I decided to pay homage to one of my biggest inspirations by doing an illustration.  Porter Robinson recently released an animation from his collaboration song with Madeon, titled, "Shelter".  I've linked the animation below, check it out because it's beautiful.
  Here's a quick step-by-step of how I illustrated my interpretation of the video. 

  I recently had the opportunity to see Porter live at EZOO with my best friend, Russell.  I really love Porter and this was truly one of the most emotional experiences I've ever had.  We were there specifically to see Porter, but  the whole ambiance was like a beautiful dream.  Porter's aesthetic resonates with me mainly because it's about a longing for a lost world; it's also vaguely anime inspired and filled with nostalgia.
  There are some videos of the experience, but you can't capture the atmosphere of hundreds of people singing along, bursts of flames, projections and the imagery.  This was also the last time he'll be playing Worlds, so that made it even more impactful.  He'll be touring again at the end of September, but I'm so happy to have seen him play Worlds live.
    I'll say also that I was hesitant to go because I've been so busy with everything and concerts can be pretty intimidating.  Luckily, I went.  For me, the concert really felt like the culmination of a long Summer of hard work.  If you have the opportunity to step out of your comfort zone and go do something that you want to, go and do it.

  I've been thinking a lot about overarching ideals in painting and this lyric from Kid Cudi really spoke to me.  For painting, there's plenty of rabbit holes to go down in terms of technique, but I've only found them all to be detrimental.  The best technique is the simplest.  
  Personally, I use a full palette ebauche applied in a frottis (rubbing) manner.  This is something I've applied from Bouguereau.  There's a lot more to painting, obviously, in terms of colors, brushes and mediums, but what I'm saying is that the physical application of paint is all that matters and must be direct as possible.  There's no fancy technique that you can hide behind.  
Go out there and apply paint directly and don't make it complicated.

  I could have titled this post 'Finding Your Own Path", but you can't find your path in this post.  Maybe this post will help inspire you to paint, which is all that I can hope for.  
  I've been studying a lot of my influences lately, mainly Bouguereau + Miyazaki, but it always hits me that that's a waste of time.  I'm glad to have discovered these artists because I've learned a lot by reading about them.  But the truth is that part of me wishes I had never found them.  I'll explain what I mean.
  I see a lot of forums online dedicated to 'mediums of the masters' type discussions.  Thousands of posts dedicated to finding out the exact recipe to some medium.  Or, "What brush does so-and-so use?"  I understand that it seems like a brush can make you paint better and the truth is that some materials can help (such as oil grounds).  But the heart of the issue is practice and trying out several options.  This can seem overwhelming, but I've learned to enjoy finding new techniques or materials.
​  I wrote a post recently about materials, but my mindset has already shifted.  It's better to embrace our time and not shy away from technologies.  Some technologies are better than others, but I think of them all as tools which I can use.  It's ever-evolving and who knows what the future will have in store.  I just turned 25 and I'm one of the last generations to remember life before the internet, which I am grateful for.  But each generation has it's benefits.  Even a golden-age thinker like me can't pretend that I'm living in the 19th century.  
  This doesn't mean that I'll be joining social media, but I'll keep enjoying the music I like while painting.