Final Project: Old Maid Game

The name of my game is Yes??  It derives from my weakness to say yes to many more projects than I am capable of managing.

This is the back of my cards. The words and phrases emphasize how my common mistake before handling a project--accepting more than I can accomplish in a timely manner. 

 The next series of cards are color coordinated by background. Red represents the events that changed my art style, yellow is the activities that inspire me, green includes the inanimate objects that I keep close to me, and grey is for the people that inspired me, and orange is my old maid. 

Events: 

Snowball Fest 2011 was the first time I was introduced to EDM music.

SXSW 2009 was the most inspirational and craziest spring breaks of my life ... I lived like a king for a week. 

Living as a snowboarder in Avon, CO. 

The first drawing in which I became aware that I could draw. 

My everlasting trip to Cambodia 2011.

Activities:

Playing guitar helps to resonate extra creativity within me. 

I keep an abundance of art history books around me

I follow video blogs, Youtube, Vimeo, and Hulu.

Downtown Austin is sacred land to me. I'll got pub crawl or run the city.

My scooter helps inspire my journey

Inanimate Objects:

Pencils and supplies are always around for any free flowing inspiration

My nalgene will never go empty

My thinking caps keep me creative

Caffeine or any type of energy stimulant is necessary to keep a good pace

A mickey mouse figurine that was a top my 4th birthday cake

People:

Chanda is my girlfriend, she loves yellow, and I always get her to critique my art.

Skrillex is just one of my favorite DJ's at this time, he's become very successful and that inspires me.

My sister is a Yogi now, and a wonderful artist.

Jason Jenkins is a powerful spirit that has allowed me to advance my skills.

Activities:

Bass Cannon refers to the volume and style of music I currently listen to when creating.

I dance with my music or just to my own drum. 

The driving range can be medicinal for me.

I exercise to stay healthy as well as clear my head

Longboarding brings a bit of thill into my steady life.

Old Maid:

My old maid is a depiction of me carrying all of the projects I've accepted, while also trying to balance and manage them. It's no easy task. 

Project 7: The Bard

Using our Pseudonym that we create a project ago, we are now to illustrate a playbill for the Royal Shakespeare Company in the style of our Pseudonym. Unfortunately for me, I have nearly read none of these plays, with the exception of The Merchant of Venice. Even still it was many mornings ago, that it was difficult for me to recall. Lucky for me my girlfriend was an avid fan of shakespeare and she would be able to summarize each play. I eventually stuck with The Taming of the Shrew. It boasted a similar story as a recent movie, 10 Things I Hate About You, and symbolizing this plays theme was as easy as a pair of wedding rings and an inscribed quote.

As my Pseudonym would, he painted most of the playbill, including the rings, the inscription the background and boarder. My pseudonym also likes to treat the background and boarder with harsh brush strokes and paint splatter, to contrast the prettier and "tamed" features, if you will.

InClass 7: Editorial Illustration

Based on an article I was given, I was assigned to them create a splash page in regards to the article. Only allotted an hour to concept and then create. I'm pleased with the vision just wish I had more time for the details, such as, the Metlife Burglar  is actually suppose to have cookies in hand putting cookies into the jar.

Project 6: Simplification Through Symbolism

This weeks assignment was intended to inspire "quick-fire" ideas but through methodical development. We first chose 10 quotes that contained imagery, then narrowed those quotes to the best 3. Next the best 3 quotes were accompanied by at least 10 thumbnails. Only the best thumbnail for each quote was selected for final production. My final designs were finished in Vector. Here are my designs and quotes.

I considered depicting a runner with empty pockets or a heart protruding out of a chest, but this was the simplest imagery. 

Because the quote suggests that seeds planted are greater than harvest reap, I chose to depict the seeds over the plant like in a division equation. 

Not my favorite but the idea was the create a broken world inside an apple. This one definitely needs some refinement because the pieces of the world are much too small to work in logo form. 

This project allowed us to portray the ugliness in some attractive things. My attractive examples were Dogs, Bag of Money, Hill Country, and Planting a Tree. The ugliness was then created based on how each example was portrayed.

 

I love dogs, just not Pugs. To me their ugly, especially when they're nose deep in their crotch.

 

 A bag of money is a glorious thing to find, and wished by many college students, but not when it's for a ransom.

 

 The Hill Country is beautiful and we shouldn't mess with Texas, but then where does all the trash go?

