Vitaly Umansky Illustration

Illustrations for stories in a film about a Yiddish writer.

2012-01-17T10:59:00.001-08:00

A new painting

2011-09-01T06:54:00.000-07:00

Jill and I went to Mccaren park. Then a storm came. And Jill went to work.

Ketubah

2011-09-01T06:51:00.000-07:00

Here's a Ketubah I made for a friend of mind. The wedding itself was awesome, and had a very good spirit.

Instantly Aged

2011-08-24T21:04:00.000-07:00

I opened the news and saw that Jobs resined. I decided to learn more about this man and looked him up in Wikipedia. I learned many details I didn't know, like that he left Apple in the 80s' and that he made Pixar out of a division of LucasFilms, but what stroke me was the combination of encyclopedic formality with the immediacy of everything. "He is ... former chief executive officer of Apple Inc".
-Huh, they updated it already, I thought. I kept reading until I hit "On August 24, 2011, Jobs announced his resignation from his role as Apple's CEO". It was written as if the matter at hand was some event in the life of Napoleon or something from the Cold War affairs. I looked at the clock. It was 12:01 AM, August 25. With the snap of fingers, life was alphabetized and archived together with all the rest of the events that happened on a certain date in the history of the Earth. I felt like I instantly aged, and was myself stuffed between bits and bytes, possibly to be found on some date in the history of the Earth. What happens when you are found? Is it like a resurrection, or more like a reincarnation, since you are unrecognizably out of context?
Dear diary, in my next life I will be reduced to few words by someone who is also tagged in some tiny, meaningless corner of the informational cosmos.
And I will be able to Google us both in the current life. Watch.

The lost third painting

2011-08-03T16:59:00.000-07:00

Here's a view from Roosevelt Island, from few weeks ago.

The Identified Flying Object over the Brooklyn Bridge

2011-07-29T16:50:00.001-07:00

New collaboration. Me and Jillian began this painting of the Brooklyn Bridge, and then Clare Wilderson and Carley Leedy joined us and added some fun to it!

Vitaly and Jill Workship

2011-07-21T07:56:00.000-07:00

This group of paintings is a result of a collaboration revived by the Brooklyn Independent Television who interviewed us last week, we (Jillian Leedy and myself) began working together again, always sharing a canvas. The initiative is gaining steam. We usually pick a spot somewhere in the city, spend about an hour on smaller, individual canvases, then coat a large canvas with some color, and begin painting it together.

Here are some of the little, individual, practice, get-the-shit-outofa-way ones:

And here are the paintings themselves:

5/6/7's Class of 2011

2011-06-18T06:04:00.000-07:00

This is a gift I made to the graduating 5-6-7's class at the Early Childhood Center at Sarah Lawrence. They liked it a lot.

A gift for 80th birthday

2011-03-09T18:11:00.000-08:00

It pretty much shows I haven't drawn for a while. I might sit there with the 0 brush another year, but there's no drawing there. O, what can you do. I called it bad composition #4. I'll fix myself. I promise!

Jerusalem (or not)

2011-01-14T08:43:00.000-08:00

Here's another attempt to save myself and create something during the last days of a month long vacation I wasted on complete bullshit.

Trees

2011-01-06T07:52:00.000-08:00

As you noticed I haven't done much lately. But given some free time I did make something. Inspired by wonderful work of a very talented Anna Rozhdestvenskaya, I did these trees.

First one, of course, wasn't that great.

The second one was better.

New Murals for the Y

2010-09-05T15:55:00.001-07:00

Weird Shit

2010-08-12T12:56:00.001-07:00

I usually filter weird shit that happens (shame), but this one, I just had to put on paper.

Extreme Violence With Onion Springles

Do you believe in signs? Do you believe that an arbitrary moment in time and space can signify another? If you're like me, you probably don't and never will.

I always promote that New York is one of the safest cities in the world. I have never seen a single crime in seven years I'm in the city. Well, I've seen one today. Seen, and done nothing.

It was two days after my exhibition at the Empire Hotel Rooftop, right across the Lincoln Center. I was on my way to the Bronx Zoo where me and my buddies schedule to meet for some drawing. A group of nine or ten 2nd-graders were riding with their instructor to the Zoo as well. Though it wasn't a short commute I did not draw anything. Though I wanted to. In front of me, four little black boys were standing on their knees, with their feet hanging down from the bench, excitedly looking out the window and discussing what they see. I thought it could be a cute picture to make, very lively, yet I just looked and tried to memorize the scene.

