illustration Project- Michael Jordan tribute

Sorry for the lack of updates. I promise I will have several more this week.

Well I have to say that this is a little more realistic than I normally do with my illustrations, but it was part of the assignment. The theme was sports cover magazine. This was my final assignment for my illustration classes at UCM.

I chose basketball, mostly because Michael Jordan was my hero as a chid. I used to spend countless hours imagining I was Michael Jordan shooting hoops after school. Ironically I lived in Utah at the time and while most people were crying their eyes and hating Michael Jordan for defeating the Jazz at the championship title several times, I was glorifying him. Though my basketball skills ended (or never even started) back then, my respect and admiration for him did not.

I got a pretty bad grade on this assignment, mostly because I took too many creative liberties in interpreting Michael Jordan's face, but hopefully I fixed that and most of the concerns voiced in the critique.

This was another great step towards getting my illustrations to look more finished and less messy..I accomplished this by the brush in photoshop I have been attempting to develop all semester...though just in the past week I have already jumped ship to a new set of better and more amazing brushes (oh I can't wait to show you the results!)

Happy Birthday Cheri comic -part 1

It seems that meaningless birthdays just come and go every year. Since my wife is turning to the significant age of thir~ *WACK! (just got wacked in the back of my head) Looks over shoulder at her... How about...23? She nods her approval. I wanted to make this one special!

Not just that, it also is giving me the opportunity to do comics again (its been over a year). I'm a bit rusty, but have picked up at a pretty decent pace. My talented friend Amelia (see her webpage here) has also been giving me personal suggestions for the comic layout, and Missa, my sister, feedback on the story. Thanks!

The comic is by far not meant to be perfect (since I am working full time on my illustrations) and most undoubtably is FULL of mistakes, so please be understanding. :) I also plan to make one last run over the whole thing when I am done with all the parts...so if you catch something terrible please tell me.

Without further adieu I present:

Cheri's Birthday gift PART 1

page 1

page 2

page 3

page 4

page 5

page 6

IF- Lesson

With my spring semester all wrapped up today I am gearing myself for my self-imposed summer ILLUSTRATION PROJECT. (not very catchy title is it. I need to work on it.) Basically for the entire summer I will complete ONE illustration a week. I will push myself and spend at least 6 hours a day 5 days a week working on only illustration.

The illustration above was a pre-project test, trying to staple down my final style and methods for the roughly 12 or so illustrations I plan to complete over the summer. It came about after watching Omar Dogan paintings some of his backgrounds on BLOG TV and watching Will Terry paint these two illustrations on youtube (illustration 1 / Illustration 2.) I spent more time on the illustration than intended, mostly because it developed early on better than I thought it would...but ultimately had a great time. The methods were pretty similar to what I had already been doing except I enjoyed a lot of the broad to more specific brushstrokes both Omar and Will did. Seeing this in action really conditioned my mind in the right direction.

So be avid watchers this summer and make sure to keep on my case about getting them complete on time. ^_^ haha Oh and in the near future I will be posting some of my schoolwork from this semester as well! Look forward to it!

p.s. I'll bet you are wondering how this relates to Illustration Fridays topic, "LESSON" ...haha well watching Omar Dogan, and Will Terry's video was a lesson for me in the which this illustration resulted. ;)

IF-Japan Journey

Geez it pretty late. 0_O and I have school tomorrow at 8am. haha Regardless it seems I can't get Japan off my mind...I really wanted to convey the hope of the future cresting through the rain clouds.

I am really trying to find a method for my digital work that looks finished...I feel I accomplished it with this.

I worked on the value structure, color syncing, and getting a finished look through a new method. The new method I tested was making a complete pencil rendering with value and everything, added color in photoshop, and then paint over the top over the colors and pencil-lines. This also makes it easier to do illustration anywhere without a computer (at least half of it)!

This was also a test for a full size painting I plan to do for my figure painting class. very successful! yay!

Illustration Project- Horoscopes Leo and Taurus

I'm not much into the whole horoscope thing, however my illustration class assignment was to depict two of the twelve. I chose my wife's sign, and mine. I really enjoyed working on these and despite the rush to get two illustrations done at the same time I found myself wishing I could do the rest. haha SO I hope everyone enjoys.

IF-Stir + Japan Earthquake

(27 April 2011 update above: Honestly I really shouldn't have published the illustration as it is below. It wasnt ready. Regardless I have reworked it with the warp tool function, revisited the value structure, and utilizing my new super brush of doom in photoshop repainted it! hope you enjoy the difference. I know I DO! I know its not much of a complete change..for example...Maybe over the summer I will get around to adding color back in. IN the meanwhile...off to go work on final deadlines.)

Among my greatest surprises this week was the Earthquake and Tsunami that hit Japan. In the the picture I wanted to address the fact that no matter who you are, where you are, and what you are doing, you are not immune to the natural way of life: fear, danger, injury and even death.

It seems that we as a people like to forget that we are only part of a page which is being turned by time in the book called reality. We imagine to ourselves that we are part of a grand plot staring ourselves...and we become so self absorbed in what we are doing, and what we want to do, that we forget to remember that life is short and precious.

Events like this make me wonder what MY tragedy would be if a natural disaster hit nearby. Immediately my mind lists off my wife, son, parents, bothers, sisters, relatives, friends, my cat...etc. But during good times I am surprised at how easily this list is contradicted by the normal flow of life, which is filled with innumerable directions and distractions. Always remember WHAT MATTERS MOST!

Anyway....

Here is what I learned/explored with this picture:

Recently I came across a great blog entry from Freelance Illusrator Greg Newbold discussing the uses of value and color and it set my mind thinking...

I've heard of such concepts before, but end up usually stumbling across the finish line ignorantly because I was focused on having a good range of darks and lights which emphasis the focal point(s) of the picture.

...well this time I went at it from a value-relationship point first. The first picture you see below is my initial impression of what I wanted to accomplish. The 2nd one is what it ended up being (my final picture turned greyscale).

So ultimately I created a picture that not only LOOKS good with color, but also with only greyscale values. I accomplished the picture by setting the value with a greyscale layer, and then utilizing the selection tool, colorize, and colorbalance, I ultimately kept the same tonal values while making it color(though to further emphasize the woman as the main point I changed the umbrella to be lighter than the hair, and ultimately anchored the picture by making the table about the same as the hair.)

Illustration update- Hayao Miyazaki spree

For my illustration class we were asked to use a celebrity, as long as they weren't obscure, and not only do a portrait of them but create background elements that would further identify the individual. The illustration was to be used in a hypothetical non-descript typical U.S. entertainment magazine. Naturally I thought of Hayao Miyazaki, but since I wanted to avoid the "fan-art" syndrome and addressing any of Miyazaki's work with a picture is beyond daunting...I wasn't sure. Well after batting around some other ideas (Jackie Chan, Julie Andrews...etc) I "manned-up" and settled on Miyazaki. Honestly...if you can believe it...my teacher thought Hayao Miyazaki was OBSCURE!!!! I had to convince him Miyazaki wasn't.

This illustration literally portrays every movie he has ever directed (except 1. Can you name it?) and several side TV series (I'm sorry Future Boy Conan! You didn't make it in.) In my opinion only a true Miyazaki fan could name all the characters in this illustration and the movies/shows they are associated with.

Here is the hypothetical layout I designed the illustration for. The magazine centerfold cuts the front of the bus away from the back 3/4's.


Now to start my new illustration...the topic relates to my new hypothetical client (US veterans service). Make a poster that addresses the availability for PTSD treatment(Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)... Oh boy. What a contrast to Hayao Miyazaki. ^_^