My Web Home: some comps

I am working on creating a website, and spent the last couple days making some comps for the pages, and wanted to post those for some feedback. I need to research if a Lightbox-type program (I really want to use Fancy Zoom, which is a Lightbox clone) will work with an image map, otherwise my gallery will not work, and have to be redesigned. I think everything else will work fine as an HTML site.

Home Page

Home Page (Rollovers)

Gallery #1: Children's Illustration (inside frames will be thumbs)

Gallery #2

About Me (page) - image is a placeholder, text will be hand-written

Animals in Space, Part II: The Box

The Russian nesting dolls were a two part project, the second part was making a box for the dolls. I finished it last week, and i didn't take a picture of the box before turning it in for grading, but i have the box art file, and thought i would post that until i get a picture of the actual product.

Animals in Space: My Russian Nesting Doll set

I have a couple more tweaks i want to make (which include sealing this set with a Gloss sealant), but i am pretty much done with my Russian nesting doll set, which was the first assignment in my Retail Markets class. I have to admit i wasn't initially psyched about doing a project geared to the market of Kid Robot, i didn't think that was really my market, but i really got excited about this once i got started, and i think turned out a fairly successful project, in which i learned a lot about working on something 3-dimensionally.

My process for this set started with a series of six thumbnails. Really rough stuff, just brainstorming concept of what i could do with my blank Russian dolls. I came up with six different ideas, inclusing a crazy candy monster kids set, and a murderous Geishas set. I got the class's input, and the general consensus liked this idea best, so i went with it.


Originally, when i came up with the concept, I started doing research on what kind of animals had really been in space. I knew a chimp had gone up, and i read that things like fish, insects, cats, dogs, etc. had all been in space. But, then i just started thinking about what kind of animals did i want to draw/paint, and i soon just started going from there. I just tried to make it fun for myself. Then I started giving the animals personalities. I came up with an angry elephant, aloof mandrill, scared turtle, time-concerned octopus, and nauseous fish.


When i think of Kid Robot, i think of very simplified, flat, vector toys, so i wanted to reflect that in my animals. I worked in Adobe Illustrator to do my color comps, and get a look at what some of the bigger and more complicated animals would look like. I then stretched out my vector art and traced it using some graphite paper, right onto the nesting dolls (as best i could). I decided against the orange you see below, feeling like the animal-nauts should be in their white suits for space.
After getting as far as time would allow on the Illustrator mock-ups, I started drawing the bodies onto the nesting dolls, and painting with acrylic. I used super sculpy for the tiny fish and the ears on the elephant. I epoxied the elephant ears onto the figure.

I was trying to think out of the box, especially with the littlest nesting figure. I remember opening some of these sets when i was younger and marvel at the littlest one, wondering how the artist got the details on such a small tiny object. So, it was really important for that one to be a surprise. I have always been mystified with using resin, and it was actually Pat's idea to suspend the fish in something clear, like he was in water, but i took it and went with it! Using resin wasn't as hard as i thought it would be. But it was really toxic smelling. I wish i would have read the warning on the canister beforehand, and worked outside. I had to breath the fumes while i was working all night.


Now, onto the next project: creating a box design for my nesting dolls...

Fluke: Mini-Comics Show

So Pat and I took a little journey to Athens, GA this weekend for the Fluke: Mini-Comics show. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but thought it would be a fun, counter-cultural experience that i would enjoy, and it did not disappoint. The event was held at the upstairs at a bar, with the place transformed by about 50 artists to be a trunk show for their wares: mostly mini-comics, but there were also an assortment of graphic novels, stickers, prints, buttons, postcards, and handmade items.

Some of the mini-comics were beautifully made, i marveled at the craftsmanship of some of these tiny little books, the accordion pages pasted together, with a sleeve to encase the little object. Most of the items were priced very low, many artists just seemed excited to get their work out there, and some artists even traded for other's comics. There were also bigger companies like Top Shelf selling graphic novels (I love Blankets)--these of course were more $, but great quality of course. I was very excited to purchase a hard cover copy of Image Comic's Comic Book Tattoo (tales inspired by Tori Amos songs), which i had been wanting for a while, and got it signed by one of the artist and writer teams in it.

