Final Thoughts

I really learned a lot about illustration this semester. Coming in, I had no idea how to create a decent watercolor or how the word "gouache" was even pronounced. The technique exercises were definitely helpful before starting on an actual project. It was also helpful to go through the approval process with some of the projects. First, concept comps must get approved, then a pencil comp, then marker comp, and finally the illustration. I also found it helpful to learn about story/character development, especially for the cartoon. Although I made a couple of cartoony illustrations, I mostly tried to depict a certain amount of realism. My least favorite technique was airbrush, but mostly because it didn't seem worth the effort of finding the airbrush pieces, assembling the thing, testing it, cleaning it, and doing the process over every time I needed to use one. It made me appreciate the wonder of Photoshop, which I was also grateful that we learned for coloring in line art. Overall, this class was a learning experience and I'm happy with the majority of work that I produced.

Book Illustration Final

Here's my final book cover illustration! I did the entire thing in gouache and added the title and author in InDesign. I think the stylization turned out pretty well and the colors give it personality. The texture in the background works well to give it the dark/isolated feeling I was trying for.

Book Illustration Marker Comp

My marker comp of the book illustration went over pretty well. Some people wanted more in the background but I didn't want anything distracting. I might make the grey fade but I don't think there's a need for any more objects in the background. I'm not sure what medium I'm going to use for the final illustration of this one. I might try a combination of line and gouache, but either way I want to make it look less cartoony for the final.

Final Sound Illustration

This is my final sound illustration. I don't know if watercolor was the best choice of medium for this assignment because it's kind of hard to control and the cracked picture was supposed to be noticeably unaligned. I do enjoy the effect of watercolor in the pants and shadow of the ice skates.

Final World Record

I realized I didn't blog about my final World Record piece so here it is. I think the illustration turned out pretty well. I tried to add some more contrast within the bunny and make it stand out from the background more. I chose a simple and bold typeface for the headline of the poster, playing off of the idea of ears with "have you heard?" The text below the headline is the information about the longest ears on a rabbit: 30 in!

Book Illustration pencil comps

These are the pencil comps for the book illustration. I chose to do the book 1984 and put the main character in the center surrounded by Telescreens with Big Brother's face on them. The consensus class opinion was #1 or #2 is the best because it has a good composition and lonely feeling. I'm thinking I will go with #2 because him eating dinner surrounded by these Telescreens gives a good impression of the Party being able to see him during his everyday private life. I plan to make him look like he's described in the book-- "small and frail with fair hair and reddish skin" and wearing blue overalls.

Sound Marker Comp #2

Here's the second version of the marker comp for my sound illustration. I added the cracks in the ice with blue and also worked on the colors of the pants, shoelaces, and skates. I also got rid of the misplaced highlight in the jeans.

Sound Marker Comp

This is the marker comp for my sound illustration. From comments, I'm going to redo it and make some cracks in the ice on the picture too. I'm also going to make some colors a little more vibrant.

Sound Pencil Comp

I created this pencil comp based on the suggestions from the last sketches. I'm going to make the cracks in black and have the pieces on different planes.

Sound Sketches

These are my initial sketches for the sound illustration. I want to illustrate the cracking of ice. The favorite was the one that had the entire picture cracked and the crack under the blade of the skate.

Cheesy Final

Here's the final airbrush of my Cheesy Airbrush assignment. It's definitely cheesy with its flat colors, centered composition, and heart-themed subject matter. The mask for the heart around the outside was cut a bit rough, but I think the rest of the shapes look okay. Looking back, it might have been better if I had used more than a couple colors for each shape, but I think this way it's more cheesy.

Missouri Postcard Final

Here's the final version of my Missouri Postcard illustration. I used black line for the basic shapes and to give the illustration structure, then went in with watercolor to add color and value. I think it turned out pretty well and the water in the background looks realistic.

Missouri Postcard Marker Comp

This is the marker comp of my Missouri Postcard illustration. I am planning on doing some line work in black ink and then painting the rest of it with watercolor. I think watercolor is a good choice to get the watery feel of the lake and also the serenity of the scene.

Missouri Postcard Pencil Comps

Here are some preliminary pencil sketches for the Missouri Postcard illustration. I want to do a duck theme because I always remember watching/feeding the ducks when I was little and grew up in Missouri. Instead of just ducks, the one with the child feeding the ducks was picked by Art Director Rusty.

Airbrush Fruit #2

Here's a nice airbrush apple. We were to pick a different fruit than last time and practice airbrush techniques again. I think this apple turned out better than my last orange. I'm getting the hang of how to mask shapes and I've learned that you have to wait for the paint to dry a bit before moving on to the next coat of paint. That way, the paper or mask won't stick and rip off the board.

