Self Portrait

Here's something I started last year for introduction to watercolor in my illustration class. We only had a class period and week to finish it for homework (I didn't really finish to my liking.)

So I finished it in the summer.

I'd say caricature is definitely not my comfort zone. Looking back, I probably could've tweaked the features I exaggerated.


Anyway, what I do like about it is it counters a lot of the serious, moody, and downright emo self-portraits I've seen done by a LOT of people. I want to show my enthusiasm for stuff, like right in the middle of my commonly exclaimed phrase... "THAT'S AWESOME!"

8.5" x 11", watercolor, color correction in Photoshop. Didn't record how long it took.

A Tutorial of sorts

here's a landscape speedpaint I worked on a bit yesterday and the day before. It's inspired by the colors of Thomas Cole, one of the Hudson River School painters of American landscapes. (By inspired, I just mean looked at-- I didn't colorpick.) I also based it loosely on one of his paintings.

Still not done yet, but thought I'd post my progress in tutorial form. Hope you find it useful.

Anyway, composition still bothers me... I think it's a bit too choppy with too many similarly-sized shapes breaking up the space... Live and learn I guess.

Pro job: Provantage buyer's guide cover

Here's a cover I illustrated for the Provantage Corporation, who sell all kinds of computer products (hardware, software, lots of accessories like cables, external data storage, etc...) to businesses and personal consumers.

The catalog is sent out bi-monthly to about 250,000 subscribers across the US.

This was an enjoyable job, especially because I got a lot of creative freedom (and also some good advice) from the art director.  I hear it's hard to get a lot of wiggle room and decision power in the more "commercial" jobs like advertising illustration.  He's the one who did the text and layout of this cover, so I can't take credit about that.

The prompt was initially about autumn, but it was then changed to "prepare for Windows 7" because the debut of the new OS will fall inside the September/October period, so they thought it would be good to acknowledge that and make it the theme.

My initial ideas for this had included a N. C. Wyeth-esque illustration of a sailor dressed up as a businessman looking out on a distant island with a spyglass.  I could then put the "7" in the sky or something, or it would be integrated into the landscape of the island, perhaps a 7-shaped mountain... I was also thinking of adapting my "circuit-city" illustrationto include a 7-sunrise.

An issue arising as a result of dealing with the sun was to make sure this looked like a sunrise (beginning) and NOT a sunset.  What separates sunrises from sunsets?  Recalling graphic design, I realized that any "morning" products predominantly use graphic rays in their logos and such.  Those "sunburst" lines seemed to be the primary thing separating the two, so I went with it.

As for color and overall look, the art director wanted it to be punchy.  We needed to grab people's eyes when they opened their mailboxes.  I initially wanted to go for a romanticized and realistically-rendered illustration, but thought that this graphic style would be better suited to the overall vibe of this image, trying to punch up the "heroic".    

Oh, and I also did a website banner, as part of the 2-month theme.  It won't be out until the buyer's guide ships, which will be in a couple of weeks.  Mark hasn't added the text yet.

Anyway, it was a good experience.  Hopefully I'll be able to work for them in the future.

The Second Revival

Wow... last update was March 9th?

I realized that when googling my name, this blog kept showing up at top, and I doubt the presence of a failed sketch-a-day challenge consisting of a few crappy sketches that are several months old is a good first impression!

My excuse this time is that the longer one waits, the more awkward it feels to break the ice with a new post.  A self-feeding cycle at it's best!

I haven't been absent from blogger though.  I've posted many of the things I did this summer on a group of CCAD illustration students called "Oondu".  (www.oondu.blogspot.com).

I've also recently started a "sketchbook" at Conceptart.org.  Here's the thread:  http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=166239

I figure I have no excuse not to update my blog if I'm already updating my sketchbook.  After all, 90% of the work is scanning and resizing images, right?

Sketch-a-day Challenge: #'s 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, & 12

Ok, so I'm still trying to do a sketch a day but it took me a week to actually post them all.  While I know daily updates are preferable, it can be a pain to warm up the scanner and get the little sketch in and adjusted, which doesn't feel worth it sometimes.

So like I said, I'll try to update more frequently than I just did but it may not literally be "daily".

Ok, here goes:

Something from Art Explorer Post-- did this awhile ago, but tweaked it.

