Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Illustration Midterm Portfolio

3 Image Gouache Montage 10 x 14 gouache on illustration board
I really liked doing this project, picking whatever three things I wanted, choosing the composition, and deciding on the color palette. Most of the other projects I have worked on have dealt with more traditional colors so I was excited to experiment with the lime green, bright blue, and brilliant red. The parrot was the most fun to paint. With a range of colors and textures, I worked the longest on it. I did use the subtractive method somewhat, but ultimately just layered paint. I actually found the flower a little harder to do and in the scan it came out darker than the original. First, I tried the subtractive method with the flower, but it was lacking depth so I decided to focus on enriching the color and adding paint layers. The ladder didn't take me as much time as I thought because I painted in the shadows first and then used water to draw the color down for the rest of the ladder. I like the way my original turned out, but the scanned copy was a little bit too dark. For the re-do of this assignment I want to work a lot more on the flower and the texture of the parrot. I will keep the color scheme mostly the same.

DMV Cartoon 3 x 6 black ink on illustration board, colored in Photoshop
When I found out we had to draw a cartoon I was really nervous. Initially it was very hard for me to draw in a cartoonish way. By doing research I was able to practice drawing different facial expressions and get more out of my cartoon. When I took the line art into photoshop I spent a lot of time trying to figure out shadows and highlights. I wish I would have given myself more line to work with because in the back of the car and the outside of the car I didn't give myself any direction to go in. Overall I'm happy with the way it turned out and have a much higher respect for cartoonists and anyone who deals with coloring in Photoshop.

Pepsi Can Product Illustration 8 x 10 gouache on illustration board
I used the artograph to sketch the Pepsi can onto the illustration board so it was accurate. Because I coated the illustration board with a mixture of gesso, matte medium, and water I wanted to use the subtractive method with gouache. I painted the entirety of my can a blue color and then used a paintbrush to pick out the highlights and the label. I needed to use white paint also because the subtracting wasn't getting white enough for the logo. The small detail of the logo was hard to paint and I spent a while making sure it was right. I think the highlights and the colors turned out the like the original picture. To finish this illustration I decided to use a bright yellow as an accent color and applied it very loosely and with very watery paint so it dripped and made a spontaneous pattern. I'm pretty pleased with the way it came out for my first attempt with a product illustration in gouache.

Outdoor Still life 4 x 5 watercolor and black ink
This still life was done with watercolor first and then I went back over it with black ink. I tried to keep the highlights the white of the paper. I enjoyed doing the clouds and trying out different techniques. I found it harder to go over the watercolor with the black ink and found I prefer to map out my image with black ink first.

Still life 4 x 5 watercolor and black ink
For this watercolor I started with black ink drawing out the shapes and areas of shadow. I then went in with the watercolor to start dropping in color. For this one I remember taking the approach a little differently than I had been previously doing. I decided to get my brush really wet and let the watery colors blend together. I also wanted to leave the highlights on the fruit the color of the paper so I made sure not to get the paint close to there. The watercolor was done probably about halfway through our initial phase of getting used to watercolor so I feel like I had a better handle on the material and also I think having the black ink drawing to go off of helped me with my coloration and shape.

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