Scribbles & Sketches

For assignment 3 our teacher gave every student the same story called “The Bank Heist”. The story is broken out into 13 pages so each student is responsible for 1 page (we drew numbers from a hat). I have page 13 which is the end  of the story.

This is the description of page 13:
That evening: The sports car, dented and full of bullet holes, sits at the top of an embankment off to the side of the road. The passenger door is open. Down below, towards the sea we find the man and woman, toasting their heist. The bag of cash at their feet. The two of them kiss as the sun sets. The woman still holding a gun in her hand. She flips off the safety.

He also have us some character descriptions for the characters that are involved.

Woman, Black, 5′ 10
Wearing leather suit, jacket, high heal boots, and gloves, a hair band, and big hoop earings

Man, Black, 6′
Wearing leather jacket, and gloves, jean, and work boot like footwear

Thoughts?

I have come to accept that I am the slowest illustrator ever. This post only contains half of the second assignment for my comics illustration class because I didn’t finish it. I was really hesitant to post this because I don’t really like to post unfinished work, but I was reminded that I have an obligation. So Here is what I submitted for my second assignment.

Our assignment was to create a 2 panel (horizontal) story. I was inspired by the State of the Union speech. My idea was to have a speaker speaking in the first panel. The second panel was to be a zoomed out view of congress with the left side standing and the right side sitting. I think this had a lot of potential, and I plan on going back to finish this at some point. But, for now, this is as far as I got.

The only way to get better at something is to educate yourself with the best of the best. So, I have decided to go back to CCAD to learn more about illustration. I’m taking Comic Book Illustration with Uko Smith. I was skeptical at first, mostly because I’m a comic book virgin. But, after the first class last Tuesday, I’m soooo excited for what’s to come. It will be challenging and time consuming, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I think I’m really going to grow as an illustrator over the next several weeks.

I’m going to post all of my sketches, assignments, and final pieces here. The reason I’m posting them is for help from fellow illustrators. Please provide any constructive criticism you have. My feelings won’t be hurt. I really want to get better!

Assignment 1: Perspective

The assignment was to first do thumbnails and then one larger sketch using the perspective technique described in “Pat Quinn’s Perspective” (book provided by our teacher). There were 4 types of sketches that we had to complete.

1. One point – interior or exterior
2. Two point – interior
3. Three point – exterior
4. Three point – 3 figures, no background

It has been a few years since I have sent out cards for the holiday season, so I decided it was time. This is the first draft. This was created digitally. I’m going to take this sketch and use it in a block printing technique to get a more handmade feel. I’ll post the that version, if it is successful, this weekend.

I was looking through some reference photos I took for a different project, and I came across a photo of my cousin playing his tuba. He looked so small compared to the tuba. All you could really see were his hands and his legs. It inspired me to do a drawing of it. Then I came across a photo of his dog that just seem to fit so perfectly. I plan on adding more to the background along with some hand drawn typography coming out of the tuba.

Since I don’t have the luxury of going to school for a critique, I was hoping people would participate in a virtual critique. If you have any suggestions/feedback on what I have so far, please post it in a comment.

Last weekend I bought a book called “Over & Over: A Catalog of Hand-Drawn Patterns” by Mike Perry. It has some really cool stuff inside and inspired me to create a pattern of my own. So I just started drawing lines and shapes until I ended up with this.

I scanned it in and then duplicated and rotated it to create the texture below.

There is a nice contrast between the single image and the pattern. In the pattern image the negative shapes becomes the dominate elements and everything else is just value.

One of my goals for 2009 is to work on my illustration skills, so here is the first pencil sketch for the year. It’s a scene from the little boys imagination as he and his dog travel though space in their wagon rocket.

My next step is to explore mediums and techniques of adding color and finishing touches. The second image is just to provide more conceptual context around what I’m planning on doing with the background and composition of the piece.

Any feedback is welcome! I LOVE illustration and really want to grow as an illustrator, so any criticism, suggestions, ideas, etc. are much appreciated.