140pix, Southern California edition

New panels for UCSD housing

Kevin Sablan — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:00:12 +0000

There is some great art hanging in the most unlikely places. Places where generic reprints dutifully fulfill their obligation to not offend anyone. But sometimes, illustrators like San Diego’s Lyndi Parrett (@Lyndiparrett) provide the visuals for places like the housing at the University of California San Diego. Parrett recently used Twitter to share three pictures of the panels she created. The simplicity of those panels can be found in some of her other work at lyndiparrett.com. The site also houses some of Parrett’s extremely detailed illustration skills.

Vehicle wraps are art, too

Kevin Sablan — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:00:45 +0000

Color me ignorant, but I always assumed that those big graphics on the side of trucks, buses and trailers were just created by some computer magic. I didn’t realize that what I was looking at was a large moving canvas upon which a designer practices his or her art. Loring Studios is a Lake Elsinore company that designs and installs vehicle wrap. On Twitter, they go by @awthentikwraps, and they share pictures of their work, like this one of a California Pizza Kitchen trailer. I heart pizza, so I knew I had to share this picture when I saw the trailer roll through my Twitter stream.

Artist brings Crewest graffiti gallery to social media

Kevin Sablan — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:00:10 +0000

Crewest calls itself “Downtown LA’s premier graffiti gallery.” Its director, Man One (@crewest), is an artist himself and is all over social media. I heard about his art, and the gallery, when Man One shared this piece on Twitter during a recent trip to Monterey Bay. You can see art from Crewest, and more of Man One’s work, on his Flickr page. You can also catch Crewest on MySpace and Facebook. For the latest gallery news, make sure to subscribe to the gallery’s blog and don’t forget to visit crewest.com for everything else.

Comics powered by Hitler, time travel and haiku

Kevin Sablan — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:00:17 +0000

What do you get when you mix the last leader of the Nazi party with a popular science fiction theme and 17 syllables? You get Hitler killed by a mad time-traveling scientist, as illustrated by Nathan Olsens (@nateomedia) and accompanied by a haiku written by Robert Olsen. The pair run Haiku Comics. Go check out their site to see the full strip. How did I find out about the site? I noticed it when Olsens shared this panel on Twitter, of course.

Hate the computer, love the Photoshop effect

Kevin Sablan — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:00:01 +0000

Ever feel like you need to “embrace” the latest tools to create your art? Well, you don’t have to love the tools to work with them. Witness Jensie Tolman (@JMTolman). She recently tweeted her preference for non-digital drawing tools. “I hate drawing on the computer, but I like this marker effect.” Below is the artwork that accompanied her tweet. She told me that the whole thing was done with Photoshop and a graphics tablet. If you like this piece, make sure to check out more of her work on her Etsy site. It’s there that I found that Tolman has a a type of synesthesia which makes her see music. If you’re as curious and ignorant as I am, read about synesthesia on Wikipedia.

Sketching at 10,000 feet

Kevin Sablan — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:00:17 +0000

How do you spend your time when you’re on a plane, heading back to Southern California after spending time with the fam? If you’re an artist like Tatiana Krasovski (@hey_tani), you might sketch that time away. After getting back to L.A. earlier this month, Krasovski shared this sketch on Twitter. Krasovski is an illustrator and designer originally from Kharkiv, Ukraine. If you like this sketch, check out more of her work on her site, illustratk.com.

Zombie paints slithering head, Friday night at dorks

Kevin Sablan — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:00:30 +0000

On a late Friday night a couple weeks back, Victorville’s Jason McCormack (@zombiemuse) completed this painting of an open-minded Medusa man (my label, not the title of the piece) and tweeted “Finally finished 1 for the show tomorrow. #fridaynightartdorks” In my usual dig to find out where “dorks” is, I found out that #fridaynightartdorks is a hashtag created by Chet Zar (@chetzar) and used by artists who choose to refine their craft instead of partaking in other Friday festivities. If you want to see more of Jason McCormack’s work, make sure to visit his MySpace page.

Comic Life does more than just comics

Kevin Sablan — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:00:58 +0000

This blog runs on absolutely no budget, so when Amber Asaly (@amberasaly) told me that this picture was created without using Photoshop, I had to share it here. You see, the most basic Photoshop product retails for about $80 right now. Compare that to the $25 Comic Life that Asaly used to get this disjointed-frames effect. Sure, it doesn’t do all the things that Photoshop does, but if you are interested in effects, it might be worth a look.

The ABCs of virtual graffiti

Kevin Sablan — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:00:16 +0000

Yesterday, I shared a picture of L.A. dressed up as N.Y.. Will Batts (hiphopxyz), the man who posted that picture on Twitter, is also a virtual graffiti artist. He uses software to add what looks like graffiti to pictures that he takes from “across the globe.” He told me that this first shot is of the Delaware Memorial Bridge. Scroll down for more of his virtual graff art and visit Batts’ MySpace page to find out about his “Hip Hop XYZ” album.

Alien rapper turns LA into NY for CSI

Kevin Sablan — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:00:10 +0000

Searching for Twitter pictures from Southern California invariably unearths photos of people in costume for film and television shoots. But a few weeks ago, Will Batts (@hiphopxyz) shared this picture of a city dressed up for the cameras. Los Angeles was made to look like New York for an episode of CSI: NY. You see, Batts is a set designer for the investigative law enforcement TV franchise. Batts also calls himself a “rapper for aliens” and a “virtual graffiti artist.” I’ll be featuring his graff art here tomorrow, but if you want to hear the alien hip hop, you’ll have to visit his MySpace page.