Final Portfolio: Illustration Class

It’s that time of year again. My nails are gone, the fridge is stocked with caffeine, and my social life is nonexistant. It must be FINALS TIME! WOO! Oh, and the holidays are coming soon, so that’s exciting. Anyway, here’s my portfolio:

1. Lincoln Competition

Reflection: I had to include Lincoln  in my final because it was my first illustration that I was really proud of. I ended up retouching it, though. This gouache was when I finally started to get the hang of things. The important things I learned about gouache in this this illustration were: 1. Instead of trying to blend colors for a gradual tone change, it’s easiest to wait til a color dries and paint a similar color next to it (like I did in the pant leg shadows) 2. Don’t be afraid to add interesting (but perhaps not relative) designs in the background 3. Be clever! Don’t do generic illustrations, no one likes them. Anyway, besides learning things, I maintained my figure drawing skills from Drawing 2. The proportions are correct and the facial features are realistic. Go ‘merica!

2. Life and Death

 

Reflection: It’s a good thing marker comps aren’t turned in for final grades, because my marker comp for this wasn’t too great. But I’m proud of the printout! This was done with watercolor, and then I photoshopped the heck out of it. I think because it’s so simple, I was able to focus on all the details (aka the slight color shift of the broken edges, the shadows, everything’s smooth). I made these a little lighter because my last printout was kind of dark. I also increased the highlights so the reflections on the glass would stand out. Although I thought this was going to turn out kindof cliche, I think I pulled it off as timeless. The soft glow in both illustrations evokes emotion as well as draws the attention toward the bulb.

3. Number Five

Reflection: This illustration was done with gouache, line, and photoshop. I chose to include my number five piece partly because I feel my use of lines were well done. When looking through all of my pieces, I realized that I don’t usually use line. And in this illustration, it turned out really well, even though it was last minute. I changed it from the original by fixing some major inconsistencies, such as the brush mark in the pink area on the left, the sun that wasn’t round, and blurring out some of the farmland. My favorite part of this piece is how the skydivers stand out so much from the background. It draws the viewer’s eye to the details of each person. This is a pretty different style than I normally do.

4. Book Cover Art (Dust cover, ITunes Art, CD cover)

Reflection: YES, I know this book cover gives away the ending! So many people have told me this already. I have been wanting to do an underwater scene for awhile, so I thought I’d do it for the final piece. Better late than never! So I hope you (Rusty) aren’t grading on this being able to actually sell, what with the final scene on the front… Anyway, these were done with watercolor, then photoshopped. Having different sizes (CD, dusk jacket, Itunes) makes it so much more work #firstworldproblems. For the last illustration that we had to have three different printouts, I was able to just drag them to the different sizes instead of changing each individually (because they were all mostly square-ish). But I’m kind of glad this had to be different sizes, because I like the variety. I got to be creative and add “professional-looking” things like the Compact Disc mark. Also, the text really pulls it all together. The gradual fade to black around the corners draws the eye to the focal point. I’m happy with the colors, even though it’s a relatively small pallette range. The blood in this illustration actually looks realistic (especially compared to my piece for the World Record). I love that the light shining down through the water actually looks how it’s supposed to. My roommate, who always says she hates my artwork (sometimes I can’t tell if she’s joking or not..) said it really looked like water. So yea, that’s good. Well, THE END! Have a nice Christmas break!

Giant Peach In the Sky!

Gouache skydivers! This is pretty much #1 on my bucket list. Must do. The theme was 5, hence 5 skydivers. The original was a bit lighter, so I overcompensated and photoshopped it too light. But the colors are pretty similar. I wish I would have tried to digitally smooth out that left corner brush thing with the Wacom tablet. I didn’t really notice it until it was printed out and at a distance. I really like how the people are much more prominent than the background fields. So if the brush strokes were a bit smoother I’d love this. Other than that I’m pretty satisfied with it!

Midterm Portfolio

Here’s my portfolio!

