EMO Contest- The Balding Emo

For those of you who dont know.....EMO's are the dudes known for their melancholy dress code, morbid body language, sad facial expressions and their taste in music.....but most of all, EMO's are famous for their super floppy, vision impairing hair! Oh look! Heres a fine specimen!....This leads us to a question that perplexes the universe.....Is an EMO still an EMO if he loses his hair? I want to hear your opinion......Post your answers to this question as a text comment or a video response, to enter yourself in this contest. All responses will be judged on humor and originality. Please don't post anything offensive because we want to make EMO's smile, not cry! The prize is an illustration of the winner be me, Merrill Kazanjian. As always I will document the process on video and give you a copy for your channel. The deadline for this contest is March 1st, 2010 and the winner will be chosen on March 2nd.......Anyway, heres how I drew the Balding Emo.

Here are the steps that I took to create the "Balding Emo" artwork:
Step 1.) Pencil
Step 2.) Illustration Marker- Prismacolor and Chartpak Ad markers
Step 3.) Color Pencil
Step 4.) Scan with Epson Scanner
Step 5.) Digital Collage using Paint Shop Pro 9
Step 6.) Print with Hewlett Packard Printer
Step 7.) Color Pencil
Step 8.) Scan with Epson Scanner
Step 9.) Finishing Touches with Paint Shop Pro 9

How to Draw Kobe Bryant: Step by Step (YOUDRAW by Merrill Kazanjian)

Link- http://merrillk.com/index.php?part=fi... Today, YOU are going to draw Kobe Bryant. It doesn't matter if you have prior art training or not. This video will break the process down in to simple steps so that anyone can do it. Grab a pencil and paper and let me show you what I mean. Remember to pause the video when you need to. Here we go.
Step 1: Draw an oval shape for Kobe's head. Notice that the bottom of the oval looks like an upside down trapezoid while the top of the oval shape is rounded.
Step 2: Make four horizontal lines. The top line MUST intersect the midway point of the oval shape. The lowest line should be placed at the bottom of the chin. After drawing the top and bottom lines, add two EVENLY SPACED lines between the top and bottom line. At the end of step two, you should have THREE evenly spaced segments between the top and bottom lines (refer to the picture).
Step 3: Observe the six dots that I added. The top four map out the corners of Kobe's eyes, while the bottom two map out the corners of his mouth. Lets look at their relationship. Notice that these dots are leaning towards the right side of the oval. This is due to the fact that Kobe's head is slightly turned. Also, take a second to notice the distance in between the two eyes is equal to one eye length. Finally, notice that the middle part of the space designated for each eye, will line up with the outer corners of the mouth. Now, draw in the six dots.
Step 4: Draw in the eyes....The upper eyelid as a rainbow shape and the bottom lid is close to a straight line. Notice that the iris is partially blocked by the upper eyelid.
Step 5: Encapsulate the eye in the oval shape that I just added.

Step 6: In this step, make the bottom of the nose by drawing three connected, upside down arches. Do not worry about the bridge of the nose yet. After you make the bottom of the nose, draw the shape for the upper lip...... The upper lip looks like a squished McDonalds logo (picture the golden arches squished).

Step 7: Add the bottom lip. It is similar to a banana shape. Notice that the bottom lip is thicker than the top lip. Now that we have the eyes and part of the mouth done, take a second to notice the perfect square that is formed when you connect the points from the middle of the eye and the corners of the mouth. Make adjustments if you do not have this perfect square.
Step 8: Draw in the two shapes between the eyes and nose. Like the bottom lip, these shapes are very similar to banana shapes. They will help us shade the nose later.
Step 9: Now add in the ears. Due to the fact that Kobe's head is turned; it appears that his left ear is smaller than his right. This, of course is not the case, but draw what you see.
Step 10: Draw in the lines, stemming from the chin, as well as Kobe's dimple lines.
Step 11: Draw in Kobe's hairline. Again, due to the turn of his head, you will see more hair on the right side.
Step 12: Erase the construction lines
Now, I will show you how to shade your drawing. Don't worry, this too, will be easy! You have three options to learn shading. Option one- click the link in the video description to go to a webpage that I made for this video..... on my website, merrillk.com. You will see a series of 17 steps with picture references and words. You will also see a free downloadable resource that you can print. Option two is to watch a shading demonstration in the second part of this video; and option three is a separate video; where I will demonstrate how I shaded Kobe at a slower pace. Please take advantage of all of these options. I am confident that they will help.

The Incarceration of Santa Claus

Lets face it. Santa was asking for it........ The man:
1.) "Breaks and enters" illegally over a billion times each year........ on Jesus' birth day.
2.) Depends on exploitative labor of people under three feet tall.
3.) Could be the cause of the Polar ice caps melting.
4.) Flies without a license and at his own leisure.....while the rest of us get frisked and go through metal detectors before flying. Could the north pole be harboring terrorists?

Anyway.....Its the holiday season....so....... I created an artwork of Mr. Santa Claus getting arrested for all of his transgressions. I started out with a pencil drawing (regular #2 pencil. Then I added a layer of marker. I followed the layer of marker with a layer of color pencil. After the color pencil, I added oil paint and liquin. Finally, I scanned the image and did touch ups in Paint Shop Pro 9.

MASTER- Drawing the Female Nose (Step by Step instruction)

Today YOU are going to draw the female nose. Never drawn before? Thats OK. I will try to make it easy for you! ....Here we go. ......Drawing is much easier when we break things down in to shapes. So lets do that with the female nose. Notice that there are two trapezoids and an oval. These are our primary shapes with the nose..... Draw them on your paper now; and don't forget to put in the nostrils.......... Next, I will show you how to shade the nose. Don't worry, its going to be easy! You have two options to learn shading. Option one- click the link in the video description to go to a webpage that I made for this video..... This webpage has eight easy steps and text to help you. Option two is to watch the second part of this video, where I will guide you through the shading process. I think that you should take advantage of both options to learn how to shade the nose!
In comparison to the Male nose (left) the female nose is:
1.) less pronounced or smaller than the male nose
2.) has a more narrow bridge
3.) has smaller nostrils
4.) slightly rounder at the bottom (this is not the case for EVERY person though)
5.) had less shadow area around the "eye socket" or orbit, on both sides of the bridge at the top of the nose.
STEP 1- In step one of drawing the female nose, focus your attention on the shapes. There are three main shapes. 1.) An oval at the bottom, 2.) A tall trapezoid for the bridge of the nose. 3.) An upside down trapezoid at the top of the nose. 4.) In addition to the major shapes, don't forget to add the shapes for the nostrils. STEP 2- For step two, simply darken the nostrils. The nostrils will be the darkest tone on any persons nose. STEP 3- For this step, create a shadow at the bottom of the nose. STEP 4- Erase the lines on the sides of the bridge of the nose. (This is where most people go wrong in drawing the nose!) The only part of the nose that can be expressed in linear form is the bottom of the nose (Below and to the sides of the nostrils...especially the sides). STEP 5- Replace the solid lines with soft "cross hatching" (a fancy term for shading- "hatches" are multiple lines, created by the tip of the pencil used to create darker tones....watch the video at the top if you do not understand). STEP 6- Smudge the cross hatching with a tortillion (blending stump or stub).....Not only on the bridge of the nose, but also where you feel in necessary. I usually do a few layers of hatching, followed by smudging. STEP 7- I am putting on the finishing touches. I used my eraser to make highlights on the nose. IMPORTANT: The female nose (right) is smoothed out/ polished / finished, more than the male nose........ How does an artist smooth out/polish/finish the nose?....By 1.) hatching with the pencil 2.) smudging the hatches with the tortillion and 3.) using the eraser to create highlights. (This is demonstrated in the video at the top of the page). STEP 8- In the final step I darkened the nostrils (For the second time).

