STAY TRUE

So this, and the vulcan hand from the previous post, were painted as gifts for the christmas holidays.  They were so popular among friends and family, that I have drawn up a list of desired subject matter from various family members.  The story might have gone another way, but owing to monetary constraints, I resorted to the use of art.  Yay!  But I see this as a positive project, one that will help my hone my drawing and painting skills.  So.  Expect to see more of these pop up over the coming days.

GET IT HERE: http://society6.com/PaulUlrich/Stay-True-Star-Trek_Print

Live Long and Prosper

Furthering my skills with watercolor and gouache.  They have proven to be extremely rewarding and fun.  Seeing my designs in living color with so much texture and natural flaw is easily worth it.  The thing that has been giving me the most challenge, however, is lettering.  My handwriting is naturally pretty sloppy, and the prospect of lettering being the bulk of my early tattoo's isn't happy, but I am an existentialist, so I think that it will contribute to the pool of my life experiences in some way or another.

GET IT HERE: http://society6.com/PaulUlrich/Live-Long-and-Prosper-i2o_Print

From Heat shall the Smoke Rise Up

I've been missing the use of color.  Spit-wash and gouache.  Let's open the flood-gates and see what happens.

GET IT HERE: http://society6.com/PaulUlrich/The-Gentleman-Demon_Print

ShirtWork

THESE MACHINES  A concept for some cool as cool-ass shit.

Bugs Bugs Bugs

Bugs! I've been working on a sheet of flash with an insect theme. She still has to be colored.

lightning Lady

This is a For-Fun project.  Now, I have this wonderful, vibrantly red hoodie that came into my possession after wandering through a Salvation Army store.  Unfortunately, I was not the greatest caretaker of the sweater, and made a great, ugly grease stain on the front around the hem, much to my chagrin.  I found a project on Instructables for how to make a ghetto-version screen-printing setup that really intrigued me and inspired me to create a design-- one that will be used with some strategic 50/50 bleach stenciling to cover the horrid mark.  And so, this is the drawing I came up with.  Once I've got some dollars to throw at the project, it's full steam ahead!

Biomech Heart

More Homework!

Iterations of a Homework

Aaaaaand Here are the previous homework iterations.  Started out with something traditional, and ended up completely biomech.  Hell yeah.  The third Didn't get inked in yet.  I kinda skipped that step and went right for the next one...

Homework

The text is German for "God knows not"

Shawn, my master, has been giving me homework assignments regularly now.  Each one, so far, has been about the use and reinvention of the same subject matter.  In this case, the subject was the inclusion of a Skull and Crossbones, two to three Roses, an All-Seeing Eye, and a Banner.  This is Iteration #5.  It is quite obviously a very biomechanical interpretation of the subject matter.  I will post the other iterations soon!

Scenes from my 'GHOSTS' show, and other great news.

I tried to keep the people presence in the photos to a minimum, but there needed to be some for scale reference.  And I couldn't help capturing the po-po standing in front of my drawings!  The other Great News:  I am an Apprentice at The Shamans Den!  The first (and perhaps most significant) hurdle has been hurded with aplombastiousness.

As an end note, these past two months have been like a whirlwind, filled with the meetings of wondrous people, meteoric shifts in life, and a liberal dousing of awesome sauce.  May it never end.

Upcoming Gallery Show

I've got a gallery show at the most excellent Jungle Science Gallery in downtown Binghamton, NY!  I will be displaying a number of large and small-scale drawings for the duration of the exhibit.  Original works will be for sale, and prints will be made available at the same time on my Society 6 website.
junglescience

I'm on Society 6!

Here in Binghamton, New York, we've been slammed pretty hard by storm flooding.  As a result, I was grounded in my apartment for a while, and was thinking about getting around to some much-needed public upkeep.  So! Without further ado, here is my official online storefront for all the happy mortals to visit.

society6.com/PaulUlrich

Man of the Ancient World

Tried doing Spitwash for the first time.  It was a little awkward, but exciting! I've been working on so many things lately, with a special project that will be revealed soon!
Considering the painting, there are still ways that I can improve my techniques visual style, and since this was spitwash Numero Uno, that means my gradients are going to get tighter.  Hurray!  But wow, what a difference a few months make.  Looking back at my earlier works, I already see them under a new light.
Also, gonna start using some watermarks as a just in case.  There are some crafty, thiefty persons out there, and they don't have a day pass. 

Womanface

Trying my hand at watercolor flashwork with a mysterious woman.  I don't like how the hair came out, but with practice, it will improve!

New Images are incoming.  The computer has been down and out for a while, but is now back and at it. The tattoo was done by Jim at Stiehl's.  Love it! My chickadee character.  There is more Chickadee here.

Chesty

Figure Studies

More practice figure studies.  Gotta keep ma brain all limber and stretchid-like.

Made using the Figure Drawing Gesture Tool.

