Thursday, July 31, 2008

More Illustration Academy Projects

Most of these require minor changes, but for now you can get the idea of some of the projects I worked on at the Academy...

Week 1 - Mark English's project was based on a slice of life in sarasota and limited to flat color, which helped to put the focus on composition, color and value. This was a really challenging but great first assignment because it forced me to think more about the essentials of picture making without relying on rendering to make an impact. painted in acrylic gouache.


Week 2 - John Foster's project was a portrait of a fictional character showing an emotion. I chose Tita the main character from "Like Water for Chocolate" due to a family tradition she is forbidden to marry her true love and confined to a life of caring for her mother in which cooking is her only means of expressing her emotions. This is an acrylic painting with a burnt sienna oil wash, it was the first time I had tried an oil wash and it really helped with the skin tone and in unifying the colors overall.

Week 3 - Gary Kelley's assignment was on the concept of a color chosen randomly - i picked yellow and so after cycling through a lot of ideas choose to do a dozen sunnyside-up eggs, I learnt that conceptual doesn't always mean complicated and I had a really good time painting this one - I poured white paint from a coconut shell to get the spontaneous spatter of a cracked egg and used watered down gouache and acrylic.

Week 5 - C. F. Payne's assignment was to illustrate a conversation using expressions to make it clear what was happening. I was happy with how this turned out, the main change that was suggested is putting some reflection on the scissors which I think will make it come together really well.





Wednesday, July 23, 2008

The Beginning...

Illustration Academy 2008... what can I say? It was amazing! One of the best experiences of my life. Apart from the best instructors you could ask for, crits, lectures and demos, I really enjoyed the environment of the Academy - just being surrounded by so many passionate and positive people (faculty and students) really inspired me to work harder and smarter. After the first day of the Academy I could already see a whole new standard to hold myself to & to work towards. One of the highlights of the Academy for me was meeting the fellow Aussie, week 6 visiting Illustrator Robin Eley, who just had a really good spirit & was able to share some really relevant and helpful advice about pursing an Illustration career from Australia - my home & where i will most likely be living after I finish at Morgan State University in Baltimore in May 09. For me the Academy went by so fast that I couldn't bear to leave town straight away, so I'm still in Sarasota with the beautiful Princess Jasmin enjoying the beach and working on thumbnails for a new project we came up with - lyrics from a song with an environment. I'm so glad that I was able to attend the Illustration Academy this year as it has given me a new perspective & more effective working process as well as a whole lot of motivation for the future, I'm more excited than ever to get to work & make my senior year a great one!


Robin Eley and Scott Anderson's Rolling Stone Portrait project (week 6) - 
Tori Amos (acrylic)

more scans to come... 

peace