MASTER: Drawing the Male Nose (How to Draw the Nose Step by Step- Nostrils, Bridge, Orbit)

Link- http://sites.google.com/site/drawthen...
Thank you for picking my nose video....UMMM....Yeah lets start over....Today I am going to teach you how to draw the male nose. Drawing is much easier when we break things down in to shapes. So lets do that with the nose. Notice that there are two trapezoids and an oval. These are our primary shapes with the nose. So grab a piece of paper and draw them now. Don't forget to put in the nostrils.

Now, I will show you how to shade the nose. Don't worry, its going to be easy this time! You have two options to learn shading. Option one- click the link in the video description to go to a webpage that I made for this video..... this page has eight super easy steps and still images from this video. Option two is to keep watching this video. I think that you should do both!

STEP 1- In step one of drawing the male nose, focus your attention on the shapes. There are three main shapes. 1.) An oval at the bottom, 2.) A tall trapezoid for the bridge of the nose. 3.) An upside down trapezoid at the top of the nose. 4.) Don't forget to add the shapes for the nostrils.
STEP 2- For step two, simply erase the lines on the inside of the nose. It doesn't look good yet......So let's do a "nose job" with the shading, to make it look more realistic!
STEP 3- For this step, darken the nostrils. Te nostrils will be the darkest tone on any persons nose.
STEP 4- *****Notice that I ERASED the lines on the sides of the bridge of the nose!******* This is where most people go wrong in drawing the nose! The only part of the nose that can be expressed as a line is the bottom (Below and to the sides of the nostrils...especially the sides).
STEP 5- While I am not drawing eyes for this part, at the top of the bridge of the nose is the inner part of the orbit (of the eye). The orbits are also known as the eye sockets. They are the indentations where each eye sits. There is an orbit on either side of the nose. The tool that I am using in this picture is called a tortillion (also known as a blending stump or stub). It is condensed paper, shaped to the form of a pencil. It is used for blending. It is better to smudge or blend with this, rather than your hand, because your hand has oil that will be absorbed by the paper. Once the oil is absorbed in to the paper, the blending will be uneven, and over time, the paper will decay.
STEP 6- Notice the long trapezoid that I shaded in the middle of the nose. It is shaded very lightly. I put it is to differentiate the drawing from the white background. Please note that this will NOT always appear. All shadows are DIRECTLY RELATED to lighting. For this drawing, I assumed that the light was bright and directly above the nose.
STEP 7- I am putting on the finishing touches. I used my eraser to make two light highlights on the sides of each nostril. Often light bounces off surfaces and causes a "glare" effect rather than a "spotlight" effect. I also darkened the shadow below the nose.
STEP 8- In the final step I darkened the nostrils.

NBA Morph- Lebron James + Kobe Bryant + Dwayne Wade + Chris Paul

To celebrate the start of the 2009-2010 NBA season, I merged the faces of four of the NBA's biggest stars ( LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Kobe Bryant of the Lakers, Dwayne Wade of the Miami Heat and Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets). I used both Photoshop CS3 and Paint Shop Pro 9 to make this "artmorph". I basically made digital cut outs from Creative Commons (CC) Photos. I used the blending tool a bit, the digital scissor (scalpel), I also used a very helpful light/dark tool to make highlights and shadows.

Chicklets Bubble Gum Art- Stop Motion Animation

Really random??? YES! I was curious if I could turn chicklets gum from a stop motion object into a sculptural object. My last video was a tutorial on traditional painting....This one was as far from traditional painting as you could get. But I learned a lot doing it. For instance, you can layer gum like you layer paint and interestingly enough, gum gives an artist a medium that 1.) dries and solidifies 2.) can be used translucently or applied opaque (different thicknesses) 3.) can be layered 4.) GIVES ME A WICKED SUGAR RUSH!

Believe it or not, I want to experiment more with this medium. If you think about it, chewing gum's artistic possibilities lie somewhere between painting and sculpture. I had fun.....Now I have to burn the 1200 calories that I ingested!!!!! LOL -Merrill Kazanjian
Category: Entertainment

Painting Tips Glazing Finishing a Painting with Transparent Oil Paint

What is Glazing? The technical answer is 1.) multiple thin layers of transparent oil paint (applied at the end of a painting)....but what I want YOU to remember is 2.) Glazing is pure magic 3.) Knowing how to glaze will take your painting abilities to the next level.

1.) Why glazing is an important painting strategy
2.) (We will touch a little bit on) The science of refracted light
3.) Which paints to use. (How can you tell if a paint is a glazing color?)
4.) Which brushes to use for glazing
5.) How to do it! (The technique of glazing oil paint)

Glaze layers happen at the final stages of a painting, so lets take you to the end of the painting that you just saw right now. I am going to keep things concise and to the point. Give me your full attention for the next few minutes and you will acquire a solid understanding of glazing.

1- Why is glazing an important painting strategy?

Think about the last time that you had a sunburn. When sunburns heal, a layer of skin usually peels off your body. Take a second to remember what that skin looks like. The peel of skin is very thin, smooth and it is possible to see light through it.

Our outermost layers of skin, the epidermis, is comprised of multiple layers of skin similar to the peeled layer of skin that you just imagined. Glazing, the application of multiple, thin, transparent to translucent layers, is like the epidermis of a painting and it is important for an artist to know how to glaze so that he or she can get a more life like effect to their work.

2- The Science of Refracted Light
Light refracts through the transparent and translucent layers of a painting. In other words, it penetrates these layers and picks up any color that these layers contain. A good analogy for this concept is a seashell on the beach. Think of how the color of a seashell seems to change when it is covered with ocean water. The shell seems to change color, but in actuality, all physical characteristics of the shell remain the same. The sunlight refracting through the water alters the shells appearance just as glaze layers affect the final appearance of a painting.

3- Which paints to use
Paint colors have different characteristics. For instance, red, is not just red when it comes to painting. Cadmium red, the color on the left, is extremely opaque and has a great covering power. The color on the right, alizarin crimson is extremely transparent with a lesser covering power. Notice how you can see the blue line through the alizarin crimson, but not the cadmium red.

Most paint companies label the outside of their paint tubes to communicate these differences. Usually a box or circle is used to say if a paint is transparent, translucent or opaque. A filled box or circle is a symbol stating that a color is opaque while the opposite is true if a paint is transparent.

When you glaze, you would add painting medium such as liquin to the paint. It is easy to glaze with transparent colors such as alizarin crimson but it is also possible to glaze with the cadmium red. In order to glaze with an opaque color, use a little bit of paint and a lot of painting medium. I would advise any beginner or novice painter to stick with transparent and translucent paints.

4.) Which brushes to use

When you glaze, have multiple soft tipped brushes within reach. A variety of sizes and shapes including round tip and fan brushes are ideal. Now we are ready for the demonstration




I did the glazing in three sittings over 21 days. It is important to let the paint thoroughly dry between glazes. If it doesnt, you will start picing up some of the previous layer. Notice that I am starting off by using two brushes. One to apply paint and the other to move the paint around. This is called dry brush technique and it is your most important glazing strategy. Dry brush gives you a smooth untextured finish......

