Illustrating Sound

The current assignment for my Concepts and Composition class is to make an illustration that visually represents a sound.

These are my initial concept sketches, which are on the tighter side of rendering. The advantage of clarity is that it's easy to see if the composition will work out and my "client" has a clear idea of what is going on. Also, I am learning to be selective and accurate with my lines as to expedite the sketching process. Something new that I tried was drawing the borders after I roughed out some of the basic composition. This resulted in a greater variety of borders and creative cropping of figures.

The sounds that I made attempts to visualize include scratching fingernails, sanding with sandpaper, the overtone series you hear when you blow in a straw, the Doppler effect, tinnitus, and television static. If you have never made music with a straw, I suggest you listen to the overtone flute or overtone singing.

Bearded Cloud Folk

Here are some more cloud people. This time, I had some fun with facial hair.

Odd Animals 2

Here is another page of animals with exaggerated features:

You have from top to bottom, left to right: Malayan tapir, some type of iguana, sun bear, a young fossa, and a scheming chipmunk. Gouache on recycled file folder.

Benefit Art Show

You can see the original for this piece....

In this show... here. It's a show benefiting victims of Typhoon Haiyan. Friday, 1/10/14, starting 6pm and open to all. There will be food, beverages, and live entertainment! Not to mention awesome artwork.

Meet the Cloud Folk

Meet the cloud folk.

This was a fun rough painting session. I'm gearing up for my Digital Illustration class and have been wanting to get these guys out of my head and onto pixels. I have this story in my mind that's developing and it involves these types of fluffy individuals. Combining clouds and people gives you a wide range of creative outcomes, especially in the facial hair department.

Contests

It's a little bit of late news, but I should mention that a piece I made for James Gurney's "Lionfish Shampoo" art contest was printed in Issue 102 of ImagineFX Magazine. What started as a fun dabble in Art Nouveau design (and a good excuse to draw noodle hair) ended up as an incredibly rewarding experience. The contest got me into contact with one of the greatest living illustrators/educators, introduced me to some awesome contestants, and got me my first piece of published work!

You can see a picture of the article on James Gurney's blog here.

So how do you find those elusive art contests?

- Follow art blogs. The ones with daily entries are more likely to mention contesty things, like Muddy Colors and Gurney Journey.

 - Some of the more well known call-for-entry contests have been compiled on Google Drive

 - Check out several of the websites under the Communities section at Illustration Age. Many of them hold fun "challenges" that will get your artwork scene by a large audience. These include CG hub, ConceptArt.Org, deviantArt, Doodlers Anonymous, Illustration Friday.

- Listen to art-related podcasts. You can hear some of the latest buzz about the art world. Again, some links at Illustration Age under Podcasts

- Read the news on Art Organization websites, such as those at Illustration Age under Organizations

- Be a part of social-network Illustration groups like Illustration Networking Party on Facebook

- Subscribe to art magazines. Magazines like ImagineFX hold their own contests and publish the winner's artwork in featured articles. Oh look! The front page has news about a creature design contest being held by Helpful Bear Productions.

 Entering art contests can be a gamble because you never really know what the judges are looking for, but if you look for contests that inspire you, you will end up with a piece of artwork that you're proud of even if you don't place. 

Odd Animals

Some odd creatures in gouache with exaggerated features: