Tag: process

Digital Filters & Syntax Forms: Visual Experiments from 2019–2025

Digital Filters & Syntax Forms: Visual Experiments from 2019–2025

***I recently published a new blog post on my main site that showcases a body of digital illustrations created between 2019–2025. These works emerged from teaching sessions, daily experiments, and ongoing studio play. They explore the relationship between analog marks and digital transformations, filtering, bending, glitching, and compositing with layered tools and apps. The result is a vibrant series of portraits and abstractions that reveal how our creative processes are evolving alongside the technology we carry in our pockets.

As you explore the visuals and narrative, take note of the hybrid process, how drawings, sculptures, and design sketches can morph into completely new digital works through a multi-platform creative workflow. Then, you’ll take on the assignment prompt at the bottom of the post below!

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This newly resurfaced series of digital illustrations spans a transformative period from 2019 to 2022 (but I added a piece from 2025 too) a stretch of time marked by constant teaching, ongoing experimentation, and the subtle blending of analog intuition with evolving digital tools. Many of these pieces were created live during class demonstrations, quickly composed to illustrate technical skills, yet unconsciously embedded with deeper currents of form, rhythm, and future direction. What began as spontaneous visual riffs soon became syntax carriers, vessels for line, color, and glitch-based logic that I would later expand into more intentional works.

Each piece was created intuitively, emerging from the moment rather than any predefined plan. Many are derived from my own hand-drawn sketches, paintings, or prior illustrations—while others pull directly from 3D paper sculpture maquettes that I scanned, photographed, or digitally reassembled. The digital environment allowed these forms to shift, distort, and transform as data bending, glitch renderings, and filter experimentation introduced unexpected visual mutations. These glitches became collaborators, not errors, an essential part of the language forming within the work.

Across this body of work, we see a layered interplay between traditional design principles and raw digital texture, pixelation, compression, AI distortion, vector smoothness, and painterly overlays. Some forms hint at architecture, others at human silhouettes or mechanical beings. Several works appear fragmented, paused mid-sentence. Others pulse with 3D illusion, nostalgic halftones, or faux-physical layering. Together, they chart the growth of a digital aesthetic language that has since matured into recent projects like the JFK mural, sculptural commissions, and augmented reality filters.

Revisiting this series now not only shows me where I’ve been, it reminds me of how teaching and making often become one. These pieces are a kind of visual byproduct of instruction, yet they stand alone as artworks with their own voice and vibrational frequency. They feel like early mutations of what is now my more developed style, still experimental, still unconcerned with rules, but rooted in intention and momentum. They are syntax loops from a moment of visual evolution. They continue to speak, even now.

Yes, that is a portrait of Kurt Schwitters above, he continues to be an artistic inspiration of mine!

As I reviewed this group of works again in the process of formatting them for this post, one detail stood out immediately: the prominence of portraiture. Whether abstracted, distorted, or fully symbolic, the human face, or the suggestion of it emerges as a recurring thread throughout the entire collection. This fascination with portraiture has long held my interest. It serves as a portal to identity, emotion, memory, and communication across time. Even when the face is fractured or obscured, it remains a central force, inviting interpretation, reflection, and story.

Each piece shares a common pipeline of creation. The process almost always begins with drawing, painting, collage, or physical sculpture often quick gestures or maquettes that capture a moment of form. I document these raw pieces by photographing them on my phone, and then I bring them through a series of mobile apps where filters, color palettes, and digital layering tools introduce new aesthetic directions. From there, some works are refined further in Adobe Illustrator for vector treatments, then routed into Photoshop for deeper manipulations, before being exported back to mobile for additional filtering or glitch-based experimentation. It’s an open loop, nonlinear, playful, and deeply intuitive.

What excites me about this workflow is how it accommodates mobility. I often find myself editing in transit—on the subway, walking through airports, or sitting in cafés, engaged in a fluid creative dialogue between analog marks and digital alchemy. This rhythm says something larger about contemporary creativity and our emerging relationship with tools in this technological renaissance. We carry powerful studios in our pockets, and the line between artist and interface becomes increasingly blurred. These works are evidence of that evolution, a set of portraits not just of subjects, but of process itself.

Altogether, this series stands as a visual meditation on transformation of media, memory, and method. What began as tactile marks or sculptural forms evolved through digital touch-points into layered visual stories, each piece a hybrid echo of both hand and machine. The portraits reveal not only imagined characters or archetypes, but also my own evolving language as an artist navigating the space between traditional practice and emergent technology. In sharing these works now, I’m not only documenting a timeline of experimentation but also inviting others to see how accessible and open this kind of creative flow can be.

The archive expands, and with it, the conversation continues.

 

LETS MAKE SOME ART!

STUDENT PROJECT: “Analog to Digital – Portrait Filters & Forms”

  1. Create a portrait-based drawing, collage, sculpture maquette, or even a quick sketch (physical or digital).

  2. Document it with a photo using your phone.

  3. Transform the image by running it through at least three different mobile apps or software tools (e.g., Glitché, Procreate, Snapseed, Adobe Fresco, Illustrator, Photoshop, etc.).

