Final Portfolio. Part 2: Four Best Pieces.

So here it goes: final post. 

Of the 8 formal project, I like 5ish of them, so it really wasn't all to difficult to narrow that down to 4.

Surprisingly, I really did think my cheesy airbrush turned out good.

Even though this wasn't my first attempt at this, I feel like choosing a pretty simplistic design with some key shapes really helped, especially in the act of re-masking and such. And while airbrush really can be a bite, I can't deny that it is kind of fun. Ya never know, maybe if Vis Com doesn't work out, I could work at one of those t-shirt shops in Florida. Or doing airbrush tattoos at Six Flags.

I also was really digging my album cover art. I did it in a much larger scale and brought it down, which helped it a lot for sure, along with that fact that this turned out to be a pretty clean, there are some cool painterly things that are happening, and gouache pick-out being a little more forgiving also make this one pretty cute, in my opinion.

This car turned out really well. With a little help from the luci, I got a good base, and then with all the time I put into it, I really, really like how this one turned out. I think transfers well, too. Overall, gouache really started to work in my favor.

So, yeah, 3 of my 4 best products were from this last assignment. I think that just goes to show how I've improved over the course of the semester. I love seeing improvement, especially within myself, and this class is a testament to just that.

Yep, this was my other favorite. This was a fun one for me, and with that, I think it is a good little illustration of this box. I, obviously, was really digging the gouache pick-out technique. For basically all of these illustrations.

So that's that. The semester is over, as is this chapter of my blog. 

Peace. Love. Illustration.

And, yeah, I really did just do that.

Final Portfolio. Part 1: Exercises

And here it is: the culmination of the entire semester coming down to this blog post.
I'm going to start this out with some of the exercises we did. Hopefully in order.

As I'm sure you remember, line art. I really liked doing these.  I felt like I got a style sort of going when doing these and can definitely see how this would be beneficial later on in life. 

Yep, same sort of thing again. Taking a photograph and throwing some line art around is pretty cool. And you can definitely choose the focus, unlike with live trace. This does com up with some cool result.

And then there's the whole "doing this in photoshop" way. When I was doing this at first, it sorta sucked. The only this I really liked better about this than being able to vary the line weight but more so being able to erase when I messed something up. It also made the whole tracing thing easier, but getting a straight line with the mouse (or the tablet for that matter). 

[And the reason this looks so weird is because I lost the original file when my flash drive corrupted and I had to scan in what I printed, which wasn't great resolution because of all the crap I had to go through to print it]

Line art and wash. Wash and line art. This was a pattern that continued for a while. In this case, the line art was laid down first, and the wash afterwards. This is still a little tight, but I was really starting to loosen up my watercolor at this point. I like some of the cool things the wash did.

This was also done with line art first and wash second. I, again, like how the paint is doing it's own thing in some places. It looks kind of neat, I do believe.

Wash wash wash wash. This is just that. I don't necessarily want to say this was around when I got my "aha" moment, just because this still isn't that that great, but this was a point that I started to realize that the colors you use within the painting can transfer well despite them not actually being in the piece. There were actually a lot of little tricks like that I learned just from looking around at peoples' work. In this one, you can see a little blue being worked into the black section. I think that worked pretty well.

This is when I started experimenting more with painted and implied line, in way of the chips and such. And in the bigger copy you can see more of the exciting colors within the chips, seeing the shadows and such. And that salsa... looking good.

Oh, fish. This was a pretty controlled water color, just in the fact their couldn't be all that much color mixing; I didn't want there to be all this muddy color. But with pulling out a little of the orange and letting the blue in the background... that's what this one is all about.

This one was fun. This little watercolor exercise didn't require too much precision or anything... who really knows what sushi looks like anyways? What I really like about it, though, is the cool little painterly situations within the plate and seaweed of the sushi.

And, airbrush. Second fruit, I really feel like this turned out pretty well. Airbrush is obviously not the most forgiving or simple medium, but i think this still went over okay. In all, though, bananas are pretty simple. And airbrush can be kind of fun.

And finally: the marker comp.

This was the comp I did for my album cover. I obviously changed the initial idea, but all the same, a little thing like this is very helpful in the grand scene of things. In the beginning, such comps did really annoy me, but then I started to realize that they are very beneficial to the end result. I plan on sketching my way through the process in the future.

Whoops

It's been a while since I've blogged, probably because all the stuff I'm working on right now is too large to easily scan, and it's not to a finished point yet, but they'll all get there.

So, I guess I'll just throw down a little of what's going on within these projects.

My album cover is going pretty well, it's an illustration of a compass. I've been applying and scrubbing quite a bit though, because whenever I try to put some of the detail in, it looks sort of childishly done. I'm pretty sure I'm going to try to do the rest of the detail in photoshop.

