How does your garden grow?

A recent, large, assignment.

This one was for a "special view" in which we were tasked with creating an illustration of something you can't photograph.  It pretty much explains itself...

It's a mixture of acrylic and watercolor painting, with Photoshop.  Mostly acrylic painting though.

More to come soon.

Of sea and sky...

I've completed a couple more pieces since last we parted...  Both are a bit experimental for me in different ways and therefore out of my comfort zone.  But I'll just post them and then explain.

Urchin test (test is the name of the "shell"), Photoshop and Illustrator

So this one was very experimental for me... I've never done a rendering entirely in digital media.  Up till now I've only colored in drawings that I scanned in.  This however, was done in Photoshop almost start to finish, I say "almost" because I did the line work that I used in the initial drawing in Illustrator.  The assignment was to light an object with 3 different light sources; this style emphasizes volume and gives a lot of "drama."    I'm generally happy with the outcome.

Then we had the final colored pencil piece:

Treron calva (African Green Pigeon) on Ficus sansibarica, Colored pencil on Duralene

This was an interesting and difficult endeavor, much more so than I anticipated.  We were tasked with doing a "spot" illustration that was meant to fit a quarter page and that might theoretically sit in the corner of a page of text.  So the bottom right sort of comes to a "corner" of sorts and that's why.  It's a bird I was introduced to when researching articles for an upcoming project and I fell in love with him because of the gorgeous blue-greens covering most of his body.  It was difficult because I decided to go with a very "idealized" kind of positioning of the bird, and no photo is an "ideal" so I had to create it.  I put this guy together from 6 different photos sources, after studying as many images and videos as I could find (it helps too that it's a pigeon and we are fairly familiar with how they look and move).  So I'm glad that ultimately he looks "natural" while still having that sort of "idealized" look about him.

I've made some modifications to the image since having critique today and I'm much happier with it now, though oddly, not as much as I'd anticipated.  Oh well, it works and since I have to move on to the next thing I can't spend too much time dwelling.

This post is kinda odd though... those two images together -- one a completely digital rendering and the other attempting to evoke an 1800's aesthetic approach to a bird portrait (albeit with colored pencil).  It's kinda strange.  

Anyway, back to work.

Fancy that!

Another blog post so soon, you ask?

Well, we've been SUPER busy this first two weeks and I wanted to prove it by showing how many things we've done so far.  Mind you, all this work has left me stupidly tired and in much need of rest tonight, but I'm trying to stay up until dinner so I can eat and then go to sleep.  Since I needed something simple to do in the meantime I decided to get a head start on scanning the artwork and posting it.

I'm going to try to keep up with stuff this term (like now) so you can see it as I finish it, but that might not happen so don't be surprised if it doesn't.  :)

In order of completion:

Green Turbo Shell, colored pencil on white paper

 Green Turbo Shell, colored pencil on toned paper

We did another replica piece, this time in acrylic...

 

This is the original from one of John Dawson's Nature of America stamps 

(he works in acrylic so it was a natural choice for this assignment)

Here's my copy (my original is 3"x3" - took me ~10 hours)

Blue Gum eucalyptus, acrylic (tromp l'oeil style)

And last but not least... (a third colored pencil piece)

Leucadendron in colored pencil on Duralene

(yes it really does look this vibrant and that is due entirely to the Duralene

surface we had to use for this last assignment, I will most definitely be using this stuff again)

So that's what I've been up to these first two weeks of class, kinda crazy right?

Right now I'm working on a final spot illustration in colored pencil (on Duralene of course), a 3-point lighting illustration in Photoshop (it's essentially a small spot illustration but with really dramatic lighting), and a "special-view" illustration of how rock type and structure in Zion National Park creates the Zion "hanging gardens" (you'll see when it's done in a couple weeks - in the planning and sketching phase for that one right now).

Also in the works, an acrylic painting in which I'll be rendering a full scene (as opposed to just a single specimen in a white background).  

Fun stuff.  Please excuse me while I pass out now.

Final, final

I almost forgot, I never shared my final from the Intro to Natural Science Illustration class (our primary techniques class from last term, where we did everything in black and white mediums).

So here is my scratchboard final:

Cactus wren on ocotillo (don't forget to click to enlarge)

 Now I really am caught up from last term.  And... back to work.  :)

Playing catch up while I take a break...

