Sunday, December 30, 2012

Winter Break

Finally on break. Time to work on portfolio and more. Look forward!

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Oh wow! We're already into December. Time flies quickly, especially this semester it seems. So I'll talk a little about what's been going on over on this end, what my upcoming plans/projects are, and more while uploading a massive load of artwork. Hopefully I can get better time to properly organize this, but for now I want to get it out there.

What's happened:
I got into the 1st Annual Fall Show, which is awesome! It's my first time ever getting a piece in any showing, so I am very excited. Also have been working on small side commissions, learning what/what not to do, and hoping to take a class more focused on that in the near future because I am in dire need of assistance.

Upcoming Plans/Projects: 
There's actually a lot of concept art I've been working on the side, but haven't properly completed yet; all of which is specifically geared towards sea life for some strange reason. I decided to make things fun by incorporating these with the classic tale: The Little Mermaid. Everything from character and creature designs, environment designs, etc. will be investigated, created, and hopefully completed. Dream goal is possible publishing? Haven't thought too far on that yet. So not now, but later when the break starts (which is around the 23rd of December), keep an eye out.

Now?
Back to work on finals. Enjoy the work below, and hopefully I will get time to post my sketches and completed work in higher/cleaner resolution once the break starts. I brought a massive suitcase just to pack it all with art, so look forward!

Relationship between a Rabid Raccoon and a Robotic Rabbit
Task was to do a children's book alphabetical illustration in watercolors (believe the size is 18"x20), so I chose the letter R. How many "R"s can you find?
This got into the Academy of Art Fall 2012 Show; my very first show! Unfortunately my computer is being screwy so the colors are beyond neon vibrant right now (they are not naturally that extreme - I apologize for the inconvenience), so best quality to view them at would be in person. You can do that this Thursday (Dec. 6) at 6:30PM at 540 Powell in the Bradley Hall Studio on the 3rd floor.
 
Animal study in watercolor on 9"x12" Arches hot press watercolor block: specially a magpie. Photo was used as reference. 
Character design based off the animal study before: a magpie plague doctor. I'll have to try and take a better photo of this later. Also done in watercolor on 9"x12" Arches hot press watercolor block.
Been doing little studies of hummingbirds as a surprise gift for my grandmother. Since my class focuses mainly on watercolors, I decided to give it a shot. Each took about 1-3 minutes to paint (originals are on test watercolor paper strips, so averaging about 2" in size), and the backgrounds were done in Adobe Photoshop.
Co-worker asked for a commission of his kid, and I've never done kid portraits so I told him I would do a testy run before fully committing. Last thing I wanted was for his kid to end up looking like a little old man (which I hear is very easy to do). 15 minute study using 5"x3" scrap paper and a ballpoint pen I randomly found; photo was on his iPhone.
As you probably guessed, he liked the pen before and commissioned me. Done in graphite and charcoal of 10.75"x18" charcoal paper. Originally intended to do this entirely in graphite, but I wasn't getting as dark as hoped. Life lesson: doing anything over graphite is torturous and I should really not do that again (or at least with charcoals involved).
I just rediscovered this - these are the door tags I made for my residents at the beginning of the semester. My hallway is Pokemon themed (strictly the original 150), and I hand painted them all in watercolor. Really, it was for fun plus prepping for my illustration 2 class that focuses on watercolor painting. Gotta stay ahead of the competition!!
Also just rediscovered this. My resident director asked for the resident assistants (RA) to remake the dorm check-in sign, and the other RAs would actually check people in. Paint or work? Paint ftw. :)