Chicken Pot Society

Julie's Moleskine

2009-06-02T17:35:00.000-07:00

I've been pretty sick these past few days, but I got Julie's Moleskine in the mail. I started working on it as soon as I received it. Julie included a couple of reference photos which were really helpful. I did her portrait in ink and colored pencils. I still have to add my portrait and somehow think of some way of tying them together so it looks interesting. I still have a ways to go but I'm pretty satisfied with the beginning.

Peace,

RGPS

cps

CPS Sketchcrawl !!

2009-05-22T07:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our first monthly "sketchcrawl" my good friend and fellow CPSer John Hendrick and I went out for a day of sketching. We planned on going to manhattan to re-make the day I had previously at Bryant park and at the NYC public library. But due to certain circumstances such as last minute papers to write and dentist appointments we decided to save that possibly for next month. We ended up going to Eisenhower park on Long Island. We stayed there and enjoyed the sun and put our sketchbooks to good use. After that we headed over to Pearl Paint to pick up some supplies and then went to Barnes and Noble where we finished the day off. I have to stop being lazy and actually scan these instead of just taking photos of them with my iPhone. I put together a small traveling watercolor set so I can actually force myself to do more watercolor drawing since I think I'm lacking in that department. I'm sure most of you know that Moleskine sketchbooks and watercolors don't go together that well,but besides that I'm pretty satisfied with my watercolor drawing. It's a little more simplified that my usual drawings but I'm happy about how loose it is. The third photo is the second drawing from the park which was a public safety building. This was much more my style and what I'm comfortable with. All in all it was a good day, I'm happy with all my drawings and I'm definitely looking forward to next month. ( Top photo John Hendrick, middle RGPS )

Peace,

RGPS

cps

Finished my portrait for the Moleskine Exchange

2009-05-19T20:24:00.001-07:00

Even though I haven't been Posting anything on the blog i have been doing artwork. I spent a long day yesterday in Manhattan drawing non-stop and the cherry on top was seeing The Shins at Terminal 5. The show was awesome and I went with a bunch of friends so it was fun. I'll try to upload some photos from my day at Bryant Park, the NYC public library and wherever else I was drawing tomorrow if I get an opportunity.

I got my japanese moleskine today in the mail so I dove right in. I tried using watercolor in the moleskine even though it was strange 'cause the moleskine paper soaks the color and "dulls" it out. I did a profile of myself with my hand extending holding a pen drawing a rose. I also included an archway from the NYC Public Library, I used reference from a photo I took when I was there sketching. I took photos with my phone of the progress in the moleskine; first outline, the shading and finally the watercolor. I'm happy and I'm definitely looking forward to shipping this out and receiving Julie's book in the mail. Which will hopefully be soon, I want to take advantage of the fact that I've been so productive. We'll see.

Peace,

RGPS

cps

$2 Bookbag with giant zipper

2009-05-12T06:20:00.000-07:00

I know i've been slacking on putting stuff up, but I have been drawing. I was at the library yesterday with my friend Chris and I started doing a drawing of his bookbag 'cause it was interesting looking (it has a gigantic zipper). It took about 20 minutes. I took three pictures the first was the pencil sketch but the photo that I took with my phone didn't come out good. So I only used the first outline and the final product. I used a 02 Pigma Micron and an 005 for the shading. I have no clue what brand the bookbag was, when i asked Chris he said someone gave it to him it was a $2 bookbag. So here's a drawing of a $2 book bag with a giant zipper.

Peace

RGPS

cps

SX-70 land camera self-portrait

2009-05-01T10:57:00.000-07:00

I completely forgot about my SX-70 until I was cleaning my place and I found it. I spoke briefly about it and the Polaroid film to my girlfriend and she was nice enough to go out and buy me some. The Polaroid SX-70 land camera was the first Polaroid instant camera ever made. It was manufactured between 1972-1977. The cameras are very tough and still work after all these years. The only problem is you won't find film that you can use for the SX-70. The good thing is you can modify Polaroid 600 film to fit and work in an SX-70 using a neutral density filter. I stayed up late last night and set mine up. I ended up taking 8 of the 10 shots last night between 3-6am. This was my favorite.

Peace,

RGPS

cps

Moly_x_portrait exchange !

2009-04-30T13:10:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention that i've joined my first moleskine exchange. Which I'm pretty excited about there are about 15 artists from all over the world. We'll be sending each other japanese moleskine sketchbooks a month at a time. The theme is portraits, this is still my first time so we'll see how it goes. You can check out the progress on our exchange blog right HERE. So far I've read introductions and looked through the blog I introduced myself and tried to read through everyone's posts and introductions. It looks like a very good group of enthusiastic artists. I'll keep everyone updated here and on the exchange blog.