  4. Layer, bend, glitch, filter, remix — play with form, color, and abstraction. Push it far.

  5. Present your final image along with a short paragraph describing your process and what surprised you along the way.

  6. Publish your work on a class blog (or otherness) and share the URL in the comments section!

Bonus: Compare your original and final image side by side in the same post to show your transformation pipeline.

How to Create Paper Cut-Out Art: Tips & Techniques for Beginners

Back again with another lil’ series of 2D wall relief paper cut-out forms. Both of the pieces below follow the same process and technique. Im really happy with the process and outcomes. Im working on animating them as we speak. I’ll add them to this post later, so be sure to check back! My paintings inspire my drawings, and my drawings are inspired by those same forms found in my paintings. It makes sense that every so often I want to make those forms “pop out” and off the surface of a flat plane. Alas, it all starts with a quick sketch. See below, just a series of light loose free flowing lines take the lead, forward ->

Here we have a dude posing for a profile style portrait. Most likely, this is inspired by the NYC B-Boys from the years 1983 – 87ish. Either way, it’s nostalgia for me. Once the sketch feels good, I’ll break out the paper and x-acto knife. I keep telling myself that one day Ill work with another material other than paper for these works, perhaps wood or metal.. It will happen, I can foresee it for sure, hang in there. Im using a white bristol paper for the cut outs, I believe is the vellum type and not the glossy, but either or will work just fine. I love to cut paper and the whole medium of paper art in general.

Paper cut-outs, also known as paper cutting or Kirigami, is a traditional art form that involves cutting shapes and designs out of paper. The history of paper cutting can be traced back to ancient China and Japan, where it was practiced as a folk art. The Chinese and Japanese would create intricate designs, often featuring animals, plants, and mythical creatures, and use them as decorations for festivals and special occasions.

Using the sketch above, I apply the “map” of the shapes and forms that I see. Sometimes I redraw those forms on the paper that I will cut out, and sometimes I just “draw” with the x-acto knife to recreate the forms. Sometimes, it’s a combination of both of those techniques. There is also a series of “out-take / byproduct” cut outs that do not make the final piece, those can be saved and used for the next piece, obviously!

More history, for context – the art of paper cutting spread to other parts of Asia, including Korea, where it evolved into unique styles and techniques. In Japan, for example, paper cutting was used to create delicate and intricate designs for paper lanterns and screens. In Europe, paper cutting was popularized during the Renaissance and was often used to create elaborate decorative patterns for books and other printed materials. Check the bottom of this post for a list of other artists that work with the medium.

I layer the forms on top of each other to compose the arrangement as a whole, its fun to watch it all come together, in the next phase, you will need some kind of durable tape or you can make little paper forms that can be pasted to both sides of the forms as they stack, this will create the gauge and depth of the piece once it is placed onto the wall.

This is the final composition above, I love it! I used a roll of duct tape to make small cylinder forms that connect the pieces together, the piece as a whole comes “off of the surface of the wall” by about 1.5 – 2″ inches – you can play with this a bit but keep in mind, the tape makes the piece heavier and it will want to comply with gravity 🙂

I hung the piece (also temporarily adhered via the same duct tape) for the photoshoot and to also get a good look at how it will function on the wall. I have an old painted fire place in my studio that is a great surface for hanging things, I love the contrast of textures between the bricks and the paper, as you know, the shadows will be super cool to see too.

Once I had the whole piece constructed I took a few pictures of it. I immediately wanted a clean vector line drawing of the whole character. I brought the photo into adobe Fresco and used a vector brush to draw this lovely variation. This is how my brain works, I switch paths because I know they are really pipelines to the “next thing” that I will push this to, so forward we go. I can see this potentially becoming a new logo for an aspect of my design biz, or at least a new t-shirt in the classic newyawk series

Then, it was light source and photo shoot time. Im not really happy with these picture as traditional “photographs” as I know I can do a much better job, but, as a series of “sketches” for a planned photo shoot, these will really help to make those plans a reality. I love neon colored lights. I have a bunch of them from various places and spaces that I found on the internet. Amazon has a great selection of flashlights with various colored light options. Get a few and play around with how the light can effect your work and the shadows that it creates. This is where the depth and gauge of your pieces play a role. The photos below are also a part of the same session, which all took place over a few days. What do you think? Shall I make more?

In the 20th century, paper cutting experienced a resurgence in popularity as an art form in its own right. Notable artists who have contributed to the art of paper cutting include:

  1. Béatrice Coron: A French artist who has created intricate and expansive paper cut-out installations for public spaces and galleries around the world.
  2. Yoo Hyun-mi: A South Korean artist who creates paper cut-outs that explore themes of identity and cultural heritage.
  3. Hina Aoyama: A Japanese artist known for her intricate paper cut-outs of animals and natural landscapes.
  4. Elsa Mora: A Cuban-American artist who creates whimsical paper cut-outs that often feature fantastical creatures and characters.
  5. Hunt Slonem: An American artist known for his large-scale paper cut-outs of birds and butterflies.
  6. Xiyadie: A Chinese artist who creates intricate paper cut-outs of traditional Chinese motifs and landscapes.
  7. Hari and Deepti: An Indian artist duo who create mesmerizing paper cut-out scenes using layers of intricately cut paper.
  8. Karen Bit Vejle: A Danish artist known for her intricate paper cut-outs that often feature patterns inspired by nature.
  9. Nikki McClure: An American artist who creates minimalist paper cut-outs that often explore themes of motherhood and nature.
  10. Wu Jian’an: A Chinese artist who creates paper cut-outs inspired by traditional Chinese art and mythology.