I wouldnt recommend this for anyone trying glazing for the first time, but I am actually using titanium white when I create a highlight.....that is a white with extreme covering power....equal to what you saw with cadmium red. I use that only in the brighter highlight areas and when I use it, I use a ton of painting medium with it. ........

The shadows get a little tricky, I try to look at my reference photo to match the shape but I am very aware of their edges as well. If there is a soft edge, I soften it with another dry brush....This is VERY IMPORTANT....Do not clean your brush in mineral spirits or turpenoid. Instead, just wipe your brush on a paper towel because those paint thinners will dissolve the entire glaze.....If a brush becomes unworkable, put it aside and use another soft tipped brush.

Portrait of Youtube User Bronyacovooper- Pencil, Markers, Color Pencil, Oil Paint, Photoshop

This is a mixed media portrait of multi talented youtube user BronyaCovooper. He is an outstanding sculptor, and a ridiculously good musician! The music in the background is by his former band Jonny and the Shamen. Check out his page here- http://youtube.com/bronyacovooper . I used a mixed media approach to create this portrait. Here were the steps.....
1.) pencil
2.) then I used prismacolor markers
3.) followed by color pencil (prismacolor)
4.) then I scanned what I did so far and opened it up in.....
5.) Photoshop- (digital adjustments)
6.) Printed on a wide format printer
7.) 1 more layer of color pencil
8.) Oil paint
9.) Photoshop

To see more of my work or to commission me for a portrait/youtube video contact me through my website Merrillk.com Thanks, Merrill Kazanjian

Artmorph Favre + Kerry + Hogan + Specter

Brett Favre retired how many times??? John Kerry, the famous presidential candidate flip flopper lost an election due to his indecisiveness...Hulk Hogan, the iconic wrestler and reality TV star, was a "good guy" then a bad guy" then a "good guy again. Arlen Specter notoriously, changed political parties! Indecisiveness....Flip Flopping....Standing on the fence...Changing sides or ideologies....Making a decision but going back on it.....These men have one thing in common....Changing their mind. I thought that it would be interesting to use my photo editing skills to morph their faces together.

YOUDRAW Lebron James How to Draw LBJ Step by Step

Today, you are going to draw Lebron James...Never draw before? Thats OK! I broke this process down in to simple steps for you. I recommend that you pause the video at the end of each step and get in the habit of looking at the reference image on the screen at least once every five seconds. To make this as easy as possible, I uploaded a print version of this lesson to my website. Go to http://merrillk.com and type in LeBron in the search box. Or, if you are watching on youtube, click the link to the right. All that you will need is a pencil and some paper to draw and a q tip or a blending tool to do the shading in the second part of this video. Good luck! Here we go!

This part has 24 steps and it will be followed by a Lebron shading tutorial.
Step 1- Make a rainbow shape
Step 2- Make another rainbow shape above the first, with a slightly higher arc. This will be LeBron's headband. At the end of this step, it should resemble a banana shape.
Step 3- Make one more rainbow shape slightly above the top of the headband this will be Lebrons hair.
Step 4- Is a little tricky. Add the 2 shapes that you see. Notice that the one on (your) left is slightly larger than the one on (your) right.
Step 5- Add the backward L shape that you see.
Step 6- Add the shape that looks like the "little dipper" (pot shape).
Step 7- Add the next 2 lines. Notice that these two lines connect with the bottom of the shape from step 4.
Step 8- Add the 2 small rainbow shapes for the tops of Lebrons Eyes, and take an extra second to notice how each end connects to form a new shape above the eye.
Step 9- Add 2 U shapes under each eye lid. Dont make circles though, leave the top blocked by the upper eyelid.
Step 10- Take a second to observe the gross outline of the nose. Notice that the shape is about the same height as the forehead.
Step 11- The next lines that you see are the outline of Lebrons moustache. Notice that the 2 vertical lines go DIRECTLY below the mid part of Lebrons eyes.
Step 12- Next, put in Lebrons upper lip. Notice that it looks like a flattened letter M.
Step 13- Now put in his bottom lip. It is shaped like a boat. The shape in between the 2 lips looks like the roof of a Pizza Hut.
Step 14- Now, do your best to put in the ear shapes. Notice that his head is turned slightly, so the ear on your right will be a little smaller.
Step 15- Try to observe the line for his chin and jaw and then draw it.
Step 16- Observe and add these lines for the neck.
Step 17- Add the shoulders
Step 18- This v shape will be an important shadow on the neck.
Step 19- Add the W shape between the chin and lower lip.
Step 20- Connect the W shape with the bottom of each ear.
Step 21- Add the nostrils
Step 22- Add the bottom line for the eye.
Step 23- Add two V shapes under the eyes
Step 24- For the final step before we shade, notice the three shapes that are being added on each ear.

What is Youtube's Place in Art History?

What is youtubes place in art history?
Youtube is the early 21st century version of an art musuem. Its the new Louvre. I think that the most significant art of today is being posted on youtube and ill prove that at the end of this video. So, all great art is a reflection of the era in which it was created...I dont think that todays art will be done justice if it is housed in a museum building like the art of the past. There was a time when painting was the greatest visual technology in the world but it became less relevant with the inventions of photography and video. There was a big debate in contemporary art about whether painting was dead and I credit youtube for bringing painting and other forms of art back to life. The difference is performance. In todays art, the performance is more important than the final product and youtube gives artists an arena to perform and document their work to an audience that views a billion videos a day from around the world. Youtube viewers are the art curators of the 21st century. You do this when you favorite a video or rate it.......or subscribe to a channel. This is a much more democratic method than the past. So much of what we see in museums was decided by a relatively small group of individuals. Also, youtube is becoming a major patron for artists, although I think that this is happening by accident. I have seen a lot of artists become youtube partners........and that gives artists a financial alternative to the gallery system.

YOGI BARE- Naked Yoga Instructor Drawing / Painting / Tradigital Mixed Media Artwork

was listening to the radio on my way to class one day and the DJ started talking about a naked yoga class. Visual images rushed to my mind! I started to sketch out my ideas. Couldn't concentrate on the school stuff. I came home and did this video. Sometimes inspiration can be stupid! But it's still inspiration so I went with it! True story.
-Merrill Kazanjian

These are the steps that I took to make this character. (How I made it)

1.) Pencil Drawing
2.) Layer of Prismacolor and AD Markers
3.) Scan with scanner and use Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro 9 to do a digital collage.
4.) Print on to new sheet of paper
5.) Layer of Color Pencil over the Printout (to tie things together and prime the paper for Oil Paint)
6.) Layer of Opaque (cant see through it) Oil Paint
7.) Scan again
8.) Use PSP and Photoshop CS3 again to touch up my "Nude Yoga Man Character"
9.) Save as a PNG file (Portable Network Graphic) PNG's are like stickers- you could stick them over any digital file as many times as you want.

Facial Expressions Drawing Shock, Fear and Terror

This is a continuation on my series on facial expressions. Today, We are going to concentrate on the expressions of shock and fear. I video taped the creation of 14 sketches, to give you a lot of chances to learn. You will see profile, 3/4 and frontal views and both male and female faces. But, before we begin, take a second to glance at the major differences. This information will be discussed in the video and you can download on my website Merrillk.com. Just type the words shock and fear in the search box to download this resource. Or, if you are watching on my youtube channel, hit the link to the right to view this resource. I hope that you learn a lot. Here we go.

Character 1- In the first character, I want to highlight the gaping mouth. Notice that the top teeth are exposed. When you draw this expression, the top lip is pulled up, which shortens the distance between the lip and the nose

Character 2- For this character, I want to highlight that the eyebrows usually separate and the forehead flattens for this expression. This is the opposite of the expression of anger where the eyebrows are pulled closer to each other.

