Illustrated novel concepts

The chapter opening illustration will be of a W (there are a lot of W's, with three characters named Mrs Who, Mrs Whatsit, and Mrs Which). I chose to do a starry background, since the novel is science fiction and involves space travel. The manner in which they travel is by tesseract, or a "wrinkle in time." A tesseract involves passing through the fifth dimension; the concept is explained to Meg (and the reader) with the demo of an ant travelling across a string. So, I also included a string to represent the tesseract for the letter illustration.

The full-page, full-color illustration is of the first planet that the children travel to--Uriel. Uriel is the mountainous home of beautiful centaur-like creatures with wings. The image reference I used below is for the landscape.

The quarter-page illustration will be of the Happy Medium's globe looking at the earth. The Happy Medium is a cheerful sort-of sorceress who has a globe that can look at anything in the universe. The Mrs W's take the main characters to see the Earth, which has a hazy cloud around it. The children--Meg, her brother Charles Wallace, and friend Calvin--learn that the Dark Thing is pure evil and is threatening the universe. This is what they are fighting against, and it is what has trapped Meg's father, whom they are trying to find.

These are the stock illustrations for the earth, hands, and globe of the illustration.

The title page illustration will feature Meg, the main character, being carried by an alien who helps her recover when she is almost frozen to death. The aliens live on a planet that gets hardly any light so they are blind. They also happen to have four arms with lots of tentacles. Meg fondly calls her alien caretaker Aunt Beast. It was perhaps my favorite part of the whole book, and I remember Aunt Beast fondly myself.

The reference images I used were mostly for Meg, but I also did some research on tentacles to find an example that didn't look too creepy. This example on the left is from a sea anemone.

When Meg finds her father, he is trapped inside a glass-like column. He's been there for a couple years, so his hair is unkept, and he's also sad, of course. This is a reference image I used for the position of his body and lighting.

Biography book cover concept

Here is the composition of the cover, which I pieced together with some photos. It looks scary right now but it will be better, I promise! I used one photo for her dress/sitting position, and other for her face (I liked the positioning better). Then I found a more sophisticated chair for her to sit in, since the original was not as much her style. The french arm chair I found was fantastic--just a picture off Google, which is unfortunate because it's such a great chair I wish I could take my own picture of it. It would have been awesome to keep the photograph of the chair and add her as an illustration, but (1) I don't have permission for the photo and (2) the edges aren't big enough for a bleed on the cover.

The font is pretty awesome, but I'm blanking on the name right now (I'll find out). Click image to embiggen.

Wine label concept

Here are three concepts for the "Krazy Kat Winery" wine label illustration. I like the first two concepts more because the cat is interacting with the brand name, bringing more attention to it.

I like the position of the cat in the first concept because it is more believable than the second one, although the second was created from an actual video of my personal crazy cat. For style, I would like to do a sketchy-but-realistic illustration (example below) in crazy colors--purples, oranges, and yellows.

Click images to embiggen.

Architecture illustration concepts

Here are two concepts for the poster of Foellinger Auditorium. The building is very symmetrical (neo-classical style, I think), so I wanted to emphasis this elegance in the poster. The first concept shows only one half of the building and allows for greater attention to the details, and has good assymetrical balance overall--which I think is typically more interesting as far as compositions go. The second concept I also like because it shows the quad (large, open lawn with diagonal sidewalks) where the building is located. This gives it a very regal appearance, akin to the White House. But, there would be less details--something that might be hard considering I want to do this in a woodcut or scratchboard style.

Holiday card: Concept 2

Here's my next sketch. I was hoping to get an actual proof, but I didn't have as much time this weekend as I'd hoped, so this is all I have so far. I just need to "ink" it in Photoshop and add some color.

This weekend my class went to Weiskamp silkscreening and printed our Amtrak posters. I was really happy with how mine turned out, so I'll need to find a way to take a good picture or scan it in.

Editorial spot: Concepts

The news article I decided to do is an article about a "new technology [that] uses brain scans to see what a person is watching." It appeared on ScienceNews.org, titled "The mind's eye revealed." If you're interested in the most recent paper about it by the scientists, it was published in Current Biology.*

The tagline implies something that isn't totally true--the scientists didn't just hook a computer up to a brain and record what the person was watching. They used a fMRI to record brain signals for a few hours while the three participants watched movies. A computer recorded the signals and used them with the videos to create a model for what the participants were seeing. After the program was "trained" the participants were shown a couple more video clips, and this time the computer read the signals and picked from a library of 1-second YouTube video clips something close to what the model determined the participant was watching. The researchers then averaged the model's top 100 choices into a compiled video of blurry shapes that are remarkably (and eerily) similar to what the participants were watching. I've included a video clip from the original article at the end.

Anyway, here are some concept sketches for the editorial spot:

There are a lot of different ideas I have... not quite sure which one I like most so far. Right now I'm favoring the TV connected to the head showing a brain on the screen.


More on the research:

Link to video of what the participants saw and what the computer reconstructed. (You might have to be a member of the journal to see it...let me know if it doesn't work.)

*Citations:
Nishimoto, S, AT Vu, T Naselaris, Y Benjamin, N Yu, and JL Gallant. 2011. Reconstructing visual experiences from brain activity evoked by natural movies. Current Biology 21: 1641-1646.

Holiday card: Concepts

Here are my best ideas for some whimsical illustrations of Parkland cobras in winter scenes.

