illustration academy, project 1

And we're back to the good ol' shape assignment! This is very hard to do. All shape, no line, limited values within objects (about 30% difference). Very tough, but I learned a lot from it!




Things are going well here in Kansas City! Being with Gary Kelley and Mark English, John English, George Pratt, and Brent Watkinson is mind blowing! I can't wait to get started on the new assignment. Hope everyone is having a good summer. :)

Academy Style - in digital form

I thought I'd apply the method of figure drawing we learned at the Illustration Academy to digital art. This was a fun experiment and I love the way it works. You focus on shape and silhouette rather than line and edge. A good way to "train your brain."

I really like those glasses, don't I? hah!

done in PS CS3

more sketchbook pages

Here's a collection of various sketches from the past few weeks. The pages include the Academy, airport sketches, and a trip to borders/various.

FAST figure drawing with George Pratt

Figure drawing with George Pratt is probably one of the most fun and challenging experiences - you do lots of 5 second gestures and exercises like drawing the right side of the figure with your right hand and the left side with your left hand at the same time with 2 different colors ("falling water" exercise - do it)! This man knows his stuff, and I had a lot of fun in the sessions.

some figure drawings

here at the academy we have had figure drawing twice a week, and i thought I'd start posting some of my drawings from the sessions...

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sketches

This week we have 3 guests teaching us - Robin Eley, Andrea Wicklund, and Edward Kinsella III (or Ted). They are talented illustrators and have great insight in the field, especially since they are so young. I drew a Gordon Freeman from the Half-Life series (the 4th sketch) when I found out Andrea works for Valve over in Seattle! I'm not really much of a gamer but Valve's game design is really unique and gorgeous, and their Team Fortress 2 animated shorts are hilarious and well done. They used Leyendecker as inspiration as well as Cornwell and all the greats, which makes me happy.

project 4 - conversation piece

C. F. Payne was our guest last week and our project was to illustrate a conversation between two characters that had a story.

I think we all know those mean girls...

practicing

weee

Project 3 - Envy

We were randomly assigned one of the seven deadly sins and I received "envy." Penguins are birds who can't fly so I thought I'd take advantage of that. 

Pastel and colored pencil on paper.

Project 2 - Conan

We had to do a portrait of a person in the public eye, and it needed to be someone we either love or hate so I picked Conan O'Brien (because I love him and he's the funniest talk show host around). Points if you can guess what's going on - if you watch the show a lot, you'll probably know. 

Oil painting is something new to me but I wanted to challenge myself and experiment. I really love oils now - they're fun to work with. 

first project!

This is the first assignment for the Academy - it's to teach us to think about design, composition, color, and value. I really love this assignment because it was exactly what i needed to work on in my image-making. The rules were: it has to be something about Sarasota, it has to be done with flat color, and it has to focus on shape and pattern. The shadows can only be at 20%. 

This nice lady was selling hot dogs one humid Sarasota afternoon. She was really cool and friendly. I hope I did her justice in the piece! Sorry the photo is not very good. 

ALSO:

 I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT HERE!