Character 3- For this sketch I want you to notice the separation of the iris from the bottom eyelid as well as the perfect C shape that the mouth is in when it is in profile.

Character 4- For this character, take note of the separation between the iris and the top eyelid and the amount of space between the eyebrows- Both very common in a fearful expression.

Character 5- For this character, I want to highlight the lines on either side of the nose. For this expression you can make these lines more visible.

Character 6- This character has his eyes shut tight and his mouth open wider than any other character in the picture. To draw a scream, make the area between the eyelids as dark as the lashes and darken the area around the eye. Make the mouth extra wide.

Character 7- This character seems more startled than scared because her mouth is less open and there is relatively little shading around the eye.

Character 8- In this character, I wish that I left the mouth in the classic C shape for drawing this expression in profile view.

Character 9- Notice the dark rings under the eyes of this character. That and the separation between the iris and the upper eyelid makes him look distraught. Also notice that the mouth doesn't always have to be gaped open to convey fear. Instead, I filled the gap with teeth.

Character 10- This character has a lot of facial commonalities with the other characters that have been drawn so far. I added a still pose with a pointing finger to supplement the facial expression.

Character 11- A very common pose to convey shock and fear is to place both hands on either side of the face- Also known as the OMG pose.

Character 12- Notice that this character has separation on both sides of her iris. A great way to make someone look terrified.

Character 13- Since this character wears glasses, I made each eye seem magnified. I wish that I added a separation between the iris and the eyelid.

Character 14- I should have stopped at 13!. I made his head too small for his position in the picture. I know this because the people in the row behind him were significantly bigger- a mistake in perspective drawing.

Drawing Tips- Building up Tones Through Cross Hatching, Shading, Drawing Pencils

In this video, I will demonstrate how to build tones while drawing. I will teach you about drawing pencils and when and how to use them. And I will demonstrate the drawing technique of cross hatching. But, this time I am going to do something different....You have the option to follow along! I decided to go the extra mile and provide you with a worksheet for the final segment of this video. Take a second to go to http://merrillk.com and type in "shading resource"...print it out and do your best. We have a lot to cover, so lets start off with learning about pencils.

Key Points
- Start out with a light to neutral pencil and go darker as you go on.
- Each row of hatches should be done at a slightly different angle to the previous row.
-When you cross hatch you should build your tones up slowly
- You can differentiate your tones through adding pressure to the pencil but dont dent the paper or things will get more difficult.
- To make neat hatches, use the tip that I gave you (put a piece of paper by the edge)
-A slip sheet prevents smudges

YOUDRAW- BEYONCE Step By Step Drawing of Beyonce Knowles

Its time for YOU to draw Beyonce. All that you will need is a pencil with an eraser, a blending stump or Q-Tip and a large index card. Be sure to stop the video at the end of each step and look at the reference picture on the computer screen. No drawing experience? Doesnt matter. You are gonna surprise yourself!

Boxing Trainer- Contemporary Tradigital Art / Painting / Drawing

My friend Al Alvir has a very popular Boxing/Mixed Martial Arts blog- http://shootafairone.com/ and I decided to create a character for one of the writers he has on staff (O'Toole). Allen is a big fan of Mike Tyson (heavyweight champion) and his legendary trainer Cus D'Amato who also trained managed Floyd Patterson (olympic and heavyweight champion) and Jose Torres (light heavyweight champion) so I made this character with D'Amato in mind. I used D'Amato reference photos for my initial drawing but also had fictional "Rocky" trainer Mickey Goldmill in mind (portrayed by Burgess Meredith). Using these two icons; one from pop culture one from reality, gave me an interesting image to illustrate. In this video, I documented my process.

I started out with a pencil drawing that was based on reference photos of Cus D'Amato and fictional character Mickey Goldmill. Next, I cut out two boxing gloves from a photograph and glued them down. Then, I added a layer of illustration marker to quickly put down some color. I followed the markers with a layer of color pencil and I exadurated the wrinkles. I also use color pencil to prime the artwork for painting. Then I added some paint. The paint mixes very well with the color pencil. Next I scanned the artwork and opened it up in Paint Shop Pro 9. I didnt like the pose of the body so I changed it. (Arent digital possibilities wonderful?) I juxtaposed hands legs and feet. Then I printed it again. The print is like a dried layer of paint. I started layering with color pencil again and I followed it up with oil paint. Mixing traditional mediums with digital technologies is called tradigital art.

Caffeine Junkie Coffee People

My Website- http://merrillk.com This is my tribute to caffeine junkies, coffee addicts, red bull chuggers, mountain dew doers, Amp addicts, Jolt juicers and tea tasters. It was made with a variety of media; both traditional and digital (tradigital). I started out with pencil and sharpie markers, to set deep base tones that will be seen after several layers are added. Next, I used illustration markers as a quick means of adding the first layer of color. Next, I used color pencils to create a layer of translucent, blended color. The color pencils also serve as a ground for the oil paint layer (which is next). I use oil paint because it is so versatile, it can be applied thin or thick and it is easy to mix a range of colors- which is important when you are mixing flesh tones. I finish the artwork with oil pastels and color pencils. Then I scan it, cut it out on photoshop and juxtapose my two characters over a digital photo. Please comment, rate and subscribe if you wish! I answer all of my comments! The song is Mexican Coffee by King of Hawaii (from Youtube Audioswap)

Artmorphs- Stewart + Franken + Limbaugh + Levin

What happens when you merge the faces of Al Franken, Rush Limbaugh, John Stewart and Mark Levin? Probably somebody suffering from political schizophrenia! Aside from that, since Americans cant seem to agree on political issues, I decided to merge the faces of our conservative and liberal talking heads. I wish that political energy/resources could be used to do great things, but its not. Every time a see a mudslinging television ad, I wonder how much is spent on demonizing an opponent rather than funding a needed program (um......art is vanishing from schools). It seems that our political pundits pour fuel on the fire rather than bringing a sensible voice to the bickering. It is sometimes hard to remember that they are entertainers who depend on advertising revenue from their shows. It seems that "sensational" is more entertaining which doesn't do anybody any good. It frightens me that liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican are becoming identities rather than ideologies and we forget that we are on the same side!

Mass Drawing / Line Drawing- Learn to Draw Any Cartoon Character / What You See

In this video I am going to share a very effective training technique that I use in my classroom. It is a strategy tailored for novice artists and it will make you better at drawing what you see (also known as the skill of rendering). I call this process mass drawing / line drawing. The process will seem awkward at first, but I have seen students get great results once they understand the process. So please give it a chance. All that you will need is a highlighter, a pencil and some paper. Lets begin.

This is a mass drawing. I used the highlighter to make a silhouette of the cartoon character, Ni Hao Kai Lan. I scribbled it in quickly and as a single mass. This will serve as a guide for the second step, the line drawing.

This is a line drawing. Notice that it is done directly over the mass drawing. But don't just outline; make corrections. The mass drawing will enable you to see the big picture and the mistakes that you made. Many of my students have found it much easier than guessing on a blank sheet of paper. So dont outline your mass drawing make corrections while doing the line drawing.

Take a second to look at how many changes I made to the original mass, such as the right arm, the shoes and the hair.

Still confused, thats ok, watch the process a few times and you will begin to understand it. Remember that it is just a drill and drills are used to build good habits for the future. This drill will help you build observation skills and comparative skills which will help you develop the ability to draw what you see. I don't expect you to use a highlighter for long. In fact, I will show you a more advanced method, later on in the video. I will also teach you a really cool trick that will get rid of the color from the highlighter.

