IF - Mysterious

 
I caught this mysterious raven as it began to fly away; I believe it had something (food/garbage) in it's claws, but that didn't show up in the photo, so I didn't add it to the illustration.

I haven't done an Illustration Friday challenge in a long time... I'm trying to kick start my creativity, because I will be starting Printmaking again on Wednesday!  I can't wait, but my ideas are scattered.  I want to do some portraits, trees, flowers, maybe a raven (maybe this raven...?), and some landscapes, but I'm not sure how to sell (as in justify) all of those things as one package.  Maybe if I start sketching the connection will appear naturally...

IF "garden"

I am using my old illustrations like modular building blocks... oh what fun:) I have (obviously) been in love with these flowers (they are all over my web-site)... and these green garden illustrations fit the bill for this weeks Illustration Friday theme to the tee; my container "garden." I killed two birds with one stone and worked on this in class this last Saturday. We are making artist trading cards to trade with one another; very fun, I can't wait... maybe I will scan my favorite to share next week!

IF "multiple"

I did this digital illustration in PhotoShop two weeks ago in my Art & Technology class blog. Now I'm glad I didn't already post it here... I'm trying not to be too redundant (not that it matters, but I want two separate records of my progress).

Anyway, the original title was "cheesey pop-art" because I love Andy Warhol (I did a report on his life in high school) but I have never done the whole pop-art thing. I also haven't gotten to really play in PhotoShop in a very long time... This class has been really good for that. Really pushing what I already know and trying to bridge fine art and digital art. The original sketch is from a previous post as well. I love being able to revisit things and I am really playing with version-ing in a tangible way. I don't really have a set process yet, but this is how it seems to be coming together: original sketch, digital rendering, original pastel... then maybe I will start compositing and collaging the two together.

playing in PhotoShop

I will be the first to admit that I am more comfortable in Illustrator then PhotoShop, but that is changing! I mean, knowing when to use which one is half the battle... I've known that for a while. But when you are more comfortable in something you are able to dig and figure out obscure things, which is where I am with Illustrator. Now the tables are tipping and I am learning all kinds of great PhotoShop tricks in this class. It is also really nice to be able to play and not worry about getting something done/figured out for a deadline.

This is my PhotoShop version of last weeks collage... not happy with the choppiness of the lines, but that is where you would have to choose to do certain elements in another program. But it is great for concepting... I can now take this to another level or in a different direction :) julie

very productive...

Yes, I have been very productive this weekend... which is amazing since I have so much going on. I don't know how I've found the time. Well, I know I skipped a lot of sleep; early this am I did that collage (three posts down). And, I was never able to meet up with anyone to work on the murals, so I worked on some ideas digitally and finished my istock.com illustrations. Yay me, again! istock has accepted the arbor and I am now waiting to hear back about my urn and lady liberty from the previous post. The arbor and urn are illustrations that I did in school for my graphics standards manual. I made up a company I called Garden Gate, and did a series of these green illustrations of garden items (no scale wasn't important to me, obviously... now I am questioning it with them right next to each other). I also have an adirondack chair and a glass and brass hanging lantern which I will post later. I love(d) all the things that I chose... they are things that I would love to have in my garden if I had a garden or even a yard!) I will try to get some pictures of the graphics standards manual (my old computer and, thus, my old school files aren't working).

The illustrations themselves have been a little problematic... istock wants all blocks of color and shapes to be closed, but I use a brush tool a lot of the time to get variations in line weight more easily and to give them a more sketchy look. So, I have to go in and close shapes and make sure there aren't any stray lines or points. I has really been a lot of work! So, now when I do a new illustration, I am making sure I do those thing as I work... not too hard to remember unless I am really wrapped up in the moment. julie

recent digital illustration

This is an idea I worked up for the mural project... but the murals have taken another direction! I uploaded it to istock.com (for those who don't know... a great source for cheap but professional looking stock). I am trying to get approved (or all three trial illustrations approved) to start uploading and selling my digital illustrations. I figured it would be a good way to get some of my images out there with the least amount of trouble and money! They approved one and declined on two, saying that the style wasn't what they were looking for. Hopefully this one isn't too crazy. I think it would make a great album cover or t-shirt, but I am biased:) like a mother with her children! julie

digital flowers from sketch

Here is my original sketch and digital version of flowers that I drew last year I also made one into a single flower for a repeating background... tested it and it works great! Yay me:) Nothing major just fun (I love the colors... of course they look so much better in the sketch, although you can't tell from the scan). I used prisma color pencils for it, Illustrator for the digital file, and took that into PhotoShop for the repeating background. julie

t-shirt design for a friend...

Here is a variation of the Mendenhall Glacier illustration I did a while back... It is for the Coast Guard medical clinic here (a friend of mine works there). I don't know if it is what they were thinking, but I like the way it turned out! Julie

IF SOAR

Here is my Illustration Friday try at "soar." I've had a picture similar to this in my mind since last summer when I saw a bunch of birds flying over Twin Lakes... I believe it was stormy and misty out, but when I went to interpret it I had to let loose with the color. I like the idea of the birds being origami birds. I need to add trees (if it doesn't get horribly busy) and I'd like to add some pattern. I will post the final later when I get to it;)

















Here is my rough, rough sketch... but I know I liked it. Sometimes just putting a concept on paper helps even if it isn't a perfect pencil drawing!

The Mendenhall Glacier

For "Little things" I also thought of our glacier, the Mendenhall glacier in Juneau, Alaska. Glacial ice is pretty amazing, they put a chunk out in front of the vistor's center to show the tourists how the compact ice crystals are like a 3-d puzzle that you can pull apart as it melts. I am designing a t-shirt for a friend using the glacier as the main image... I put the logo style wording in for this post! It looks like I need to rotate it. I like off-kilter, but that might be a bit much.

My Avatar

Well I have been working on some things... just not sketching:( But I did finally finish my icon/avatar. I'm sure it will change as I get tired of it. I have been working on it using Ilustrator's Live Trace tool and I haven't been very impressed (!) I was really afraid that it would be the end of digital illustrators... but I don't think anyone needs to worry. You still need to do a lot of clean-up and of course layout and composition and line quality; the things that everyone takes for granted. Basically you still need to be an artist.

I found a new vector conversion tool at http://vectormagic.stanford.edu/. A colleague said her friends think it is better then Live Trace. It is good, but you don't have the same amount of control, although you can edit individual paths more easily. I combined the two, and still had to do a lot of clean-up. I would rather do it by "hand" with the pen tool. I will post some old digital illustrations I did in school. At my art school they did not focus on digital illustration and I had to figure it out on my own... I'm sure it has changed a bit, but they are mostly about cranking us out into the industry.

As for the one below, it still needs some work to mesh the two styles. (But) I felt like I really needed to put my identity up and it looks better smaller!

Here is one that has a fixed ear! Couldn't stand that dark line (looks like I'm wearing a headset!) :) 1.4.08 julie