Hello all! I hope you are all keeping warm as the winter months set in. I know I'm having trouble with that haha. Well, the fall semester of my final year in graduate school is coming quickly to a close, and while I am slammed with work, I wanted to share some snippets of what I'm working on. 

Firstly, in my Markets for Children class I am wrapping up the details on the circus pattern series and working on a new undersea themed series. You can definitely expect to see some mermaids with these! And speaking of mermaids... I'm really excited about my thesis story I have settled upon. I will be retelling The Little Mermaid in the era of the Vikings and the story will actually be retold about a little mer prince. Below are some studies of the mer prince as well as the son of the Viking chieftain.

Lastly! The lovely Sarah Jacoby and I have started a new tumblr with some of our fellow grad school friends featuring fun, quick little illustrations of animals in clothing. So be sure to go follow Animals Outfitted! It's still very new, but there are some really talented folks involved and there will be plenty of adorable imagery to keep up with. 

So now I must return to the onslaught of work that awaits, but I look forward to sharing more with all of you guys very soon! Until then, best wishes!

Joshua

Some sketches

Hey guys! I just thought I would share a few little studies I have done for some things that are going on with my new thesis. I'm finally getting into a good stride, and I've figured out a lot of what I am looking to accomplish with this body of work. I'm very excited about what I have planned thus far, and I look forward to sharing more with y'all very soon!

Best wishes,

Joshua

Progress

Hello everyone! I hope you are all having a lovely fall thus far. There is a lot currently going on with my new thesis as well as my Children's Market class, but unfortunately, not much that I am ready to share. I did think it would be nice to share some in progress things will all of you in the mean time however! My next series of prints and patterns is surrounding the them of Enchanted Woods and some of the work thus far is below. I'm really not sold on the mushroom pattern as is, and while everything needs some tinkering, you can definitely expect to see something different with those. 

Until next time, stay warm and best wishes!

~Joshua

Amethyst

I have been obsessed with Brianne Drouhard's Amethyst Princess of Gemworld since the moment I saw a preview of it for DC Nation. I've been meaning to doodle her for a while, and after a silly twitter conversation with Brianne yesterday about the fate of Gemworld, I decided it was time to. I hope y'all enjoy it =)

~Joshua

Big Top Fun!

As previously mentioned, one of my courses this fall is a class in Children's Markets. For the class I am doing three separate series of patterns and prints, and I have just completed my first which I have titled Big Top Fun! These were so much fun and really energizing to work on! Actually in the process of this, I discovered that I really wanted to shift the focus of my thesis. While I still very much have a love of animation and still hold intentions to pursue my Wish Academy project, I have decided to center my thesis around children's publishing markets instead. Publishing has always been my primary interest in the world of illustration, and after a lot of thought and multiple meetings, I decided that this would be a better route for the course of my thesis year in graduate school. The project is still new and open ended at the moment, but I am excited to explore where this road takes me and I look forward to sharing the details with all of you as they come to me! So for now, enjoy my series of circus fun!

Until next time, best wishes!

Joshua

Thesis year of grad school

My summer of silence has ended! (Yay) And I apologize for the long hiatus. I was out of town for most of the summer and most of the work I was doing involved writing and research for my thesis, as has this past month which has been the first of my final year of graduate school! (yay again!) 

I am now, thankfully, past a lot of the prep work mumbo jumbo and I'm finally getting into the meat of my work. My primary thesis involves world-building, design and storytelling for a pitch that I am creating for a children's television show. If you recall my previous sketches on this blog for a project titled "Wish Academy", that was kind of a launching point for what became the actual world of my thesis. I'm not going to go into much detail here and now, but I am very excited about it and I can't wait to share the visuals of this world as I explore it extensively over the next several months! 

Aside from my main thesis, I am also taking a course that is basically a second, mini thesis that lasts only for one semester and is focused solely in children's markets. For this I'm creating a body of work that will encompass three separate series of patterns and prints for children's merchandise and apparel. The first of these series is my wacky circus! It's still in progress, but you can expect the complete Wacky Circus series by the end of next week, so I look forward to sharing that with you as well! Below are some sketches and in progress pieces for the series, but I was dying to share something on the blog so you all would know I am alive and working! It's good to be back, and now that the ball is rolling with my thesis, you can expect that to be the last major hiatus =)

Until next time, best wishes!

~Joshua

Hello Summer!

Well I am proud and excited to say I wrapped up my first year of graduate school just a couple short weeks ago! It was a crazy ride, but my end of year review went really well and I'm extremely excited to keep moving forward with what I've learned and the new directions I continue to be moving toward. I'm most excited to dive into animation next year. I think that is going to be a really wonderful experience as I've always had such a strong interest in the field. Actually, that was my original major at SCAD before I ran off to be friends with Peter Pan at Disney World. When I came back, I had a difficult time readjusting to reality and switched my major to help me cope haha. I wouldn't change that for the world though. I love the world of illustration and I'm glad to be a part of it. Plus, there's no rule against doing both, and that's really what the MFA in Illustration Practice program is about: breaking boundaries between illustration and other fields.

Anyway, I have a busy couple of weeks ahead filled with drawing and a lot of planning for the next year. The second year program is a self guided thesis and I plan to focus on visual development for animation as well as children's product markets. I'll be pushing both my Wish Academy and Magical Girl Battle Royale projects to completed states and working on my publishing portfolio simultaneously. I'm looking forward to sharing all of this with you guys, and of course, I would love any feedback along the way! In the mean time though, have some doodles!

Until next time, best wishes!

~Joshua