Works in Progress: Illusionism out-of-class

So, for Advanced Illusionism, we have pretty much free rein on our out-of-class work. For me, that means I can devote some real and serious time to pieces I want to make but can't justify working on when I have homework to do. Right now I'm working on a couple of different things, and thought you all might enjoy seeing the sketches. The first is at the left, my current project, and is going to be heavily inspired and influenced by the work of vector artist Milk. I love her images, both in style and content, and wanted to try my hand at developing a distinctive and more realistic look in Illustrator. This is the image I'll be working on to achieve that.

Second sketch is below. This is a companion piece to the last one I posted with these characters; the greys are just to show a basic idea of the values, with the light grey being the darker skin tone and the dark grey being that same deep teal collage as was used in the previous background.

A Day in My Life

An in-class drawing from Illusionism, based on the idea of time and the ways in which we perceive it. This is a map of my typical day. Interpret that as you will.

Business Card Designs

As usual, exactly what the title says. Here are some new designs I'm working on for my business cards, and I could really use some feedback on these. I'm planning to print them by the end of this week, along with as-yet-undisclosed postcards (probably two). The beveled corner lines are where these will actually be cut; outside of that is bleed room. I'd really like to do all four, but money may necessitate just printing two or three of them. The plan is to do them glossy on the front (top row) and matte on the back. So, give me some feedback! Like the colors? The images? Yes or no on the gloss fronts, matte backs? Is something seriously wrong with the text? Which two should I pick out of these, if I can only print two? Should I scrap this idea entirely (say that, I'll probably ignore you, many hours have already gone into these).

Vinylmore 3

Hey everbody! Are you in Baltimore right now? Do you have plans tomorrow night (april 2nd)? If you answered yes and then no, I have a solution for you! Vinylmore 3, Munnyland, is a show featuring a whole bunch of awesomely talented people who made excellent modified toys. My Tatanka is in the show, along with work from my friends Max, Taylor, Mike, and several of my department teachers. It's going to be a great show!

The location is Atomic Books, an awesome store in Hampden; 3620 Falls Rd. Baltimore, MD. The opening reception will be from 7 to 9 pm tomorrow, and everyone who comes will be able to vote for their favorite munny. If I know you in person, I'd love to hang out with all you cool people and have fun, and if I've never met you in person, I'd love to meet you, hang out, and have fun!

The image here was not made by me; this is the official poster for the show. My name is in the little sign on the right arm's side of town!

I don't know who you are (I don't want to know)

New out-of-class piece for Illusionism. I'm really interested in the differences between basic vital statistics written about a person--in this case, of course, an imagined character--and the outward presentation of that person. For this piece, I chose two characters (one from Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, played by myself, and the other from the Pathfinder RPG and played by my fiancee) who look nearly identical on paper. Their stats, weapons, race, and purpose within a party are the same. However, as this presentation of them shows, they are also opposites. I may continue to work with them for my next piece, I already have a composition idea in mind....

Jessamine

Finally, some out-of-class work for Illusionism that I'm happy with. This is my character from an RPG in development by my friend Pio (the game is called NoC, and the character is called Jessamine). The drawing was done in pencil without a smidge of smudging--all shading is crosshatched in various hardnesses of lead. Textures and stock come from cgtextures.com, except for the noise, which was added manually in photoshop. I'm not sure what this piece really is, but I am sure that I'm glad I made it. The print will be 10"x18"

Linoleum Block Prints

I really like printmaking as a medium/technique/whatever. I have a lot of fun with the process, and find the end result very rewarding--especially because I do so much digital work, it's nice sometimes to end up with a finished piece you can hold in your hands, where the physical object is the original. Because I love it, and in spite of its time-consuming nature, I'm taking a class this semester called The Illustrative Print. As you can no doubt guess, it's a printmaking class with a narrative focus. So, here's some work from the class so far! On the left is my second piece for this class, which is titled "It Wasn't A Good Thing." My subject for the semester is Neil Gaiman's collection of short stories. This one is from "Closing Time," which is a very interesting sort of ghost story. It's a total of about 30 inches tall, hence the photograph instead of a scan, and I mixed that particular shade of red ink myself. Below is the first piece for the class, which was based on a limerick about a man with a beard and birds nest in it. Less compelling story, but I do like the piece.
And this is just something I thought people might be interested in, since those who don't do linocut often ask about the process. This is my current piece in progress--or rather, the sketch for it. When I work in lino, I like to do a super rough sketch on paper, then scan it in and go over it in photoshop to give me stark blacks and whites for a better idea of how the finished print will look. This one will be a two-layer print; the hand, in black, will be on one block, and the paw, in red, will be on another. Then I'll print both blocks, in their different colors, on a single sheet of paper for this layered effect. There's going to be a lot more texture, due to the cutting, but this is the actual image that I transfer onto the block and cut around. The source for this piece is a short story called "The White Road," which you should read. It's in Smoke and Mirrors, the earlier of Gaiman's two short story collections. I might upload a photo of the blocks while I'm still cutting them if people are interested.

Little Shields

So, this semester, I'm using the same source material for my thesis work, but I'm taking it in a different direction entirely. I really love the pieces I made last semester, but I feel like I've taken them as far they can go; they show technical skill, but continuing in the same vein shows little else. So now that I've done them realistic, I've done nitpicky pencil work, and I've done subtle, understated, naturalistic colors, it's time to show my flexibility. From the same animal descriptions and similar kinds of information, I'm now creating a mass-market and child friendly body of work. These are being completed in illustrator, and will be presented at midterm with 6 to 9 more that I haven't finished yet. Each will be printed on heavy cardstock, around 5 or 6 inches high, and cut out around the shield and banner itself. I think I'm going to mount them with those little foam squares to give them a nice shadow on the wall. Enjoy!

Oh, and in other news, I'm entering Tatanka the mini munny centaur in this spring's Vinylmore show, so wish me luck!

Basil and Rolf

Advanced illusionism is a great class. I highly recommend it for all MICA illustration students, seriously. This week, we had to bring in a childhood snack we haven't eaten in a long time and then do a drawing based on some of the memories that come to us while eating it. I ate an orange flavored Flintstones Push-Up--it was delicious, and it reminded me of Basil, the beagle I grew up with. It was a really pleasant experience to work on. To the left is a detail of the first little square panel, and below is the whole piece. Also in this post, the sketch for my out of class assignment. I'll be printing the sketch, lightboxing it to a charcoal drawing, and then scanning again for color and "old photo" treatment. Should be a lot of fun!

Nicolae (with and without coat)

I'm terrible over breaks, okay? Sorry about the lack of updates. I did draw something, though, so I'll post that. I also drew lots of people on the subway, but I haven't gotten a chance to scan those yet. But I have a good excuse for being away--I got engaged over Christmas. So! That's a good excuse for anything.

Here's one drawing, to make up for the lack; he's a new DnD character, a sorcerer named Nicolae. Two different versions; with and without coat.