Cheesy Marker Comp parts

This is a comp of the order in which I am going to create my cheesy illustration.  I will start with the red heart background and make sure to mask out everything else.  Then I will move onto the pink which is part of the background a bit in the foreground on Hello Kitty's dress.  That way, the entire background would be complete after this.  Next, I will work on the main foreground of her body and get that shading in.  Finally, I will mask out everything except the details of her wings and then her eyes and whiskers.  The black eyes and whiskers can be last because those will go on top of any other color.  

Cheesy Color Comp

This illustration is going to be something really cheesy using airbrush.  I am going to do an angel Hello Kitty in a heart with hearts everywhere!  This is the only project where I can get away with making something so incredibly cute.  I think other art majors will be jealous.  

Airbrush Fruit

We had to pick a piece of fruit from Rusty's list and recreate it with the airbrush.  I chose to do an orange and tried to get the texture correct.  I used a combination of red, orange, and yellow for the body of the orange and gave it a blue shadow for contrast.  I also had to mask the little green part so no color would get on that when I didn't want it to.

Airbrush Shapes Practice

With frisket, we were to make 5 cubes, 5 spheres, and 5 cones using the airbrush.  Here are a few of my better ones.  I had some trouble with the airbrush itself not working correctly, but when I got that taken care of a whole new set of problems arose.  Sometimes I would leave the frisket on too long and the paint/board would rip off a little.  There was also the issue of getting things put down in the right order so it would look correct.

World Record Marker Comp

For the marker comp of the World Record, I wanted the colors to look very whimsical and fun.  I made the background dark so the setting is at night and you can see the moon and stars.  People could tell it was the moon!

World Record Pencil Comp

The pencil comp of the World Record.  Some people couldn't tell the rabbit's ears were wrapped around the moon, but I think it will be much more clear when I add color.

World Record Illustration

Here are some initial sketches for the World Record Illustration.  I would like to do the longest ears on a rabbit.  The record is something like 30 inches but I want to make them wrap around the moon!

3 Image Gouache Redo

This is the redo for the 3 Image Gouache montage.  I tried to keep more white highlights in the figures and shapes to make it look more three-dimensional.  I think it turned out better than the last one because of that.  I also tried to add more colors in general to the piece, such as orange in Spiderman and blue in the butterfly.

Conversation Final

Here's the final version of my conversation piece.  I think Photoshop was a good choice of medium and it looks pretty vibrant and comic booky.  I drew all the lines and colored only with Photoshop.  For the parts in the background, I deleted the black lines and left the shapes so they look more silhouetted.  Go Batcat and Robin!

Conversation Marker Comp

This is the marker comp of the conversation piece.  I am going to emulate comic book style artwork with line work and just hints of bright color.  I am planning on creating the final piece with line and then color it with Photoshop.

Conversation Pencil Comp

Here's the pencil comp of my composition illustration. I overheard one person talking to another about how he had a cat that was Batman for Halloween and he himself was Robin! At first I had the characters posed very statically, but this composition is full of movement.

Illustration Midterm Portfolio

20 x 30 Watercolor:
I created this huge 20 x 30 watercolor and finally got the hang of the watercolor medium. I enjoyed working on such a large scale because it forced me to use a large brush and work with the water. Before this point, I was too controlled with the paint and didn't let the water do what it wanted. For the shadow on the lighthouse, I put down pigment on the left and then used water to make the shadow, technique compliments of Terry.

Gouache Wash/Pickout:
This was the first gouache painting I did and I was a little wary of the stuff at first. I laid down the green color all over the frog and it didn't look very good, but then I started the pickout technique and got a feel for the stuff. I learned that the paint kind of stains the board so it's hard to get a pure white by picking out. My frog needed more contrast at one point so I added dark blues to the shadows. I also enjoy the halo effect around the piece that was created by pushing away the paint.

Memory Portrait:
Ah, it kind of looks like my mom. This piece was the first cartoony picture I got to do in Illustration so I enjoyed exaggerating the features and working with line. I put down the line/ink first and then went over it with washes of watercolor. I kept the palette as colorful as possible and tried not to desaturate the colors to get across a happy feeling. I wanted people who look at it to smile because her smile is so infectious.

DMV Cartoon:
This was a fun one because I got to color in Photoshop! I had to research some clowns to develop the cartoon and I really liked the dorky guy on the right. We drew it all in ink and then scanned in the image to work in Photoshop. I learned how to use channels to select just the black line and then proceeded to figure out the best coloring technique. Since I closed all my shapes, I would select an area with the magic wand tool and then on the color layer in Photoshop fill that color. With it still selected, I would then go back in with the brush tool to add highlights and shadows.

3 Image Gouache Montage:

I liked doing this gouache painting because it has such great subject matter. I mostly did the pickout technique for everything. In the background, I tried laying down a gradient with pure gouache but realized that it looks better when it's blended together with water. I did the same technique for the rest of the solid colors: the cupcake, the orange part of the butterfly, and the blue and red parts of Spiderman. For Spiderman, I added the grey webbing on top of him with watered down gouache. For the cupcake, I went back and added in some more different colors, including the white/blue rim.

