Sketchbook scan

This week's sketchbook scan is primarily a study of a guitar, particularly the lighting on the side of it. I've been interested in lighting on various surfaces lately, because I haven't paid much attention to it in the past. At least not on obscure things like the sides of guitars. I did a gradient bar--perhaps useful for an Illustrator illustration one day.

Also, more cats. And cat ears. I'm adopting a kitty soon, so I'm a little obsessed.

Product illustration: Inspiration

I wasn't thrilled to do the product illustration, mostly because I have kind of a beef with using my skills to promote something like pointless consumerism and/or self-image problems (clothing/beauty ads). But, once I decided to do a TimBuk2 messenger bag, a quality product I love and made by a not-so-evil company, I warmed up to the idea. (Needless to say, I'm very socially aware.)

While researching advertisements for inspiration on my own product illustration, I came across these examples. The first is by Joe Saputo, and is a style I really like. Showing the design lines and/or insides of the product is really cool for a high tech product. In this case, the style emphasizes design and therefore high quality and engineering to the buyer, so the illustration is very effective for those types of products.

 

But, I don't plan on doing a high-tech product, so I looked for other styles. This next ad features a photograph of a product with some illustrated designs and copy, by Nate Williams. I think it's effective because it still allows the product to be the focus while containing interesting elements from illustration.

 

 This next one, although for a beer advertisement, has a similar style that has a product photo within an illustration. Seems like more fun to draw. By Bunky Hurter. This style also lets the illustrator skip out on drawing the product! Might seem like cheating but it also side-steps the issue of the illustrator portraying or stylizing the product in a way that the client or viewer does not find appealing. Very important.

 

This last one I just thought was so wonky and crazy, I had to include it. By Andy Lackow.

Product illustration: Brief

Client: Timbuk2 (San Fransisco, CA)

Project: Product Illustration

Specifications: Choose a product that you own or would like to own, but make sure it is small enough to be photographed on a table top. The required elements for the finished magazine ad are: an original illustration created by you, a simple headline, and your client's logo. Your final design must show an understanding of unity, emphasis and balance. When appropriate, utilize rhythm and depth as well.

Reproduction: The illustration will be printed as a magazine beauty shot (full-page ad).

Justification: I first encountered Timbuk2 bags in Seattle, where they are very popular and somewhat of a fad. However, after borrowing someone's while going out to the field, I fell in love with its great design, quality materials, and practicality. The classic messenger bag is fully waterproof (good for Seattle, of course), extremely durable, easy to adjust and open without taking it off, and includes features such as reflective clips and second side strap which are excellent for safe and easy biking. Soon I had my own gold-black-gold bag, which I've used daily for several years.

Silhouette illustration: Inspiration

In researching different silhouette styles, I came across the work of Sarah Coleman. I really like the intricate pieces of the little drawings that form a larger picture. So, I think I will emulate this style in my piece.

Here are some more examples of festival posters that use the silhouette style I am interested in. I like this style because from far away, you can see a shape or word, but you can also tell that there is something more going on in the illustration. Thus, the style forces you to lean closer and examine the image in more detail; it makes you examine the flyer for an extended period of time. This makes the poster effective in capturing the viewers attention.

CMA Music Festival 2010, by Alex Pearson

SPARK Animation Festival 2008, by Simon Oxley

Cornwall Film Festival 2009 poster, by Matt Hocking and Darren Whittington

Silhouette illustration: Brief

Client: Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (Champaign, IL)

Project: Silhouette Illustration

Specifications: Create an illustrated event poster for a festival. The client can be a producer of any kind of festival (music, art, theater, dance, film, food, etc.). The art must be 100% vector and be created in the style of silhouetted illustrations.

Reproduction: The art will be printed in black and one PMS color at a size of 11x17 inches.

Justification: I love plays--my parents took me to several as a kid and I also worked in the scene shop all through college. I looked at the Krannert website for an upcoming play that I was familiar with, but there were none, so I decided instead to do a flyer for a play I had already seen. I picked Misalliance, by George Bernard Shaw, which I saw last year.

Although it was written around 100 years ago (1910), the comical play has some very advanced ideas concerning marriage and women's independence. The important characters of the play are a young, restless woman who's engaged and an independent Polish acrobat who arrives unexpectedly in a plane crash. I decided my concepts will probably center around the plane and juxtaposition of these two women.

First sketches

These are two sketches I made this week, focusing on cat heads. I observed two different types of head shapes, one with an elongated face with a jaw that sticks out and the other more round and compact, in some cats I saw in real life. The sketches themselves are from photographs I took myself at different points in time. (I termed the different face types "french cat" and "british cat" for no apparent reason--perhaps the cats faces remind me of English and French styles or fashions. "Turkish cat" is from a photo of my friend's cat in Turkey).

Since I was concentrating on shape, I started to notice a "hidden geometry" in the faces of the cats, particularly circles in the checks. So, then I tried a sketch that explored the shapes I could find in the cat's face--that's the second sketch.