Blue Steel Selfie

Here is a nearly finished poster for Zoolander with one of my favorite reference photos I took. I do have a couple reference photos that I used more directly, but they aren't quite as funny.

The assignment is part of my Illustration for Publication class at SCAD, which I think has been my most informative class so far. Students take on projects from local organizations, submitting sketches and then following through with the final if their sketch is chosen. It will be exciting to see how the class unfolds and what projects we get to work on.

Book Cover Preview

Here's a preview of a book cover I'm making for The Outsiders!

Good 'ole Johnny and Ponyboy.

A Griffon is Born

The griffon fetus painting that I started over my "snow days" in Savannah has been completed.

I'm very happy to have completed my first all-acrylic painting, even if it is just 3x3 in. He is going to be entered into the Tiny Pleasures show put together by Jon Schindehette that will be displayed at Spectrum Fantastic Live 3. Whew. There's almost too much awesome in that one sentence.

More info about the show here. You still have plenty of time to enter!

If It Doesn't Look Good, Change It

Here are some in-progress shots for yet another recital poster commission:

Thumbnails. I just noticed how much the trumpet looks like a miniature clarinet in some of these.

A little more development on the chosen thumbnail. This was especially necessary with the completely different viewpoint of the pose.

 

At this point I have gathered some better reference photos. Sometimes your reference photos give you better ideas for the pose and composition, such as having the trumpet in a resting position and over-exposed lighting on the face. I thought I would try adding color at this stage, but found out that I needed to develop my figure. I actually went back to working in black and white before adding color again. 

Quite a bit of work up until this point. I'm very much enjoying pushing that glow as far as it can go.

After receiving some suggestions from my professor and classmates, I decided to change the entire background so that the eye of the storm is positioned in the lower corner. The visual flow is much better and the perspective makes more sense too. Even this late in the game, re-painting large sections is worth the time.

Some very small, but important tweaks. These can be more easily viewed flipping through the pop-up viewer.