Suddenly, a lady next to me leaned over and mumbled something pointing to the direction of the kids. I smiled and nodded. She repeated again, and directed my attention to a small, sealed container of Springles, onions flavor.

"It looks suspicious" - she said.

"At this size?" - was my dumb response. At the following few stops of silence, I chastised myself for my answer. How could I know? Was I an expert? My only confidence in the everyday routine is not a protection of anything abnormal. And who knew? I started pondering. If yes, these kids, my god! Do I become paranoiac as well, and call 911, or 311, or whatever the hell you dial these days? I lived in Jerusalem all through the 90s'. I know that in these cases fear is a personal choice. So I decided to ignore it, and on the next stop left with the kids and headed towards the Zoo.

In the zoo it was crowded and hot. We met, drew a bit, talked a bit, and then I headed back, because I still had things to do. I sat in the corner of the car of the 5 train in front of two good looking black girls. Didn't pay much attention to who was sitting next to me. It was some Asian kid, perhaps 15 or 16 years old. After a stop or two I remembered those kids looking from the window, lively discussing something, and decided to draw it, maybe even stick a bomb under the seat. And I went into the drawing.

A few stops later I witnessed violence like I haven't witnessed for a long time, now. As I was drawing I saw some sudden movement with the corner of my eye, a schoolboy jumped on the schoolboy sitting next to me. A second. He started beating him. Is that a game? Shit! This is serious! A second. The guy spread his arms wide and aimed four or six good punches to the other guy's head one after another. A second. I jumped away and stood up. The train stopped. The guy was looking at me now. Then he shrugged, and left the train. A second.

"O my god! Are you alright?!" Screamed the girls who were sitting in front of me. I leaned towards the guy who was now bent on the bench with his face down. "Call the cops! Call 911! - one of them yelled - O my god! Hold on, don't close the doors!" The victim lifted his head, blood on his lips, blood dripping off his nose, tears in his eyes. It was just a kid! Just some kid with braces! "O my god! He broke his nose!" The girl kept yelling. after a moment the kid rushed out to the platform. In a minute a conductor came talking on the radio: "Yeah, they've escorted him down, too."

It turned out the kid was texting on his iphone and the guy came to him and said he wanted his phone. So the kid replied, no, it was his phone. That's when the asshole jumped on him. The rest of the trip I was looking into the floor. How shameful. I was sitting right next to the guy and didn't do anything. Well, and what could I really do? At least I wasn't stabbed. He was beating the shit out of this kid with no interruptions. It was 2:30pm in a half-crowded train in the Bronx. I still couldn't believe that by the time I tuned in and realized what's happening the show was over. My view of my surrounding reality have changed, or was at least, shaken a little.

I switched to the R on 59th St. I saw no gangsters and no gangsters to be. In front of me sat two beautiful girls, gleaming Union Square, NYU, life is perfect as always. Except that one of them was holding a small, sealed container of Springles, onions flavor.

Some new stuff and some stuff I never got to before

2010-08-05T09:45:00.000-07:00

Check this out! I got a camera! I even made it work. Though it was a battle because it's used and Photoshop didn't recognize the RAWs, but now... O, boy I HAVE A CAMERA!!!

Still life

2010-08-02T18:35:00.000-07:00

Possible opportunity forced me to concentrate on Friday.

Folder illo for kings bay Y

2010-07-27T18:03:00.000-07:00

The New Write n' Draw Project

2010-07-27T06:54:00.000-07:00

Ok, so me Jillian, Clare, Peter and Manuel decided to play this game. One starts (Jillian) by sending someone else (me) a body of text. This one was a dream she had. And I had to do the first page of the comic strip that would hopefully continue. Upon completion, I sent the writing and the drawing to the rest of the people asking anybody to do the second page, and so on. We'll see what becomes of it.

Some pictures from vacation

2010-07-13T20:27:00.001-07:00

My new place

2010-07-12T18:50:00.001-07:00

Exhibition Opening!

2010-04-20T21:58:00.001-07:00

You are welcome.
Saturday, May 1, Kings Bay Y (Nostrand Ave. btw Ave U and Ave V), 8:30pm

Rain

2010-04-05T07:28:00.000-07:00

Went to MoMA on Tuesday and spent 2 hours under the rain trying to get it. I don't recommend it. But I finally got in and saw a magnificent exhibition of William Kentridge. Resulting in this:

Kings Bay Y Logo

2010-04-01T13:46:00.000-07:00

I am (commissioned) to redesign the logo of Kings Bay Y, for whom I am doing the mural. So here are some variations on that.

