Midterm Portfolio

Traditional Line Art:

These first two are line art drawing that I made large scale to turn in. The bottom one is a nice, loose, gestural illustration, while the one on top combined structured ruler lines as well as gestural lines.

Line art redo (above). I was freaking out about the quality of my line art drawings, so I wanted to make some fresh ones for mid term. I intended to make more than one, but decided that the two above really weren't so bad. I was thinking, "hmm, what shall I draw?" I was watching Sex and the City 2 while working on my #5 gouache, and seeing as I am obsessed, my subject matter didn't take long to figure out. This is SJP (Sarah Jessica Parker, duh!) with a bling bling #2 that is similar to the movie cover. I was really happy with how it turned out, especially in the dress.

Watercolor:

Well, I felt like I had a little bit of and "ah-ha moment" with both of these; lesson being that it really does make a difference if you let your watercolor dry. I worked on these at the same time and just worked on one while the other dried. One new thing I did with both of these was adding structure and line art in with just watercolor instead of pin and ink (again, learning that it is very important for the project to be dry before that is possible.) Another thing that helped these go a little more smoothly was the scale...should have enjoyed the 8" X 10" projects while we had em!

Watercolor + Line Art:

This is from the architecture watercolors "10 a days". I had really been struggling with the watercolor but  doing simple line work to give structure before I laid in color really helped me out. I think that the colors and composition of this particular barn scene made it pretty successful.

Shhheeee's Baaaaaccck! Couldn't help sliding a fail proof self portrait in the mix. This was one of the first watercolors where we started to increase scale which really overwhelmed me at the time, but after scanning it in, it tightened up and came together pretty well. (I think it would be cool to re-work my beer bottles with this little gal one it!) Future project? Maybe!

No bout-a-doubt, Im from the Midwest, and since Rusty seems to revel in that kind of crap, had to throw my little rooster in. I did three versions of the rooster, they were actually part of the three in-class watercolors that we were supposed to be doing, but, go figure, I was having a rough morning and didn't do my three watercolors in class. I did, however, take it upon myself to make up for my lack of effort in class in my own time and that resulted some interesting watercolor experiments. The line work is really minimal in the one, but I  know the sharpie could have gotten out of hand quickly, so I decided to go with "less is more" on the line art. Overall, I think the colors and strokes in this piece are pretty nice for a rookie!

Gouache:

AHH-HA! This was my moment for sure! This was the first time I had ever worked with gouache (despite Rusty's suggestion to practice first). I had a lot of fun with the bright colors and really "kicking' it in the ass" on my saturation, something I found a little lacking in my watercolors. I think that the picking method used with gouache is really my friend, and relative color is the enemy! Do a wash and then pick it sister, thats my new motto

Wack-em:

Oie Vay! I thought that I couldn't draw with pin and paper, this wacom tablet presented its own, worse difficulties. It as hard for me to refrain from using shades of grey on the line art, so I did several of my first ones incorrectly, but I found that keeping it "losey goosey" and not trying to make things so realistic was that best way to go with digital line art.

Here, on the paining, I was able to use the different shades, which help me create an overall image more like what I was going for. Buuut, most of all I think I shall avoid my tablet for the time being. 

My Choice:

"Your Choice" pahaha who does Rust think he is kidding? Well, Rusty, if it was my choice for an illustration, I would pay a real illustrator to do something that looked wicked good and be sleeping like a baby at 7:30 every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. But seeing as that was an option, I decided to post something wicked good that I made instead hehe. I felt like this was a good candadit for the open project on the midterm because I wanted to use one of the "Facebook" pictures we made somewhere in my portfolio. Also, I really like the pencil line art in this one, but it is really subtle, so I was having a hard time deciding if it should go in the watercolor or the watercolor + line art category. Problem solved. 

Thank God, we're half way done with Illustration