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!
