Inanities

Long time no see

2006-09-06T10:10:00.000-07:00

"Silly Games"

Wow it has been a while since I posted one of these. This is all work from my recent show up in Oakland. I took a little different approach to making work this go around. There was no nonstop sketching and redrawing leading to carefully transferred pencil lines on watercolor paper. Instead I drew directly onto my final surface and when the drawing was finished in pencil it all got inked and finished. No more fussing about.

My inspiration this go around was old fashioned pinups, in particular sepia toned erotica postcards from the early part of the 20th Century.

Response was good, although my friends kept asking me what was up with all the boobies (or at least a few people did). That is probably because I have never blatantly drawn women in various forms of undress. Maybe it was my Catholic upbringing but I never felt I had an excuse to draw nudity. I’m glad they all went over well and that I am not perceived as totally shameless.

(This is a big post but thankfully there are very little words. I apologize for some of the image quality, but my computer crashed before I left for Oakland. So as of now I only have digital camera photos of the work hanging in the gallery.)

“Silly Games Detail”

“S.O.S.”

“S.O.S. detail”

“Lift Off”

“Practice Makes Perfect”

“Practice detail”

“Secret Identity”

“Secret Identity detail”

“Stars and Dandelions”

“Stars and Dandelions detail”

“When I Lost You”

“Dream Girl”

“Dream Girl detail”

An interesting thing happened in the development of this project. I began wanting to just make some vapid straight up pin up drawings. However my brain kept working out stories for all of these ladies. No so much full narratives but small vignettes about who they are and what their deal is. This is why so many have costumes instead of just scarfs and blankets and sexy pot poses. I love the idea that “the clothes make the woman” and can tell so much about a character. When there were no clothes I used the setting as the costume. The brown drawings became scenes out of the lives of these anonymous women I made up.

“Party Animal”

“Party Animal detail”

“Marker Girl one”

These were very quick drawings I did before the show. I am trying to work looser and in a much more stylized way these days. So I’ll sit down and just try to crank out some caricature style drawings to get out of my usual way of working. My work holds together because of the types of subjects I depict. Stylistically though I worry that I’m all over the map (sometimes realistic, other times cartoony).

“Marker Girl 2”

“Marker Girl 3”

I don’t know if this is a good direction for full illustrations. They sure are fun to do though.

“Lost in Space (shaky camera version)”

“Fish out of Water”

What does it all mean? That seems to be the question everyone wants to know when they look at my work. At once it is flattering especially since my work is so narrative. Yet I like it when a viewer makes up their own story from the clues I have left in an illustration. Rather than having me just give it up. But my work is very narrative based so I shouldn’t complain.

With that said (since someone asked) the “Fish Out of Water” painting is about interacting with the opposite sex. Particularly when one is single and ready to mingle at bars and such. I became single at a time when other friends of mine also found themselves girl-less. Guys love to sit around and talk themselves up. When we go out we try to put our game face and best cologne fully convinced that we could have any woman at the bar.

The truth is though women make most of us nervous, especially the ones we are most attracted to. So our little shark boy has dressed himself up as a predator of sorts to get ready to hunt so to speak. Yet at the first sight of a beautiful mermaid…he falls apart. You can’t pretend to be something you’re not.

I like that some people find my work cute and I find my subject mater totally heartbreaking and uncomfortably personal…but you know in a humorous sort t of way.

“ Strings”

As for this one... well I’m still trying to figure it out. I explain it by saying that it's based on how pretty girls get surrounded by desperate guys at bars and at work to an almost suffocating degree. Yet there is that part of them that enjoys the attention.

However the truth is that the image of a girl wearing/bound by paper men just poped into my head and I thought it was relevent to what I was doing at the time(and also beautiful).

Sometimes that's all you need.
Well I'm out for now thanks for everyone that came out. The reception was loads of fun and the show runs all month so don't miss it!

Till later
Vincent

Chapter Two: Up Up and Away!

2006-06-09T18:51:00.000-07:00

"Are you ready for dis?!"

The end of May came upon me faster than a speeding bullet. Reflecting now I can’t believe it went by so fast. With a week and a half left to go I accompanied Ryan to one last Oakland party with a superhero theme.

Ryan went as “ Super Market” and was by far the cleverest character there. All the East Bay art kids were there so it was cool to hang out and say a whole bunch of goodbyes in one night.