Anchor Lady

Another drawing finished.  First design to incorporate anchors!  I've been browsing through a lot of tattoo-specific image-collecting websites and taking note of the recurring themes, on the assumption that these will be primary subjects when I (hopefully) am tattooing with a machine myself.  As far as self-criticism goes, I feel like the lady's anatomy is pretty wonky, and the anchor could have had stronger symmetry.  But on the plus side, my line-work is improving in confidence, and my designs are more consistently complex.
     My friend Dustin also pointed me to the works of Sean Morgan, of Scarab Body Arts in Syracuse, NY.  Though he is still apprenticing there, his body of work is quite strong, and I'm totally digging some of his layered wavy skull-things.  Totally cool.  Gonna have to try some of that soon.

Scarab Body Arts (tattoo)

Off-Topic

GET FL STUDIO MOBILE
I can't help it.  I've loved FL Studio ever since it was Fruity Loops 3.5!  This program has come a long way from it humble roots, growing from a simple MIDI sequencer to a full-fledged music making champion.  Now, FL Studio has grown to the mobile scene and I couldn't be happier to help people discover the wonder and ease of creation that this suite offers.

Tracer!

No, I do not have any images to share today, but that is not to say that I have been unproductive.  On the contrary, this day has been pretty busy.  Signed up for jobs to keep the ship floating, hung with friends and made a mean barbecue, and, yes, that most derided of art tasks- tracing.  My linework is too shaky, and they (sparkle greysuit monkey mooks) told me to practice by tracing.  So I started some of that.  Woo.  Oh, wait.  I lied.  I did some figure studies using the Figure Study Drawing Tool.  Good to keep in practice with something different.

Look at them. LOOK AT THEM.

Drawing, drawing, drawing.  I'm loving the practice I'm doing.  I've been keen to keep talking to the artists at the shop and get their feedback, and hoy, I got some!  One of the artists, Shane, told me that I spot-on in terms of design, which is often the hardest part of making tattoo's.  Ego-boost for me!  But, he also said that I need work in making stronger lines, particularly lines that aren't wonky and shaky.  And to use Micron Pens.  Apparently, Microns come very close in mimicking the line-widths seen in using a tattoo machine.  He was even kind enough to provide me with a small set of pens.  Thanks, Shane!  So, next week, I will be taking all the flash I can find and will be copying them with the use of the shop's light-box, which they were also very kind enough to offer.  Thanks again!  Practice, Ahoy!

Well this is pretty Cool!

Ever Wanted to just sit down, draw a few posed figures or animals, and get in some quick sketch practice? Well, now there's a website that'll help you get some good poses to draw in between visits to your local figure drawing club or association.  The awkardly-titled Figure Drawing Training Tool is filled with a variety of choices for subject matter, including mixes of clothed, nude, male, female figures, and animals of all shapes and sizes, including selections of animal skeletons!  The web-tool even comes with a range of differently-lengthed drawing sessions, going from a quick 30 minute sit-down to a whopping six hour marathon.  The good news is that all of these sessions have built-in break times, to let you stretch, relax your eyeballs, and chill before the next wave of figures.  And, as you can see, there are controls next to the image allowing you to pause, skip through images, and stop the session altogther as your life deems necessary.

The only downside to this is that you are using photo's, and they will never give as much information as can be gleaned from your own pair of eyeballs in a real studio type situation.  But perhaps a tool such as this can entice people into practicing enough to want to attend more live-model drawing sessions, so who knows-- this may become something really special!  So, don't be a sourpuss.  Try it out, and if it gives you enough a neat-factor, Donate a dollar and help keep this tool in good spirits!

http://www.pixelovely.com/gesture/figuredrawing.php

A little Backblog

a Bodhisattva of Ignorance

Random group of sketches

Colorized!

Plain outline

Greetings!  This is my blog.  I first had grand aspirations of making some kind of ultra-fancy super blog that would devour all other blogs in its wake.  But, I decided that more humble route would be simpler to manage, and also less costly-- especially when you're not paying to feed the captive Computer Science majors in your bedroom.  So, what I have here is basically my "corner" to shove shit (great shit) onto the internet, starting with this pretty post.  The subject of this and its subsequent posts are mostly gonna be ART.  A place where I can let it loose on the interwebs and splay out my thoughts and reasonings.  This place will also serve as a sort of diary as I try to achieve my goal of being a Tattooer.  I've only been pursuing this dream for a couple of weeks now, hanging out with tattooers and peircers at a fantastic shop called "The Shaman's Den."  There, I'm learning as much information as I can without them offering an apprenticeship, and generally chilling the hell out.
Which brings me 'round to the images.  These happen to be the latest drawings completed, designed specifically with the tattooist's aesthetic in mind.  I'm excited to watch my own tattooing aesthetic unfold as I learn more about the trade and pour more of myself into it, and I hope you (YES YOU) will like it, too.