But for now, remember that there are two steps to this process. Use the highlighter to create a mass drawing of what you are trying to draw. If you are very new to drawing, try to make your mass drawing a similar size to your reference picture or object. With more experience, you can experiment with scale. Remember that step two, the line drawing, is meant to be a correction of step one.

I have observed that when my students do this process for the first time, they struggle a bit, and complain that the yellow or pink from the highlighter "throws them off". Please remember that it takes three tries, on average, to get fully acquainted with this process. I have also observed that the students who improve the fastest, look at their reference image more often. Get in the habit of looking at your reference image at least once for every five seconds.

To get rid of the color from the highlighter, flip over your drawing and start to scribble all over the back. It is easiest to use the side of a graphite stick, but you could also use a pencil. Once the back of your drawing is covered, flip it over again and tape it down over a new piece of paper. Then, retrace over all of the lines. I used a blue pen for this step. When you remove the tape, you will see a perfect print of your drawing

Now, I am using the pencil to create a mass drawing. Notice that I am pressing very lightly while scribbling in the mass. I have observed that using a pencil is a little bit more difficult for beginners due to the tendency to apply too much pressure and leave dark lines. Also it is much easier to differentiate the bright colors from the highlighter then the subtle tones of a pencil. Still, after you feel that you are progressing with the markers, move on to this step. Do not worry about mastering the process with the highlighter, just get comfortable enough, and move on.

Thank you for watching my video, I reply to all of my comments, so feel free to ask me a question, or just let me know how it goes. Remember to try this at least three times before you judge the process. I guarantee that it will feel foreign at first, but I have used it for eight years in the classroom with a high success rate so give it some time. Happy drawing everybody!

In my demonstrations, I drew, Ni Hao Kai Lan, Spongebob, Homer Simpson, Moose A. Moose (Noggin), Characters from Yo Gabba Gabba, Lilo from Lilo and Stitch, Wow Wow Wubbzy, Dora the Explorer, Patrick Star (Spongebob), Stitch (Lilo and Stitch and Blue the Dog from Blues Clues (Nickelodeon Noggin). I am confident that this process could teach you how to draw any cartoon.

Oil Paint Portrait- Kiss

This is an oil paint portrait that I made for a friend. I haven't made one (a pure oil painting) in years. I am now a mixed media artist but it feels good to try this again. I used Old Holland, Vasari, Bloxx and Gamblin Oil paint on paper. It has some details added with color pencil and paint marker. The medium that I used was Liquin.

Art Tips- Differences Between Male and Female Skull, Head, Face

This video will illustrate the differences between male and female faces. In part 1 of this video, I will compare male and female facial features, bone structure and musculature. In the in the second part of this video, I will do a demonstration. During this demonstration, I will review what we learned in the first part and teach you how to draw the nuances of the male and female face for artistic (art) purposes. During my demonstration, I use a pencil an eraser and a blending stick (stub) also known as a tortillion.
Lets look at the differences of the male and female skull first and then we will work our way up to the skin. Male and female children have similar skull shapes. But once children hit puberty, the differences start to appear. Testosterone provokes the growth of certain facial features in males, while female faces remain relatively childlike. The presence of higher levels of testosterone give men a thicker bone structure with more prominent bones. Male faces have a wider, more prominent jaw, chin and cheekbones (also known as the zygomatic arch). The physical size of the male skull is usually larger than the female skull. A very distinct characteristic of a male skull, is a protruding supraorbital ridge also known as a brow line.
Female faces are more rounded and tend to have a narrow jaw line. They have a softness that the male face lacks. It carries more fat than the male face, especially in the cheeks. Female faces tend to have thicker lips and a higher arch on the top lip. Female eyebrows generally sit a little higher than male eyebrows and they usually have a thinner and more arched shape, mainly due to plucking. The female nose tends to be smaller, shorter and have a narrower bridge and nostrils than the male one. Also, female noses often have a straighter or more concave profile. Men tend to have thicker and lower eyebrows than women. The male jaw line is wider than the female chin. It is also more muscular and square in shape. The lips are thicker and more full on a female. Also there is less of a distance between the arch of the top lip and the bottom of the nose.
Before we go on to part 2. I want to make this complex subject as simple as possible so I took notes for you! If you are watching this on youtube hit the link. If not, just go to my website Merrillk.com and type skull in the search box and download this cheat sheet for when you draw.
Merrill Kazanjian is a contemporary artist based in New York City. He is also a New York State Certified Art instructor with 8 years of experience. He specializes in drawing, painting and mixed media art.

Moneymorph- Greenspan + Bernanke + Mr. Krabs + Trump + Cramer + Monopoly Guy

What would a "merger" of Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Donald Trump, Mr. Krabs, Jim Cramer and the Monopoly Guy look like? Watch the video to find out! Sell Sell Sell !!!! Artmorph by Merrill Kazanjian

A Character

I documented the steps that I took to draw/paint a friend of mine. Local (Queens NYC) Baseball/Stickball/Handball legend Joseph "KJ" Alexander Moretti

How to Draw an Angry Mouth Step by Step (Screaming Mouth)

Today, I am going to show you, step by step, how to draw an angry mouth. Pause the video at the end of each step and be sure to look at the screen every few seconds while you draw. I am confident that you will surprise yourself if you take your time and listen carefully. Here we go.

Step 1- Draw a big U shape but make the two lines at the top of the U point slightly outwards and away from each other. Pause the video now and remember to look at the reference picture on your computer screen.
Step 2- Draw a second U shape above the first and close the lines to form a crescent moon shape. Notice that the widest point of this shape is the middle and that the shape gets narrow and pointy at the top where the edges of both lines meet.
Step 3- When a person screams, the bottom lip presses firmly against the bottom set of teeth. Only the tooth tops are visible. The shape of these tooth tops is somewhere between a square and circle. Make 8 to 10 and stay light with the lines in between the teeth. Pause the video now and don't forget to look every few seconds.
Step 4- Now we draw the tongue. It is a rounded shape that is wider at the top than the bottom. It is kind of like drawing a heart shape without a pointed bottom or an indentation at the top. Pause the video now and be sure to look every few seconds while you draw.
Step 5- Add a rainbow shape at the top. Be sure to notice the amount of space between the top of the tongue and the rainbow shape. Pause the video now.
Step 6- Add a second rainbow shape above the first. Like the bottom lip, the top lip gets more narrow at the edges and wider in the middle. Be sure to notice that the bottom lip is thicker than the top lip. This is true for every person. Pause the video now and be sure to look at the screen every few seconds.
Step 7- Now make a half circle shape beneath the top lip. Notice that the edges at the bottom protrude slightly. Pause the video now and remember to look.
Step 8- When a person screams, the top teeth are exposed because the top lip goes upwards. Your task is to draw 12 teeth. Notice that the front four face the viewer but the others start to turn away. Notice that as the teeth go further back in to the mouth, they get smaller. I know that molars and wisdom teeth are much larger in real life than a front teeth, but please trust me and pause the video and draw what you see. I will explain why this happens in the next part.

Ideally, you should have three things to do the shading. At the top is a blending stub. In the middle is a 2B pencil and at the bottom is a HB pencil.

When I shade, I:
- Use a method called cross hatcing
- Develop the shading evenly (I move the pencil around to the different parts of the drawing.

