Last assignment for my fashion class. This one was given by the amazing Frank Stockton. He brought in a bag full of fortune cookies to class, and as we were all munching them down, he told us that our next assignment would be to make an illustration dealing with the fortunes we got. Mine was literally "you will be blessed with long life." Kinda cool, but kinda dry compared to some fortunes I've gotten in the past. So I sorta just went crazy with it. It's meant to be like a family portrait style image in which the concept revolves around the accumulation of family members as the generations progress.
This one still needs a lot of work. When I have some time, I'll be changing around the composition as well as some of the stylizations of the smaller figures, trying to get a good balance between the rendered and graphic areas.
You may have already seen these on my site recently, but I thought I'd post them here anyway. These were small watercolors done for Fashion illustration. The assignment was to redesign the three face cards (King, Queen, and Jack) however you wanted. I chose to have them as bums. Really tried to push the attitude and props of each individual character. These were super fun to do.
This week, for our fashion illustration class, Sam Weber wanted us to illustrate a poster for a Shakespeare play of our choosing. I picked A Midsummer Night's Dream because of the interesting imagery throughout the play. This started out as an acrylic and pastel painting on Rives BFK, and I took it into photoshop to finish it off. Original size is 16 x 24".
This is a watercolor piece I did for my thesis class. I'm illustrating short stories and folk lore from around the world. This one is an Icelandic tale about changelings. Click on the picture for a larger version.
This one is a work in progress. It's a Russian tale called The Water Snake. Click on the picture for a larger version.
Man, this thing hasn't been updated in ages. Sorry about that. To get the ball rolling again, I thought I'd start with something simple. Here are a few life drawings from my sketch book.
sorry for the lack of updates guys. I've been crazy busy this summer. I wont bore you with all the details, but believe me, some weeks have felt like finals all over again. This is something I did recently for a group i'm submitting to called Ektokids, started by a bunch of illustration majors at MICA. The theme for our first go was WESTERN.
click for larger image!
also, I've made a new banner if you'd like to link to me. I'm getting awfully tired of the old ones, so, if you like, you can download this new one for your links page, or replace the old ones (if you care). Maybe I should just make a whole bunch of new banners from new work. maybe some time soon.
Decided to go a different route for this one. I wanted this one to be more graphic, and playful. Slightly less obvious as the last one, but hopefully you still get something from it, however you interpret it.
This is for junior thesis. I'm doing digital stuff for that class now, out of frustration. It should be self explanatory, as my teacher has been trying to get me to do illustrations that convey their point to the reader/viewer within 15 seconds. People are impatient, he says. I do agree with him, my work can get a little too cryptic sometimes, and it may not always work in the 'illustration' field.
Let me know what you guys think, and if you have any critiques, please have at it. I have to print this out tomorrow, since I have this class Tuesday morning, and I wont be able to use the print lab until after class starts.
Here's a detail. I'm trying to keep it loose/expressive. Although I've probably over-rendered already.
It's not the finished version, but I like it better than the finished version. This was for Mikita Brottman's new book that we illustrated in our thesis class. Sort of a side project, but I like it much better than anything else I've done in that class, hahahah.......heh... Tried inking with a brush this time.
Also, I updated my site a bit. Mostly with stuff that you'd already seen from this livejournal, but an update nonetheless. I also added a link to the thumbtack press store I set up a while ago. Finally got some sales recently, so i thought I'd try and get more by actually putting it ON my site, as I have been too lazy before.
I had forgotten how fun it was to make thumbnails of work.
So, I've been on youtube a lot lately, and found a bunch of video caps of people time lapse painting in photoshop, and wanted to try my hand at it. This is from that sketch I posted a while back. Lemme know what you guys think!
Edit: This morning I dropped off my mentally damaged computer at computer renaissance to be wiped clean and fresh like the day I got her. Had to dish out $89 for the service though, ah well, that money's also going into the 'prevent jeremy from going murderously insane from trying to fix his dying computer' fund. So in about three days time, I'll have a brand new computer, which means I'll be able to use my new wacom!! I know, you're all so very excited, but believe me, I'm way more excited about this than you are. No more borrowing shitty neglected laptops from my dad and sister.
So, today I did a self portrait in my sketchbook. I enjoy ruining fine artsy stuff with creapy pointless scary shit like this. If I decide to grow up later, I might fill in the eyes. But for now, this is making me happy.
Also, my wacom came in the mail today. It's a 6x8 Intuos 3. It's beautiful, but I can't use it cuz my desktop computer which is the only half decent computer in the house and has photoshop on it, has been messed up for months now, and I dont know how to fix it. I've looked online all over the place for help on how to fix it, but it's all jibberish to me. All the while I thought of myself as being fairly computer savy until now. It's so frustrating to even try that I dont even wanna sit in front of it. I have everything backed up on a hard drive, so I'm trying to wipe the whole thing clean....files, viruses, applications, and ALL. Anyone have any tips they could give me (in kindergarten vocabulary if possible)?
This was a commissioned piece. The guy basically wanted a watercolor pinup of this character. He basically left me alone to do what I wanted with the piece, very little intervention, which was really cool. Sorry about the crappy photo quality. I'll try and get better quality ones tomorrow.
This is as finished as I'll go with this one. I think I'm happy with it.
Just did this one. Definitely made it up as I went along. Haven't drawn androids in a while heheh. Also, this is definitely Bjork/Cunningham inspired, although that might be obvious already.
I desperately hope I keep sketching at this rate for the rest of the break. If not, I may have to kill something.
Ok so classes are over. I can breathe now. Until last night, I had not drawn anything, or even touched a paper and pencil since class ended. That's usually the case with all breaks though, and it drives me insane! I already felt myself getting grumpy and depressed because I knew I wasnt being productive. So last night I bust out the sketchbooks and drawing implements as well as erasers of all kinds!
This is just a boring self portrait I did with two mirrors. Never done that before actually, and I'm kinda excited at the idea of being able to draw myself from any angle.
This is a cute little monster that's unfinished. I guess you can say it's kinda christmasy. My mark making is really suffering from lack of drawing. I felt it start to come back towards the end of this sketch. It's weird how fast that comfort and ease comes and goes.
Anyway, after drawing for a little bit, I felt my sanity come back to me. I shouldn't have to force myself to draw, it should just come naturally to me as something to do when i'm bored, but for some reason, it's usually the last thing I think to do. I want to be PROLIFIC this winter!
