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)