Give Your Child the Best!

2010-03-31T09:39:00.000-07:00

I've seen an ad in a newspaper the other day while on the train. It advertised a summer camp by showing a girl with a lolly-pop. But the gaze on her face was just like the one Chronus had in Goya's painting. So I did this:

Logotime!

2010-03-25T17:43:00.000-07:00

What's your favorite?

I don't know, how much would you charge for a logo?

Sketch

2010-03-25T10:48:00.000-07:00

The Spanish bus across the GWB at night

An unsuccessful attempt to replicate an amature

2010-03-03T20:51:00.000-08:00

Started teaching teens art. At first I had three of them, it went ok. Then, towards the end of the session a fourth one came. I noticed she's not as familiar with paingitng as a regular teen would be. But then, I stopped looking at how she painted and started looking at what she painted.

I came home inspired. Tried to replicate the painting, and of course, failed. There's no such power in this one as in the original. Nevertheless, take a look:

A caterpillar for the for Michael Kutsche's Art Contest

2010-02-24T11:23:00.000-08:00

Last night noticed this curious Bobby Chiu thing on my blog. Why not try, right?

Valentine's Day 2010

2010-02-21T15:59:00.000-08:00

Nadia likes teapots, cups and such. She actually makes very cute drawings of then occasionally, so for Valentine's Day I took some of them and translated to canvas, experimenting a little.

Webpage demo

2010-02-19T13:34:00.001-08:00

And there's another unpaid! Relatives, what can you do?

Poster for concert

2010-02-19T13:29:00.000-08:00

Here's some of the payless kaka I've been messing around lately.

A poster for instance:

Kings Bay Y Mural

2010-01-12T07:23:00.001-08:00

That's the mural for the Jewish Community Center Kings Bay Y so far. As soon as the weather changes the works would resume.

The Birches (the wall)

2010-01-04T20:57:00.000-08:00

Bad photos, I know. But there it is!

Few sketches for Elizabeth's cute children's book

2009-12-07T11:53:00.000-08:00

It's called Pleaseeee Mommy

and it's about this boy, Alexander, who walks into a pet store one day

and there he sees different kinds of fish, birds, lizards

and dogs. And he falls in love with the puppies, so he wants to get one.

But his mom tells him it's a great responsibility, so Alexander wants to prove her he's responsible by doing dishes,

making his bed,

and doing his homework

By the end of the week of nagging, Alexander, of course, gets his dog.

The Whispering Tree was finally photographed

2009-12-04T21:51:00.000-08:00

Yes, taking picture of your artwork is important and difficult. But I found someone who would do both of them for a $100. And fyi: that's cheap.

Birches Mural

2009-11-29T17:10:00.000-08:00

Another mural!
(not huge this time. a bedroom wall)

Here's a sketch:

Painting of Haim and Julia

2009-11-19T09:03:00.000-08:00

Just started a caricature painting present for a couple I know.

Then, after realizing I skipped the middle tone stage, I put some darks on :

And that's the next step:

Then put some values, a bit color:

Painting the mural

2009-11-19T08:58:00.000-08:00

Some coloring:

Here are some beginnings:

And that's why I can't continue. I think the wall shrank in the rain, but I can't measure it. Notice that the promised cones are present.

The wall did shrink by 18 ft. so I had to change the composition a bit, but everything got in.
And that's most of the outlines:

The Whispering Tree

2009-11-09T09:55:00.000-08:00

Another project that came from Craigslist is a CD cover for a group called the Whispering Tree, who thought of something very specific, and I thank them for it.
I gave them an option of doing it in one painting

or in two paintings, that would cover the front the back and two sided booklet.

They went for two.

They wanted to see a variation of the front cover so I let them choose between

and

They went with the original.

I offered them the color sketches

And I went to Utrecht to buy canvases. To be continued...

Mural for Kings Bay Y

2009-11-09T08:10:00.000-08:00

I started working on two projects recently. One is a 130 feet long mural for a Kingsbay Y, Jewish Community Center I work in with kids, in Brooklyn. It is located on a parking lot on avenue U and Nostrand Avenue.

I started with a sketch:

The supervisors loved it and I went to the next step, coloring.At that point the sketch finally reached the highest authority where, as it should always be expected, met some difficulties and revisions followed.

Meanwhile I started working on the mural itself.

There's the grid:

and there are some drawings:

And here is the revised version. (Colored after it was already put on the wall and yet to be seen by the dubious authority).