fall quarter wrap up

Well it certainly was a stressful and busy quarter at SCAD, but I have to say it was WELL worth it! I think during this fall I made huge leaps in the improvement of my work as well as gaining a lot of knowledge in new areas. I learned so much about typography, something that I think I will come to find very helpful as I get further into the illustration business. I also got a lot of experience with oils in my oil based media painting class. I learned so much technique wise and thought oils are not something I have plans to include in my illustrations at this time, I look forward to exploring more personal work with this media in the near future; particularly in the area of plein air painting!

So before I go on to talk about my plans for the break and next quarter, I'll share with you guys my final projects in my studio classes. This first is for my Type and Illustration class. The assignment was to illustrate a double page spread of a poem and it could not be a children's poem. When I heard the latter part, I panicked a bit, but my mom suggested I illustrated Edgar Allen Poe's Annabel Lee. The poem is so dark so it was a bit of a change of subject matter for me and I really enjoyed the challenge!


Below is my painting final. The assignment was to use the broken color technique, doing an underpainting in contrasting color and color tempurature. The subject matter had to be a 20th century artist's painting, so I chose Wolf Kahn. Though I am not a huge fan of more contemporary art, I have to admit I found his landscapes absolutely stunning!

Final, 48''x 36''

underpainting

You'll have to forgive my for the rather blurry photographs of the painting. I have a hard time getting good pictures with my digital camera because I have such shaky hands. A good quality camera is definitely on my list of purchases for the near future. =)

So now that this quarter is over, I have my 6 week winter break as usual. My plans for the break are to whip out a portfolio piece or two, do some plein air oil paintings, paint gifts for my family, prepare my application for grad school, create style boards and start preparing my list of clients to approach when my website is up and my portfolio is ready within the next couple of months. I have to say, I'm really looking forward to putting myself out there soon! I just have to make sure everything is perfectly organized first =)

direct painting

I finally got around to photographing my first painting from my oil based media class which I took as an elective this quarter. You'll have to forgive me for the shine on the painting, I have such shaky hands that I can't take a photo without flash, haha.

Anyway, this was a direct painting of a rack still life. For those who don't know, a rack still life is a still life set up vertically, with the objects attached to some sort of support, and in this instance it is a beat up piece of card board.

The assignment for the subject matter was "relationships", so I chose the relationship between myself and the story of Peter Pan.

Peter Pan has influenced almost every aspect of my life. The illustrated edition by Trina Schart Hyman was the book I saw when I was 14 and KNEW I had to be an illustrator. Around the same time I was in the play Peter Pan and for those who know me personally, know what effect that had on my life and what that brought about. I also was "good friends" with the character Peter Pan at Walt Disney World for the summer after my freshman year of college.

I'll be uploading several images over the course of this week, or I might just do one large wrap up post of the quarter next weekend depending on if I have any free time during this finals week. Cheers!

Type and Illustration

As I've mentioned before, I'm taking the Type and Image class this quarter as one of my illustration electives. This class has been extremely helpful as I had very limited knowledge of typography beforehand. The professor is Linda Warner Constantino, who's work you can check out here. I've taken several classes with her in my time at SCAD and unless she teaches Promotion in the spring, this will unfortunately be my last one with her. She has become one of my role models since meeting her, and that is not something I say lightly.

Anyway, back to the class, it is extremely informative and I highly recommend it to my fellow SCAD illustration majors. I feel that a basic knowledge of type is a huge asset to illustrators and is also something that is usually overlooked. I've learned so much about fonts, kerning, incorporating the proper style of typography with my images, what fonts work well together, what never to do and so much more. Below I have some of my work from the class:



The assignment here was to create a book-jacket for a classic novel.



The assignment for this was to create packaging for a food or beverage product.