Then there's my Great Gatsby cover illustration. It's going pretty well. With a little more highlighting and line work, I think the car will be pretty much set. I'm contemplating a background. I may do a solid black; I also got a suggestion to try something art deco-y, but personally, I'm thinking I might do a really subtle skyscape (I really don't want this one to get too busy). All the same, I'll probably do it separately and combine it in photoshop, mainly out fear.

As for the cheesy airbrush, I've done my cheeseburger twice. The first one, I learned a lot about what's going on with airbrush and such, but it's really hard. Everything could be going just fine, and then the littlest bit of a pressure change can ruin the entire piece. I think the second one turned out pretty well, but all the same, I'm not totally satisfied. Again, I may try to do a little work in photoshop, but I don't want to ruin the smooth effect that airbrush creates. We shall see.

And then I read the specks for the final portfolio. I have no idea what I'm going to choose for any of that business... I have a feeling I may be redoing quite a bit this week.

Here it goes.

Airbrush....

Needless to say, airbrush sucks. Really, I hate it. But rather than sit here just complaining, I guess I'll go into detail and such based on this little planet.

This went so many directions during it's execution. I tried a different planet first, one with rings, but that wasn't working out, at all really. Think this amount of execution, and then make it worse. Really, bad news. So then I tried a simpler planet...  I already had some orange in the airbrush, so Mars was the answer.

But as you can see, the mask was a litle dirty, then I got a little excited with the saturation, and then I put the mask over my planet a little too soon, causing the frisket to rip out some of the color and leave a little residue and with all of that, I would get giong doing something and them hit the airbrush to hard, making everything I attempted to seem impossible. Ahh--this was really frustrating.

So I moved on to my fruit. Again, my first attempt wasn't so great... I tried a pineapple. I not only wasted a ton of yellow dye, but I also go overly and unduely frustrated with the idea of airbrushing once again. I couldn't get my mask to make the little triangles I wanted, or create the leaves in a normal fashion, so, again, I moved on.

This time to a banana.

Challenges to this aside, it turned out much better than I originally expected. Originally I was going to make it a green banana, but I hada couple issues with pressure, and then it turned into a ripe banana, as I got a little carried away with some of the shadows, and just my poor execution in general, and was trying to cover up my mistakes with the brown. Next time I'd add in more darker shades, expectially to areas like the stem and would emphasize more of the plains of the banana.

Needless to say, with all the hardships airbrush has already caused me, I am in no way mentally or physically prepared for this cheesy airbrush, so it looks like I am def going to be starting this project over a couple times. it will surely be an interesting adventure.

Compin' It Up

Doing some comps for all sorts of projects coming up.
First off: the CD cover

I played with several different ideas for this one, playing with a lot of different titles, and in the end, I think I overthought the situation a little bit. In the end, I'm planning on make this wonky--like not completely straight--to add a little interest, and despite the album name being "Magnetic North" there's also a possibility the compass won't actually go straight. with that, I think the background is either going to be a solid dark blue, or a map. Comping will continue.

And now to my cheesy comp.

I was having a tough time coming up with an idea for this one, so I do as all great creative minds do: a google image search. Typing "cheesy" into the search bar, doesn't actually yield all that amazing results... really, nothing was really cheesy. If you try it for yourself, you'll be a little dissapointed, I was. It wasn't until the 5th page I came across a cheeseburger, and there it goes.

I still can't help to think about a cuddly panda, but a little cartoonized panda I don't feel is as literally or even figuratively cheesy, so will probably end up sticking to this hanburger. Yeah, I feel it'd work out well.

And the book cover.

 I'm still not sold on this, really at all. I'm def going to recomp... probably focus more on the car... maybe go black and white for all except the yellow car?  We'll see. Expect that TBA

Whoops, It's been too long. But hey, 3 Image Gouache Montage

Wow, it's been a while. Whoops, I guess I've really just been absorbed in this gouache montage situation. All and all, this one was quite the challenge. Ok, so the main challenge was that pig. I was having a super hard time getting the different tones and everything right. But looking at a pig I painted in the beginning (actually looking at anything I painted in the beginning...) this looks so so much better. I still can't say my illustration is a strong point in design for me, but all the same, I can say I'm more on top of it than I was previously.

Product Illustration

With this project, I can't say that I didn't enjoy doing it. I found this project, overall, to be pretty enjoyable. I rather liked the idea of it; it seemed very practical. And with that, I feel like I'm getting better at this whole gouache situation. Slowly but surely, it's starting to go.

Gouche Pickout

I still don't know if I'm spelling gouche right... anyways.
This technique is a little tricky, and with the first one, I just gave up--there was too much going on , and not nearly enough of it working.