3 Image Gouache Montage Final

Here's the final version of my 3 image gouache montage! I think it turned out pretty well and I like the effect that the gouache pick-out technique creates. The colors are nice and vibrant.

3 Image Gouache Montage Marker Comp

Here's the final version of my marker comp of the 3 image gouache montage. I'm doing spiderman on a cupcake with a butterfly (kind of random). At first I had the background a light green, but then made it a gradient of yellow, orange. and red. I can't wait to start the real painting!

Final Cartoon

Here's my final cartoon, fully colored in Photoshop. I really enjoyed the coloring part, probably because the clowns are so colorful. I tried to make it not look like just flat color and gave the subjects highlights and shadows.

Cartoon Line Drawing

This is the final version of my line drawing of the clown cartoon. I tightened up the lines and characters. I was inspired by a lot of clown clip-art on Google images and learned that if you just type in the word "clown" you get some creepy stuff.

Cartoon Sketches

Here are some preliminary sketches for the cartoon assignment. I personally enjoyed the burly guy who gets a kitty license plate, but Rusty okay'ed the clowns. There are different levels of humor in the idea: first, the ridiculousness of a clown trying to renew his license which is 5x as big as it should be, second; second, the idea of 50 clowns getting out of one car who will all need to renew their licenses, thereby creating a horrendously long line at the DMV; and third, the simple contrast of happy clowns with this entirely unamused DMV employee character.

Memory Portait Final

This is the final version of my mom's memory portrait. I decided on the blue face and orange hair to keep it really colorful and fun. The only thing I actually kept a local color is her green eyes. I decided to do linework in black and then go over it with watercolor.

Memory Portait color studies

Here are some colors studies for the Memory Portait assignment. The one in the middle I kept realistic and the two on the ends are more fun. I want to make it really colorful and fun because my mom has a really happy expression.

Memory Portrait sketches

Here are some of my initial sketches for the Memory Portrait assignment. I was thinking about color for the first ones and composition. I chose to do my mom because she has a recognizable smile and hairstyle, along with glasses. I used a lot of green because that's her favorite color and I think of her with green. I sketched some of my other family members (dad and brother) but Rusty ended up choosing my mom for the final piece.

Product Illustration

For this product illustration, we had a choice of subject matter: cell phone, #2 pencil, X-Acto knife or a soda can or bottle. I chose to do a soda can because I wanted to use color and I don't mind rendering some text. I did a Canada Dry can (not Canadian Mist, Rusty) in gouache on illustration board. I picked the can because it had a fairly simple logo and big, heavy type. I tried to make the illustration as tight and realistic as possible and added the background to spice it up a bit.

First Gouache

After finally learning how to pronounce it, I created my first gouache painting. I started off covering the entire frog with green and then "pushed" the paint out from the shape to create the highlights and went back in with darker colors for the shadows. I actually think the tree branch looks especially good because the gouache dried in sort of a bark texture. I also like how the background turned out. I didn't do anything except leave the watered-down paint there after I pushed it out of the frog shape in the beginning, but it creates a kind of glow around the frog that draws your attention to it.

Large Watercolor

This was my first 22 x 30 watercolor. I think it turned out pretty well considering it was my first time working on such a large piece of paper. It was a little intimidating at first, but I used large brushes so it proportionally didn't take much longer than one of my smaller ones. I did add more detail than usual to make it more interesting since there was a larger space to keep the viewer's interest. Thanks to Terry, I did the trick on the lighthouse where I put down color and then used plain water to spread the color out, creating a soft shadow. The fan brush was also helpful in the grassy areas.

Illustration: Watercolor & Pen/Ink Together

The assignment here was to make 10 watercolors that used both pen/ink and watercolor, 5 of which we were supposed to do the line drawing first and then watercolor, and 5 that were the opposite. I ended up liking the ones that had line drawing then watercolor on the best. Maybe that’s because the drawing was already there when I put the color on so it seemed more forgiving when the watercolor was out of my control. I enjoy the look where there is white paper showing between the watercolor and line.

Illustration: Watercolor & Matching Line Drawings

This assignment was to create 10 watercolors and 10 matching line drawings with the subject being a combination of landscapes and architecture. I enjoyed doing the line drawings because there was more of a sense of control. I seemed to use the line drawings as comps of the later watercolors so I knew where the positioning should go in the watercolors. This made the watercolors easier because I already had an idea of where elements should go and where the highlights and shadows should be. The line drawings forced me to map out where the values should go.

The barn line drawing was probably one of my most successful because of all the different variations of line type: direction, cross-hatch, and squiggly. I liked how the sky turned out on the boat/sunset watercolor. I used paper towels for the texture and blotted out some of the color.