Girls and Alcohol, always a good combo

working on a series of alcohol ads highly influenced by Mucha (and some Elvgren), for visual essay right now. I like to do this sort of digital sketching with collaging and digital painting. It helps me to consider color and composition at the same time, while creating a finished reference.

Here's where they're at right now.

Art project for a Liberal Arts class

I took Graphic Novels for fun last quarter (a liberal arts class, not an art class) but the final assignment was to write 18 panels of our own graphic novel. I did the direct translation of the Volsgung Saga and illustrated an excerpt from one of my favorite stories in it, when Sigmund and Sinfjotli don the skins. It was my first attempt at sequential art.









I enjoy working in this digitally-cut-paper style. It is also much faster than gradient meshes.
I'm considering developing a portfolio of each style.... like I have the time to do that :o[

My best showcase of gradient meshes

A very Mucha inspired Totem spirit gets down with some incense and a bad-ass headdress.
Gradient Meshes (reserved for skin). Adobe Illustrator
Model: my sister Jenny!

Sketchbook (a difficult habbit for me to form) :o)

As always, click to enlarge.

Getting warmer

Mayan Goddess (aka, Alyx Kasupski! lol)


Way cooler than the last one. Way more proficient with the meshes than last time as well.

learning meshes... the usual

Othello illustration. Adobe illustrator, using gradient mesh tool.

needs re-doing.

While this quarter wraps up in a whirlwind, here's a post of a happy use for my love of "paper engineering" as well as my fervor for dressing up in bad-ass (though always homemade) costumes.
In recent years I've been choosing strong women, and I decided back in the summer to portray the strongest woman in American mythology.

WONDER WOMAN!!! XD
Here's my inspiration:


and here's the costume!
(This costume was also an excuse to dye my hair dark.) :o)

eventually I'll remove the halter strap, and the costume will be even more legit. But I was mostly happy with the results.


As for more academic creations, don't worry, I have plenty to share as soon as I get done with this quarter.

A good example of missing the mark

[You can click on any of these guy to view them larger.]

So, I was super excited about this project and ready to show off my freshly polished Adobe Illustrator skills on this one. I did the study below to teach myself gradient meshes in preparation for this project and those that will follow as I explore an aesthetic style I am struggling to realize.

The only problem is that I completely mismanaged my time and bit off more than I could chew. I am planning on redoing the vectored final version, but I think I'm fairly satisfied with the prep-work - color choices, sketches, reference, etc.

The concept is a Mucha/Klimt inspired illustration of Titania and Bottom from A Midsummer Night's Dream.


It looked pretty good in outline, but I learned that I need to stay out of that view most of the time, since color and shape have more impact than outline... especially with such bold colors and contrasts.

For my next piece (which will be an illustration of Othello and Desdemona) I am starting with the portraits in gradient meshes first. They are the most important part of the pieces anyway, the rest is literally just fluff.

This was the "final" version that I handed in and honestly I was embarrassed to hang it up. This is not at all what I wanted though, after not looking at it for a week I hate it less.

I'm scrapping this completely and am redoing it from my sketch. (My scanner was broken before and therefore I had to draw from my reference collage.) Hopefully the next version will have more of the same charm as this one.

First-Time Gradient Meshes

OMG I'm actually posting something new!!!!!

I apologize but the problem is that most of the stuff I'm doing these days is confidential and owned by Disney.
I am however back in the swing of classes and will have more and more fun things to share.
First up, I'm working on a new style for myself, attempting to use Adobe Illustrator to create a look reminiscent of Alphonse Mucha and Gustav Klimt. I want to render faces in the round and keep the rest of the shapes nice and flat with quite a bit of ornamental illustration and flat patterning giving those spaces lots of vibration and energy.

But I didn't know how to render faces in Illustrator. I figured gradient meshes would be a good route to go.

Long story short here is my first ever attempt at gradient meshes in Adobe Illustrator. I think it turned out pretty good for a first time study and I am comforted in the hope that I will be able to use these sparingly in order to achieve the aesthetic I am searching for.

Senior year.... GO!

Moving back to school today!!! Senior year starts Monday!!

My last First-Day-Of-School EVER!!!! (Grad school doesn't count, :oP )

I would apologize for the lack of posts, I spent my entire summer interning in Ithaca with Portosa Studios. We are a studio contracted by Disney to design/create art for two Disney cruise ships currently in production. All of my work is confidential though, hence I haven't gotten to show them off here (though I thoroughly would have loved to!!)

But guess the seriously good news......
THEY HIRED ME FOR FALL!!!!!! WOOT!!!!
So I will be driving to Ithaca Mondays and Fridays (though we discussed staying home to work if the project permits) and going to school in between. I am not so ignorant to assume that I wont be completely exhausted by the end of this quarter, but I am not complaining. I have only one year left to make the most of.