• 3 Traditional line art illustrations: These are all from the beginning of the year, but I still like them. I’m quite proud of the flower. That stipling took way too long. I remember the shadows on the tree from the quad driving me crazy because they were pretty intricate. Looking back on it now, they seem pretty simple. And I really like the composition in the statue of Joseph sketch. The way the pine trees frame the silhouette gives it a nice border. I think the rumples in his clothes are well rendered as well. I really enjoyed doing these traditional sketches. There’s something peaceful about simple pen and paper.

• 2 Watercolor illustrations: Yea I really really don’t like watercolor. It’s too… watery… I’m just not used to it. I much prefer the thickness of gouache. Anyway, the Greece patio started out well with the stones. But let’s be honest, I got tired by the time I got to the top so that part looks kindof crappy. And when I was bringing it home some of the blue door ran down the page! Sad day. But I definately nailed the warm color pallette. On to the product illustration. I think this went pretty well. I even painted the test for you Rusty! My favorite part of this is probably the bristles on the mascara wand. Details are everything!

• 3 Traditional line and color illustrations: Like the traditional line art, I liked doing these as well. I think I prefer working small with a single subject, as opposed to a landscape. The shark is one of my favorites because the detaills like the teeth and splashes are so simple, but it works. And the brush strokes of the background add character. Grandma is what it is; I don’t have much to say about it. For the bottle, I was trying to go for a simple, blotchy look because it’s such a simple object. It’s different than most of my pieces because I’m anal and have to stay in the lines, but I tried something new with this one.

• 1 Gouache illustration: Montage turned out really well I think. The shine on the blueberries and strawberry look super realistic. I got a bunch of compliments. I particularly like the eye area on the bird. The lantern is my least favorite part, but I like how I used artistic license for the floating fire. I think the squiggle things around the illustration help describe each object while unifying it all, from 1.syrup for the waffle to 2.vines for the strawberry 3. water for the seagull, and fire for the lantern. The colors throughout the whole thing vary alot, which I like.
• 1 Digital line art illustration: Hamster. It’s very simple, but it looks realistic. The  lines look hasty and stylistic, which adds to the cute artsy feel of this illustration.
• 1 Digtial line/color illustration: I guess I like to illustrate animals. The hummingbird’s wings look mid-flight the way they fade out, which I like. Again, experimenting with the sketchy style seems to work well.
• 1 YOUR CHOICE: Lincoln Gouache. So I think I’m pretty clever with the ‘honest abe’ lie-detector theme here. I’m really glad I added the heart beat in the background to tie it all together. The shadows and contrast are pretty well done, and it looks like there’s a ray of light highlighting his face and torso, which draws attention to  where the focus should be. I included this illustration because this was the one where I started getting a hold on this weird gouache stuff. I felt pretty confident after completing this one!

Lincoln in a Lie-Detector

This Lincoln poster was for a competition promoting Lincoln’s contributions to America. The theme was ‘honest Abe’, so I depicted him with a lie detector. I’m feeling more confident with gouache, and I think this piece was relatively well painted. The only thing I don’t like about this gouache is that I took a picture of it when the arm pump thing was still wet, and you can tell in the printout. One of these days I’m going to use hot press illustration board instead of stonehenge paper. I’ve only used stonehenge because I already have a bunch left over from figure drawing last year. But I’m definitely NOT going to buy any at the Truman bookstore. Everything’s twice the price there. Highway robbery. Being an art student is expensive, but I’m doing what I love!

Gouache: 3 Montage

Gouache has it’s pros and cons, but I think I like watercolor more because it’s easier to lift from the paper if you make a mistake. I haven’t tried laying down the 1/3 matte medium/gesso/water mixture yet, but so far it’s worked out ok without it. It’s easier to make the colors brighter, but I don’t like the chalky consistency it ends up as. Also, I’ve learned not to let a large amount of water and pigment dry, because it will leave a weird drip looking thing. So I have to blend it smoothly in the first place, sigh.

Working on my Abe poster (post coming soon), I feel much more confident. I think one trick is to add a total of 3ish layers- one background color all over (with unexpected colors), one medium layer for shadows, and one top layer for details. Maybe another to add more contrast.

Here’s my final gouache montage with 3 unrelated objects: