Wednesday, December 30, 2015

The last class: Advanced Illustration

Last semester I took the advanced illustration class at UVU taught by Howard Fullmer. It was my last class :) We were tasked with creating 4 illustrations of our choice that needed to be portfolio quality and have a theme of some kind. I decided to create 4 background illustrations for a speech therapy app that I'm collaborating on with an awesome speech therapist. The idea is that each image would be part of an individual app focused on a letter that some kids have trouble saying. So I worked on letters K, D, G, and T.
This was just too much fun! I filled each illustration with things that start with the sound the kid is working on. In the order shown below: 
*Candy Cave
*Dark Dinosaur Desert 
*Garage
*Toy box
It was kind of challenging to find an interesting composition with this vertical orientation of the mobile phone. So I just stuck with a one point perspective for each of them. I wanted to give the illusion of depth for each one so that the little avatar that the player would interact with would seem to float around in space as they tilt the phone. 

I did a couple of thumbnails for each of them until I found the right composition. This is the stage I want to figure everything out as far as drawing, proportion, line quality, composition, and perspective. Then I did the full size line drawings (below). They were all created using a zebra ball point pen on tracing paper. I spent around 2-3 hours on each. I really didn't focus on getting everything perfect in this stage because I knew I could fix it in the computer later. 

 When I found one that worked, I scanned them into the computer. I digitally painted the values (below) using a Wacom drawing tablet with Adobe Photoshop CC and Corel Painter 2015. I started out by making the line drawing on a multiply layer and the canvas a mid tone (127) value. I then used a screen layer for the light values and a multiply layer for the dark values. I color picked the current value I want to paint and chose the appropriate layer (screen or multiply). I also referenced a LOT of photos with the same lighting situation to help me figure out a solution to each illustration.

The last step in the process is adding color and creating the player's avatars (below). I simply added a overlay or colorize layer over the values to create the colors. At this point I usually just have one layer to work out the color and then I flattened everything, then add the details at the end. I also created a happy and sad avatar, a "chase monster" and a goal letter. These are seen at the bottom of these illustrations.

These apps are still in the beta testing phase. I can't wait to see them in action.

Saturday, December 19, 2015

Monsters of the Mist: BFA Illustration show

This is my senior project while I was in the illustration program at UVU. I created 12 illustrations based off the book "The eaters of the dead" By Michael Crichton. All of these  images were painted digitally using Corel Painter 15 and a Wacom drawing tablet. I hope you enjoy them. I've included the descriptions from the book for each piece.


 #1: The peoples of the narrow rivers are called “wykings”. Every morning a slave girl comes and brings a tub of water and places it before her master. He proceeds to wash his face and hands, and then his hair, combing it over the vessel. Thereupon he blows his nose and spits into the tub. When he has finished, the girl carries the tub to the man next to him, who does the same. Thus she continues carrying the tub from one to another, till each of those who are in the house has blown his nose and spit into the tub, and washed his face and hair. 


 #2: The funeral pyre of the dead king Wyglif was set aflame, and the ship, the man, and everything else blew up in a blazing storm of fire, and pushed out into the sea in the darkness of night. He is burned in a twinkling, so that instantly, without a moment’s delay, he enters into Paradise. 


 #3: Ibn Fadlan, Arab of Bagdad; and Buliwyf, the new leader of the gigantic Northmen, a tall man, and strong, with skin and hair and beard of pure white. 



 #4: Then there came a great storm on the banks of the river Volga, and after this storm a cold mist lay on the ground. It was thick and white, and a man could not see past a dozen paces. Now, these same giant Northmen warriors, who by virtue of their enormity and strength of arms and cruel disposition, have nothing to fear in all the world, yet these men fear the mist. 
Buliwyf is sought for a hero’s mission. The far country suffers a dread and nameless terror, which all the peoples are powerless to oppose, and Buliwyf is to make haste to the far country and save his people and the kingdom of Rothgar. He must also take eleven warriors with him. And so, also, must he take Ibn. 


 #5: The Northman vessel, sailing up the Volga River, with Ibn and twelve of their company. The ship was as long as twenty-five paces, and as broad as eight, and of excellent construction, of oak wood. It was fitted with a square sail of cloth. The ship was fitted with benches for oars. At the head of the ship was the wooden carving of a fierce sea monster. 


#6: Then Buliwyf said to watch in the night for the sky curtain; and upon one evening in the sky there were shimmering pale lights, of green and yellow and sometimes blue, which hung as a curtain in the high air. Ibn was much amazed by the sight of this sky curtain but the Northmen count it nothing strange. 


#7: We traveled for five days in a region of forests. The forests of the Northlands are cold and dense with gigantic trees. It is a wet and chilling land, in some locations so green that the eyes ache from the brightness of the color. 



#8: Hurot Hall, the great hall of King Rothgar, that sat high upon a cliff, was a huge great hall of wood, strong and imposing. The mark of a vain man, the hall sparkled from a distance. It was richly inlaid with silver and even some gold. On all sides were designs and ornaments of the greatest splendor and richness of artistry. 
The black mist had come from the vanity and weakness of Rothgar, who has offended the gods with his foolish splendor and tempted the fiends with the siting of his great hall, which has no protection from the land. The gods have sent the black mist to strike him down and show him humility. 


#9: In the great hall of Rothgar, a mighty feast was held, and Buliwyf and all his warriors joined in great celebration, preferring the ministrations of slave girls and freeborn women. 


#10: To kill the monsters of the mist, you must overcome their very mother. The mother is very old and she lives in the caves of thunder. She was frightful to look upon; and also she wore snakes upon her head as a wreath; and also, too, that she was strong beyond all accounting. But the creature saw us, and screamed hideously at our approach. But if she was female, I saw no sign, for she was old to the point of being sexless. 



#11: The monsters of the mist come, and they seek a final revenge for the killing of their mother.
To the Northmen, monsters of the mist means a mist that brings, under cover of night, black fiends who murder and kill and eat the flesh of human beings, and disappear by day. They appeared to be manlike in every respect, but not as any man upon the face of the earth. They were short creatures, and broad and squat, and hairy on all parts of their bodies save their palms, the soles of their feet, and their faces. Their faces were very large, with mouth and jaws large and prominent, and of an ugly aspect; also their heads were larger than the heads of normal men. Their eyes were sunk deep in their heads; the brows were large; also their teeth were large and sharp. The fiends are loathsome; they are fierce and cunning; they speak no language of any man and yet converse among themselves; they have hands of abnormally large size; with powerful muscles. The beasts stank.

 

#12: This truly was the end of the monsters of the mist, for they could not again attack Rothgar.
I felt as one of them, having spent much time in their company, or so it seemed. Buliwyf said, “You have seen much of our ways. You dress and now you speak as a Northman, and not a foreign man.” Indeed, that night I felt I had been born a Northman.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Monsters of the Mist BFA show!!

I'm so excited! My Bachelors of Fine Arts senior show at UVU is almost here. It's a gallery I'm putting on entirely by myself. Over the past year I've painted 12 narrative illustrations based off of the book Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton. I will be displaying these illustrations, plus my sketches from my sketchbook. I will also have prints for sale for those who would like some of my artwork. Treats will be served. After the show my paintings will be hanging there from the 4th until the 18th of December in case you can't make it. Hope to see you there!