Some random stuff now.

A doodle I did in painter a few months ago after discovering the work of Frank Gonzalez, a painter and alumnus (alumni is plural, right?) of LCAD. He does these awesome acrylic paintings of "glitchy" birds and flowers; a blend of botanical illustration and audobon society guidebook-worthy birds with a graphic design inspired aesthetic.

Tried to imitate his style a little, though rather unsuccessfully. I ended up just messing around in painter. Still need to learn how to control that program and figure out all its customizable intricacies. Still doesn't really mimic the feeling of real paint on real canvas though.

So I have a gallery on deviantart that's been largely neglected, but considering that I have a little time this break, I took it upon myself to finally look at the few hundred deviations I had waiting for me in my inbox and maybe upload some stuff, update my journal, etc. A dA friend of mine had offered to do sketches for people who commented on her journal entry, and figuring it'd be a good idea to get some external input to get my creative juices flowing, I posted a solicitation too.

Someone offered the idea of a dragon father, a goldfish mother, and their child. Sounded pretty cool, so I obliged. I want to play around with this idea more later in the future, maybe come up with some more concepts. I imagine the kid of a majestic dragon and one of those silly-looking fancy goldfish you sometimes see in chinese restaurants would look pretty ridiculous.

In other news, I finally watched Avatar (in 3D, no less), and indeed it is epic. The storyline is kind of cliche and rather predictable and the antagonists are pretty flat character-wise, but it definitely is a lot of eye candy. I really enjoyed the bioluminescent plants and the designs of the wildlife (I guess six legs is the norm for fauna on Pandora? except for the humanoids, of course), as well how all the wildlife appears to have evolved to be able to connect with one another. The 3d aspect of it gave me a headache though. I'd like to be able to enjoy it without the 3d glasses later on.

I've heard many people share this sentiment, so it's good not to be the only one who feels this way; I'd say watch Avatar for the spectacle, not so much for the story. Now I'm interested in looking at the art book for the movie...

illustration and rendering

Good god, I wish I had some personal work to show, but I guess schoolwork will suffice. In this post: a couple renderings and some fundamentals of illustration stuff. I'm having trouble getting good pictures of a few of my other rendering assignments, but those will be up soon.

I am so damn proud of this persimmon, it's not even funny. Watercolor (with a hint of gouache for the highlights) on arches watercolor paper. Hell yeah. I'm taking a more traditional watercolor class next semester, which is probably different than the technique we learned in Rendering, but still way excited for it. Watercolor is fun! :D

Carbon dust on clayboard. Also a really fun technique, but the prep for it is more labor-intensive than the actual process of laying down value. It involves cutting lots of templates of acetate to achieve those nice, crisp edges...okay for a simple thing like this, not so efficient for a full-on piece.

Fund. of illustration final; the assignment was to illustrate a metaphor, idiom, or a play on words. I love illustrating word puns. This is "The City of Lights", aka Paris. But...y'know, more literal. Inkwash on illustration board.

Visual jungle assignment, acrylic wash on illustration board. Might go back into this over the summer and add some more detail.

Body contour assignment, ink on hot press illustration board. Really want to get a better picture of this later.

Next semester I'm taking figure block, so there's gonna be lots of naked people on here in the next few months. (that is, if I remember to take pictures) I miss working from a live figure. Also, miss oil painting and working with opaque media. Figure painting is gonna be awesome.