Alternative Process to Oil Painting

My Alternative to oil painting by Merrill Kazanjian- Recently, I have made a lot of videos teaching about the techniques that I use to make art. But, for once, I want to talk to you about choices that I made with my own art. The first medium that I was proficient in was oil painting. But after college ended, I was too drained to paint after I got home from a day of work. The setup and clean up of paints took as long as the process of painting and the drying time was way too slow for my needs. I estimate that I painted only once or twice per week for about three hours per day and I only produced about two finished paintings per year. I did this for six years.

I slowly started dabbling with mixed media art. What you are seeing now is a process that I have worked out over the past 2 years for the past two years. This process allows me to have results similar to oil paintings, done in one day rather than six months. I even incorporate oil paint in to one of the steps.

Here it is:
1.) Pencil Drawing
2.) Illustration Markers (prismacolor, Ad, Decocolor)
3.) Color Pencil
4.) Thin Layer of Oil Paint
5.) Digital Additions (Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro)

I use this process to make my characters. Over the last 2 years I have made over 1500 characters. I scan them and save them as PNG files and I use them over and over in my artwork. PNG files stand for Portable Network Graphic and they are basically a filetype that works like a sticker. Stay tuned until the end of the video and I will show you what I mean. Contact me through my website merrillk.com or leave me a youtube comment and I will be sure to get back to you.
Category: Education

Drawing of Glass of Water (Part 2)- Illustration Markers, Color Pencil and Oil Paint

I am going to be using illustration markers, color pencils and oil paint. Just drop me a line if you have any questions

In step 1 I scanned and reprinted my original drawing- I do this for 2 reasons- 1.) If I mess up, I could just reprint it and 2.) marker and color pencil coexist better with printer ink than with graphite from a pencil.

Next I add a layer of the illustration markers. These markers are totally transparent and they enable me to add a layer of color and still be able to see the lines from my pencil drawing. These markers give the artist a similar effect to watercolor paint, but without the messy setup and clean up.. I am still following the Polaroid picture development analogy from the first video- in that I am adding color to all areas at an even pace and slowly building up the darker tones on the sides and bottom of the glass.

The color pencil is great at this point of the drawing, because it adds a translucent layer of color above the marker. In addition to that, color pencils are mixed with wax. The wax will be very handy in the next step when I add oil paint on top of the marker and color pencil. Working with color pencil also allows me to be very precise with my marks on the page. It can be very challenging to be as accurate with a paint brush. This step allows me to make my drawing more accurate and these clarifications will eventually be absorbed by the oil paint.

Now you are going to see me add three layers of oil paint to finish my drawing. I am using oil paint because I want to edit the colors of this composition and it is much easier to mix and match color with oil paint than it is with color pencil. It is also easier to apply large areas of color with a paintbrush rather than the tiny tip of a pencil. I did all of my editing in the last step and now I am just applying color, trying to notice the nuances of the edges of each shape on my reference. If I need to soften an edge I use a dry, soft brush and I pull the paint with that. The color pencil from the layer below is blending nicely with the paint.

Drawing Tips- (Charcoal and Pencil) Drawing of a Glass of Water

Hint number 1 is to see things as shapes. I like to analogize drawing with assembling a jigsaw puzzle because in both you look for shapes to fit together Hint number 2 is to pay close attention to the edges of what you are drawing. Light and shadows can do funny things and in almost anything that you draw you will see a disparity between the qualities of each edge. Hint number three is to develop your drawing like a Polaroid photograph. Polaroid was the company that innovated instant photography. After pushing the shutter button the photograph would come out of the camera and develop before your eyes. What I want you to know about this is that every part of the photo would develop at the same rate and that is how I want you to try to draw next time. In other words, move the drawing tool around, dont get stuck in a favorite spot. Alright, lets slow it down. What you are seeing me do here is pay close attention to the form and the proportions. In other words, I am comparing the sizes of the different shapes and making sure that the placement of each line is correct. I am using vine charcoal a HB pencil and an eraser. I started out with the vine charcoal because it is easy to erase and move around. You will see later in this video that after I am satisfied with the placement of the charcoal, I will hatch over it with a pencil to keep it undisturbed. I am also trying to be aware of the edges of my shapes and I am especially cognizant of the highlight on the top because that will require me shading the areas around it and using the white of the page as a representation of the strong light. Now when I look back at my reference, I notice that the tone of the background is much darker than the white of the page. I use the side of the charcoal to darken the mid tone of my drawing. This step will make it easy to draw in the highlights with an eraser a little bit later. Now I am folding a piece of paper towel to smudge in the charcoal. You will get a very similar result with a blending stump (also known as a tortillion) but the towel will smudge the charcoal more quickly. To be perfectly honest, many teachers that I have had have told me not to use a blending stump, fingers or anything that comes in to contact with the surface of the paper. I partially agree. Oil from fingers when combined with pencil or charcoal leaves a stain that is tough to work around. Notice that my hand is resting on a sheet of paper. Artists call these slip sheets, but it is just a sheet of computer paper. I like working with the blending stump and the paper and this process works for my needs. It would be dishonest if I changed my process for the sake of making a video. Before, I mentioned the term hatching. Hatching is the short name for the drawing technique of cross hatching. It is simply putting a series of lines next to one another with a drawing tool. These lines usually follow the shape of the object that is being drawn. Once I am done adding pencil marks, I take the blending stub to burnish over my hatch marks. This gives my drawing a more smudged look and possibly my former art teachers a heart attack. I like to smudge the pencil and charcoal because it also gives me a surface that is smooth in tone. Hatching can be layered and I usually stop using the blending stump after the second layer. I once did ten layers of hatching in a pencil drawing. Lets recap and take this to the end of part 1. My focus, over the course of any drawing that I do from observation, is to see a simple pattern of shapes on my reference and to accurately render these shapes, on to the piece of paper that I am drawing. After I get the shapes aligned correctly, I attempt to build up tones with charcoal and pencil. When I am building the tones, I am very aware of the nuances of the edges of each shape, because they are usually different. My focus is also on building the tones of my drawing in a similar manner to how a Polaroid photograph develops. In part 2, I will teach you a way to add color to any pencil drawing. Thanks for watching the video and please let me know if this helped. Merrill Kazanjian

Drill Sergeant Speed Draw- Markers, Color Pencils and Oil Paint

Artist Merrill Kazanjian documents the creation of one of his characters.

Yankee Fan- New York Yankees Art Work- Photo Manipulation, Collage, Color Pencil and Oil Paint

What happens when you combine the faces of Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Alex Rodriguez Joe Girardi, Mark Texeira, Mariano Rivera and C.C. Sabathia? Hopefully some interesting art work. I started out with the computer program Paint Shop Pro 8 (a stone age version of Photoshop) to cut and arrange a photomontage. Next, I printed on thick paper. After that, I tied it together with a layer of color pencil. Finally, I put the finishing touches on with oil paint. The method that I use is called Tradigital Art. It combines traditional media (paint, pencil) with digital media (computer applications and digital photography). Thanks for checking out my work!- Merrill Kazanjian major league baseball fastest

Obama + Clinton + Bush Sr. + Dubya = ???