Let's hope I can finish college right.

:o)

peace.

Junior year is OVER! plus, "Brides Nouveau"

Whew.

I am beat!


BUT.... I am also, officially, a senior.

Goodbye Junior year.... you kinda sucked a little. However, here's to my summer internship at Portosa Studios working on designing art for Disney Cruise ships! WOOT!


Now, finals. Here's my final series of the year. I was looking at Audrey Kawasaki's technique (her assistant even responded to my email, I felt so special!) and Alphonse Mucha for inspiration and as a reference to Art Nouveau.

I was super excited about this project, but after spending the whole night in the studio and experiencing a scary encounter there with a delusional (and bleeding!) drunk dude, I was starting to feel a little annoyed with life, and the series.
However, after having time to recover and after not looking at them for a few days I am excited to keep tweaking them and to further dabble in this method this summer.














They looked so pretty before I colored them. :o[
They represent seasons (only 3, the assignment was a series of 3). Represented are (from left) winter, spring, and fall.

Latest Reporter Illustration

They may or may not use it but I was a last minute replacement for this illustration (the top is the final version, the bottom just looked cool, like a wanted poster from the west.) The article was called "What is Reporter" so I made it into a pun. I like humor, or at least, I try. The middle figure is our mag's editor.

Rethinking Camoflauge

I am being a bad blogger. Blame it on finals. Last project is due tomorrow. Here's one from digmix that I need to fix up, and I definitely plan to because I will be giving it to my Dad (I pretty much stole this idea from him!) :o) So MOM please don't let Dad see.
Thanks.


The project: Illustrate the concept of reinventing the wheel.
The solution: industry adapts to blend in with nature (the submarine with the sea dragon camo that is totally impossible to see) while nature adapts to blend in with technology (even if its not quite up to date, evolution takes time after all!)

Enjoy, I'm sure it will be awesome eventually. :o)

A Radish Story

Here's a mini assignment from Digital Mixed Media. We drew the veg in class and were then instructed to finish at home without further referencing. I am a reference slave so this was a little scary at first but once I got into it I actually had fun.

India ink painting with digital color manipulation as well as under and "topical" digital painting. The tablet I tried using has no pressure sensitivity, so I had to disguise my lack of proper tools. I think I was overall successful.

You're never really ready, it's just your turn.

Katie's growing up! So I registered for my first quarter of (ahhh!!) SENIOR YEAR yesterday morning. Here's what I'll be up to in the fall.





PLUS, I got a proverbial kick in the ass the other day and finally had to solve my lack-of-website problem, and my poorly maintained resume.

So, now you can check out my portfolio blog,





and finally, here's what I've been up to with my resume design.
I like peacocks, why fight it anymore?
Here's my header. On cover letters it is
a smaller peacock and longer line, as well
as resting at the bottom of the page.

Exciting and scary all at once! Much too soon and also overdue.
As Ty Murray put it in Dancing with the stars, "Dancing [or life] is like riding bulls. You're never really ready, it's just your turn."

Inside out: DigMix

Inside out, or outside in. Whichever, I guess. Digital Mixed Media.
Here are the final(s)?

Process/stages of experimentation.

Progress and Process: Visual Essay

Ok, a little later than I promised, but here's some progress work from my Visual Essay project.

Here's some "year-book style" collages for ya, of my photo shoot, some of my inspiration and stages of my process, as well as the current state of the paintings.

Visual Essay: B Horrors and Pulp Fiction= Modern Tabloid Drama

Here's my overdue project for Visual Essay. These are in the process of becoming paintings (I will post wip's most likely tomorrow) but here is my "photosketches". I enjoyed the graphic design element to these and after all the work I put into the photo montages I almost wished I could call these finished illustrations. However they're just a bit too sloppy and not high enough dpi, maybe next time I will avoid that if I'm going to spend so much time on a "sketch". Still I couldn't call these "illustrations" it just didn't feel right. Even if most of the images were of my own creation. Almost all photos were shot by myself or my roommate. The only found images are Lindsay's face and one hand, Britney's face and the city she is stepping on (which actually a shot of a Kenyan city- crazy right?), and Tom Cruise's face. All the bodies are either myself, my roommate, or my boyfriend (maybe you can guess who is who. Bridget and I actually appear in two each.)

Wow, that was a long explanation with a lot of (...) and "...". Yeesh. Picture time!

my latest little creation. It needs some fixing up. Did this for Digital mixed-media.
Inspired by icons of St. George slaying the dragon, here he is slaying the monster of procrastination and disorganization. :o) A goal of mine.