Culture Aficionado Magazine Issue #2

 

Hello and welcome to the first stop in a four part journey through media, culture and art. I am thrilled to showcase the project that I started about 2 years ago and just recently resurrected. I like to think of this magazine as a constructive collaboration of artists, musicians and filmmakers with like minds. Please proceed to indulge in the writings, productions, creations and interpretations of all types, included in this magazine. Thanks for reading and enjoy the free magazine!


Russell Xavier

A.K.A.

Abstract Thought


Culture Aficionado Magazine Issue #2

Culture Aficionado Magazine Issue #2 (iDevice)

Nuevo Exhibición Artistico

Hey whats up?

Making progress on my new edition to my magazine, with all sorts of interesting stuff to view, read and fill in the blanks. I've just been going to class and making art at all times of the day and/or night, playing disc golf here and there, as well as DJing in my free time. I like to display whatever kind of art I can whenever I can and pretty soon I'm thinking about doing a little live art while music is played by a DJ or band. My goal is to get a reaction, any reaction to the art and music that I like to make. Enjoy the post and KEEP IT REAL.

ART

INSPIRATION

This piece of art displays yet another interpretation of my taste for music illustrated through my art. As you can tell, I wanted to get rid of the square picture edges, so I embellished the image with a couple different stylized brushes with vines and leaves.

MECHANICS

I used multiple records, including one broken into pieces and with blend modes I melded the pictures together. I replaced the outside corners on the centered turntable image with vines and leaf brushes for a more dramatic look.

AESTHETICS

I made sure to maintain the original vintage look of the centered turntable image and by doing that I kept the surrounding objects in the same general color scheme. Just for personal reasons I didn't change any of the contrast, although I did add some saturation for a vignette type of look.

Continued..

Wildebeast from the east

Whats up?

Making progress getting used to my new portable DJ setup, I finally figured out how to record my Kaossilator in Virtual DJ. Thanks to my partnership with my band mate, DJ Adsynth, we can now collaborate and create  original beats.
Moreover, The magazine Culture Aficionado (Issue #2) is scheduled to be released in the first week of June. I have a line up of 5 issues to be released throughout every 2 week interval, this summer 2011. Please stay tuned to this blog and other blogs like this, for new updates on art, including how to make certain types of art in Photoshop CS-CS5. I will also be including new music links and/or recommendations in each post.

ART

INSPIRATION

This piece came from myself watching too many Twilight zone episodes, reading too much Ray Bradbury or possibly watching 2001: A Space Odyssey a few too many times. It is reminiscent of a computer of the future, although the tribal-looking intricate patterns scrawled behind it add a touch of visual distortion. 

MECHANICS

I was in somewhat of a daze when I made this piece at 3:30 am, although that may have worked out to my advantage. I used a couple different gradients to synthesize 3 large optical scanners and in addition, the markings behind these have also been filled with a gradient.

AESTHETICS

I wanted this art piece to look as if you could not tell what year it takes place in. I was attempting to create a photo that was not only futuristic but also modern.

Continued...

Mega blast from 1989

Hello all,

So now that I have a good amount of art posted on my portfolio blog, I have decided that it is time to expand my abilities into other fields, such as a media-based magazine titled Culture Aficionado, a clothing line including T-shirts and Boardshorts and also a mixtape as well as future studio album from my band, Standard Deviants. For now, enjoy this mega-sized post of art and music recommendations from none other than myself, Abstract Thought.


ART

INSPIRATION

I like to make art with instruments on occasion, this is a good example of a recent idea of mine that I embellished into an art piece. Guitars are just plain awesome in my opinion and with what I've learned in Photoshop, its always fun to manipulate and create something from something else.

MECHANICS

I started by keeping the guitar centered within the surrounding paint splatters and grungy edges of the image. Next I shredded the top part of it and played with the color and hue options a little bit. Finally I added more grunge layers and colored renders shooting out of the strings. 

AESTHETICS

Solely for aesthetic value I added a different layer on top of the original guitar layer to incorporate them both into an eerie off-white color guitar that blends better with gradients under blend modes. This image was originally meant to look less gritty and more neat, although that soon changed.

INSPIRATION

My girlfriend has an awesome lenovo laptop and sometimes wen I am bored I like to use Photoshop CS5 and make a background for her desktop or a little art piece she can look at whenever she wants. This piece was too cool to let go, so I saved it to my email and downloaded it later.

MECHANICS

Using different liquid brushes and a set of brushes I saved on my 16gb flash drive, I lined the corners with several watery looking renders. Some of the text in this piece is upside down or modified, while others are just layered with other shapes. The greenish looking cloud in the middle came from a smudged gradient oval.

AESTHETICS

This image was originally going to be much more subtle at first, although I enjoyed distorting the different shapes of various hues. A good portion of the images on this blog are very reminiscent of the project above.

