Stuff from this week

Hey dudes. I'm posting a little earlier than I planned because I'm supposed to be writing a paper right now and I really don't feel like writing a paper right now. I could go to sleep, but that would completely remove any possibility of writing anymore of this paper tonight, and I don't want to give in like that. This way, at least I still have Word open and I can write something should it come to me. It probably won't.

So instead I'm up real late writing blog posts and drinking soda and listening to tunez. Not a bad living.

And here we go. As I mentioned last time our paths crossed (on Internet), we had to redo the Roadkill images that we did in Fantasy Art. My whole deal, apparently, was to make the composition more centralized, which I am generally opposed to. Well, I'm not really opposed to it if it really calls for it, but if someone uses the word "central" or any of its variants, I get a little uneasy. Well, whatever. Here it is.


I don't know if I like it better or not, but I do know that I can draw animal skulls in my sleep. It's always nice to add a another thing to the vault of things that I can draw in my sleep. That list also includes many types of shark, most dinosaurs, and a lot of comic book characters (more on that later). This was done in sumi ink with digital coloring, as was demanded from teacher.

But this next piece I think is better. If you follow School of Ill, you already know the deal, because this has been up there for a day or two. This was for my Fashion Class, which is full of some pretty outrageous artists. It's intimidating in the best possible way. For this assignment, we were each issued one of the most anticipated films of 2008 and we had to make a piece utilizing a main female figure who embodied some aspect of the movie in attitude or whatever.

So, I got Quantum of Solace, which is also the 22nd James Bond movie. I have a love/hate relationship with the franchise, in that I adore Casino Royale and generally dislike the previous entries (especially the more recent installments). It was something I had to deal with when making the piece, and if I were to show the process sketches leading up to this, you would notice it quite a bit more. Here's the final:



I had several other compositions that were ready to take to final on this one that I ended up tossing because they were stupid and boring. I had to find a middle ground between what I liked about the films and what I liked to draw and I think I found it. Sexy women? Check. Murdered thugs? Check. Shark tank bar? Double check.

Triple check. Check check check.

This was done with pencil and photoshop coloring. I tried ink beforehand, and it turns out I am terrible with ink. Well, it wasn't so much a revelation as it was a confirmation. I am like a drunk ox with Parkinsons. I got the shakes, man. This was also done in about 10 hours from Sunday night to Monday morning. I am an idiot. I think it turned out pretty cool.

If you're at MICA, you should check out the Fashion Illustration show we have up on the third floor of Fox. It's full of stuff that will shame your ancestors so hard. It's got a pretty dope sign, too, which plays to the fact that all illustrators are goofballs.

So! Next week there will be a bunch of things. There's a a new wardrobe for Megan Russell, who will be wearing pretty dresses and such. Then there's a thing for Fantasy Art which is an animal human hybrid of some sort. Expect a crocodile or bear or lobster to be involved, but don't be too surprised if it's not any of those things. Then there's the final for The Yellow Wallpaper assignment, which will probably be painted but it might not be painted. I love saying things and then canceling them out. I am essentially saying nothing, but maybe I'm saying everything.

See what I did there?

Oh. Superheroes! Daniel Krall (check the linkz) threw down the challenge from Project Rooftop, which is a redesign of the Ironman Armor. I'm not going to spill the beans on this one, because Danny Boy might steal my johns like a sneak-thief and I wouldn't want that. All I'm saying is to expect multiples. Take from that what you will.

Thanks for all the comments, everybody. Especially those of you who only know me on a cursory level, but also especially those of you who know me personally. What I'm trying to say is thanks.

Hey, I didn't forget.

I'm so glad. I've been having a pretty rough couple of weeks as far as work goes. I've done something crazy like nine or ten pieces over the last two and a half weeks. I would like some tea and some cookies and some videogames, please.

Anyway, this is a digital thing that I did for Fantasy Art. We had to do something stream-of-consciousy based on a short story called Roadkill, which, aside from all of the metaphors and analogies to life and death and all that, was about fish and skullz. I write Cliff's Notes in my spare time.


I'm not super pleased with the piece, specifically because I don't really like just drawing junk all over the place. Our next assignment is actually to redo the piece based on the comments in class, so that'll be up in the next post. Basically, it's a boring assignment. When am I going to get to draw some monsters again? God only knows.