It was great to see the broad range of styles, media, and talent all in one place. The show was small, so it wasn't like going to a big con, which was nice. (Although i do have to start preparing myself for the overwhelming-ness that will be Heroes Con, which i think will be a fun thing to go to with Pat.) Everyone was kinda laid-back, and I could really see how close-knit the comics community was, everyone introducing people to each other, and talking about the art.

After a good couple hours of making our way around to different tables at the show and talking to artists, Pat and I did a little Athens sight-seeing...

Me and the two little kids who ruined my picture at UGA campus. (Florida's is better...GO Gators!)

Downtown Athens is Awesome.

The loot (Pat's and mine collectively). We have a lot to read.

After a stop at the awesome art and craft store, Hobby Lobby, which we spent waaay too much time in, Pat and I started on our way back to Atlanta. We had a great trip to Athens and a fun day. If we are still living in Atlanta, we will definitely be back to Fluke next year.

Spraygraphic Poster Show

I sent the poster i did a couple weeks ago to the Spraygraphic Poster show in Tempe, AZ and they recently posted the pics from the opening. Thought i would share. Check out the link below.

http://www.spraygraphic.com/postershow

What I Did on My Spring Break

Well, I am really glad i didn't have any travels planned this spring break because I ended up getting very sick with some sort of flu/food poisoning and was very content to spend the better part of the break in my comfy bed and couch. I did have high hopes of getting a lot of work done on a freelance job, which I did get somewhere with, just not as far along as i had hoped.

So when i wasn't spewing my guts out i actually got some reading done! I discovered a GREAT new comic series called The Umbrella Academy by Gerard Way (art by Gabriel Ba, with delicious colors by Dave Stewart) that I zipped through, and became quickly in awe of. I got Pat hooked on it too. It's about super-human orphans who were adopted by this rich genius and crafted into a para-normal sorta ghost and alien fighting team. The characters I immediately fell in love with because they are so quirky. I am failing to really communicate the awesomeness that is this story and art, but it's a great, fun, beautiful read.

I also read the newest Scott Pilgrim, in which SP battled yet another of Ramona Flower's evil ex-boyfriends, coming through unscathed (love it!). And Pat and I finished season 3 of Avatar: The Last Airbender, which left us hungry for more episodes that don't exist (deep sigh, can't wait for the movie...).

On the final day of break, i decided that i should do something fun! So i decided to do something i have been wanting to do for a while. I have been trolling The Temple of Cartoon Mojo, the SCAD-ATL Sequential Art blog (which my bf did the header for!), and always seen the weekly sketch challenges, and wanted to participate. I have also been looking for an opportunity to collaborate with the bf, Pat Bollin, on a project, and thought this was a great time to do that as well. I came up with a concept, and i drew it, then did line art with microns, and Pat digitally colored it (brilliantly, i might add :-) .

The challenge was to draw a character from any graphic novel/comic we were reading, and of course i had to do the Umbrella Academy. I was also making a lot of trips to Panera over break, trying to satisfy my bland, getting-over-being-sick diet with bagels and rolls and 7up, so i drew me and Pat sitting at Panera, reading. I drew him as the character "Spaceboy" and me as "The Rumor," with "Pogo" serving us coffee and soda. Ang, from Avatar is in the background ordering something. I thought it pretty much summed up our spring break, at least the happy end part of our spring break. We had a lot of fun working on it together and think more projects together will be in the future!

All in all, wish i had time to do more, which is always the case with a break, but i am excited about all the assignments and things to come from a new quarter of classes!

Maps of Malta gig poster

This is a band poster I did for my friend's band, Maps of Malta. They don't have much of an visual image yet, so i had pretty much a free range of imagery to draw from. At the beginning of the project i really had no idea of where to go. Looking at other band posters, I realized just how much free range i had, because the imagery often does not relate AT ALL to the music. SO i tried to come up with some imagery that was quirky, and pop/rock influenced. Ultimately, the band's song titles were the inspiration--they have a couple that reference the morning. So i went with this gross-ish kinda breakfast thing.

The technique was tons of fun. Once i inked it and tweaked it enough to where i was happy with it, I did a variation of the Susan Berghard technique, which involves using distressed laser printed paper. I really enjoyed roughing it up after that too: I scanned in images of coffee stains, ink splatters, and experimented with some drawing with some mulch outside for some other effects to make it a little less pristine.

I hope my buddy Jordan and Maps of Malta like the poster!