 Planting a tree is probably the best service anyone can do, but not when someones trying to chop one down somewhere else.

InClass: Assignment 4 & Project 4

Today's assignment encouraged us to become someone dramatically different from ourselves. We were able to detach from our reality and live in a fantasy. Whether good or bad, the concept was to envision and embrace a Pseudonym. Mine is Harrison a Computer Networking Guru, that's wealthy and  engaged in all sorts of social media. He's made a lot of money creating Apps and Operating systems in which our smart phones and tablets use. He also became the world famous Alchemist, finally turning an organic item into Gold.

The Pseudonym led into Project 4 and building up our character to be featured on a CRYK Polish Style Poster. It was also required to add an emotional word that attaches to the characters personality. I chose arrogant for my character. He's actually a successful alchemist and a billion-dollar-geek, that's Lex Luther potential arrogance. My main medium was Adobe Illustrator, largely using the pen tool to create Harrison and type tool and direct selection tool for the rest. Used texture to subtract tiny areas away to create a vintage look. 

Project 3: Totally Looks Like ...

We dropped the pencils and picked up the camera for this project. We were to look around and find objects and stuff that looks like well recognized things. Most of my photos can from one day of shooting at Cedar Park Veterans Memorial Park. 

I saw a Piet Mondrian's painting in the playscape. I was lucky to get the little dabs of primary color seen through the tiles on the playscape.  

From Disney's Aladdin

Gumby was at the water fountain.

This is a useful tool, but maybe I'll keep it caged up just in case. 

This playscape even has the eyes

This one's more obvious

AHHH!!

I hope this brings me good luck

It's an Astrodome for ants

Generally Baseman's characters don't have an open jaw, this is the best example I could find. The candle holder definitely has a face but the artist it resembles is hard to find.

InClass Assignment 3: Juxtaposition

In this assignment we were given the challenge to illustrate three juxtapositions. 

The first is comparison between the modern day Sign Holders and Pan Handlers. They share common interest and themes but differ in their status.

There are many words in the English vocabulary that share the same name but have different meanings. Here's is my second example, Mousse – Mousse, the play on words between the animal and the dessert. Yum!

For my last, I wanted to compare the similarity of hand signals that sports officials call between Baseball and Football ... and how this affect the fans. 

I had fun illustrating but I've realized now that I don't often think about juxtapositions often enough to make strong examples. I'm pleased with my post but in comparison to the examples that I saw in class these are pretty mild. I'm hoping to take this new understanding, learn from it, and expand my horizons. I'd like to become better so that I can be more effective in the future at a design agency.  

Project 2: New Yorker Phrase Narratives

The story behind this project was to create a cartoon to be featured in the New Yorker. I was given the phrase "Miss! Oh, Miss! For goodness sakes, stop." I cleverly thought about these two scenarios in which this quote could've been used.

 The first illustration is of a lobster trying to avoid becoming a meal. He holds out his wallet photo album of his children and wife.

And the second illustration is of an obnoxious karaoke singer. I feel as though I missed a crucial detail in this one—i'm missing the member of the audience that is telling her to stop singing. Both were sketched with pencil then inked with a felt tip marker. 

I'm pleased with both designs overall concept. A few artistic mistakes such as the wallet in the first image looks strangely familiar to a watch off of the ladies wrist; and the forgotten audience member in the second image. I do like the lady in the first image; I like how I captured her attitude with a pose. It definitely looks as though she is giving slight concern but is waiting to hear out his last request. 

InClass Assignment 2: The Paper Game

The Paper Game was fun, similar to bad game of telephone. You'll start with a quote and by the time the paper pad reaches the last person, there should be something more interesting than what originally started. The pad was passed around in a circle, one pass at a time. Every pass alternated between "a quote" and "an illustration." Only the previous page was allowed to be looked at, you could not flip through the rest of the book. We passed the book 11 times. So you can imagine how skewed the message became.  Displayed before you is the first quote and the very last illustration.

My quote was "Stay Class, San Diego!" The classic Ron Burgundy (Anchorman) sign off. It was a surprise to see this illustration, it was nothing that I could've imagined. However, the classiness still remains, with the "classy" wine theme. The snake is wrapped around a wine bottle and it's also grasping a wine glass in it's mouth. 

Overall I think it was another fantastic game. I'm really loving these drawing games because they're  inspiring and fresh, and I can incorporate them into parties, too.