Peace,

RGPS

cps

Swamp Woman

2009-04-30T13:05:00.000-07:00

This is an older piece I just found that I wanted to share. It's acrylic, watercolor and colored pencil on illustration board. I made a mono-litho print of this same piece which I'll look for when I get the chance. I did this a couple of years ago and even though I've done more elaborate and "finished" piece I'm still drawn to this simple drawing and idea.

peace,

RGPS

cps

Coleoptera

2009-04-28T08:17:00.000-07:00

I don't like insects very much, but i do think that Beetles are awesome. This is another ballpoint pen sketch in my almost finished sketchbook. It took me about 40 minutes with a couple of breaks here and there. The actual name of this beetle is : Macrodontia Cervicernis. I actually came across a book on beetles and i borrowed it from my library the book is crazy it has the best photos. It was called " An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles" which chronicles the work of scientist J.B.S Haldane. I'd tell you the author but the book is in my basement and I'm too lazy to go look. I did a couple of other drawings in this and in another sketchbook I'll try to upload them later. I actually have one on my flickr, which you should definitely check out. Click here -----> RGPS

Peace,

RGPS

cps

Chuck Palahnuik and Insomnia

2009-04-20T23:40:00.000-07:00

It's about 2:45 in the morning, it's Tuesday. I can't sleep. Which is a reoccurring theme lately in my life. I have no idea why but I just can't seem to go to sleep at a "normal" time or get a decent night's sleep. I don't complain about this often because I feel like i get a lot of things done during this time. I do a lot of artwork, I read a lot, and I write in my journal. All things that I think are high up on my priorities list. I draw and I sketch and I write down ideas and I write about things I've seen or done during the day that I want to remember. Tonight I actually did a drawing of one of my favorite cameras my old Canon FTb, it's an ink drawing on bristol paper. I thought I would be satisfied with that but i still couldn't go to bed. I ended up staying later and I did a portrait of Chuck Palahnuik. I don't know why exactly I was compelled to do that. I didn't actually think about it till after I was finished. I think it's pretty funny that I couldn't sleep and I drew a portrait of Chuck Palahnuik who wrote Fight Club which is about an insomniac. Did I mean to do that ? I definitely didn't, just a coincidence. Anyway the portrait didn't take too long and I think it came out pretty decent considering I did it pretty quickly. I'm actually still not tired or sleepy and it's 3:05 am now.

Goodnight and sweet dreams (hopefully),

RGPS

cps

Maxillofacial surgery and The Cup

2009-04-20T16:36:00.000-07:00

I did a decent sketch of my nephew's high chair, but I lent my cousin my camera since he went away on a trip. I didn't feel like trying to sit and get a crispy and clean photo using my phone so I decided to post this piece up on the blog. This is a self portrait I did not too long ago. It's an ink portrait on paper it's based on some x-rays after my maxillofacial surgery. I got the surgery several years ago but it is still a motivator for my artwork. It very much changed my way of thinking and the whole process was very tough and artwork was definitely my best friend and comfort during the recovery process. I've done a couple of pieces that are directly commenting on the surgery but this is the latest and I'm pretty proud of it. It's exactly what I envisioned it to be when I started working on it. A 13 x 19 in. archival print of this piece is hung up right now at "The Cup" coffee house in Wantagh, Long Island NY. Me and HP have had some artwork hanging there the whole month of April and we've slacked on getting a small reception together because of certain circumstances. But anyway if you live in or around Long Island please check it out or even if you live in NY. Here is the exact info :

The Cup 3268 Railroad Ave Wantagh, NY 11793. Take a trip to the cup and have some coffee or tea and look at some good artwork from two very hard working starving artists. Me and HP have about seven or eight pieces hanging each. Ranging from drawings, to paintings, etchings and we even have some giclee' prints up. I hope you get a chance to see the work and I hope you enjoy it.

Peace,

RGPS

cps

Coffee Time

2009-04-19T15:12:00.000-07:00

Here's a drawing from over the weekend. I was visiting my girlfriend and she was busy baking for her godson's birthday party which was the next day. I happened to be sitting in front of the coffee maker and I never drew one so I went for it. So this is the result of about fifteen minutes of drawing. I used a Zebra fine ballpoint pen. It's definitely my favorite pen to draw with and i always carry it. I have a sketchbook that i've filled almost entirely with drawings using this pen. I'll upload some photos from this sketchbook as soon as I get a chance.

