Thought I'd post my last few projects from school, now that the mad rush is done.

"Dogspeak" is my final project for Book Media. It's a set of flash cards for dog "language." It's meant as a humorous book, and not to be taken too seriously. I had fun creating the book and illustrations. Played around with bitmapping the drawings, I think it worked out well. All of the cards are screen-printed.

It was interesting researching what each dog gesture "meant", because the meaning isn't fixed and changes depending on context. Although I guess that is true of words in english as well...

I made a faux-fur covered box to contain the cards. Faux-fur is a tricky material to work with. I also felt like I owned a pet after working with it, because the stuff sheds like crazy. I was covered in fake fur bits and had to sweep up my work area afterwards.

sneaky peeky

a peek at what I am currently working on.... a skateboard! Illustration club at school is doing a skate deck show (opening this friday if you are in vancouver) at Third Gallery. All of the boards will be available for purchase (wink wink nudge nudge). I think the board is getting there... still needs work tho. The design is from a silkscreen project from last semester.

acrylics on skateboard

and just because... spring is here!

stuff.

Food label illustration for Iconography. I chose the brand "Kick Ass", which is an actual name for a dark roast coffee. :)

goache & watercolor

In process prints for Illustration Essentials class. Took me a few test prints to get what I wanted. I was using the finest cutting tool and the lines weren't showing up very well. So I re-carved some lines, and also used the #2 cutting tool, and that seemed to work better.

linocut print

Prep drawing and lino block. Tired of seeing my face yet? -grin- I sure am. Don't know how Rembrandt did a bazillion self-portraits.

chickens!

Poster project for Iconography. Decided to try pastels for the medium and switch it up from printmaking. Discovered I kinda like working with pastels, especially with bigger paper. They're really fast too, which is handy if you're a procrastinator. :)

This is the final image.

chalk pastels

Drawing that I worked from. Taped on chicken head is there because I changed the position of the head.

Cheap starter set of pastels that I am working with. Oh and tea. Very important.

Messed up the background on the first go, so I did another background separately and then cut out the chickens and put them on top. Which got mixed reviews at crit.

More self-portraits.... these first two are self-portraits as a children's book character.

goache and watercolor

goache

First foray into the world of pastels (other than playing around on my own not knowing what I'm doing). Switched up my self-portrait expression cuz I was getting bored.

chalk pastels

tengu

Latest projects from Iconography. Assignment was to illustrate an aspect of a culture. I chose Japanese mythology, researched some creatures and decided to illustrate the Tengu. From the research I did, the tengu's purpose or behavior seems to have changed over the years. I focused on an older Buddhist belief that the tengu was thought to cause war and conflict. They were also thought to be able to possess people.

I played around with linocut for this one, and then painted the background separately with watercolor. I blended the background and figures digitally, because the watercolor paint didn't go so well on the rice paper I was printing on. Ended up with a mess. Hooray for computers! (sometimes). :)

linocut, watercolor, digital

linocut, watercolor, digital collage

Linocut print on rice paper. This print is what I scanned in to use with the final image. I wasn't sure how the overlapping colors would print, but they printed with nice transparency.

Lino blocks. Discovered this nice rubbery stuff. Nice for cutting, its inbetween the safety-cut blocks (little too soft for my liking) and the regular grey lino.

watercolor

Watercolor self-portrait from Illustration Essentials class. I enjoyed the layering process of the watercolors, and that you can do some cool effects with it.

In process pic.