Project 1: Shape Potential

This project tested my patience as it seemed more and more difficult to turn the same shape into something new. In short, I think I've got a good looking set of illustrations. 

Speed & Movement: A paper airplane & a motorcycle

Enter Here: A look into the living arrangements through a unique window & the battery door of a remote control

Shape Reflected: An owl & the back end of a boat. Created with my shape reflected.

Sports: Basketball dunk & Miniature Golf

Unique Perspective: A cow lifted by UFO and my childhood meets today's technology

It wasn't till I took all the images into Photoshop that I realized I had some continuity with themes, such as movement and sports. I chose these final images because their characteristics became more expressive the more I explored them. For instance, in the last image of the example of the iPad, the figure of the boy using his suction-cup-arrows in the reflection came to me after outlining and shading. Similar fate with the boat and it's overhead speaker system and the unique living room ... which is a small taste of what my dream office would look like. The details that followed afterwards is what I like the most about this batch. 

On the opposite of that, I had several other ideas that I aborted because the imagery just didn't expressive itself like these before you. The one's I aborted: Tiki Statue or Easter Island Statue, Rain Coat and Shirt collar. Not very expressive as you can see. So very happy with the final product. Hope you think so too. Thanks

Day 1: InClass Projects

Exquisite Corpus

Day 1 InClass Project: Exquisite Corpse 

 Today we covered all the essential first day of class topics (syllabus, materials, projects, etc) and then we started on some sweet projects. Our first project was called Exquisite Corpse. This method of illustration allows artists pure imagination and complete randomness ... a recipe for success. 

 We were assembled into teams of three, each of us had our own 11"x 17" paper. We folded the blank paper into thirds. Each third of paper was going to be illustrated by a different artist, and with a different theme. The top third was for the head, the middle third was for the body and the bottom third was for the base/feet. Each illustration was timed before passing our paper to the next artist. We also drew guides so that the next artist knew where it would connect. We were not allowed to look at the previous illustrations, we were to draw with no fear or sense of restrain. The result that something unthinkable for one mind, unimaginable for one artist and just  down right great! 

In my exquisite corpse, I started with a sunglass-framed dude with a raging headache. The headache is coming from the infestation of snake-like creatures in the back of his head. He is also being followed by a couple off UFO's. The middle turned out coincidentally nice, with the feature of a name tag and the strange body type and appendages. Lastly the bottom successfully creates the movement needed for this dude to escape the UFOs. 

With a project like this one, I hardly believe that accuracy is a concern. Just get the ideas on the paper and don't stop to think, just draw. However, yesterday, i thought differently. I thought my illustration was embarrassing and that I was creative enough and no one would like it, even I didn't like it. Then today when I looked at it again, I was in love, actually blown away. I realized the potential of this exercise and I believe its a great project with great purpose. I plan to do more of these for fun and when I'm out of ideas.

Shapes

Day 1 InClass Project: Shapes Practice

And here is my second InClass project called Shapes Practice. On this hand out was a triangle (top left), a square (top right) and a circle (bottom half). The objective: to use the simple shapes to create something imaginative and unexpected. 

To be honest, this project gave me trouble at first. We were given 40 mins to complete all three and I think I spend 10 mins just staring at the paper because I couldn't imagine. When  inspiration hit, I started with the square and added a "lid." The box was a good place to hide or to escape danger and so I drew ladders. Soon after I kept thinking teddy bears ... teddy bears. So the teddy bears are escaping from a nearby danger that isn't seen from the frame. The teddy bears are wielding machine guns and rpg's. The one closest to the viewer is unable to walk on it's own because its leg had been ripped off and stuffing slowly falling out. I then added a few other helpful teddy bears all engaged in their own dilemma. The idea for the rocket engines came last when I thought, "these bears to an exit strategy."

The triangle came next, which started with the beard. There is something habitual about me drawing a beard or tentacle-like shapes when I have a mental block. I started there and then led up to the cycloptic eye. Originally I wanted him to be wearing a hood, Jawa style. Since it didn't start well I continued the flow into his shirt vest, which has fur trim around the piping of the sleeve and middle. The idea for the light bulb came from Chase's remark about the Illuminate. The cyclops has a slight love interest for the light bulb.

I drew around the circle last and I had alway imagined it as a lizards eye. So I drew everything I knew about lizards—scaly, organic spot patterns, a tail, strange extruded eyes. The very last detail I added was the teddy bear leg that was ripped off, which ties those two stories together.