The Open Window

So for my Editorial Illustration I had to do three illustrations for a short story of my choosing. I chose the story "The Open Window" written by Saki. It was quite an interesting piece and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. In my comp sketches however my professor informed me that my drawings were not historically correct in sync with the story hahah Soooo he put me on to this short film that was based on the story for reference. It captured the essence of the story quite well I think, you can take a look at it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBXb-8YoR0E

I had alot of fun working on these pieces. I applied what I learnt in my electronic illustration class with the Zombie painting to this assignment. He outlined where each piece will be if it were featured in a magazine so I was dealing with:
1. Table of contents image full color small scale
2. Story image full page full color
3. Story image small scale in grayscale

This is the Table of contents image. Basically sets the mood of the story without really giving away any characters or plot.


This is the full page image to go along with the story. From here on these images will only really make sense if you've read the story or seen the short film I posted.


This is the small scale grayscale image, basically its the last moment in the story.


Just for kicks and giggles This was my reference pic for the Grayscale image lol :p

Zombies

Well, Finals are over, Fall Quarter is over. I'm back home at the moment, I went to Miami after school for a highly anticipated, relaxing, de-stressing mini vacation, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself... :B
Last post had 3 pieces in the works, finished 2 of them for finals plus 2 more not previewed, also for finals... I know right? The anticipation is blowing my mind as well (I like to pretend I have a throve of fans just thirsting for my updates)
ANYway. Yeah these are the zombies. This was my final for my electronic illustration class, and I have process work! :D For the assignment we just basically had to do a painting digitally, with our own image in it, soo it could of been a self portrait or something like this. So yeah I'm totally on a "Walking Dead" and "Left 4 Dead" hype at the moment, or at the moment this piece was done, so yeah I thought what would it be like to be in a zombie apocalypse at SCAD. haha

Oh I've also started labeling my work so the people who take my images off my blog (dare to dream) will always know where they found it :)

This would be the final.


And cue process work...

Its always good to start off thinking just in terms of value and value contrast, so I started with a grey background, added a gradient to represent my sky. In this case I knew exactly where my scene was going to be set, so I went ahead and roughed it all out. (Its the roof of my illustration building haha)


Then I just build up the background, adding shadows and little bits of detail. Nothing too embellished as I'm still setting up value, the detail is just so things make sense to me.


Then after fleshing out the background I just sort of sketch in the figures, very rough, just to plan out where I want everyone, and how it would look compositionally


Well its around this time where I actually get reference. I actually went up on the roof did the poses etc. Found out the correct size relationships of the characters the proportions all that good stuff. So I refine my sketch based on the first rough.


This is where the fun starts. Fleshing out the figures. Yours truly in the front, and the others were modeled from two of my friends except the guy on the ladder, I didnt bother with him because we don't see enough of his face for it to matter. I should of explained this earlier, I think I said it in a previous post, but I like doing backgrounds first completely before attacking figures. Pretty much for the same reason I eat my french fries first before the burger, I like to leave the best and most enjoyable part for last. Also, If I eat my burger first I might be too full to finish my fries.... hope you get the metaphor here...


Now Color. This part was pretty tricky for me, because up until this moment I had been appreciating it in grayscale. So needless to say my first dash of color was a bit strong. A bit too cheerful for a zombie apocalypse I would think...


So I muted the colors a bit, especially the background because it popped too much, and distracted from the foreground. Basically I had all my colors and Im just scuplting my focal point, at this juncture. Manipulating color value and the intensity of each to pull your eye where I want it.

Projects in Progress

Just some stuff I'm working on at the moment, pretty happy with how they're all looking so far, thought I'd share em with you.