INSPIRATION

Space art is definitely a hobby of mine when it comes to the types of art I make of a daily basis. This piece is an outstanding example of a star in space with an emerald hue. I like to sometimes go online and look up different types of space art and then attempt to make my own variation.

MECHANICS

Most of the stars I make come out to a specific style. No matter what color they are, they appear to be fluid and plasma mixed together inside of a large sphere. I strive for this effect and I also make different effects similar to the fire inside of a star.

AESTHETICS

For good measure I added some abstract looking splashes and sprays of green as well as a lightning bolt or three. I was aiming for a realistic looking small star with a ring and vivid outer glow.

INSPIRATION

One day I was looking online at gadgets and I viewed a couple online images of circuits and microchips and immediately I wanted to create or make art with similar intricate lines and patterns interlacing. I took that idea and decided to start in Photoshop and see what I could do.

MECHANICS

Certain parts of this image, you might notice stand out and in addition to creating a group of rectangles with glowing edges, I also added circuitry lines and dust on the other parts. I made sure to keep all of the layers organized with a grid and guide lines.

AESTHETICS

This image was made on my girlfriend's lenovo laptop and probably sometime at around 2am on a weekend night I completed it. I started using more detail when it comes to illustrating shapes and images by hand. I like the way that an image can be more subtle and less intense if I spend more time on it working out the kinks.

INSPIRATION

This image is another piece I produced in the middle of the night on a Saturday on my girlfriend's lenovo laptop with Photoshop CS5. I wanted to experiment with the grungy looking brushes I picked out for my flash drive and also the paint splatter ones I downloaded just recently.

MECHANICS

Lettering and objects with gradients are fun to work with and juxtapose about an image. For the most part I use text for my lettering from a font book, although sometimes I like to create my own letters from scratch by drawing them  by hand or pen tool.

AESTHETICS

Brushes, stamps and tire markings were added in the distance to take out the plainness of the white background. For aesthetic value I also added a couple area codes that I have lived in.

INSPIRATION

This piece was created because of an intense dream I had. In this dream I was surfing a massive wave, although I had no idea where I was. It looked as if I was surfing a wave which happened to be off of an island full of junked surfboards. This is the image that resulted from that dream.

MECHANICS

I made sure to blend the different layers of the wave, and the top crest, a separate layer entirely is also displayed with a outer shine and inner glow. The surfboards were drawn by hand and placed all around the sand bar in view. 

AESTHETICS

I made sure to keep an eye on the amount of waves visible in this image, incase it might look too repetitive or boring. The wave layers were drawn with pen tool then applied to look as natural as water flowing in an ocean.

MUSIC




GENRE: Hip-Hop

Binary Star- Reality Check

Gang starr- Moment of Truth

Slum Village- Reunion Feat. J Dilla

Living Legends- Black Glass

KRS-ONE- MC's Act Like They Don't Know



Big ups to LBizzle and Butterkn!fe Beetz

PEACE

50 Cows Starring at you

Whats good?
Got some new gear, new art and tunes for you to check out.

Life is good! Got a new netbook and been working on projects with Standard Deviants. What do you think today's post is going to feature? How about another serving of abstract art, brought to you by Abstract Thought AKA DJ GenerRuss?!?!!?



ENJOY!



PEACE!


ART

 

Flaming Artifacts, twisted orange stylizing with gradients and layer styles intertwined over a brushed background.

 

Made this one on my new netbook, took about 6 1/2 minutes to compile, only I didn't realize that Photoshop CS5 requires a 1280x900 screen resolution. Fuck em, CS4 will do.

 

An older background designed on a friend's PC for his desktop. Originally I put his name over it, then I decided to change it and keep the new copy.

MUSIC

Counter Stricken.mp3 DJ GenerRuss


Late Night Coffee.mp3 DJ GenerRuss

Hungry Hungry Hobos

Hey whats going on? So since my last post (that was 2 months ago!?) a lot has happened. I moved yet again and now I feel that I can finally write a full piece of content for my blog-in-progress. I also made a ton of new art and mixtapes. *EDIT* mixtapes will be released on a later date.

NEW ART:

In this picture I attempted to portray my idea of an alternative reality, from the view of a satellite.

Patterns are interesting to utilize in my Photoshop artwork. Contrasting colors catch the viewer's eye and direct attention to separate parts of the picture.

I started this one from a different size in order to stretch the contrast between yellow, orange and red.

NEW MUSIC:

[Artist- Album- Track]

Genre: Electronic

Benga- Phaze One- Transform

Danger- 9/17/2007 EP- 4h30

The Toxic Avenger- Superheroes EP- Escape ( The Bloody Beetroots Remix)

SebastiAn- Ross Ross Ross- Ross Ross Ross

The Bloody Beetroots- Let Your Washing Machine Speak- Harvest Time

I listen to music when I make art, especially Photoshop Art. Above are a few good examples of music I listen to while I create the art you see on this blog. Thanks for reading!! PEACE!

Abstract Thought