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A place to explore the method to my madness.

Sunday, March 15, 2015

State Festival Poster Project

In my traditional methods illustration class at CCAD this semester, one of the projects we worked on recently was a State Festival poster. Basically, I pulled a number from a bucket, I think it was 24, and then I was told that gave me the state South Carolina. I've never been to South Carolina, and I have zero idea of what state festivals could possibly happen there, so I jumped into some research. I made a list of some interesting festival names. I came across some that were interesting. See my whole process below!

Sketchbook Page 1
List of State Festivals in South Carolina 

Sketchbook Page 2
Narrowing Down Selections 

Sketchbook Page 3
Narrowing Down Selections

Sketchbook Page 4
Thumbnails Page 1

Sketchbook Page 5
Thumbnails Page 2

Sketchbook Page 6
Layout #1

Sketchbook Page 7
Thumbnails Page 3

Sketchbook Page 8
Thumbnails Page 4
Sketchbook Page 9
Layout #2

Sketchbook Page 10
Layout #3

Sketchbook Page 11
Layout #4

Sketchbook Page 12
Final Layout Linework


Finished 13 x 19 Acrylic Painting

Hand Lettering for Festival Poster Title

Adobe Illustrator Vector of Hand Lettering

Final 13 x 19 Poster
Overall, this was a really interesting project. It's one of the first times I have tried to integrate type into an illustration, so there were some struggles here and there. I tried to find fonts that were Japanese looking in nature, but they were all very stereotypical, so I had to do some hand lettering. Ultimately, I think it was for the best. What do you think?

Into the World of Scientific and Medical Illustration

January 12, 2015:

Have you ever had one of those "AH HA!" moments in life? The kind where the word "ah" and "ha" need to be all in caps because it is such a huge and possibly life changing revelation? That's what happened to me last night, and in the shower of all places. I usually get my best ideas when I am in the most inconvenient locations, such as in the shower or in bed when I can't get to a sketchbook and write my ideas down. I don't even know how many good ideas have gone down the shower drain or disappeared into Dreamland because writing them down was impossible at the time they came up.

Anyway! My big "AH HA!" moment last night was the realization of what I want to pursue as a career: scientific and medical illustration.

In high school, I took an IB Biology course and at the end of the two years she wrote a college recommendation letter for me. In this letter she proposed the idea of me one day becoming a medical illustrator. While I didn't think much of it a the time, I think it planted the idea in my head. Over time this idea germinated and grew like a little seed and now has breached the soil's surface.

But there was also another element in my education that led me to make this decision, and that happened last year in my freshman year of college at the Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD). The first year of courses is a foundation studies program designed to reinforce the basics of art and design. At this time, I had entered CCAD as a Photography major, and I was approaching all of my courses with a photographic eye. During my second semester I was enrolled in the freshman drawing class that focussed on anatomy.

Some of our homework assignments included anatomical drawings with acetate overlays, and I was reminded of the things I learned in high school from IB Biology. Below are a few examples of my work from my drawing course:










With one of the best drawing teachers in the world, I quickly fell in love with drawing all over again, and after my semester drawing final (a 30 in x 40 in illustration) (the last image) was completed, I began to rethink my intended major. After thinking about it over the summer, I decided to switch to an Illustration major and then minor in photography. I figured, at least this way my photo credits wouldn't go to waste and I can always look into photo illustration for rings like book covers.

But then I took a shower and thought about it and here we are. Now I have decided to rework my college plan to this: an Illustration Major, a Photography Minor, and Business Minor, a minor in a science, and to graduate with the CCAD Honors Program. After that, I will be headed off to grad school (hopefully to Johns Hopkins), and front there become an AMI (Association of Medical Illustrators) certified. It's a big plan, but with some hard work I think I can do it.

Monday, December 1, 2014

1 Day Assignment

Assignment Parameters:

Choose a current event from the news or a website & create a 5x5 vignette design to illustrate it. There must be a sense of environment and and a flat graphic shape to offset the illustration. Check out this really awesome article on DeviantArt: link.

Current Event:

The release of the new Jurassic World trailer

Progress:

Reference Image

Line art drawing. At this point I have been working for about 2 hours.

 Here is a closeup of what I'm doing. A lot, if not all of my work is very clean lined and meticulously shaped and shaded. For this one, I wanted to push myself to see if I could work in a different way to get a different effect. Ultimately, the illustration will only be 5x5 inches so all this scratchy looking line work will not be as noticeable, but it may give a nice subtle effect to the finished piece.

More progress.... maybe about 5-7 hours here.

More progress... I've lost all track of time.

 Slowly going insane.....
Line art for my raptor is done!

The next step is to do all the rest....
And after what feels like forever and a half, here is my final 5x5 spot illustration!