 

Welp, if you got this far, many thanks! Much more to come!

Cut-N-Paste-Analog-N-Electronic-Ness

A new post on process reflection through blogging.

The best teacher I have ever known is the “inner-one” that allows a time for reflection as it wiggles through its narrative from the inside outward.

Here is my take and example.

 

December, late 2021

Back at it. The saga continues. I want to make images, always.. Which is really saying I want to communicate better, or just more, or in new ways. Sometimes the communication is purely fictional. Sometimes the communication is out of frustration because I cant find the words at the moment. Or, sometimes it’s an other worldliness that is using me as a “tool” to make itself known. Either way, it’s a practice and methodology of my expression of “the-self”. My feeling towards art making has always been: “make something and then further extend what has been generated”. I always want to see how that “something” can be taken further. If I make a drawing, I will eventually want to make a painting based on the drawing (sometimes it’s with paint and sometimes the paint is with pixels). After I make the painting it may become the background for the original drawing I made, but the drawing has now been scanned and digitally manipulated. That digital image will get tweaked and revised and also expand. I will then print it, I love old school ink-jet printers and the aesthetic they can produce. Im a “cut-N-paste” lover too, so making collage based works is a must. 

Above, this is a pretty regular perspective I find myself gazing at. Many pieces, parts, fragments and clips awaiting their deployment. I like to see things both on screen and off screen. Printed matter still holds my attention. Its a form of nostalgia and a time-machine into my childhood where art making was always a part of my world. It never stopped and Im sure it wont as long as Im on the planet. Im sure it will continue even when Im off of the planet too, haha.

I suppose, Im always seeking to communicate some form of a “situation or circumstance” in my work. As if “something” was occurring at the moment and the viewer was able to peek in and hit the pause button to freeze the frame of that “something”. I do make quite a bit of animation work too, but that was the natural progression over time as a medium. Plus the tools are so much more accessible today. I never forgot the basics of what I have learned from two-dimensional design in high school. Figure / ground. Foreground, middle-ground and background.. I placed a border around this piece above, perhaps that clean boarder makes the image as a whole seem a bit more important.. or it just emphasizes the moment. The fragments above were not yet glued down, I lay them out and look at them for a while before I make them seemingly permanent. I always take a digital image.. always!

Im really happy with this piece above. The perfect tension between the subjective and the representational. A moment of passing memories, elusive and most likely not even accurate. A portal out of reality and into the imagination. I like to linger there. The image is made from a series of digital photographs and hand drawn illustrations that were manipulated digitally and the full cut-n-paste treatment at its best.. This piece is currently still untitled, for now.. I will surely scan it and bring it back into the digital arena again.

(this piece above is available as a 3/3 edition here – https://hicetnunc.art/objkt/375773 (or click the image)

Ah ha, well, the image above this one was derived from this one! A combination of a manipulated data bent images layered with several glitch renderings. Cut, layered, pasted and cut and pasted again. What works for me the most is the hand cut lines that are visible by their contours. You can see that this was printed and then cut out with a pair of scissors. The lines are not straight, we can only get that perfect line from a ruler and an x-acto knife.. I have no need for making anything “perfect” in such an imperfect world. 

Format change. A horizontal layout variation to switch it up a bit. This piece uses the same process as stated above. It has not yet been glued down and made permanent.. but is that even necessary with digital tools like photoshop? A good question to ponder and what does that mean in the future?

And then, oh yes, the ink-jet bleeding experiments! Did you know about it? Well well well, look at who’s attention just focused in! If you print on matte paper with an ink-jet printer you can use a soft brush and water and create some very cool looking bleeding aesthetics! Im a big fan of this piece! This is surely a subjective and abstract art work, but it still followed the same steps and process as I shared from the beginning. Im going to print some larger scale variations of this, and perhaps have one framed.

I decided to get a bit more formal here in my presentation and laid down a few of these pieces. Sometimes it helps to get the gallery perspective and see one’s work “up on the wall”. The vertical perspective is helpful. Of course these pieces would look better in a more traditional frame, and its this exact exercise that helps me make those decisions. Below, are a few close up versions of each piece. Obviously there is more to come. Thanks for reading!

Earth Glitch

an animated GIF of planet Earth as it glitches like a system error..

In class this past week we talked extensively about the power of images, both static and animated. The animated GIF, regardless of how it is pronounced (via one’s personal individual subscription with the hard G or the soft G) it is most often used as a vehicle to communicate and share humor, emotional reactions and relatedness. However, we all agree that the animated GIF can just as easily be used as a tool to bring powerful awareness and action. 

I made these examples to extend that conversation..

The earth 🌍 needs our help, and also some 🤗 hugs!