A very bi-partisan artwork. Put your political differences aside and watch artist Merrill Kazanjian merge the faces of our last four Presidents (Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush. A presidential portrait this is not- it sets the precedent for merging presidents- not ideologically- but aesthetically. I started out by creating a collage / photomontage with digital cut outs and combining them with Photoshop CS3 and Paint Shop Pro 8. Next, I printed on a medium format printer (13 x 17 inches). Next I added a layer of color pencils (prismacolor) and markers (AD and prisma) to fill in the gaps and tie everything together. Finally, I added a layer of oil paint to make it look life like. I added the body of Richard Nixon in his iconic peace pose and ironically the face wound up looking a little bit like a young Nixon (I did not intend this). I call the method that I use, tradigital art. It merges traditional art (2D drawing and painting) with digital possibilities (computer art and digital photography). My website is http://merrillk.com

New Art Techniques- Glazing Oil Paint Over Markers and Color Pencil (Time Lapse Demo)

What you are seeing is a short time lapse of me layering color with illustration markers (prismacolor) and color pencils. I have discovered that using markers and color pencils is a much faster way to build a foundation for a painting (if you could still call it that). Today, I will add a third step to my process. In less than a minute I will teach you how to glaze oil paint. Glazing is a very well known oil painting technique that gives a work of art a more life like finish. I am a mixed media artist now but the first medium that I learned in my training as an artist was oil painting. Glazing was, by far my favorite oil painting process, but it would often take months to reach the point where I could glaze because of oil paints slow drying time. The crazy caricature of the little old lady with the gun took me less than an hour to make. Now, let me define glazing. Glazing is the act of adding transparent or translucent color to a painting. Water is a good example of transparency because you could almost perfectly see through it and candle wax is a good example of something that is translucent. Some light can shine through something that is translucent but only hints of color. You could usually tell if a color is good for glazing by looking at the tube of paint. Most paint manufacturers put a square on the outside of the tube indicating the paints opacity. If the square is empty or half full it is a good color to use for glazing.
You can download a list of the paints that I use for glazing on my website merrillk.com. Just type in Glazing in the search box. One last thing before we start to glaze. I recommend a product from Windsor and Newton called Liquin for glazing. It mixes very well with the wax from the color pencils.

I am not quite sure why I drew a little old lady with a gun. I guess that I will figure that one out later- New art by Merrill Kazanjian
Category: Education

Homer Simpson Stop Motion Art

This video is a stop motion animation of me drawing / sculpting / assembling Homer J. Simpson with various beans, chocolate chips and sunflower seeds. It took me about two hours to create this and it is all fit in less than two minutes in this video. I have been watching the show since I have been in middle school; so this is my tribute.

New Art Techniques- Mineral Spirits and Color Pencil

Today, I am going to demonstrate a new artistic technique. I am going to merge the best qualities of two artistic mediums; oil painting and color pencil. What you are now watching is a time lapse of me building up layers of illustration marker and color pencil over a pencil drawing. In about a minute, I will slow the video down to show you that color pencils can be blended by using mineral spirits and a paint brush. I am doing this artwork on 110 lb. bond paper and please note that this method will not work as well on simple 20 lb. printer paper. This drawing was done as a tribute to Manhattanville Colleges iconic History Professor- Mr. Lawson Bowling. Professor Bowling is a mentor and friend of mine. He just completed his 25th year of service at Manhattanville College. It is an honor to give him this drawing and possibly turn him in to an internet celebrity.

The best quality of oil painting is that you can 1.) Blend while the paint is wet and 2.) Add multiple layers of new paint after the previous layer dries. The greatest nuance of color pencil drawing is the accuracy that is attained by using the very fine point at the tip of the pencil. I dip the paintbrush in to the mineral spirits and then dab it on a paper towel; then I drag the brush over my drawing. The mineral spirits quickly break down the thick cake of color pencil. The soft tip of the paint brush allows me to move and blend the pigment from the color pencil in a manner that is similar to the process of painting. It takes only a few minutes for the mineral spirits and pencil to dryAfter the mineral spirits dry, you can add more layers of color pencil. I have actually finished an oil painting with color pencil and an oil paint medium called liquin before, but to save time, I built up the flesh tones today with markers and color pencil.
by Merrill Kazanjian http://merrillk.com

Thy Pilgrim Propaganda Panorama

This work is about my misgivings about Thanksgiving......

Merrill Kazanjian- Art Work 2008- Tradigital, Traditional and Everything in Between

Prior to 2008, I had never ventured outside of the medium of oil paint. Life got HECTIC and I was forced to reconsider my approach. Here (below) is the story. For the past eight years, I have taught art in schools in Harlem and the South Bronx and my technique was created out of a need that arose in my classroom. Forty five minute periods is not enough time to teach painting. So I switched my painting supplies from traditional supplies, to paint markers to eliminate the set up and clean up. After witnessing the success that my students were having, I decided to push the technique even further, while working in my studio. I learned that mixing color pencils with a "blender" (on top of the opaque layers of the paint markers) marker allows an artist to mimic the effects of glazed oil paint. I incorporated media "cut outs" and printed images in my work. And I found that paint markers were ideal to tie everything together. Finally I learned that scanning my images on to a computer will allow me to edit my "characters" and add crazy effects such as juxtaposing images on top of my creations. The computer also enables me to use the medium that I am most familiar with; oil paint. I usually print my compositions on canvas ( I order an non varnished giclee print) and lay down the finishing touches in oil paint.

Artists and Black Glasses

Why do artists wear thick framed glasses? Just wondering?.....Thick glasses are to stereotypical 21st century artists as French Beret's were to stereotypical 20th century artists.

Art and Technology

Creating imagery is a human instinct. History has proven that pictorial imagery (Cave Art- 32,000 years ago) had developed long before the emergence of written text (Vinca Signs 9000 years ago). Pictures are somewhat, "universally fluent", to all human beings. When a child first learns to read, his/her books are dominated by pictures, to aid the young reader to a better understanding of the text. If a pencil is given to a young child, the child will eventually start to make representational marks on to a surface (as my very young son did this weekend- which left us a lot of cleaning to do!). This instinct is often suppressed as a child gets older and becomes aware of his/her own perceived abilities and the judgments of other people. But, somewhere, between the logic of Charles Darwin (survival of the fittest) and the concept of predestination (believing that something is supposed to happen), artists emerge and leave their marks on the world. Over the centuries, artists have used the "technology" (artists’ materials) available to them, over the course of their lifetime, to make images that they deemed important. Cave artists used charcoal, fat and natural pigments to make remarkable images of animals. The Romans and Greeks were famous for their lifelike stone sculptures. Other innovations followed: such as, oil paint, a printing press, a still camera, a video camera, a television and a computer (I am leaving out quite a bit). Today, there are countless image making possibilities for artists. The computer has added another dimension to my own work (I am a tradigital artist) and creates many possibilities for artists to communicate to their viewers. Between, traditional media, photography, computer media, dancing, acting, animation and (to a certain extent) music, humans have a wider range of proficiencies that enable a person to be creative and speak visually.

Flashing Thomas The Tank Engine

I had so much fun making my, "Telletubbies Unmasked" artwork, I decided to confront my greatest childhood fear: Thomas the Tank Engine (I confronted him with a naked person). Truth is, I really don't know a lot about Thomas, because I always changed the channel when I stumbled upon his f'd up show!!! I remember that his face was surreal and spooky and his expressions made me think that he had "Loco Motives" (Sorry couldn't resist the pun :). Ironically, I loved "The Transformers" which featured talking cars and trucks but, for whatever reason, Thomas creeped me out!

Despite my irrational fear, I concede that a show about a talking train, was FAR from the strangest thing on children's television.

Exhibit A: The Smurfs- HMMM....The Smurfs were tiny little asexual blue communists, controlled and manipulated by (Red) Papa Smurf (Who is part scientist, part father figure, but clearly rules the Smurfs with an iron fist). They live in mushrooms in the middle of a forest and had a male to female ratio similar to the Armed Forces.....Where is Mama Smurf? I guess having 20 boys and 1 girl would make any woman suicidal (Thats a lot of Smurftosterone)! Gargamel and the Cat....Let's not go there.

