Sunday, October 25, 2009

Conversation






My conversation piece features three girls getting ready to play roller derby. My friends and I were talking about it after seeing the movie Whip It, which is the directorial debut of actress Drew Barrymore. The first picture is the pencil comp. I liked the set up and the intensity of the girls, but I thought the background was kind of boring. In the first marker comp, I tried to make it more interesting, but it kind of failed as well. The last marker comp works the best. In the final piece, I will use the same heavy line work and the same loose application of color. I will use watercolor.

finals of 3-object montage





Here are the finals of my 3-object montages. The first one was done admittedly hastily. Also, I did not spend enough time making sure the scanned and printed out version looked like the actual one, so there is a lot of color inconsistencies between the two. In the first one, I made Sitting Bull too dark. In the new one, he stands out more because I made him overall lighter. Before, the dark parts of the face got lost, but now, the facial features stand out more. Additionally, the ferris wheel is just done a lot better in the new one. Now, the lights look like lights instead of dots placed in rows. Also, I added clouds behind the ferris wheel in the new one to add a little intrigue. I think they help. I also did the background first, and then picked out the parts of the ferris wheel that were in the foreground. This technique worked much better. Overall, I think the second one is much improved compared to the first.

Marker comps for three-object montage



Here are two different marker comps I did for the 3-object montage. The first one that I did, the one on the bottom, was good, but too dark. Sitting Bull got lost in the trees of E.T.'s moon. So, I lightened up Sitting Bull in the next comp. This way, he stands out more and is the most prominent figure in the composition, much like he was the dominant figure amongst his people when he was alive.

Monday, October 19, 2009

3 object montage



Here are some initial sketches for my 3 object montage to be gouached. I had a hard time coming up with good images, but I think the ferris wheel, Sitting Bull, and E.T. moon are the perfect combination. More to come.

And... for your viewing pleasure....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4yUQJeKZNs

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Midterm portfolio

Here are the five illustrations I've chosen to include in my midterm portfolio. They are the memory portrait, the product illustration, the large watercolor, and two smaller watercolors. I've come to realize I like watercolor a lot more than gouache. 


Here is my memory portrait. I first used pen and ink and drew out the details.  Then, I used watercolor to add the color. I choose the color scheme because I thought the blues and purples caught the quiet mood well, and the yellow adds a little bit of contrast and fun.  Overall, I think it is successful because of the abstract use of color and the variation of line weights.



Here is my gouache product illustration. I choose to do a bottle of Sun Drop. This was one of the first gouaches I have ever done, so considering that, I think it's pretty good. I like the subtractive process that you can use in gouache, but it is easy for the image to get messy and muddy. My favorite part of the illustration is the top of the bottle and the bottom right corner, with the splashes. Oh, and the red splatters of blood.



Here is my large watercolor. I the subject matter of this one a lot. The image was taken from a photograph I took when driving back up to school from home on highway 100, around Hermann, MO. It's quite a beautiful little spot. I think the trees and clouds are pretty successful in this one. After doing it, I realized that you don't have to necessary have a lot of detail and visual information to get the same message across. I will probably go back and fix the messier parts of this illustration, ie the brushstrokey road and the parts of the sky that are too blotchy.



I like this little illustration because it is when I first started to understand how to use watercolor to its fullest potential. I realized that you can use a lot of water and have the surface really wet but still manage to have control over the piece. I really like the colors and the foggy lake.

The clouds in this one are probably the best I've done. I think I used tissues instead of paper towels to blot out the clouds, and it proved to be pretty effective. The landscape kind of looks like somewhere out in the Dakotas or maybe Wyoming. Cooooolll.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Finalizzzed cartoon

Here is my final, colored-in-Photoshop cartoon. Woot. Woot.
I don't know why the color is so off. It did that when I brought it to blogger. Weird!