So we've started back up again and are one week into the Winter Term.  Things are already kinda crazy and are definitely a sign of things to come... (my computer graphics teacher said this was the worst of the three terms as far as workload -- thanks for the encouraging words Amadeo).  :)

I'm taking 4 studio classes this term (1 more than last term) and all the names are a little confusing, but I promise I won't test you on this later...  they are Natural Science Illustration in Color, Applied Techniques in Natural Science Illustration, Applied Techniques in Color Science Illustration, and Design of Information Graphics, but whatever their names, they all amount to a whole ton of work.  So don't be surprise if you don't hear from me again until Spring break (in 9 weeks).

Before things got too crazy though, I wanted to catch you up on last term.  I never posted anything from my Field Sketching class and wanted to do so today, so here you go:

Remember when I blogged about our day at the UCSC Farm?  Well these are my sketches from that day

For homework we had to do sketches of whatever we wanted... 

I like to go for walks and runs here, it's only 5 minutes away from where I'm staying in Marina

We spent one day at Wild Things, a reserve that houses all sorts of animals that are trained and used in films

  Another assignment: we had to fit an entire skeleton on one page, this is a pigeon skeleton

Towards the end of the term we did a "replica" of another artists work.

I chose Claudia Nice, precisely because of this cactus - her's is on the left, my copy is on the right

After the "replica" we had to do another painting "in the style of" that artist, the choice was obvious...

Our final assignment was to identify something in nature 

based solely on our drawings of it in the field... This plant grows all along

the highway near my house and I see it on my way to Marina Dunes Reserve,

turns out, it's a plant called St. Catherine's Lace  :)

 That's a good selection of some of my favorites.  But I really ought to get back to work now on this term's upcoming assignments.  Right now, I'm working on two small acrylic paintings (one that is another "replica" like the one above, and one that is a small spot illustration of plant materials).  In the next week I'll be submitting two colored pencil pieces I finished this week, starting (and finishing) a third colored pencil piece and starting a "full scene" painting in acrylic.  I'll do my best to post some of these next weekend to keep up before the end of the term, but I'm not sure how that will pan out.  At the very least I'll keep you updated on new projects in the works.

Finals!

Okay, so a long overdue post since finals were over two weeks ago, but I've been recovering...

And sadly, this won't be the most exciting post because I'm only posting one final - my photoshop final.  Unfortunately you'll have to wait to see anything from the sketchbook as it had to be left in Monterey to be graded over the winter break and I didn't get a chance to scan anything from it before turning it in.  And I won't be posting my scratchboard final for a similar reason.  It had to stay in Monterey as well, and though I did a pre-scan of it, it still needs some work before I can reveal the final.

Hopefully the Photoshop final makes up for the other losses...

The above is a combination of graphite, Photoshop, and Illustrator.  All the color on the branch was painted in Photoshop. The branch itself was drawn in graphite and then scanned in.  I love maps, so I created one in illustrator borrowing the distribution data from another map.  I'm happy with the way it turned out.

I'm also happy to be home in Long Beach.  Only 3 more weeks though and then I'll be back up in Monterey until June (with a break for Spring Break of course).  :)

Sample scratchboard

 The last part of the semester (in our Intro to Natural Science Illustration class) we've been focusing on learning scratchboard, also called scrapper board.  It was pretty challenging to get started as I've never even touched the stuff before, but I think my sample illustration turned out pretty well...

Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans)

(click to enlarge)

The class final will also be in scratchboard, which reminds me... the first term is almost over!  Can you believe it?!?  All the class finals are due two weeks from yesterday (our last day of Fall quarter), which means the next time I post my work I'll be back in Long Beach enjoying a 5 week break from school.  After that, it's essentially one long 4.5 month push till the end (we only get one week off in between Winter and Spring terms).  It's crazy to think of all that will be done in that short period of time...

In other news, we enjoyed our last field trip of the year at the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Wednesday.  I, oddly enough, spent my time sketching plants from one of the tanks (Sea Grapes and Surfgrass) while most people were drawing the wildlife that is so abundant there.  I discovered a beautiful little fish that I hope to illustrate in the future (perfect for a color assignment)...

Juvenile Blacksmith (with Sea Grapes and Surfgrass behind)

 Next Thursday will find me enjoying friends and family up in the East Bay and I can hardly wait!  After that, it'll be a crazy push to finish my final scratchboard, my final Photoshop painting, and 2 field sketching assignments (I'll post more of my field sketching work while on winter break).  So don't expect to hear from me again until early December.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Something old... something new...