Exhibit B: Super Mario Brothers- Two chubby "Faux-talian" plumbers travel through an Alice-In-Wonderland type world to save a princess being held captive by a dinosaur-esque thingey named Bowser. Oh, im not done- When Mario or Luigi touch a muchroom (HMMM, SHROOMS HERE TOO), they quadruple in size. They also travel through pipes to travel between the underworld and the overworld. Nice!....Could Happen!

Exhibit C: Scooby Doo- Talking dog.....munchies all the time.......seeing ghosts.........mystery mobile........Scooby Snacks....made in the 60's and 70's before advanced drug testing......HMMM......

When I wikipedia'd Thomas the Train, I learned that it was created by a British Priest. The plot seems RELATIVELY normal. I am over my fears now. Thanks for reading my rant!
Merrill Kazanjian

Plane Crash

This one is pretty random. Randomness is OK with me. Honestly, I made the caracters face first, then I tried to make a body that fit the facial expression. After I finished with the figure, I looked for a picture where I thought that my character would fit. He kind of looks thankful (Either that or the guy about to be shot from the Goya Painting. Thanks for checking it out!- Merrill Kazanjian

Defacing a Jackson Pollock

Hypothetically....Would anyone notice if I added one more drop of paint to the surface of a Jackson Pollock painting? I don't think so (Not that I would ever do this). I was pondering this question today and I decided to make this work. There are a lot of people that I respect, that love the work of Jackson Pollock. Quite honestly, I am not one of them. I have stared at the Pollacks in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for hours on end and forced myself to like him (for many years). But now that sillyness is over! Aesthetically, Pollock is, "not in the same ballpark" as a Rembrandt or a Caravaggio, regardless of difference of style. There is a strange and beautiful aura to great paintings. Perhaps I don't tune in to that with a Pollock because I can't get over the fact that it looks like I fed a pigeon an Alka Seltzer! BOOM! POLLACK!
This is how I see it (Feel free to blast me if you disagree. and I DO expect some hatemail for this one): The cliche, "Timing is everything" is appropriate with Pollock because he DID think of a new way to paint in an era simultaneous with a boom (of growth) in Mass Media (Printing advances and to a lesser extent, television). Art critics (who were more prominent in Pollock's Era) were searching for an unique American style of painting and Pollock, due to his unconventional and controversial approach, became iconic. Many hated Pollock's work, but media coverage is not about love or hate, but controversy (Marcel DuChamps "Fountain" would have just been a URINAL if it wasn't brought to the worlds attention by the press).
I am a cynic.... and I TRULY believe that Pollock was sincere about the way that he created art. I think that his process was derived out of honesty and not self promotion. One of Pollock's most famous quotes was, "Every good painter paints what he is." Pollock did do that- it is undeniable. But his method and his mentality became a sensation and a controversy, which made him material for debate. I can appreciate his sincerity and the spiritual and psychological concepts of his work, but I do not dig the aesthetics. Just being honest!

The Inauguration of Barack Obama

January, 2009 is a historic month! Barack Obama will become out first African American President and George W. Bush will become out first President in Outer Space (At least if the American people had their way). Other cameos by Alan Greenspan (pouring out his 40 for his dead Wall Street homies), Hillary Clinton (still campaigning to the right of Obama), John McCain (far left), Tim Gunn (right of Obama), Vicente Fox, Henry Kissinger, Al Gore mixed in with several other `characters` by Merrill Kazanjian. Art is always a reflection of the era in which it was created and a means to understand the world. Ironically, I have learned a lot about myself and my views on contemporary life, while creating, `The Inauguration of Barack Obama`. Most of the realizations that I made were regarding the processes that I chose to employ (and why I used them), while creating my artwork. This image took me “a year” and “an hour” to make! But, I do not mean three-hundred–sixty-five days and sixty minutes. Essentially, my best illustrations that I made in 2008 are digitally juxtaposed in to this image (Which is what I meant by a year) and it took me about an hour to digitally juxtapose them to a photograph of the Capitol Building (an hour). This is a very different method compared to media that I had used in the past. But, I felt a need to “trim the fat” (cut the time and price) from my artistic processes and I abandoned the time consuming formulas of traditional oil painting for a process that perfectly fits my image making needs. To put things in to perspective, I am a full time teacher and a new father in addition to being an artist, so, my time is scarce, but innovations are always created from needs! I created a method of image making that I call the “tradigital process” that merges the best traits of traditional art (surface beauty through man made manipulation of materials) and digital art (speed). In early 2008, I tried to look at myself and my situation objectively and I had an epiphany as an artist. I shifted my mentality, my materials and my approach. Videos, which descriptively detail the tradigital process can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unnHsHps0qY
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwVMy1AyKHQ I deliberately chose “The Inauguration of Barack Obama” to be the culmination of my first year working tradigitally. He is hope for the future, a change, a different path. In my opinion, the quality of lifestyle in America has plummeted over the last decade. The middle class has vanished, with the exception of jobs in education, medical services and other civic jobs such as law enforcement and firefighting. Any job that can be replaced by machines has been. Other “irreplaceable” jobs have been sent overseas where labor unions are less relevant or currencies are cheaper than our plummeting dollar. The monetary tightening of American business is rhetorically justified as creating efficiencies for the shareholders of companies. While average workers are, “nickled and dimed”, greed and hypocrisy are still alive and well at the financial summit of America, as evidenced by the weekend long spa trip (costing $440,000!), taken by “stressed” AIG executives after getting bailed out of bankruptcy by the Government (aka the tax payers). “Trickle Down” or “supply side” economics has proven, once again that nothing trickles once the “weather gets cold” as evidenced by all of the “frozen” assets such as homes that have “fallen off a cliff” in price. Money is being made but it is not distributed, it is being horded. People who do have jobs are now justifying their salaries by producing now what was once the responsibility of three people. And there is a ridiculous amount of competition for the few, well paying jobs that are out there. A school on Long Island received over 10,000 resumes for one vacant art position! The Father of Economic Theory, Adam Smith theorized that competition is great in the marketplace because it lowers prices, but the level of competition in America right now is unhealthy for the amount of jobs that are available. In the thirty years that I have lived, I cannot remember a time that was more depressed, tired but hopeful than right now. There is a growing social camaraderie that transcends race that is developing in America now. If I did my job as an artist, much of the wording of the last two paragraphs will be translated in to imagery in my work.

The Telletubbies

Ahh, the telletubbies! Tinky Winky (The purple one) Dipsy, (The green one), Laa Laa (the yellow one whom I just learned was female...oops) and Po (The red one) epitomize whats wrong with the 21st Century! Time watching "The Telletubbies" for children is like consuming a McDonalds Cheeseburger (full of empty calories). Wasted, atrophic, mind numbing, waste of time!

At least the hippies that wrote Sesame Street, meant well and intended to educate while creating a lucrative (commercials) substitute for babysitting! Even adults CANNOT STEER THEIR EYES AWAY from the TRAINWRECK that is the TELLETUBBIES. Parents: Spend time with your children! Talk to them! It will help their brain develop! The Telletubbies are a GATEWAY DRUG to SPONGEBOB which is a gateway drug to anything on FOX (other than Family Guy, The Simpsons and Football) which is a Gateway Drug to living at home with your parents until you are fifty years old! ...Thanks for reading my rant! Merrill Kazanjian