illustrator
Te (Chao) Bauer is a Oregon based illustrator originally from California.
Primarily working with brush, pen and ink on watercolor paper.
Since graduation, I've been working on a smaller scale, a size that I could manage at my home-studio before I venture back to larger ones.
Most of my traditional works are black and white or monotone, and I'm slowly making additions. I have numerous people ask me if I would do tattoos, and I would, but I think tattoo is such a culture within itself that I don't think I can "just do". Hopefully in the future though.
Would you get these as tattoos?
My good friend Laura Tibaquira has tagged me on this blog tour, so here I go.
*What am I currently working on?*
-I am currently working on person pieces. Not any particular theme, I'm exploring a little with what I enjoy to draw and compose those elements into an illustration piece. I am also doing some small drawings just for friends for fun, it helps me coming up with ideas when I think of what the person would like, limitations helps with grounding the ideas and not getting lost in the infinite possibilities.
*How is my work different from others in my genre?*
-I think the differences might be too subtle to describe in words. A lot of work these days can be similar, because we are inspired by largely the same artist, historical or contemporary. I think the only differences would be what I personally like "outside of art". I talked to a friend about this, that what makes an artist different a lot of times is what she or he does outside of art. If you are an outdoor person, indoor person, the types of books you read, movies you like to watch and the music you listen to. Those are the things that (hopefully) influences your work, because at the end of the day, one way to keep "you" are the things you gravitative towards, and not what "you think you should be doing".
I really like the typical pretty things, so I tend to draw a lot of floral, girls in dresses, birds with beautiful feathers, and anything else I draw probably has a "soft touch" and some describes as intricate lines.
*Why do I illustrate what I do?*
-Mostly because I like how the subjects looks? haha. This probably ties back to the last question. Everyone I think has their own aesthetic, what I illustrate is basically find either beautiful and/or challenging somethings, so I can also learn and grown the more I work.
*How does my illustration/writing process work?*
-I usually find a shape that I like, then I rough out where I want to concentrate more details with pencil. Then depending on the piece, I either use a brush or a nib pen to do the final drawings. These days I color with ink as well, I find they bleed less to none. So far I only have the primary color inks, I can mix most colors I want with the three, it's also a great way to keep my palette consistent. However I probably will explore colors more later in the line. Lastly I scan the image in for some minor editing to post them up, and sometimes make prints of them.
At the end of the post, introduce the readers to another illustrator or two, to keep the tour going.
-I like to introduce you good friend and a fantastic illustrator Melody Grace Cave at Oh Melody. The girl does fine art, illustration and graphic design, the whole package! Be ready to be wowed by her beautifully detailed drawings with sweet sweet colors!
One of my favorite thing to do when I'm not pulling my hair out to think of ideas, I sketch from Pinterest. I don't pin much myself, but I do follow tons of people and it always give me a good variety of things to sketch and find inspirations. This time I focused on figures after having done so much floral in the previous weeks. I've also taken a break from brush and used my second go to tool, nib pens!
I should also mention, I finally got a scanner! Thanks to the generosity of my great boss Yuko!
Here are tote bag number 6, 7, and 8, which marks the end of batch one! I hope you liked them! Please leave me any comments you have. Thanks!
I've been wanting to do some of these projects for a while, and here they are!
I've officially graduated with my MFA Illustration from SVA as of last week!
Left to right; Katie Hwang, Harshad Marathe, Te Chao, Laura Tibaquira. My talented classmates and good friends!
The few weeks leading up to graduation, thesis show receptions and such was a fantastic roller coaster ride! Things have settled down a bit since then and I am ready to get back in and making some new work!
Congratulation to all my classmates! Thank you to everyone, and especially my family whom without I would've never made it.
It is finally time for our thesis show! Come and show your support!
If you live in New York City, then the last few days has been real windy for you as well. It's end of February and just when I thought we are moving to warmer weather, bam! chill again! Stay warm everyone. Luckily I haven't gotten sick like some of my classmates, fingers crossed.
I've collected a reasonable amount of work for thesis up to this point and recently started to take a different route to see if I will discover something new. It's slowly moving forward, but nothing exciting yet. Guess I'm just going to keep going.
Graduation is right around the corner, grad show is even closer. Here is the portrait of my classmate Moonsub Shin for the grad show postcard. Tradition is everyone does a portrait of another classmate, and always in two tones This year we voted on pink, my favorite! yay!
Moonsub worked as a barista, and has a espresso machine in the studio, which we named MoonBucks. $1 for all all drinks, provide your own mug.
Have a happy week people!
Last Friday we did some sculpting in drawing class. It was quite fun go from 2D drawing to 3D "drawing". 20min pose.
This winter is feeling extra long. My room is always cold because of the giant window that takes up just about an entire wall. Or summer just feels shorter since there is no school.
Over the hasty two weeks of winter break, I went to China with Mom to see families. Spent most of my days there at Grandma's, she is 83 and going strong!
In between I did some small trips to books stores(too cold to hangout outdoors) and random shows. Bought very few art books and among them I bought some old school Chinese "comic". They are called xiǎo rén shū which literally means "small people book", and also Lián huán huà-"continuous images".
The original Chinese "comic"(xiǎo rén shū/Liánhuánhuà ).
I think my mom grew up on these and it's what started her artistic career. By the time I started school in the early 90's China was already filled with Japanese manga and anime, thus I never owned any of these books. Most of the originals are probably discontinued, there are few places, mostly stores that sell antique and/or Chinese painting things.
The ones I got were done in the recent years according to the publishing information on the back, good to see traditions are being carried on.
The trip wasn't relaxing because it was rushed and hectic, however being physically away still made a difference.
Oh and I got a fantastic new camera! and yes I'm taking pictures of everything now. : )
Te Chao Illustration Thesis part1
Read MoreSelected page from book The Chase by Te Chao.
It's been roughly two month since the semester started, thesis project is well on its way and I am quite excited. Both September and October has been busy, with moving, book show, friends visiting and learning!
Last weekend I went to see Chris Burden's solo exhibition at the New Museum (on Bowery x Prince) with friends (free for SVA students!). It was thought provoking to say the least. I've not been a fan of installation shows, but I am developing an appreciation the more I learn about them. Many of Burden's exhibition involved putting audience in a setting, a situation (many not even in an exhibition hall) when reactions and interactions were part of the exhibition. Before exiting the gift shop at the end of the trip, I also learned that the lamps in front of LACMA in California has also been designed by Chris Burden, all these years that I've driven by them.
My works have always been on paper, in the studio. It's not only refreshing to see artists create beyond the 2 or 3 dimensional, it's also inspiring.
Finally finished the book, the Chase, after many hours and many do-overs during the production period. I am almost 100% as to how it came out, and more than 100% glad of what this book had taught me. More pages will be shortly updated. : )
Here's a speak peak of the most recent book project-The Encounter
coming soon...