Then it was the day before; I drove around Oakland taking some final reference photos of my favorite places. Number one on the list will always be the Oakland Tribune building. When I first moved up north I had a view of this tower and always expected to see Batman swing across it. I have consistently drawn it since and have no shame for how many times it will pop up in my work.

On that same note Paula’s face pops up quite often in my work too. Earlier in the month I was drawing an ad for my work and I needed a cute face to draw.

So I whipped out this pseudo likeness of Paula toot sweet. I have drawn this girl so many times that I could do it in my sleep. Now that I have left Oakland who is going to pose in all my illustrations?

Here I am the night before I leave, about to have some drinks with a few people. After this photo was taken I went from zero to drunk in under twenty minute. That is what happens when you leave town and everyone wants to buy you drinks.

I am not too good with sentimentality especially in regards to having to leave all my great buddies. I am also not to good saying goodbye. I like being the center of attention (obviously), but I don’t like to get too weepy in front of people. But I’m glad it was an emotional send off.

I am not much of a crying person, hell I laughed when Bambies' mom died in that tragic scene at the tender age of 8 ( Momma? Momma?” comedy gold). Yet As I left the next morning I was so overcome with such sadness that the water works wouldn’t stop. I know that I made the right choice to move forward and out of "The Bay", but saying bye to the last five years, my college days, and all my dearest friends was one of the hardest things I have had to do.

So to wrap up here are some photos from the drive down taken when I wasn’t singing along to "Lights" by Journey and Crying at the poignancy of the line: " When the lights go down in the city...Oh I want to be dooooowwwnn in the city!" .

" That is just damn good Advice"

" Who decided that this particular AMPM needed a metal dino skeleton?"

"Illegible Sky writing...AXU? That is how I would sky write."

When I got home I was restless so my Brother (whom I’ll be living with) dragged me out to a Toga Party by USC.

"My bro says" Silence Christians or you'll be sent to the lions den!" But the man behind him is being lit by his divine goodness"

As you might imagine I am not a Toga Party kind of guy, so I refused to wear one (because it would clash with my fancy boots.) Since it was the first and most likely last one I’ll go to I did some documenting of the festivities.

Just a week before I attended another cramped party house talking with a bunch of art students dressed as Superheros, now I was hanging with a bunch of Coeds in loose fitting pants and halter tops playing ping pong themed drinking games. Weird and out of place does not begin to describe how I felt.

Up north I was the loud Mexican at the art party and was a novelty because of all the skinny white hipster around. But now I am just another loud Mexican,and we are a dime a dozen here! What am I gonna do now for attention? I am going to have to learn to belly dance or eat fire.

Anyway I had a good time at the toga party regardless.

Well Oakland Goodbye, I'll always love you.

Los Angeles, I'm yours! Even with all your "dolor and decay".

More stuff is a poppin' I now have two new jobs...but that is another story.

Till Later,

Vincent

Chapter One: Brass and Moving Boxes

2006-06-08T18:13:00.000-07:00

Oh lord it has been too long ! A big move and many tearful hugs and kisses later I am in Los Angeles now.

Well it is time to get this blog back on track. Here is the story of May in two parts.

Chapter One: Brass and moving boxes

A group show with about eight other artists opened up the month. The experience of hanging the work was fun and grueling as about 200 paintings in total were involved.

The show went of like Gangbusters and quite a bit of work sold. Hooray for all involved. However everything leading up to the show was a nightmare. Not only was our setup time mistakenly set up wrong twice…but when we did show up to finally hang work there were other complications. When we arrived at the gallery there was a brass band playing crazy circus music right in the gallery. After much negotiation we allowed them two more hours to finish practice while we got ready (i.e. got beer and burritos).

We started hanging work near the end of the Circus Band’s practice when their striped stocking wearing leader came over to us and asked if they were really that much of a bother and could they keep playing in the gallery.

Now…I don’t know how many of you have tried to arrange 200 paintings while a tuba blares at you from two feet away. As you can imagine it is fairly difficult. So they ended up relocating for the next two hours outside. Sensibly a band would head down the street, but our dear friends in the art school brass cabaret decided that the best acoustics were directly out the front door.

We toughed through it and the show turned out great.

How did we ever manage to do it? Tuborg baby…Copenhagen’s finest .50-cent beer!

After the show I received a vision from above telling me it was time to move back to Los Angeles. Zombie Darwin visited me riding a beam of light and together with his cheetah woman bride we decided it was best if I moved down south for a spell.

