More Roller Girl

This is the finished design for the rollergirl character from those sketches--next week, we're doing a poster with our characters, and I'm really excited about it. I think that a spiked hula hoop would be one of the most terrifying things in the world to encounter at high speeds while wearing roller skates.

Forgot about that poster....

Sorry guys, I totally forgot to show my final for the Halloween Poster project. So here it is; didn't win, as you can see by the posters that are actually posted, but I'm pretty happy with it.












Also, this week's in-class assignment for the same class; we had until 10:00 to do a complete, full-color, 4x4" illustration to accompany an article about the impracticality and awkwardness of the late-twenties-early-thirties "Birthday Dinner." This was mine.

Roller Derby! Go go go!

Sketches! Lots of sketches! Sketches of a rollergirl! Awesome!
Very fun class today. Because having someone skate around your classroom and tell you about the type of rugburn you get while wearing fishnets is just plain cool.
So, have some (fairly quick) drawings.

I draw for myself too, you know

I haven't taken pictures of my new Concepts piece, but I promise it'll be awesome when I do! So, to make up for lack of class work here, here's some stuff I colored just for my own amusement. Also, tattoo designs for my imaginary characters' imaginary skins.

One more figure....

Just one drawing tonight, but I'm really pleased with how it came out. The usual, charcoal, 18x24", etc. The tattoo was cool. (and since I was asked, it's mostly sketching-hardness, pure willow, vine charcoal, with compressed sticks for the darkest blacks)

Figure drawing fun!

So, I probably won't be posting much from this class. But here's a little sample of the work I've done so far in the Life Drawing class I'm auditing this semester. Since it's an audit, I only have drawings from in class, and since it's life drawing they're all 18x24" and way too big to scan. Hence the bad images. Oh well. I like how this class is going, the experience is really helpful.

Astronauts! Dinosaurs! Teenage tigers!

More character development--the finished piece from those sketches! The assignment was 10 or more characters interacting, and some of the work we were shown for inspiration were some of Dan Witz's mosh pit paintings. They really struck me, and though of course my piece isn't nearly that epic I did like the idea of filling the entire page with nothing but figures. From this rose forth..... The Truth About Extinction. The left is the hand drawn piece I presented in class, and the right is an edited version I'll be printing out as well.


And then another in class assignment, though not one I liked as well as previous ones; design the hip sales icon niece or nephew of a well-known advertising character. We could choose from the Jolly Green Giant, Smokey the Bear, or Tony the Tiger. I invented Tommy the Tiger, who is what 13 and 14 year olds want older teenagers to be like.

Sketches I promised, so sketches it is! Some of these are for projects, some are just from my sketchbook and my own amusement.

These are the character design sketches for a Character Development piece (which I'll be posting in a few minutes). Dinos versus astronauts, GO!







Just from my sketchbook--my character Romney, as an angel. He has little tiny nightingale wings. I'm working on coloring this one, just for fun.













The sketch for the next Concepts piece I'm doing--my class is working on designs for this year's halloween part posters! The theme will be circus/ funhouse/ freakshow. This is why I shouldn't be allowed to sketch in the middle of the night. Bad color is from lazy scanning and really light pencils.










And last but certainly not least, this is the half-color-mockup'd compilation of the sketches for a big piece I'm working on for my own amusement--a group of chracter portraits for Meg and my steampunk world! I'm going to do them all in watercolor, and the figures are about 8" tall, with relative heights and builds taken into consideration.
Left to right: Adrienne, Al, Romney, Kyu, Cain, Rufus, and Captain Riverhawk. Jager to be added.

And now, I design characters. Primarily out of squares.

In contrast to my one finished Illustration Concepts piece, I've done an overwhelming amount of work for my other studio class--Character Development. Each week we've had one homework assignment and then another assignment completed during the last two hours of class. It's frantic but fun, and I think I've gotten some really good pieces out of the process ^^ So, here's everything so far for that class! The originals are all about 9"x12" without their borders.

The first assignment was a character playing a musical instrument, with exaggerated and expressive body language. Naturally, I picked marching band, because there's always that one trumpet freshman you just want to smack.....

In class that week: randomly selected adjective, shape, and job. Mine? Excited, square, pilot. Got weirdly cut off during scanning, I'll get a better scan for the website later.

Next, The Only Survivor. Exactly what it sounds like. Any scenario; we had a lot of battles in the class's work, but also a lot of eating contests. I went for the rather disgruntled last unicorn, myself.
Then in class, The Odd Couple. Not necessarily a couple, but a pair of characters in one piece with contrasting body types/shapes/language. The jersey is the proper OSU jersey :P
After that, Team Up. 3-5 varied characters working together to fulfill a goal. This one is a work in progress again after I royally screwed it up by trying to add grass in ink.... I cut out the figures (the good part) and will be using them to complete the assignment in a different way; in the background there's plains and rolling mountains.... and a giant wooly mammoth foot. The source of terror. Down in front, the other object of attention; rabbit tracks. I'll post this again when it's properly finished, I hope.
Then in class this week, a transformation in 3-5 steps. A lot of people did cute-things-into-monsters, but I was getting sick of my square people and did this wiggly 1920s flapper turning into a bird instead, for a change of pace. The color was added later. So, that's what I know about that.
Next up: Sketches. Because there's a lot of them.

Puss in Boots.... Cat in Geta?

So far, this is the only significant piece that my Illustration Concepts class has yielded... but I'm okay with that, as this one is awesome. The original drawings (one of the cat and mouse, an one of the background and drop shadows) are 7"x16", and the final prints (one black and white, one full color and texture) are..... 14"x32". Huge. Huge and I'm really proud of them both.

The assignment was to illustrate the climactic scene from a well-known fairy tale, but set it in a difference time period than it usually takes place in. We were required to go large, but the specification was at least 16"x16", so the huge oversize was my choice. Fun stuff.
Click for bigness! You know you want to!

Sumi ink lines, charcoal powder-on-a-brush shading, scanned textures, and digital color.

Also, a couple of little sketches of just how a cat would wear those sandals. Why, I don't know.