On Saturady: New costume-- Roman!  We had really limited time for each pose.  I'd estimate no more than 5 minutes, maybe less.  Felt like that anyway.

Another one-- trying to get faster at rendering with pen.

Trying to practice anatomy.  I love the "industrial design" approach, i. e. breaking it down into geometrical shapes.  How much I remember from doing these studies is questionable though.  I try drawing these things by memory after I've copied a diagram, but I feel like I've already forgotten most of what I "learned".  So frustrating!

This is one of the variations of an idea I had awhile back for a kind of device worn as a "boot" that is a kind of active "smart stilt" resembling an insect that allows a user to navigate very difficult terrains such as piles of small boulders, building rubble, or even dense forests.  I resurrected the idea when working on the cave exploration thing, because these types of boots could also be great for wading through water.  The basic idea is that the individual "feet" on the 6 legs per boot latch onto a surface within a 280 degree angle-ish cone.  If the surface is several feet below (like a crevice) or above (like a peak) the legs bend in two different ways (active at joint, passive at lower ligament) to compensate for the height difference, allowing the user to "walk" more quickly and easily instead of climbing.  It, of course, would still be impractical, so it would probably be considered an outdoor sport in the sphere of mountain biking and skiing.

(No, those are not her real eyes/mouth!  They are projections.  I'm not that bad at anatomy!)  Anyways, this probably violates a bunch of fashion design rules, but I wanted to go for something really out there.  It's an outfit, presumably for nobility, in a culture that values complete and utter expression of everyone's absolutely true and unconcealed emotions.  The whole outfit can be likened to a mood ring on steroids.  The "eyes" are a projection within the visor (think CRT monitor) that reflect what the wearer's emotions *should* be in real time, based on sensors in the brain.  The shoulders are made of a fabric intwined with little lights, making it sort of a flexible screen that shows various colored waves that people in this culture are trained to be able to read, to tell if the wearer is agitated, calm, anxious, happy, etc...  The individual enclosed leg dresses (a split dress or double-legged pants?) interpret the data displayed in waves in the shoulders, and turn it into a fashionable display similar to music visualization softoware in iTunes and Windows Media Player, etc...  Only it's brain waves instead of sound ones.

So conversing with this person would mean seeing everything she's thinking, her awakeness level, her emotion, perhaps even whether she's lying.  Large, simplified, projected eyes, eyebrows, and mouth tell you what her expression would be in an exaggerated way (I think of those Japanese robots with "personality".   But before you think you have the upper hand in this conversation, imagine if you were rigged up like this as well!  How would conversing be different?

How does the angle look?  I was trying to do a "top and looking down" type of view, which is why the legs look a little short, but something still looks wonky to me...

I've decided to try to improve my digital painting skills, specifically the speed aspect.  Of course, I forgot to record how long this took... -_-  But it's pretty low res, wasn't too long.  I used a reference photo of a cave (lit for tourists, I presume) somewhere in the Netherlands.  I also tried mimicking the color closely.  Yeah, I know, they really were that bright!

Sketch-a-day Challenge: Day 6

This is  "steampunk" pen design for a stationary type set we're designing for my illustration methods class.  The little gear in the clear part sticks out of half the pen shaft slightly, allowing the writer to retract the ball-point pen nib into the pen.  The ball-point part hides underneath the pseudo-ink dip tip, which is actually made out of a dulled rubbery plastic to keep it from poking holes in backpacks (or people!).  The end part is actually an electric vibrating eraser that's designed to erase pen (I've heard of these-- supposedly they're pretty nifty!).

I also have some sketches for a steampunk backpack, binder, notebook, planner, and other stuff but I did them traditionally and don't feel like scanning 'em in.

Anyway... probably should wean myself away from posting school assignment sketches and WIPs, as the point of creating this blog was to encourage myself to grow with personal stuff... :-\  

Sketch-a-day Challenge: Day 5

Hi,

Here's a WIP of an illustration I did (am doing?) for my illustration methods class.  It was way too choppy when I brought it in last week, so I'm trying to deepen the colors and unify the different objects so that it doesn't look like teeny chopped-up separated little shapes.

It features researchers exploring a cave with geothermal springs and strange plant life that undergoes chemosynthesis instead of photosynthesis.  I'll probably explain more about what's going on in it when I'm done.

Bad quality pic by the way-- my scanner's not working so I had to take a digital photo.

:-(