" Chaz Darwin in Zombie mode"

So I got to packing, and with my Boone companion Roboraptor we decided which belongings would stay and which would go.

The middle of the month was filled with making arrangements working my butt off and then of course beginning to say goodbye to all the homies in Oaktown. Over the month I got two illustration jobs that both went off well. Not necessarily my best work…but regardless I can’t believe people want to pay me for this. I love illustrating. The first was for an article about Corporations hiring people to predict trends and shifts in the marketplace. The bright yellow image is about how well the California Supreme court justices get along.

Stay tuned for the next Chapter!
XOXO
Vincent

The A is for " Annihilation "

2006-04-04T07:08:00.000-07:00

This weekend I had to draw a self-portrait…that’s me with the tie on.

I am going to be in a show with about seven other illustrators this coming May at Lobot Gallery in Oakland. The title of the show is “The Lineup” and the card will feature self portraits of us all standing in front of a police line up. So I had to draw a head to toe depiction of my stunning good looks, which I have never done before.

It is funny drawing yourself man I have a very prominent nose. I am all nose in this drawing. I should have just drawn a large nose with legs popping out of the nostrils and a bandana on. I could have had a flag waving in the background with the words “Born in the USA” behind me. Now that would have been a good drawing.

"The nose in question...that's me on the left"

All in all I am happy with this drawing, I feel that it is more honest than other attempts at drawing myself. It is time everyone knows about my robot dinosaurs, and that I'm not to be trifled with.

When I first sketched this out I was having one of those amazing days where everything I draw turns to gold, every loving stroke could cure rare diseases.

On this day I picked up the idea from the last post with the girl playing piano and am working on the whole drawing now. Here is the face. I have tried to get this one together for a while now and am happy that stylistically it is starting to go somewhere.

"This face drew itself by a remote connection with Pluto"

The rest of the drawing delights me and I’ll show it once it is further along. Also I have been gabbing on and on about this new paint (Cell Vinyl) that is now in my possession. I have been playing around with it but don’t have a whole bunch to show except for this drawing of Anne Hathaway (the actress)...

... and there is also this one of a friend...which looks nothing like her.

I intend on doing a bunch of small portraits like this in order to help me learn how to manage the paint better. I want a small army of them by May for this Illustration show. I want to do some more famous people, but I want real people too and fictional characters as well. If you want me to paint you …yes you I will do so. Just email me your photo I'm at: Vincent@vincentperea.com

Be warned I may draw you as a large nose with legs popping out singing “Free Bird”.

This offer does not apply to anyone in either Nigeria or England who wants me to transfer over a billion dollars to some secret American bank account.

What’s up with that!

Vincent A. Perea

Wheels

2006-03-23T00:51:00.000-08:00

Oh Boy, another week is about to end. When I got home from LA I spent the week catching up with friends and driving around in my new car. Sketching had been slow but then last weekend I got sick so I spent a good Sunday watching bad bad movies (Kindergarten cop ... I’m not embarrassed) and of course drawing.
One of my favorite activities recently is to peruse through magazines and draw the fashion advertisements. Usually the clothes and accessories are really noteworthy in a stand-alone advertisement, and when you take an image like that out of context the illustration is hilarious (and really fun to draw).
I want to turn the two sketches below into finished paintings with my new paint, which should be arriving soon. I ordered some animation cel vinyl paint to experiment with as a medium in an attempt at branching out from watercolor…with another water based medium. I am at a point where I am trying to push myself into new directions stylistically, but I don’t want to reinvent the wheel just yet.

"From an ad in the 1950s for Vodka I think...can't you tell!"

"This was a more recent Ad for Prada. Why was she posing in a barn?" What's with the chicken? Who knows..."

" Not inspired by an Ad but an old idea that wont go away. Maybe posting this will inspire me to stop doodling this and finally paint it"

"Same goes for this sketched out beauty."

Keep reaching for the stars!

Vincent

Friday

2006-03-10T15:07:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone,
No clever dialogue this time just a big sketch drop.

I am currently in Los Angeles and having a great time. Got my new car a new haircut and life is looking up after a really crazy week.

To all the great people I met today at Buena Vista Games thanks for the time. These sketches are for you (since my website sketches are currently down)

Thanks!

- Vincent

These first two are going to get the color treatment in the next week or so.

