High Society

For one of my final school projects, we were to take an already existing movie and recreate it in our own image, via concept art.  I chose to re-imagine the 1956 musical, High Society, as a hand drawn animated feature!  I focused on Bing Crosby's character, C.K. Dexter Haven, and did a character spin, sculpey maquette, and a conceptual digital piece.

Pies and Lilypads

A couple of newly painted pieces, both in oil.

Doberman

     A watercolor cutout cartoon thingy for someone whose doberman has not been feeling well as of late.  Hopefully this will raise her spirits a bit!

     I never do things like this, especially not in watercolor.  It was very freeing to work on something NOT for school...the lack of pressure makes it so much more enjoyable.   Scanner butchered it a bit, tough cookies.

NYC Blackout and Looting of '77

Woo! Last painting of the semester!  Done in gouache, in a different style than I normally work in.  This was for a project in Peter Emmerich's class in which we had to illustrate, through sequential imagery, an important event in NYC history.  The style of this piece was heavily influenced by color scripts done for several recent Pixar movies.

Checking off final projects, one, by one, by one....

Musical Mousies for Sal! One of my favorite finishes of the semester for sure.

My first gouache painting!  This is about one of my favorite days at the dog grooming salon where I work.  This Komondor mix came in an absolute mess (although I admit I exaggerated his size and dirtiness a bit in the picture), and people crowded around the window staring in awe during the six or so hours it took to even remotely tidy him up a bit.  One of the coolest, and smelliest, dogs I have ever seen in all of my days.  I really do love the big ol' mop.

My oil painting for Kam's rendering class, I'm really happy with it.  I still need to touch up the hands and a few other things, but its mostly done.

EDIT1/18/12: touched up! I still can't look at those sausage fingers without cringing. I'll take this as a learning experience to always get the best reference possible on the first photoshoot.

Something about waking up in the morning...?  I kind of forgot where I was going with this but I'm content with the finish either way.

Finish of my Decemberists poster for my mentor, Robert Mackenzie.  It was wonderful to receive his input throughout doing this assignment.  He is a phenomenal illustrator as well as a phenomenal teacher, and I am so humbled and glad that I got to meet him.  Check out his blog at http://robert-mackenzie.blogspot.com/

Art Deco NYC travel poster assignment

Some works in progress!

I'm back! I don't really have any finished pieces, but it's been a while since I've posted, so I'll atleast put up some works in progress.

These first two are the sketch and painting-in-progress for basically my favorite project this semester.  We were allowed to do literally ANYTHING, so after a few days of stressing out over this extravagant vague assignment, I decided to illustrate one of my favorite days at my job at the groomer's!  I'll explain more when I post the finish.

Here is a rough sketch for an assignment given to me by my mentor, Robert Mackenzie.  He is a phenomenal illustrator who I am humbled to be in communication with, and if you have not seen his work before, then I highly advise you check it out.

I lied, this one is actually a finish. This was an assignment to create a book cover for "Time and Again" by Jack Finney, about a man who got bored with drawing soap, so he took a snooze and decided to wake up in the 1880's.  

....okay there's more to it then that. But yeah, it's actually a fairly enjoyable book. Check it out I guess.

Here is a sketch for an assignment we had to make an art deco style travel poster for NYC.

 This is a painting of...well I guess it's pretty self explanatory.  I actually have a lot more done on this one, but this is what's on my computer right now, so this is what you get.  Too bad.  

Again, I have more done on the painting for this one, but the sketch is what I have at hand.  I started the finish in oil, and ended up changing the rooster's eye completely, so he doesn't look so determined and wise.  According to many sources, crowing roosters, or any roosters for that matter, are not ones to bare such determined expressions. who'd of thought it?

Last but not least, this is my concept for a project which requires us each to create a sequential piece about something significant that happened in NYC.  Mine is about the blackout and mass looting in the 70s. 

Well there you have it!  Sooooo, these pieces, as well as two others I've yet to start, are all due in 3 weeks, all while attending classes and working weekends.  In conclusion, life is freaking DANDY RIGHT NOW.  Seventh semester boys and girls, seventh semester.

Though times are though right now, winter break will be that much sweeter, and hopefully I'll have a handful of decent portfolio pieces by the end of December :)  Look forward to more updates with finishes soon!

Digital Painting class final projects

 I'm glad I had this class, because it really kicked me in the ass and forced me to make pictures on photoshop for the first time since like 11th grade.  

William Low is one of the best illustration professors at FIT, and I am so happy I got the chance to be his student and to hear [a fraction of] the endless wisdom he has to share.  He is one teacher I hope to stay in touch with long after I graduate.