Midterm Portfolio: The piece that didn't show up

So, for some reason this one didn't show up on the midterm blog. It was supposed to (I even mention it in the post). But, this was the 3rd line and color illustration. I felt I should include this one since it was an example of a fairly successful illustration that was done with the looseness that is supposed to be present in watercolor. I have the issue of being too tight with my watercolors and this was one of the times that I got the more free flowing effect while still keeping the form true to life.

Life and Death

Here is the final product of the marker comps I posted last week. I really like how they turned out. I did a mix of gouache and went over it with colored pencil. I have never been finished with an illustration this early before, and it looks 10x better than the one I spent every waking moment on for a week. I just don't know what to do with my night now. I could work on viscom... nah!

The One Grandma isn't Supposed to See

So, for the 5 project, I feel like I really doped the ball. I started of with the wrong medium and tried to correct it the night before the due date. I think that it is really doomed in any medium other than vector illustration (which we aren't allowed to use). Perfectly clean lines and little variation in color is the only way I see of making it a worthwhile composition. But, it's finished, and it doesn't look absolutely terrible, just not my best. I liked the concept though. Maybe one day I'll fix it the way I intended it to look.

Life and Death Marker Comps

I thought that I would post these up since I went to the trouble of mounting them, and, lets face it, 1 hour of sleep ain't happinin'. Anyway, I like my first concept the most. The idea was to have three people from two perspectives. One looking into a crib, the other, into a coffin. My only issue here was getting the viewer to read what they were looking into. Also, my limited marker selection makes Hannah and Margret look like they have jaundice and James looks like a racist syrup ad. But, I was really into that one. The other two were more backups. One was an obvious baby carriage and a hearse. The other was more comical, an new roll of toilet paper and an empty roll. The latter was the unanimous choice. So, I just need to recomp them so that they are on the same dispenser and have tile behind them. More from that later.

Midterm Portfolio: MY choice

Well dang. I already blew my best work and my favorite on the same post. I think I will have to go with the facebook portrait watercolor. I like that it actually looks like me, and that is hard to do, because I kinda look like every other brown haired white guy. But, I think it captures my personality, looks, and great tan. I went back to my using the white of the paper for highlights, which is a method I really like. And I like it enough that it is still my picture, so that makes it good in my book. Fun fact: class starts in 2 hours.

Midterm Portfolio: 1 Digital Color Illustration

This is a silly one. As hopefully you don't remember, I messed up the day we were supposed to do color digi illustrations, so I technically had none to choose from. So, I stayed up till... now... working on one. In choosing subject matter, I picked what any rational person at 2am would choose, Rambo! And I wanted to experiment again, so I did this squiggly line stipple thing but with the tablet. I am really happy with how it turned out. It was pretty difficult choosing the colors for each section (and took figgin forever) but it was totally worth it. I am really happy with it, and thus, happy I didn't do it correctly the first day, because then I would have slept tonight instead of making a fabulous portfolio piece.

Midterm Portfolio: 1 Digital Illustration

This is a weird one for me. I wasn't really sure which of these was the best, but I think that I will go with Jimi. I spent a lot of time on him, and I like the style that I used. It kinda shows motion... and Emotion! But seriously, I think that for never using a tablet before (except to make the chef, who will forever hold a spot on my fridge) this one turned out pretty well.

Midterm Portfolio: 1 Gouache Illustration

This one was a tough decision for me since I didn't have much to choose from, and I am terrible at controlling gouache in a way I want it to work, so I had to sub par works to choose from. I ended up going with the Triple Ds (Daleks, Dirigibles, and Doughnuts). I felt that this one just looked the most finished and showed at least that I was able to punch up the contrast (and paint a f***kin' doughnut!) But, when scanned in, I think the sky works much better and I do like how I simplified the dirigibles for depth. The detail on the Dalek was also more than I was expecting to be able to convey since I was struggling so much with the medium, but I think that, in the end, it turned out.

Midterm Portfolio: 2 Traditional Line and Color Illustrations

I am assuming that by color it means watercolor, so that's what I'm going with. For me, this one was kind of a no brainer. The belly dancer with fire hands and drips radiating off of her was by breakout piece and... is still kinda the best thing I have done so far. This work did everything that I should have been doing all along, but hadn't. I would say that this was one that I struggled with a lot since it started off having the background that was true to the photo, but I decided that that looked a little crap, and gave it some experimental drips, which greatly worked in my favor. The second choice would have to be Grace Kelly. Even if it wasn't the best thing I have done, it was by far my favorite (and in my opinion, way better than those dice that I threw together in literally 7 min). I put a lot of thought and time into putting it together, and I really like the non local color choice, a decision I made because at the time I just couldn't get white people skin with watercolor. But I think that I used the line in an interesting way that most people wouldn't have thought of (and you said stippling would take too long, so I made that a personal challenge!). Also, just for the lols, I'll post the photo of the belly dancer that the illustration was based off of (which I also took).

Midterm Portfolio: 2 Traditional Watercolors

With caffeine pill #1 consumed. It is time for the watercolor segment of our show! I'm gonna have to say my best two were the vogue esque woman in monochromatic blue and the old green Chevy. The woman I think was a good move for me away from a super tight control of pigment. I utilized both various strengths in pigment and the white of the page to show a pretty large range of shades. Also, I sold this one, so there is that. The car was chosen because of the varying pigment choices as well, however here, I used like 10 different greens and none were straight out of the tube. I think I handled the sky pretty well too. Also, the car is actually brown, so I am technically using non local color, even though it might not seem like it.

Midterm Portfolio: 3 Traditional line art Illustrations

Well... it is now... 4:15 am, so that means it is illustration bloggin' time!
For this first episode of Midterm portfolio, I am presenting a bonsai tree that looks pretty kickin' in a scanned in small scale, the stuffed voodoo doll that utilizes stroke direction to imply form, and a portrait of my friend that would have looked even better if not for the accidental Hitler stach shadow that I gave him. I felt that these were some great examples of my improvement from, at least, before taking this class. I also chose these since they are all traditional line art, but they are very different kinds of line art, showing versatility. Ending my personal plug... now.

With Text

Here is the Abe Lincoln poster with text.

Army of Confederacy

Well, I have found out three things during this one. It is hard to create the implied people that are kinda blurry in the back ground effect. Line art using gouache is not really my thing. I can't paint a mans chest without a photo. That being said, I think it turned out ok. You can tell that it is Abe Lincoln, and if I told you that the woman was Marry Todd Lincoln you would probably say "Ooooh!", and that was what I felt the most important. I'll add the text on it later and post that.

consciousness is a coffee induced illusion

So, its finished. It's not that I don't like gouache, I just think that our relationship is that of two bickering cousins. We are both stubborn, and refuse to let the other have their way, and we will keep fighting until someone tells us to stop... or sets a date for us to stop. Anyway, it looks better than it did, and it scans in well. I still like the daleks, dirigibles, and doughnuts idea. The doughnut looks more like a doughnut, and in the end doughnuts are really all that matters anyway. WOW its 3am?!