These are toys at Paula's House

Bored girl, whose face was inspired by a real bored girl on public transit

my continuing love for all things alien

Have a great weekend, See ya Sunday Oaktown!

The things your not told about riding a bike.

2006-02-28T23:18:00.000-08:00

My day job (as most of you know) is working for a commercial printer in the suburbs of the East Bay. There I scan transparencies, smooth out blotchy skin and remove blemishes from the faces of paid models in brochures and flyers. Not very rewarding, however it beats my last job working in the business office of my art school.

I have spent the last five years exclusively around art people, while in school and then working at the school. Now I am thrust back into the other 95% of humanity and to them I am an outsider.

Now I don’t mean this in the typical High school way, they are all very gracious. Yet, there are a few things I do that make them look at me a little cockeyed.

For example I ride a bike. I am originally from Los Angeles where one has to have a car. When I moved to Oakland for school I realized that here you don’t need to have a car so badly. I have done really well to get by on busses, the Bart and my bike. There is even a type of hipster here that has built their subculture around bikes (which I am not one off… to them I am just a nerd, but nonetheless a peer in two wheeled mobility).

However the further inland you go in the East Bay the rules begin to change on you, and a bike rider is no longer viewed as an upstanding possibly even cool member of society, but as just some poor bastard without a car.

" My new ride."

Recently my office was in hysterics because one of the Customer Service Reps (a 24 year old whom we’ll call Maura) bought a new car, a candy red Audi A3. Maura was rightfully excited and everyone left his or her stations to go drool over it. All of course except me… because I don’t really care about cars. This isn’t even defiance against cars, just a reluctance to care. At my work every one talks about nice cars they’ll never buy, houses they hope to own, gadgets, and the richest people in the world. Then I usually pipe up with something like “ Don’t you hate having honey on your hands.”

But I’d be lying if I said that this made me turn my critical third eye (the one right above my other two hidden by my Beatle’esque bangs) onto myself . Especially since my bike riding to work days are numbered as I am going to be buying a car while in LA Next Weekend.. Here are some noteworthy reflections from my tenure as a two wheeler:

Observation the First:
1. Wind: The wind is the bicyclist’s natural enemy, it will push at you and make steering a pain in the ass. It also causes falling leaves and twigs to get in your eyes. If you are not vigilant it will knock you down and steal your wallet and your pride.

Observation the Second and so forth:
2. Cold knuckles: Not only is the Bay Area cold at 6:30 am in the morning the wind that whips at a bike rider is even colder. The result: knuckles that freeze into ice cubes. I could safely say that I know what the victims of Mr. Freeze are going through.

3. Sweat: After a long bike ride when I run up the apartment stairs and peel my jacket off, I am as slippery as a newborn dolphin. This complicates your attire for going to work, as new dress shirts can get the dreaded armpit shadow that vain metrosexuals (like me) fear more than love handles. Therefore where everyone else at work looks cute in their non-sweaty clothes, you are red faced and panting in paint-splattered jeans.

4. Bart trains: Have you ever felt the harsh eyes of loathing upon you from a crowd of people? No, then enter an early morning Bart train crowded with bleary-eyed people with your trusty two-wheeled steed. When you do this everyone will gawk at you with that same “ what an inconsiderate prick” look on their faces. This is how Frankenstein’s monster felt when looking at the angry townsfolk. It is not uncommon for you to be ushered of the train by the torches and pitchforks Bart riders keep in their briefcases.

"The calm before the storm"

5. Hookers: I ride past them everyday. Take a little jaunt down Macarthur blvd. At about 6:25 am and you get a good long look at all the goods. What I learned: Well to do white men will take a hooker to Carl’s Jr. pre or post the exchange of a aforementioned goods. It’s right down the street from the Skank Hotel, and Western Bacon Cheese Burgers are only a dollar! Who could ask for better!

6. Pot holes: they suck, especially when you are drunk and it is 2:30 in the morning. You should have gone home hours ago but your friends party was just too much fun and you hate crashing at someone’s’ house (because then you have to sleep with your socks on and that just can’t happen.). This is even more complicated when some asshole has stolen your bike seat and you in your drunken confusion can’t imagine why you would buy a bike without a seat.

" Hamburger Hooker and the Sleepin' Socks"

7. Exhaust Fumes: Just because you don’t own a car that doesn’t mean you don’t get to enjoy them. I am now a connoisseur of exhaust and I can safely say that Sports Cars provide the taster with the most flavorful bouquet, and long lasting burning after taste.