My first attempt at our last ink assignment proved disastrous, so last night I decided to start over completely (and it was due today!).  I'm so glad I did though, cause I'm much happier with this piece (and I can sleep when I'm dead right?):

Our assignment was to create a "collection" of items that were somehow linked to each other...  I chose the almond and all it's reproductive parts.  There were so many amazing illustrations done on this theme (by all my classmates) and I wish I could make copies of all of them to share and for future inspiration, but perhaps they'll show up again someday in the student galleries.

Also due today, was our first Photoshop painting!  We used black and white work from a previous drawing assignment and colored it in using Photoshop.  I'm pretty happy with my little skipper, remember him?

That's all for now.  If you'll excuse me I'm going to fall asleep now...

Ink Textures

Our 3rd ink assignment was to create 12, 2 inch squares filled with different textures...

Click to see larger

I quite enjoyed myself, though I ended up with the worst kink in my neck...

Besides ink textures we've been working on photo manipulation in Photoshop, painting in Photoshop, skeleton drawing and live animal drawing in our field sketching class, and much more.  I'll finish my Photoshop painting by Tuesday and post that soon.  And once I get my sketchbook work back from my teacher (it's currently being graded) I'll post a few of my sketches as well.  

I'm currently working on our 4th and final ink drawing.  I'm really excited about it and it's kind of hard to describe, so I'll just wait and show you next week after I finish (it's due on Tuesday, so I'll post it after that).  Once that's finished, we're moving on to scratchboard and there we'll stay for the duration of the program (only 4 weeks left).  I'm pretty excited, but a bit nervous too because I've never used scratchboard.  Fortunately our first assignment is much like the one above - practicing different transitions/textures on scratchboard.  Our final for the class will be in scratchboard too!

Anyway, time for dinner.  :)

 

And another...

We've been productive up here in Monterey...  just yesterday I posted the stipple assignment and now I have my completed coquille all ready for you... 

Pinyon pine cone - black prismacolor on coquille (click to enlarge)

Coquille board/paper is also known as "stipple paper," because its coarse texture is supposed to mimic the appearance of stipples when the artwork is reduced.  When drawing on coquille paper, it's important to work somewhere around 2x as large as you intend for the final artwork to appear -- to allow for a significant reduction in reproduction of the work.

Part of the appeal of coquille (over stipple) is that is saves time,  I easily spent less than half the time on this project as I did on the stippled skipper before it.  The original was ~20 inches long... I created 3 different reductions: 50%, 75% and 30%.  I liked the 50% reduction the best (I've tried to recreate that here).  

Anyway, had a lot of fun with this one... my favorite view is the very last one (top down, on the right) cause it looks like a flower.  :)

Stippled Skipper

Last week I submitted my final stipple assignment (in case you forgot, "stipple" is a method of shading a drawing using lots and lots of little dots, in this case, done with a .35mm technical pen).  I choose a Common checkered skipper on a whim... it was the same day we visited the UCSC Farm, and as I was leaving I saw one of these guys land on a flower.  They are pretty small (less than 3cm across) and ever so slightly blue on the furry little body.  Anyway, after leaving the farm a few of my classmates and I went back to the UCSC Natural History collection where I intended to check out a moth I wanted to use for my stipple assignment, but I couldn't get the skipper out of my mind so I took a couple of those too and lo and behold... the skipper won out over the moth.

Common checkered skipper

 

Our coquille assignment is due tomorrow and since I don't want to reveal it prior to our class critique, I'll post it after class tomorrow.  :)

I heart maps!

So I know this post is sadly overdue and there is so much more to post (hopefully this weekend?), but I thought I'd at least add something.

We had to assign ourselves a topic to map, using Illustrator.  After researching many subjects I settled on conifer distribution, primarily for the wealth of information I could find on the subject.  ;)  But I really liked how it turned out in the end (the tree silhouettes are my favorite part!).

We have a field trip tomorrow in Santa Cruz at the UCSC Farm.. I'm so excited!  I love farms.  The rest of the evening will be spent finishing my fremontodendron in ink (4x - in different styles).  I'll post those along with my graphite piece (the first assignment) no later than this weekend.