Emotionally speaking, this is definitely the hardest pieces I've made so far. On July 18th, 2019, an arson attack on Kyoto Animation's Studio 1 left 36 dead and 34 injured, one of the deadliest mass casualty incidents in Japan since the end of WWII. KyoAni has some of the best working conditions in the industry and have made some of the most iconic anime to date, including Clannad, A Silent Voice, and the show that got me started on anime, Violet Evergarden (as seen in this drawing). I sent this drawing to them through their website, and there's a good chance it was displayed along with thousands of other fan submissions in Kyoto this past November as part of a public memorial service. While this was a tragic blow to the company and community, they're healing and getting back to their feet, and I can't wait to see what they create next.
You CAN judge a book by its cover---when the cover is done right. Here we have a novella about the difficulties one artist has to bring his avant-garde art to the public.
This is the very first charcoal portrait I ever made. I think I spent about 25 hours on this piece over the course of a week. Portrait Model is a Japanese singer (Gackt) and a reference photo was used. Size is 18x24 inches.
I was overthinking of what to doodle which is seldom the case as you can see, there’s still a doodle as the finishing even so with that doodler’s block going on.
Drawn with acrylic
To consume, witness vibrant hallucinations through dark struggles in life. What fears must lurk here? Alone in tundra steps further, thinking of a different age.
Vibrant feeling that soar through the meaning, balance, and beauty. Creatures happily delighted within their dancing realm. A smile upon their faces, happiness emerges.
An original character of mine. November 2018. Her name is Jinx Muun. A modern day witch, born on the 1st full Moon, on Friday the 13th. She is a feisty, independent and strong young woman. Her powers come out most during a full moon, where her skin takes on a lilac color and her eyes shift colors as well.
I’m fascinated in how something may make you feel. For instance, I’m deeply moved by images of outer space from the Hubble space telescope, but I do not try to recreate those photographs in my work. What does not exist in those photos, is how they may make us feel. This is why you won’t see any “realism” in my art. When we send astronauts to space, they can discuss factually what is happening, but what truly moves human beings is when astronauts describe how they felt while they were there. So, I choose to express how I feel, as opposed to illustrate what I see.
The inspiration for this collection came from a conversation I had with the Founder and Executive Director of the Underprivileged And Underserved Foundation (UAUF), George Goodwine. While discussing race and whether or not every opportunity was fair based upon someone’s familial structure or “starting line,” I was asked the following questions. How does someone overcome these hurdles? How can the playing field be leveled to make things fairer, when others may only have 50 hurdles to overcome in the same competition?
My response was simple. “The person in front of 150 hurdles has two choices. They can either get discouraged before they begin, or start jumping. In the midst of the race they might get tired, unsure, or discouraged, but if they press on to the finish line they may become more physically fit than the person who jumps over 50.”
I used to dance ballet and at the time, there were a lot of hurdles I had to overcome solely based upon inconveniences that came with being raised in low-income, single parent home. Above are pencil sketches and sharpie drawings that I have drawn from actual photos. I plan on making these images my own by adding more abstraction and vibrant color to them.
Over the course of the project, stay tuned to see how these pictures will transform into a work of ART!!! Check out my artwork at theservingartist.com
gabizuniga.com | @gabizuniga - It's funny how a warmup did to take a break from my usual work turns into a piece I actually really like. This represents how I often need to take a break from my own overthinking to clear my head and function.
For May 15th, today is all Crush
For this day, I decided to make an adorable couple between a seal and a sea lion because I thought they looked really cute that way
