What Lies Beneath the Ocean Floor

exposed [ɪkˈspəʊzd] adj.
Not concealed and displayed for viewing. Without shelter from the elements. Susceptible to attack or criticism. Vulnerable. Open. Unprotected, unveiled, uncovered, unclothed. Exhibited. It's a feeling of nakedness and an emotion of uncertainty. 

An artist's work is always subjected to those experiences.

As the day approaches, we are nervous at where Heemskerk Illustration will go. Filled with questions and uncertainty of whether the art of an illustrator fares well in a gallery amongst the works of a technical photographer, fine artists, and abstract artists. 

"Art" is subjective. I have watched Bryan significantly improve over the past seven years that I have known him. As his wife of almost two years, honesty and constructive criticism is allowed between us, and I am not going to expose all that I think and feel. But if you look at the pieces that he produces with pen, I personally think that he is 87% where I think he could be.

Several of his pen pieces will be displayed at Twist Gallery over the month of March, along with six of his paintings that he has also improved. Come and join us at Twist Gallery on March 8th, 2013 - this Friday from 7:00PM for the public exposure of what is Beneath the Ocean Floor. 
Also, if you are wanting to participate in the charity that this show will be supporting, please check out the facebook page. 

YTF VERSUS THE ROBOTS!

Drawing completed for YTF fan contest.

Featuring: Ryan Higa, Victor Kim, Chester See, and Dominic Sandoval

Jasmine vs the Teddy Apocalypse

ART SWAP

A few years ago I had the idea of doing a couple art swaps with some close art friends.  At the time I completed 2 art swaps, one with Elizabeth Sherry, and another with Jasmine Vicente.  Surprisingly, both of the illustrations they completed compositionally duplicated each other.  With depictions of me standing upon a monstrous pile of bodies, In Jasmines I was atop a pile of ninjas, while Liz had me standing upon a tower of bears.  Their identical assessment of me proved quite hilarious.  How they both came to the deduction that I desire to conquer and stand upon the spoils, bewilders me. 

(Elizabeths) http://lizustration.blogspot.ca/search?updated-max=2011-02-09T00:17:00-05:00&max-results=7

For the last year I have been yearning to complete another drawing swap with jasmine, however, the time has been hard to come by. The previous art swaps I completed were full paintings, but few of us have time to create paintings for fun these days.  So Jasmine and I settled on a drawing swap instead of a painting, due primarily to the quantity of time an artist needs to invest into a painting rather than a drawing. 

This image is my half of the drawing swap, it displays Jasmine vs the teddy bear Apocalypse/ uprising.  Hope she and you all enjoy.

One Year in Life, Love and Art.

One Year

            in Life, Love and Art.

It has been a year since my last post.  So many things can change in a year.  For me, most things have. One year ago I was not married,  and I did not have a child on the way.  I was still a university student and thought that I had already experienced most of what life is comprised of.  Oh how naive I was.

Life can send a million things your way, things you may not have planned or anticipated, but these things can be more beautiful than the things you lay out for yourself.  When life happens to go as you plan, it is calculated and well, boring. The more you love and the more you are depended upon, the more vulnerable you become.  I have never had anyone rely on me the way my pregnant wife does.  Our situation has created trials to overcome in the form of immigration, employment, and insurance.  The little life growing inside of her has placed a responsibility on me that I have never known.  In the last year alone I have experienced more fear and joy than I have in the last 25 years combined. 

There are so many ways to chronicle a year, through blogs, scrapbooks, journals, poems, and songs.  The pictures in this post contain the entire contents of a sketchbook that I completed over the last year.  This sketchbook has traveled Canada and the world with me.  Some of these drawings were completed in New Zealand, Australia, America, British Colombia, as well as, the bitter cold of Thunder Bay.  These pages travelled with me, seemingly unrelated drawings attached to memories.  Different drawings for different purposes, concepts, commissions and characters.  From before I was married through to the wedding, as well as the conception of my first child, it has been a year to cherish, as well as one to flourish.  I have been pushed on all sides, forced to make decisions and to act on them.  Long gone are the days of complacency, I needed to take any skills I had developed and run with them.