This next guy is for Concepts II. We wrote down stories about our own experiences with childhood cruelties or family secrets and then picked them out of a box so we didn't know whose we were to illustrate. This is Sarah Bentley's story about the asshole son of Patch Adams and his hermit crab crushing tendencies. I think it pretty much explains itself. This is gouache and is about the same size as everything else I do (just barely too big to put in my backpack without folding, but it has a big border in real life).




I'm really happy with parts of this and unhappy with others, mostly because I was under pretty severe time constraints and had to rush it towards the end. Some parts are wicked smooth and look really awesome (the sad girl in the back, the floor, the kid with the batman band-aid) and some are just train wrecks like the main dude's shirt, which I recolored probably fifteen times. I think I'll fix things up digitally when I get the time.

When I get the time...

Anyway, two more thing in the next post, the re-do of the Roadkill digital piece and a fashiony illustration for James Bond 22, which I really don't want to call Quantum of Solace. Then after that is a piece based on The Yellow Wallpaper, which looks pretty cool in sketch form and I'm pretty psyched to paint it, but that's a little ways off.

Hey!

I'm making a note here

HUGE SUCCESS

Great! You're here. I'm glad. These are some things I did recently, going back to winter break.

This first set was from Fashion Illustration where we chose a time period or scene and found clothing from modern designer lines that fit in. I chose a shark fishing boat because I am very predictable, but also very masculine. These were done in gouache on Arches watercolor paper. They're...oh, I don't know...six by eight inches. I did them all this past weekend.


Here we have a big cage with some lobsters in it, and a guy who looked like Speed Racer for a long while. I guess most of these clothes are from D&G? I can't even imagine how expensive that sweater is.

I don't really know if clothing like this would appreciate in value as it begins to smell more and more like fish. My natural instinct says no, but I don't know anything about fashion. Ah, that shark is much too big for that one guy to hoist. Those other guys are fashionable, fashionable jerks.


I think also that you would develop a little craziness from being on a boat for so long with a bunch of gross dudes, fashionable though they may be. It is for that reason that the gentleman on our left has some crazy eyes going. They are very stylishly crazy, but crazy regardless. I kind of made the chap on the right into the Green Arrow, because I am a nerd and get bored making up people if they're not silly looking.

This is a thing I also did this weekend for my Fantasy Art class. This is based on a song by the band Sea Wolf. I did this in gouache and cut paper, which takes a boatload of time. This is about 14 by 10 inches. I really like working in collage, but it just takes so much time I don't think I could do it on a regular basis.



Anyway, this guy is also for my Fantasy Art class, only I did this about two weeks ago. It's based on an Algonquin legend about the Wendigo, who is a malevolent spirit that turns you into a monster if you decide you want to be a cannibal. This is in gouache and is about 13.5 by 5.5 inches. I don't really have a lot to say about this, except that I really like the girl's expression, and that leg looks gross.


This was the first real collage I've done in my life, and I did it when I didn't have anything else to do and worked on it on and off for awhile. I made some silly decisions like trying to make every shape match up so the actual collage is as flat as possible. Things look like they overlap, but they really don't. They're all cut to fit together like a puzzle. I'm still very proud of it. It's a pretty unicorn in a pretty pink forest. Super manly. Supermanly. I think I'm submitting this to a few competitions in the next couple of days.


And last (also least) are the reinvented bathroom signs for my Illustration Concepts II class. This was a pretty straightforward project with a certain trickiness to the solution. Anyway, I decided to go with something graphic that could hopefully be read from a fair distance through silhouette alone (Brian Ralph teaches you these things) while still being interesting enough on closer inspection. Also I think that shaving words into your chest hair is hilarious.




This was a pretty good post, right? I think this was a good post to start the whole regular update thing. I'll have a piece done for the end of this week, but I might just hold it over until the following week so I'll have a two-piece update. Maybe. Maybe not. It all depends on how strong the piece ends up being.

You're not the boss of me.

BLOGSPLOSION unus

Mostly digital things of all sorts of natures from last semester, except that lil guy at the end.
I wish I updated this frequently, but I don't have a lot of time, so blogsplosions will probably be the norm.