembered something. I'm currently reading this huge long chapter about the Art Nouveau period, which has a lot of Japanese influence. For some reason, it reminded me of this video my sister showed me forever ago even though it has nothing to do with Japan. 

It is called The Monk and the Fish

It is so random, yet it makes me laugh and I like it. I guess it's also supposed to have some symbolism with God and such but I'm not sure, that's just what some comments said under the video.

I'm feeling super inspired today, but unfortunately I have to confine myself to the textbook and memorize images rather than making any. I guess I'll just have to save it for later.

Anyways, gotta get back to studying so enjoy the random video!

Sometimes I Forget the Things I Have Done

Once upon a time I took a philosophy class. I got really into it, which motivated me to create a blog where I could bring up topics and get people's opinions on it. I stumbled across it randomly today. I had completely forgotten about it. It was actually pretty interesting just to read over what people had said again. Maybe I will bring it back on a different, better blog than the one it is currently on. Click HERE for a link to it if you want to check it out. 

I'm sick and about to pass out so that's all for now.

Enjoy

And The Doobie Doobie Pothead Stoner of the Year Award Goes To...

......half of the people at the X96 Big Ass Show 2011. Seriously, half the people there were smoking. Ok maybe just a fourth were smoking and the rest were drunk. I don't know what it is about outdoor concerts that attracts the grungiest, dirtiest people. Clean people like music too, right? Here are some pics I tried to take without being obvious. I'm not so great at the stalker-type photo taking.

Let's start with a game of "Where's Waldo?"

Can you find him?

Oh, look! Here he is.

Silly Waldo. 

And then there was this girl:

She kept looking at me so I couldn't get a very good picture. That girl in the middle is in an old fashioned school girl uniform or something and she was holding a stuffed animal. Yeah.....weird. And I know what you guys are thinking: Where can you get an awesome vomit jacket like the guy on the right? Answer: nowhere. It's one of a kind. His grandpappy made it for him. 

But no worries, you can purchase creepy school girl's friend's fedora at most upscale retail shops. Day: made. I know. 

Here is our crappy view of the stage when Anberlin was playing. This was after we had moved. We were closer before but pot smoke kept wafting into our faces so we decided not to get a secondhand high and moved next to the people who were smoking cigarettes instead. Lesser of two evils I guess lol. 

This picture is just awesome. It looks nothing like how the building and sky actually looked but for some reason, this is the image that came out when I took the picture. I like it better this way. 

And here is the awesome T-shirt I got. You HAVE to buy a shirt for every concert you go to. It's a rule I choose to live by. 

It was kinda sad but kinda cool cause Brendon Urie, the lead singer for Panic! At the Disco somehow got malaria and was in the hospital. So they improvised and had the lead singers from some of the other bands get up with the rest of Panic! and sing their songs. It was.....interesting. The lead singer for Neon Trees actually did a pretty good job, I was impressed. Brogan Kelby, however, needs to just stick to his own music. 

Luckily, I got to see Panic! At the Disco in Oregon in June and they were awesome. Hopefully Brendon recovers soon. 

All in all it was a good day. I rode the trax for the first time and I also ate at The Cheesecake Factory for the first time. Their cheesecake was amazing but their salad tasted like shiz-ola. You would think that a restaurant that is fancy enough to have cloth napkins would have a salad that wouldn't make you vomit. I literally gagged and had to down my coke to get rid of the disgusting taste. Britt can testify to this. 

All I can say is, if you're looking for a good salad, go to Cafe Rio. Other people will say go to Costa Vida, but at Cafe Rio you get yelled at in Spanish and get huge portions, which is way more exciting than white teenage boys quietly handing you your normal, human sized salad. 

I'm rambling cause I'm sick and losing my mind, so peace out. 

Enjoy my ramblings. 

Sam Weber: Strangely Awesome in all His Gore

Today in Illustration we had a demo from Sam Weber. His content choice is mainly creepy things like skulls, creepy girls, death, etc. He is extremely talented. Click HERE for his website. Just warning you, there is creepier, darker work on his site than the images below.

 It was really interesting to watch him in his process, even though I could hardly see since there were so many people crowded around him. Here is some of his less creepy stuff.

Look at this! He did a cover for National Geographic! That's when you know you've made it. He has also worked for the New York Times and he did some work for Vanity Fair, among other really prestigious work. I would put the picture up from Vanity Fair but it is a little disturbing. If you wanna see it just go to his website using the link at the top and click on 'editorial'. 

Anyways, enjoy.

Wherefore art thou Romeo?

Don't worry people, this isn't a post about longing for a husband or any crap like that. This post is about my latest Illustration project.

For our second assignment, we were supposed to make a picture that represented a famous couple. We had to choose from a list of five couples so I chose Romeo and Juliet. 

Here is my picture:

I know it's a little morbid, but I liked the idea so I ran with it. It ended up really simple since this was only my second time using photo shop and I didn't really know what I was doing. My teacher actually liked it which was refreshing. The only thing he wants me to change is the little black pieces of mosaic around the lines. Easy enough to fix.

One of my friends posted this quote on their Facebook page and I really liked it:

"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners. I wish someone had told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it's just not that good. It's trying to be good, it has potential, but it's not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase; they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn't have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know that it's normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you finish one piece. It's only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and our work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I've ever met. It's gonna take a while. It's normal to take a while. You just gotta fight your way through."

 

-Ira Glass

It's the most encouraging thing I've heard in a while. Everyone needs a little encouragement every now and then.

Anyways, enjoy.