The Spirit World

This week's sketchbook drawing, this time for "The Spirit World" book. I made another mix CD. You can read the tracklist if you click on the image. I made it hard to read on purpose because I think knowing what songs are on a mix before hearing it kind of ruins the fun but I do want people to have a chance of figuring out what they heard later if they're interested.



The dominant colors are black and gold to match the end papers John put in when he made the book's covers.

It's All Connected

Yes! I am finally done with this monster project!
For the past three weeks or so all of the Illustration Concepts classes have been working on posters or TV spots for the an outside client, the Baltimore Office of Sustainability. The top five pieces will be printed huge and go up in Batltimore metro stations. I kept the size in mind while I worked on mine so I made it very detailed. The piece was created by making lots of little acrylic paintings and then scanning them into Photoshop and collaging them digitally. This probably wasn't the best technique considering how many layers I had to make and how big the file had to be (it was 4 gigabites before I flattened it!) but I think it all worked out in the end.


I mainly like the final product but it's kind of hard to tell, I've been working it for so long.

Here are some of the contributing paintings that I like well enough to show on their own:
I'm particularly fond of the Oriole. I actually think I saw one today while I was walking around campus. I tried to get closer but of course he flew away.

Ugh Busy Ugh

Sketch for last weeks sketchbook, The Black and White Book. It was originally a book on shells.

Here it is in the context of the book (and in non-edited colors)

I also did a mix CD and surrounding layout page for this one that I'll post next time.

Making it Brief

Concept's Sketchbook Sketches!

The Book of Romance

The Book of Dreams

It isn't an assignment or anything that we make mixtapes for our sketchbooks but it's something I've started doing. I think I'll try to keep it up.

Dream Mix Tracklist :

A blind stitch applique study for stitch:

And a sketch for my current Stitch assignment. It's a mask!

Sotto Zero

Hi all! It's been a pretty crazy week. My Dad had a minor heart attack and was in the hospital for several days. It was pretty scary but the doctors went in to check his heart and there was very little new damage. Everything went really well and I'm really, really happy that Dad's back home and seems pretty much back to normal.

Here's a pretty crappy sketch from the hospital:

He was pretty grumpy that day.

In other news, I just finished a one week assignment for Concepts. We were to illustrate a menu cover for a sort of modern Italian restaurant in London. The idea was to base our illustration around a single item on the menu without using any sort of cliche menu/Italian food imagery and without simply drawing the dish. I chose Sotto Zero, a desert item including lowfat frozen yogurt, fresh strawberries, fruit coulis, and a chocolate straw. I've been wanting an excuse to draw a cute girl in a highly patterned dress for a while so I decided that this was my chance to run with it. I really want to work on infusing more pattern into my work.

This was also my first time using gouache. I'm not sure how I feel about it, yet. It dries reeeaally fast. But I like how colors lay over each other as opaque. Acrylic can require a lot of layering, which can get really ugly really fast.

I also did a sketch for "The Book of Romance" sketchbook this week, but I didn't get a chance to scan it. I'll be sure to get it next time.

They call me Mr. Tibbs!!!

Second finishes of the new school year! I'm not sure how I feel about them. I tried a new technique using duralar and painting on both sides as well as on paper behind it. I like the layered look but I think my colors are kind of drab. I don't know why I have so much trouble choosing colors from my head - or even with reference. I guess I just over think things.

These were another playing card assignment. This time my theme was movies I watched this summer. I watched 100 movies in 113 days! Unfortunately it was my greatest summer achievement. But anyway...

The first is Sidney Poitier in In the Heat of the Night as the Ace of Spades; the second is the cast of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie as the 8 of diamonds; and the last is Hurd Hatfield in The Picture of Dorian Gray as the Ace of Hearts.

I'm pretty happy with the likenesses overall and I really like certain aspects each one but they aren't exactly the "crème de la crème." Oh well. Onward to the next adventure!

I Figured I Had Paid My Debt to Society, By Paying My Overdue Fines At the Multnomah County Library

First finished piece of the semester! All hand embroidered for Studio Remix: Stitch.