Peace,

RGPS

cps

Love in the time of cholera

2009-04-16T11:13:00.000-07:00

I was looking through some of my sketchbooks and i bumped into this drawing. It's a drawing of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He happens to be one of my favorite authors, and I have to say that "Love In the Time of Cholera" has to do a lot with that. I read this book some years back on one of my summer trips to Bolivia. I always wanted to re-read it but was slacking. Some years pass and a movie version of the book was released here in the US directed by Mike Newell, starring Giovanna Mezzogiorno as Fermina Daza and Javier Bardem as Florentino Ariza. I went to watch the movie in theaters when it was released two years ago, and i was decently happy with it. I enjoyed the movie but some parts of the movie were a little "off." Needless to say the book was better but that's always a given. I just caught the movie again recently on tv and decided that between that and the drawing I found I might as well make a post telling everyone to watch the movie and more importantly READ THE BOOK. Both Bardem and Mezzogiorno do a good job, i think that the script was lacking in a few departments, I won't get into it 'cause i don't want to ruin the movie for anyone. I also suggest reading Marquez's last book "Memoirs of my Meloncholy Whores."

Peace,

RGPS

cps

Sketches in watercolor

2009-04-15T15:24:00.000-07:00

I did these earlier today. Quick sketches in watercolor on watercolor paper. I had some scrap paper lying around so I decided to doodle on it. The glue container is watercolor and some thin markers. I was doing some hand studies earlier in ink, I'll try to upload them a little later or tomorrow.

Peace,

RGPS

cps

Watercolor Portrait

2009-04-14T20:53:00.000-07:00

This is a watercolor painting I recently finished. It's a portrait of my dad. It's one of many I've done of him. If I get a chance I'll look through my stuff and post different ones in different mediums. This was done with black ink and watercolor on 140 lb watercolor paper. I used a Rapidograph sketch pen, which is kinda of pricey ($25.00) but it's a good investment it'll last you a long time and you won't be disappointed with it's performance. Plus the ink is refillable you can mix and make your own colors of ink. Anyway I'm actually pretty pleased with this portrait as soon as I finished I emailed the pic to a couple of people for critiques and I've gotten good reviews so I'm pretty satisfied with it, plus my dad liked it an he isn't easy to please.

Peace,

RGPS

cps

Apologizing

2009-04-14T07:44:00.000-07:00

Apologizing is not that bad ! and sometimes it makes you feel much better. I got into an argument with a friend over a small miscommunication and we hadn't spoken in a day or two. I decided that it was time I apologized for the things I'd said. So I did exactly that. I explained why I said what I said and then I also threw in my apology.

Sometimes it's tough to apologize because you don't feel 100% responsible for the cause of the problem, but sometimes it's good to apologize for your part in the argument. Anyway after I did what I had to do I automatically felt much better. Plus to make things even better my friend accepted my apology and then proceeded to apologize for their half of the problem. So now all is well and I feel very glad to have done what I've done and I'm glad they did what they did 'cause we're way better friends for it. So even if the other party doesn't extend an apology (assuming they have to) apologizing is definitely a good idea. So stop being a fucking baby and APOLOGIZE !

Peace,

RGPS

cps

Laziness!

2009-04-13T16:43:00.000-07:00

I have to apologize because all of us here at C.P.S are terribly lazy. We started off our idea and have had several small gatherings to figure out what we want to share and how we're going to do so. Even though all these meetings have happened we have yet to put our ideas into action. I'm going to start writing as much as possible and posting some artwork and random thoughts I want to share. I want to encourage some of the other CPS members to join me in my battle against laziness and i also want to ask you to do the same in your own personal life.

I think that in these tough times economically we need to start to remember the smaller and more important things in life and stop thinking so much about these material and unnecessary things. So we will be blogging about our artwork, out thoughts, our family lives all the things that are important and DON'T COST A THING ! we hope you enjoy and you stick around.

Peace,

RGPS.

cps

"N."

2008-08-21T20:23:00.000-07:00

A fundamental ideal of the C.P.S. is to share ideas, thoughts, and philosophies through different mediums. It is for this reason that I share with you a series of videos I've been watching lately. Shrouded under the pigeon-holed category of "supernatural thriller," Stephen King's "N." is a story that begs the questions "What is reality?" and "How do anxieties and neuroses affect that perception of reality?"