Though, with the pumpkin, while it still looks overworked, the addition of the bits of red adn yellow,as well as green into the piece really contributed to the finished product. I think there is a definite improvement here.

The Good, The Bad, and [by being bad] The Ugly

This assignment proved to be much more difficult than I expected. As I already knew, I had a lot of bad paintings to from. If it's not already obvious, watercolor is a little rough for me. Going through, I ran into oh so many choices to blog, and I couldn't choose just one to exemplify my evolution as an illustrator. Even though I can't say I've had that "ah-ha" moment I've been waiting for and anticipating, I've had slightly less dramatic "Oh, okay," type moments.

So, here it begins: 

Believe it or not, that's a cloudscape. I was experimenting with the idea of using white paint, which I now realize doesn't really do it. The tint of my white is yellow-ish, and against blue looks really awkward. At this point, I also had this huge fear of over saturation, because I don't like when everything runs together and gets crazy and muddy, whereas I'm coming to realize that the interactions between colors is the beauty of watercolor. Obviously, this isn't translating at all, and I am going so far to say as this is because of fear.

Here's another one where I used not nearly enough water, and I was a little tight. I think that tended to happen when I got a little thick with the line art, because I felt like I had to stay inside the lines, which in the end doesn't look that great, especially with my skills as an illustrator being where they are. And, again, I had this thing about the white paint... thank goodness I have the ability to whip out a gouche pick-out now.

Final "bad" one: where to begin? Aside from the if-y composition,  my cloud looks like a cotton ball. I was still figuring out that clouds really don't have dark outlines... and with that, I continued to ignore the fact that interactions are actually a good thing-- all of my colors are so starkly separate and contrasting... dislike. And, again, I'm not using close to enough water. It's such a control thing, I know, but all the same, it looks ridiculous. I was so afraid of interactions on the bottom, I didn't even allow the gray of the pavement to touch the brown of the much of the lines of the building. All of this is just bad news bears.

So now that that's out of the way, I'll shift into the good ones. These were even more challenging to choose from, but for the opposite reason of the bad ones. I had some that I think turned out pretty good, but they all have parts that aren't quite perfect, so, again, I went with three, so I could emphasize some of the good that has come out of all this watercolor practice.

I'm actually a pretty big fan of this rooster. I really like some of the interactions one the red face: this is when I discovered the way to layer watercolor in a way to create more value. I'm also really liking some of the interactions on the tail: this is the first time I used differing colors to get an affect (as seem in the blue I threw in there) and it really went well, I think. It added a really cool dimension.

I'm contemplating whether or not to mention what I dislike, since I know these are supposed to be the good part, but I will... it's not like it won't be recognized anyways.

To improve this, I would mainly change the background. I really like what the green is doing, but I wish I would've allowed it to interact with the rooster a little more. I also think the hay looks a little overworked.

I also really am liking how the fish turned out. I think some of the interactions between the orange and the black are really neat, and the sheen of the fish is really cool. I also allowed a little more interaction between the fish and the background, and that is very beneficial.

However, the brown is bland, and the background may be a tad overworked. In the end, though, I still can't deny that I really am liking this piece.

Finally, the sushi. I was surprised when this turned out, to be honest. I was trying to use a lot more water than I usually do, because I know a lot of my paintings come out far too tight. I love the interactions between the different saturations of color on the plate, it adds a really interesting aspect, while at the same time, I like the dripping in the shadow and the other cool water coloring actions. I only desire that I showed depth a little better with this one.

But I do love that I'm starting to understand what you are doing when you let the water color do its own thing, because it really can create some fun and painterly things that look really cool and artist like in illustrations. 

This practice is definetly paying off. I can't wait until this get to the point where I can actually create something that I think is worthy of professional use.

Red Barn

Alright, Red Barn Festival craft festival brochure: after the initial comps, I thought I knew where I was going with this. The front I didn't change much--a change of font with the banner, brighter sky, a few brighter jackets and tables and what not, just to make it look like an event you actually wanted to go to. Looking at it scanned it, I should've made the windows on the building lighter... they're pulling in a lot of attention.

With the inside, I was pretty determined that I was going to do this old man with his furniture--I was totally amused by him at the festival and though it'd be a nice, interesting touch to the inside, but people are hard. His face kept not working right, it looks just blah, so I switched it to the glass pieces, and I think they look pretty cool. Keeping in mind the more vibrant front colors, I think it's working out well. Adding the glass in the opposite corner to even everything out really helped.

Next post: the midterm. Get ready.

MURAL

This is the mural I've been dreading designing for quite a while. I don't know how to express how difficult coming up with a non-clique idea for this. It was near impossible.

