Wynona Ryder practice book cover

This was a practice book cover. Some things I learned were separating the face to get different details when applying levels (on the photograph, before it's autotraced) and using Illustrator stamp tool to make the paint splatters. We used Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign to make this art, so it was pretty comprehensive.

Color logos

This exercise was for learning about PMS colors and applying emotional color styles to logos.

Kitty sketch

Those cats... need to stop being inspirational.

Color music and dominance

Similar to what we did with rhythm, we listened to different types of music and made color schemes that we thought represent that music.

This one was called color "dominance" but it has more to do with emotion associations with colors.

Sketch of my friend Katie

I did this from a photograph, which had really awesome lighting. Sometime I might create a portrait of her digitally sometime. For now, a sketch.

Color depth and color seasons

Here are a couple more exercises with color that we did. Color depth deals with using color to make the illusion of space or objects taking up space. Bright colors typically advance and dark or dull colors typically recede.

Seasonal colors played with palettes. What colors make us think of the seasons? If you were designing a card for Mother's Day, which colors would seem appropriate?

Color contrast and balance

Here's something I've been kind of dreading... color exercises! It's turned out to not be so bad, I guess because everything looks good to me. It may not be a problem until I get grades back. What am I talking about? I'm red-green colorblind.

This exercise was on color contrast. The words of "contrast" were white and we had to change it to a color that contrasted well with the background color. I mostly used complementary hues with the opposite with the opposite brightness or saturation.

This other exercise was to incorporate balance into the design. The left large box was a color and we had to balance it by changing the smaller boxes on the right side. First I tried monochromatic schemes, and then I also tried to just change the hue while keeping the same saturation and brightness. However, sometimes that doesn't work... this one took a lot of fiddling around. I will probably look at this tomorrow and want to change something!

Weekly sketch

This is some sketches for a character I will be drawing as a webcomic soon. My friend is writing the story, but we probably won't have any panels out until January. I just started some concept designs. This is for the face of Paloma, the main character. She's has a Spanish background (her name means "dove" in Spanish). Then I got side tracked trying to figure out how to draw a human face in profile (grr... that's frustrating...).

Map exercise

This exercise was in preparation for a project. We replicated this simplified map of the Champaign-Urbana area that highlighted fun things to do on a Friday night. This was all done in Illustrator.

Some things I learned in this exercise would be how to make the double line (make a line with a thick stroke and then outline the stroke) and also using a font called Carta that has the dingbats (little images) for the highway symbols. I didn't really like this exercise because it took a long time (with all the text and icons) and felt like busy work...

Study sketch

Sketches of some noses, mostly. Not very detailed, but this is from my head and not looking at anyone. I'd like to do it again with some models :)

People of Chicago sketch

Here's a sketch I did while in Chicago this weekend. I had some time to wait for a train, so I spent it in a Starbucks, getting inspiration from the random people that walked in. It was a fantastic exercise, to try to portray the diversity of people here. Makes me want to live in the city again.

I want to start a webcomic soon/someday, so it was a good way to think about characters and character design.

Reflection of the art process

The process outlined in the project assignments usually goes research, choose client, incubation, concept, proof, final. My own process generally goes the same way with a few exceptions. To me, the client is generally more important than the inspiration. I think this is closer to the real world because generally one gets a job from a client rather than getting an inspirational idea first and then finding a client. To me, the client is the framework for the whole project, and I probably spend more time investigating the subject or client for inspiration more than other artists.

               When I investigate other artists, it is generally for an inspiration in style. I don’t spend as much time researching artists because I know what I like when I see it, and once I see something I like, I stick with it. At this point I don’t really care how complicated the style is or how I will do it.

               At the sketching point, depending on the project, I may have one or two ideas or several ideas. I generally don’t make that many sketches because I usually find a good idea that might develop further. At this point I am already looking at reference images. Rather than have an idea in mind and then find reference photos to fulfill that vision, I usually have a combination of being inspired by my own thoughts and images I see. Each is a spring board for the next idea or image search. I don’t think I ever have to make 10 sketches, because like I said, my first or third idea is usually my favorite.

At the concept stage, I begin working at the computer by scanning in my best sketch or hand-tracing reference images or sketches (using a tablet). I generally don’t stray from my intentions or inspiration, except when playing with font or copy placement after the illustration is done.

For my final drafts, I take feedback very seriously. I generally try all suggestions and keep them unless there is something, in my opinion, which does not work as well. But, I try not to leave any “stone unturned” so to speak. Often times I will go back to an image days or weeks later and find something I will want to change. But in the end, it's up to the client, isn't it?

Exercise in depth

I liked this exercise, particularly because utilizing depth is a good excuse to play with texture, which I like a lot. I was a bit creative in the content for this exercise. Did you notice? It spells my name.

Landscape sketch

As much as I love nature, I'm really bad at drawing it. I can never get the textures right and get the space and depth to come across as well. Unless there are buildings--buildings I can do. But, I do love nature, so I gave it a shot. This is a sketch I drew while referencing a photo from Cougar Mountain in Washington state.

Then I tried coloring it with Illustrator brushstrokes... hard to do.

Visual Rhythm

This week's exercise was interesting because we got to listen to music and then translate that into visual rhythm. Surprisingly, I think bluegrass is my favorite visually.

Weekly sketch: owls

Here's a sketch from this week. I was exploring some designs for cute owls. The figure in the lower left was used for a personal silkscreen project.

Exercise in balance

Another exercise, this time with balance.

Weekly sketch

Some sketches of origami pieces. I like how their shape lends themselves to simple and elegant line drawings.

Saul Bass MoMA handout proof

This is the proof for the fake MoMA flyer we designed for class. It was a good exercise--I learned how to use the text box feature and gridlines in Illustrator.

I think it turned out pretty well--how about you?

Exercise in emphasis

Another exercise in Illustrator, this time with emphasis! I thought this one was way more fun than the unity exercise I did earlier. Also, emphasis by placement is way hard to do without isolation or direction.

We tested some ideas and then picked our favorite six to turn in.