Fall 2014- Creative Art Direction- Project 1

Topics: |  Project 1  |  Concept  |  Process  |  Result  |

Project 1- Typographic Self-Portrait
This semester, I have 4 courses. Of them, Creative Art Direction was the first to have a project due. The project itself was to create a purely typographical self-portrait. No illustration, no graphics, no bending letterforms. It was a project meant, in part at least, to get us to think about our process, as well as to get us to think more about how type can be used.

Update- Summer 2014 Wrap-Up (Released Late)

Summer 2014 Wrap-Up

Topics:  Site Updates   |   Programming   |   Intervention   |   Future Blogging

Angel's Gate

Site Updates

I decided to completely rework my website over the summer. The primary updates include making my layout liquid instead of static and updating my syntax to be in HTML5. I also changed the look for this blog to better match my actual site. Unfortunately

Lotus Prince Fragile Dreams Playthrough cards

A Let's Player I watch, Lotus Prince, is playing a Wii game called Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon. I made two title cards for the playthrough, based on two of the major characters in the game, Shin and Crow, respectively going from the left.

Step 1- Lineart

Pagemaster

For the final in my illustration course during the Spring 2014 semester, our final project was creating an avatar of ourselves. I went with a fantasy aesthetic for the project. Made solely with Adobe Illustrator, and a lot of research on H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos stories, and the other stories connected to it.

Zatanna Cover

I have an illustration course this semester, and we're currently at the stage where we're learning how to trace. Since I need to trace for the project, I decided to at least make it a challenging trace.

Drop Anchor

A painting inspired by recently reading about pirate lore, and the Irish pirate Anne Bonny in particular.

Materials: Poser 9, Photoshop CS6, Illustrator CS6
Time: Roughly 13.5 hours

The Making of "Drop Anchor"

I recently found an interest in pirate lore, and in particular, I found the Irish pirate Anne Bonny, who makes for a fascinating historical figure. This painting was very loosely inspired by her. 

Step 1: Lineart (3 hours)
I created a very quick reference image in Poser 9 for the pirate, as well as using some reference images of older British ships for the boat. I then illustrated the digital rough using Photoshop CS6's round brush as well as the pen tool. Most of the time for the lineart came from the boat, which I created in Illustrator CS6.

Quickie- Killer is Dead title card

To break in the new Cintiq, I made a title card for Lotus Prince's series of Let's Plays on the Killer is Dead game. Considering I was working without lineart for the first time and trying to emulate the cel shading of the game, I think it came out pretty well. Still, my lack of practice for a month shows, and I'll hopefully be practicing a lot more in the coming break.

Update 12/19/13

I received my new Cintiq, so I hope to get back into illustrating within the next few days. Hopefully I didn't fall too out of practice in the interim.

Hiatus with a side of rant

So while I was planning on not doing any paintings this month while I work on the NaNoWriMo, it turns out that I don't have the option to at the moment if I wanted to.

As it turns out, the auto-update to Maverick screwed my system up. Shocker. I came out of the update with a knowledge of how to turn off auto-updates, that recently cleaning my backup drive to give it room for new backups was a really poorly timed decision, and that the Cintiq 15x I use will likely not work with Maverick. Since its last Mac driver update was in 2012, I don't foresee the problem being fixed. I now find myself pondering the joys of either needing to shell out for a newer Cintiq or trying to find a way to downgrade that doesn't immediately void my Mac's warranty, neither of which is a very pleasant option.