With that, I went with a food design. I tried to work in a few elements for diversity (globe food, flag napkin) and then campus (through the clock tower salt and pepper shakers), and people eating is of course community. Bam.

I know it's a stretch, but after thinking about this for so long, I was so thrilled to have any idea, this one was gold for me.

At least it's not multi-colored kids holding hands around a globe, right?

Red Barn

So, a few little sketches turned into a comp.

With the front cover, I need to figure out some of the composition a little bit more, because the more I look at it, the more awkward it gets. I'm thinking a few more tents or trees will fix the space quite well, and I plan on getting the sky to be happier, because this painting makes it look kind of glum.

And for the inside, I couldn't decide between the furniture guy and the glass pieces, so rather than decide I just did both. The furniture guy fits with the front better, especially with the color scheme I have going on, so I think I'm going to cut the glass pieces... you couldn't really tell what they were anyways.

And, now, time to design a cheesy mural. Yay!

And, Still, More Watercolors!

Aside from the annoying mural sketch that seems to continue to haunt me, we,  of course, have more and more watercolors we we continue to do. I can't complain too much, because I don't really mind doing them, per say, they're just time consuming. I do like to see how I actually am improving.

In the future, I plan on taking Rusty's advice and warming up, because my later water color's always seem to be much better then my first. For example, last night's work.

First, I painted the almond jar:

And then, after I was warmed up a little from it I went on to do this sushi:

See the difference? While still not fantastic, it is better. Just imagine what could happen...

More Watercolor?!

So, of course, the watercoloring continues. All over the place. I do think I'm getting it more and more as I go. I've moved from kindergarden skill level up to, maybe, a junior high schooler. I'm going to attribute this is practice, but I also think it has a little to do with switching from my incredibly old and cheap watercolors (literally 4 of the colors were dried out, including white, which made mixing up some colors sort of a challenge... and both of my greens) to some new, decent quality gouche. I'm starting to like gouche a lot more than watercolor, even if they are barely different.

All the same, rocks and water are freakin' hard. Really. I was making up for the fact that I only did 1 watercolor for Monday by doing three for today, including a landscape, which I've really been avoiding. And I happened to choose CLIFFS over the OCEAN. Rocks and water.... hey, I tried.

So then I transitioned back to things. I've been so craving Mexican, but don't want to spend the money on food, so that leaves me to just continue wanting it. Hence, me painting it. Weird. Background overwhelms it. Not a fan

And finally, I went for this fish. It had some neat sheen on it, so I though, hey, why  not work on a little highlighting here and there. I definitely overworked some of the inside a little big, but all the same, it's my favorite one of the set. I do sort of wish I would've thrown a little line art-scale action in there just for kicks, but hey, whatcha gonna do.

More Watercolors

And so we continue water coloring up a storm. The couple of bigger ones will be up as soon as I get them to a scanner, but for now an 8 x 10 to keep this blog more up to date.
I tried out gouche for this one. I can't say it was much different feeling for me, but I do like the overall result better, so I'm thinking I may stick to gouche for a little bit.

More to come

New Poster

So, I decided to redo my poster. I loosened it up a bit, and the line art I added in, while it adds structure, also has a much looser feel to it. I'm still not totally sure about my font, the placement and such, but it is definitely looks better than it did before. Redo rather successful, if I can say so myself

Poster

So, I was in the lab in the library working on this, and then I realized that I forgot my flash drive. So, I decided I'd post it in proof that I'd actually done something. Here she is.

Redo Self Portrait/Poster Design

So I began with redoing my self portrait, and I'm glad I did. You can see the new version serving as my profile picture here. It definitely turned out better the second time around, and slowly  but surely I'm starting to understand some fun little things watercolor can do.

Now for the poster design:

This would be for the International Film festival, though it isn't quite portraying the look I want, as Rusty said it looks like a "rotten orange with funny colors" and we don't want that, do we. We'll see

Self-Portrait

Take one: I definitely continue to struggle with being super loose with the coloring, and using colors that I don't see for different shades and values throughout the piece.
First try, I for real need to vary the color more, so we'll try this again.

Digital?!

Seems to me like this class is full of completely new things for me.  And now, another new concept for me, constructing what we've been doing with line and water color on the computer. I'll spare a bunch of cheezy antidotes because I know the class will inevitably read this in their search for my computer work, so here it is:

And I struggled... couldn't quite figure out the background situation. This one was line art, then me coloring it in.

As was this one:

And now to try pigment, then line... take one:

In trying it again...:

And one to round it all off:

The computer definitely lends itself to creating a whole other look or style, though I find something to be desired... I probably just need to figure out how to use the program better.