And the work continues...

Unfortunately, I haven't much pleasant news to share about the past couple of weeks, the most pleasant part is that they are indeed past.  However, there were a few highlights...

After the urging of two of my teachers and one of my friends I finally made my foray into the world of books on tape.  It's meant to be something to do while working on a painting or drawing.  I'm usually happy to put on old movies in the background while I work, but I'm getting a little tired of my regulars, and seeing as how there is so much I'd like to read, but never have the time, I decided to try it out.

My first is a fairly obvious choice for me -- a British novel set sometime in the mid-to-late 1800's -- Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte.  I must say I'm thoroughly enjoying it, and it aided greatly in my work on Wednesday night as I stayed up the entire night to get a piece finished on time (yep, didn't go to bed Wednesday night, and didn't sleep until 3:00pm Thursday when my teacher graciously sent me home early).  After Jane Eyre, I have 5 other books that I've purchased and am anxiously awaiting "reading" - a trilogy by CS Lewis that I have never before heard of (referred to as The Space Trilogy) - can't wait because I love everything I've ever read of his; then I have The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan - sort of a follow up book to The Joy Luck Club, which I really enjoyed; and last, but definitely not least, I downloaded a highly rated, dramatized reading of The Bible - something like 90+ hours of listening.  That should last me for quite awhile and I can't wait to hear it...  :)

In other highlights I went out to dinner and bowling with friends to celebrate a birthday last week!  It was so much fun I almost forgot about school for a few hours.  And not that I mean to make it like school is so terrible, but it's utterly consuming and terribly exhausting this term - I would enjoy it a whole lot more if only I could take a real break now and then or get reliable and decent sleep on a regular basis, but it'll be over soon - only 4 more weeks of this term.

But enough talking and on to the good stuff, right?  I've got some of my recent work scanned in and ready to share (in order of completion):

 Salt Creek Pupfish Cyprinodon salinus, watercolor

So for whatever reason, I've long wanted to paint a fish ID (which is what this is).  I chose the pupfish (which is found in shallow, salty pools in Death Valley) because of it's lovely color, and the good reference material I could find of it.  It proved difficult for many reasons and effectively dissuaded me from taking on a larger project of an aquatic scene.  I don't think fish will ever be my "thing" but I wouldn't mind doing more IDs of this sort - after some time away from it, I'm starting to like it...  :)

 

 

Bear Grass Xerophyllum tenax, acrylic

This painting was done for an assignment requiring a "full scene" to be rendered in acrylic.  The topic could be anything of our choosing and I decided to do this flower, the flower part of which I had never seen before despite being quite familiar with it's leaves from use at the flower shop.  It was my intention to push the palette in this paining beyond what was strictly "natural" and though I succeeded at that, I believe the results have forced me to relegate this painting to the "fine art" pile rather than the "scientific illustration" pile.  It's still pretty, just not what I had originally in mind and therefore, unfortunately, not terribly successful.

And lastly (and most recently):

 "Microhabitat" of allium, colored pencil on ivory paper

This was a somewhat unusual version of our latest assignment.  We were asked to create and then render a "micro-habitat," which is really what it sounds like, but as you can see, I've done a collection of garlic, onions, and shallots -- not really a "habitat" per se, but it achieved the other aims of the assignment and therefore satisfied the requirements.  I was up all night on Wednesday night finishing this piece, but at least I can say that I'm very happy with it, and I'm finally feeling much more comfortable with colored pencils.

Though it cost me sleep, I'm happy to end the week and this post on that piece... I have one other assignment that I completed early this week that I have yet to share with you, but it needs a few finishing touches before I can post it.  I'll try to get to those this weekend, but might not as I have another assignment to work on that's due next week. 

I hope to make at least one more post before the end of the term, so be on the look-out.  :) 

 

 

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).  :)