Sketchbooks are a strange entity, part journal and part portfolio.  When someone is looking through my sketchbook I feel separated from myself and entirely vulnerable. As proud as I am scared.  Half of me will sit pretending not to be uncomfortable and the other half will be spiritually looming over their shoulder.  When painting an artist has an opportunity to prepare a piece for viewing, and spiritually separate from the piece.  A sketchbook leaves you exposed, with ideas strewn about in a seemingly incoherent order.  Thoughts exposed on paper, there is a vast amount to read into within most sketchbooks.  An artists strengths and weaknesses both artistically and personally, laid bare.  So here I am, naked for all to see.

For Amy: To Contemplate in Crisis

To CONTEMPLATE in CRISIS

Lazyness is something we all must fight, whether it is at our jobs, in our skills, or managing our time. The ones who are closest to us are often the ones to point out our flaws, they have greater potential to build us up and tear us down. Criticism from the people we love can hurt the most, but it also can help just as much.

This week my world was shaken and my future wife had her universe turned upside down by an earthquake that ravaged Christchurch, New Zealand. The earthquake has killed many, injured more and left an undetermined number of people homeless. My fiance and girlfriend for the last 4 years calls Christchurch her home. I was startled by a text message on monday, it read, "Oh my gosh honey everything is smashed. Everything is broken. Please Pray FOR CHRISTCHURCH! PLEASE GET EVERYONE TO PRAY!" This text had an urgency to it that shook my very core. I immediately called her phone, the first try didn't go through, and on the second try I heard a small trembling voice. For those of us who do not know Amy, she has a strong personality, sense of moral conduct, and can be brutally honest, and I really do love these things about her. To hear the same person in such a vulnerable state is unnerving to say the absolute least.

In 4 years of extreme polarity in our relationship due to the distance between Canada and New Zealand, I have never felt more useless and distant. My heart and soul were stripped from my body, longing to be with her in Christchurch, to hold and comfort her, and my body and mind were imprisoned in the cold north of Thunder Bay. I have a dangerous tendency to be overly reflective and analytical of my own perspective and reasoning, this event had me turned entirely inward. I have never felt so distraught, scared, and tormented, while being absolutely safe. I lost myself in the recesses of my mind, completely overwhelmed by the fear of losing the one I had planned to spend my life with.

Commiting yourself to another human being creates a vulnerability that one cannot feel on their own. The emotional and physical attachment you gain in a commited relationship also adds a risk greater than I could previously comprehend. I fear the loss of her life more than I do the loss of my own, and prior to this event I never had a reason to worry. It is truly amazing how quickly physical possesions and money lose all value in a crisis. The first thing that came to my mind when I got the text was whether she was alright, and then my thoughts turned to her family.

I was overjoyed to have heard her voice, and that her and her family were alright, and I will admit that I cried. I simply can not imagine my life with out her, she rounds me as a person in a way that I could never replace. She acts as my moral compass and guide when my thoughts turn the world grey. She pushes me in my skills and in my ambitions, and she calls me out on my lazyness. The more and more I learned about painting in art school, the more lazy I became in my drawing. Amy noticed this, and called me out on it. She outright asked me why I didn't complete a drawing any more and then questioned whether or not I still could. Lazyness can plague the best of us, and I know for a fact that I can not scrape the surface of my potential without my Amy.

This is a drawing I did for her when I couldn't get my mind off of her crisis in New Zealand and it is a reminder of the qualities that she inspires in me.

Of Benchmarks and Things

Creating CONTRAST


Every so often I like to benchmark myself. The problem with progress in a skill is that it is often very gradual. it can be so gradual that it is almost impossible to see the improvement for yourself. Sometimes I question whether I have gotten better at all, and it can be very disheartening.


A couple years ago I found a solution to my problem. I decided to paint something I had painted years before. The results were overwhelming, that when I tried drawing or painting an image that I created in the past, the progress becomes immediately apparent. You can put the paintings beside each other and the gradient of time becomes a strong visible contrast.


There are three times I have attempted to benchmark myself over the last couple years, and the progress is overwhelming to me. I thought some people might enjoy an opportunity to see the examples.


In the upcoming weeks and months I'm going to be allowing my beautiful fiancée, Amy, take control over my blog. I will still post from time to time, but Amy will be posting my art and what is going on with me from her perspective.

Charlie Brown Christmas

I thought I would post this illustration

I did for a local play. They are doing a rendition of the Classic Charlie Brown Christmas.