8. Coffee: No matter how hermetically sealed your thermos is, coffee has it’s own agenda. That agenda is to leak on your bag filled with comic books and sketchbooks. It’ll happen kids don’t ride with coffee unless you enjoy smelling like an espresso machine and wrinkly pages of Batman.

I’m sure there are more but that is all for now. Keep living the dream Bay Area!

Vincent

Working for the Weekend

2006-02-26T19:18:00.000-08:00

It has been a productive weekend on the sketchin’ side of life. Today I dropped off some work for the second annual “Overhung” show at Boontling Gallery. Last year they covered the gallery Salon style from floor to ceiling with work. Although it is a small gallery it has a big presence and with the walls stuffed full of art it is an amazing sight to see.

If you are available this coming Friday night you should check it out ( Boontling is @ 4224 Telegraph Ave. in Oakland) . To give you a scope of the show when I got there at 1:00 pm today they already had 145 pieces to display. One of the owners/curators Derek said that they wanted at least one hundred more.

Below is my primary contribution to the show along with a few other smaller works.

I have set up a little progression of sorts just to spotlight how this painting came about.

A while back my friend Toby lent me a Wacom tablet to experiment with, after numerous conversations where he tried to convince me of the benefits of digital painting. I am not a big fan of digital painting although I am not computer illiterate in such matters. At my day job I spend all day on Photoshop, the last thing I want to do when I paint is look at a Mac.
Recently though I have been experimenting with coloring ink drawings using Photoshop and Painter to some surprisingly pleasing results. Although what I am about to show here is how I have found it most useful, in helping me decide which colors will best suit my current painting.

Enjoy!

In wanting a brand spanking new piece for Overhung I took a sketch from my first post and reworked it onto good watercolor paper.

After scanning the inked drawing I used photoshop to loosely paint local color and give me a sense of the color scheme and mood I wanted to work with.

I whipped out the Watercolor said goodbye to my Saturday and hello to a fun painting.

See you Friday!

Vincent

First there was nothing, then....

2006-02-23T22:27:00.000-08:00

TA DA!!

A New Era in the Mythology of the extraordinary life of Vincent Perea!

The Story so Far:
Before Art School I used to sketch a whole bunch. Whether I was in class or on public transit, I had a lot of time to devote to filling page after page of journals. When I moved away to art school this got more complicated and after a while I noticed I was spending more time on painting sketchbook pages than on my actual artwork. Eventually I would phase out most sketching unless it pertained to finished illustrations.

It’s funny but the pressure to build a good-looking sketchbook page was greater than most of my other work. So long story short I stopped keeping a regular sketchbook.

In October 2005 I got a new job that requires a long commute with around 40 minutes of down time on the Bart train. After two months of simply reading during this time I noticed that I started working less, producing less work, thus I was unhappy.

During the summer months I had been posting funny little blogs on Myspace to the amusement of my friends. However with the new job this too dropped off because of the lack of downtime to surf the web at my new job.

So in December I bought another sketchbook, and jumped right back into my old habits. Now I am happier and producing more work. I can experiment again and try out new ideas before I go to paint, and the commuting time is just enough to be productive.

To keep this ball rolling I am starting this blog so I have a way to:

a. Show newer work to the people, while my website is being redesigned and configured.

b. Have a venue ready for my rambling thoughts and drawings, forcing me to keep on truckin…as it were.

Some note worthy inspirations to this endeavor are:

a. John K of Ren and Stimpy fame started one of these and will regularly update his site with amazing caricature of Celebrities.

b. John Hodgeman’s book “ The Areas of My Expertise” A hilarious almanac of made up trivia that is cleverly and meticulously written. A lycanthropic table of the phases of the moon, a chapter devoted to the history of the disappearance of the Hobo. 100% brilliant.

So here is a recap of some of my recent sketches. I generally rough sketch a drawing in the first forty minutes, then on the way home I tighten it up. Later that week at home I will ink the drawing, and then the next few rides I’ll shade it in. or start something else.

Lately I have been very influenced by Photos from the early part of the 1900s, in particular erotica photos from that time. Which explains most of these.

(My living Room: The Nintendo and VHS suggest that I live in the year 1985.)

(For an upcoming painting that I'll post when I'm done, that is my mom and I )

Keep Living the Dream!

Vincent