graduation

I thought it would be fun to do something a little different for my graduation announcements... I sent out postcards! Sending out postcards/mailers is a pretty common thing to do in the illustration world, especially when you're starting out, so I thought it was a brilliant idea. And this way I could show a sample of work that I've done to all those people who wonder what illustration is in the first place.

it happened...

What happened? A lot of things. My BFA show went up. Classes ended. Pretty soon I'll be graduated and moving on to the rest of my life...

I'll put my BFA pieces up on here as soon as the show is taken down, since I want to encourage seeing the pieces while they're up. If you'd like to see them in person, you can go to Gallery 303 in the Harris Fine Arts Center at BYU anytime between now and April 21st. The gallery's hours are different from the rest of the building... it's only open between 9am and 5pm. I'm showing with nine other seniors as part of the annual "Senior Show," and we're having our closing reception on the 21st at 7:30pm. You are more than welcome to attend. There will be lots of food. Yum.

stressed out paperboys

The following are a couple of the acrylic pieces I did for my Illustration 5 class. They're done in the same style as my BFA show is, except that there's more detail in these ones. I hardly touched brushes at all for my BFA pieces (they were done with palette knives, mostly). These pieces have a lot more brush work in them, especially the paperboy one.

I call this painting "stressed out." It was inspired by an article in our school's newspaper about managing stress. They listed at least eight million things you need to be doing to make sure you're managing your stress. That's not stressful at all...

This one is called "paperboy catches thieves." It was inspired by an article about a paperboy... who caught thieves. Can you guess how?

more in-class digitals

Unfortunately I missed quite a bit of class time on this pose. I knew I probably wouldn't be able to finish a full figure in the time I had, so I tried a portrait instead. I used a really textured brush, which was as liberating as it was frustrating.

After the week I spent in New York coming back to drawing was a beast. I tried a few different things with the new pose, abandoning each painting rather quickly. I just kept wishing that I could get a better likeness...

So I tried starting with a more detailed drawing. It's pretty cool how much you can make digital look like charcoal... without really meaning to, even.

The next class period I painted over my drawing. I think it turned out pretty cool... mostly I'm just much more pleased with the likeness.

song

Another assignment for Senior Studio 2: choose a song and create an illustration that embodies its mood/feel/content. My roommate Kara is very passionate about music and loves posing for cameras. I thought it would be fun to collaborate with her on a project. I was right.