The first one is my favorite, but I will probably add a window across from the snake to add more balance to the composition. The "snowsnake" one would be difficult to make believable. The third one is fine but I just don't like the idea as much as the first.

Instruction illustration: Concept

My concept for this step-by-step illustration is for a humorous origami instructional that gets more and more complicated. The photographs below are some reference photographs I have for the six steps. I'm still working on the captions (I have a couple ideas below).

 

How to fold a simple origami crane
1. Fold your paper in half from corner to corner.
2. Fold it in half again from corner to corner.
3. Next, open the flap and turn the sides in to make a boat shape. Turn over and repeat.
4. Then open the inside flaps to the outside corners while flattening the edges backwards. Take time to bandage any paper cuts.
5. Finally, separate the two sides to access the internal pocket along the inside edge. Pull the corners to the nearest edge--this is easier if a friend holds the flap at the opposite edge. [Third hand reaching in]
6. Done: a simple origami crane! [Hands have band-aids and paper is ruffled and torn]


How to fold a simple origami crane
1. Fold your paper in half from corner to corner.
2. Fold it in half again from corner to corner.
3. Next, open the flap and flatten it while bringing the corner to the opposite corner. Turn over and repeat.
4. Then open the inside flaps to the outside corners while flattening the edges backwards. Caution: this step may cause paper cuts.

5. Finally, separate the two sides to access the internal pocket along the inside edge... and then pull the corners to the nearest edge...or is it the opposite edge... beneath the flap?
6. Argh! Crumple your paper into a ball and go to BadOrigami.com for better directions. [The last panel would be a crumpled paper].


Right now I like the first one best. What's funny is that my first finger on the left hand actually is hurt (it's sticking out awkwardly on the fifth panel) because my cat bit me that morning. I was picking her up right as my partner turned on the vacuum cleaner next to her. She flailed and then turned and bite me--I could hear her teeth breaking through my skin in three places with a popping sound. It was gross... but luckily not infected.

Silkscreen travel poster: Concepts

Here are my two best concept sketches, of Mt. Rainier (left) and Mt. Shasta (right). What I pick will depend mostly on the colors I chose.

The assignment calls for three PMS colors (colors that can be mixed by paint). In silkscreen, the colors can be totally opaque or you can add a transparent element, allowing two colors to create a new color when they are layered on top of each other.

For Rainier, I am thinking of the color scheme on the left below, and for Shasta the colors on the right below. I like both of them--the blue, brown, grey is exciting and crisp, but the yellow, pink, and purple is a nice palette for sunset.

GEEB logo: Concept

This is a project I am pursuing on my own: a new logo design for the GEEB (Graduates in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) group at the University of Illinois.

This is the current logo (artist unknown):

And below is the concept I came up with so far. I also want to adapt it to a version in which the letters are horizontal, a detailed color version for the website, and a simpler silhouetted version (outlined letters with animal/plant silhouettes).

Now, how many of you know your Illinois? Do you recognize the contents of the letters? Answers after the picture.

Each is a representative of the state of Illinois. For example, the Northern Cardinal is the state bird, and there's also the state flower Native Violet, state fish Bluegill, and state insect Monarch Butterfly. Neat, huh?

Saul Bass project: Concept

For my Design Principles, I was given information and images to create a flyer for MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It featured a modern artist named Saul Bass, a graphic artist famous for his film posters and title sequences for films, including Vertigo, Psycho, and Anatomy of a Murder. He also designed logos for United Airlines, Girl Scouts, and AT&T.

Very inspirational! I remember as a kid being interested in the design of the AT&T logo and the Girl Scout logo especially. I guess it occurred to me that someone had designed those logos, but I never thought that they'd be famous and have art featured at museums.

But, here is my concept based on images from Anatomy of a Murder (provided for us), as a practice in layout and grid design.

Product illustration: Concept

See brief and inspiration. I looked on the Timbuk2 website for inspiration on ideas or themes to include in the ad and found that the company has a lot of pride of being from San Fransisco, still having a factory there, and giving back to their local community. So, I took some of those themes and decided the composition would be a person standing in front of and facing the Golden Gate bridge while wearing a Timbuk2 bag. The tagline is "Born, bred, and here to stay" and "After 20 years, our custom bags are still manufactured in the heart of San Fransisco" (this is modified text from the Timbuk2 About Us website page).

Because I can decide these sorts of things (haha), the ad would appear in San Fransisco Magazine.

 

References: Personal photographs from a family vacation to San Fransisco.

 

 Personal reference photo for person.

Created on the Timbuk2 website for designing a custom bag.

Silhouette illustration: Concept

This is the concept sketch for the silhouette illustration (see brief and inspiration). A major event in this comical play is when a plane crashes, so an old fashioned biplane is shape of the major silhouette with the play's name Misalliance coming out of the plane as smoke. I think additional copy will appear at the bottom of the flyer, since it's complicated to do all do by hand. The silhouette of the plane will be made up of Victorian style household items and men and women's accessories (marriage is another theme of the play).

The silhouette of the plane will be made up of Victorian style household items and men and women's accessories. Sketches of these are shown below. I will outline these in Illustrator and then arrange them in the program (much easier that way).

My reference image of the biplane silhouette, from iStock, is shown below. The reference for the Victorian items were mostly from an episode of Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett--I watched it for inspiration and drew the images by sight, so there are no references images for those.