Beautifully and artistically rendered, this short story has been animated into twenty five 2-minute shorts (only 19 have been released so far). I strongly suggest you take a gander! Here's the first one:

Check out the rest at NisHere.com. Enjoy!
--H.P.--

life thoughts...

2008-08-20T21:21:00.000-07:00

When beginning this addition of the C.P.S. blog, I can't help but notice RGPS' addition from the other day: "Everything is going to be okay." That credo rings in my ear as it reminds me of something I wrote in a sketchbook back in March. Without any further introduction, I will share with you this particular addition to C.P.S.:

life thoughts...

is life the physical
and mental
together as one?
or does one feed
off the other...

it's as if our minds
form our physical realm:
we're happy,
our aura is lifted.
i am self-aware.
euphoric.
i need, i recieve.
my mind seems to get
whatever it wants
by the end.
it all leads to one finale.

but until then,
my world is my own.
quietly barking
my own future.
whether in my mind
or my body.
i am responsible
for whatever fate
wants to appear to control.

but as long as existence is
"okay," which, i believe,
is the peak of human nature,
we will exist
in this giant machine
of time and space.
okay is okay
is okay is okay...
.....nice and simple
..........stress free
...............and utterly unique.

life is okay

-- H.P
written 5:12 am on 3/9/08

Everything is going to be ok.

2008-08-18T18:57:00.000-07:00

-RGPS. CPS

Introduction: expectations ?

2008-08-15T17:03:00.000-07:00

Since the day we can think we are taught to understand that everything has "a beginning, a middle and an end." I suppose that these first couple of posts can be considered the very beginning of the long journey we are on. Maybe one day this blog will stop, but our friendships and the ideas we are feeding to each other are too real and too true for us to ever think about leaving them. We want to create a large group of artists and like minded people who want to share ideas.

Who exactly we are isn't necessarily important. What is important is what we think, say and do. All of us here at C.P.S are different and come from different places and backgrounds. What we do have in common is our goals to start expressing our ideas to everyone who wants to listen. We want people to ask themselves questions and to start thinking. We want people to listen, and understand us as well as enjoy the things we have planned for the future.

We expect so many things from this small project but we are aiming mostly to prosper as people. To prosper as artists, thinkers, friends, brothers, sisters, as intelligent people in a very bland society.

You own your life and no one else, no person is more valuable than another. THINK. EXPLORE, ASK QUESTIONS, FIND ANSWERS.

-RGPS.

cps

Who Am I: the individual...

2008-08-14T22:43:00.000-07:00

As Jasmine Blossoms flow through my ear, I begin to realize the change in myself. Thoughts are being shared as easily as the air we breathe. I feel we are making a difference. Even now, as humans, friends, thinkers, and artists, we are creating a school. Of what yet, is to be determined. But as creative and unique individuals, we all bring ideas to the table. Ideas of who we are, not just as individuals, but as humans on this little blue planet we call home.

I've not much to say on matters of philosophy and the world as others do in C.P.S. My footprint in this organization will begin with the self. Who I am, who I perceive to be, how I see myself, and how others do. Hopefully my journey into this self-awareness will inspire others to do the same. But if not, this outlet should provide me with the growth needed to understand my self and the environment around me.

I am an artist. It's strange to just state it so simply. Usually when people ask, I say something like "I study art." or "I went for my BA at.." or something else that beats around the bush. But that is bogus. I am an artist. It's my outlet to the world. F.C and Big C. These dudes are thinkers, talkers, philosophers. I use my art to analyze myself and my extension to the environment outside the self.

It's funny the reaction I get from my artwork. Mostly, its pretty optimistic, light-hearted, and slightly comical. It's a farce in a way; an exaggeration of the people and things in this world. It seems to make people smile. I consider that a wonderful compliment. What's strange is the natural ability I have just tend to LEAN to this sort of jovialness. It's what my mind does subconsciously that seems to transfer to the canvas. Some pessimists might say it's a false world, this optimistic, caricature-like world. You can tell a lot about a person from the artwork they produce. My artwork is an interpretation of how I see the world and, therefore, who I am in this world. I will leave you with this:

"We all know that art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth"

--Pablo Picasso--

The truth will come in time. Goodnight.

--HP

Good Morning

2008-08-12T21:22:00.000-07:00

We are a small (for now) group of painters, illustrators, poets, thinkers, writers, space travelers, time travelers, humans. Our main purpose is to extend ourselves, our thoughts, philosophies and outlooks on life, society, politics, art, religion, food, cinema or any other random topic. We have something to say, and it's important. Please stay tuned.......