The Great Pumpkin!

Happy Halloween everyone! Obviously Halloween is Eliza's favorite holiday... Enjoy and best wishes to everyone effected by Sandy.

Eliza - Developing a look

While working on larger projects I try to always take time to develop my personal projects and I'm still working on "Eliza" and her story whenever I get the chance.
Lately I've been working on developing Eliza's look. I'm very happy with the work I've done with her so far, but I think I've gotten to a point where I'm limited by her original design. (Also, I think the pig-tails were a bit too cliche...)

So here are some new ideas I've been playing with, for both a new hair style and a new more expressive face structure. Not sold on anything yet but I think I'm headed in the right direction!

Chinese Cookbook

Recently I was able to take part in an exciting project with a talented local chef who is looking to produce his first cookbook. Chef Cy Young is an extremely talented personal chef who has lived in and traveled throughout Southeast Asia. He has brought back and translated his favorite recipes, making them health conscious while maintaining fantastic flavors. (And I can tell you from experience his recipes are wonderful!) 
Here's a preview for everyone of the cover I helped design for him. The first image is some of the runner-up sketches (which I'm still very fond of):

The second image is the final design we decided upon. Behold the marvelous bok choy! Chef Cy wanted something clean and traditional and this is his favorite layout. The book "Chinese Cooking for Americans" should be available soon and I highly recommend it if you're a fan of great healthy Chinese cuisine. Visit his website for information and future news!

I must go down to the seas again...

A new portfolio piece, I learned a lot about boats for this painting which was fun and enlightening. I didn't grow up anywhere near the ocean so it has always been a foreign and beautiful thing to me.

Both the full piece and a close-up. - Photoshop

More Spots

Alright everyone Potter Project is winding down! New spots on the webpage!

Check out the previous post for info about my show and where to see these in NYC.

Potter Progress

Well blog readers it's almost the end of the school year and I am proud to announce I am nearly finished with my Potter work. Here are some final results to dazzle you with! The full project can be found on my new website page "Potter Project"


One of my giant final covers - these pieces took quite some time to finish but I have learned so so so much by making them. They are by far the most complex visual narrative pieces I have created to date and I am so pleased with how they have turned out. The success I've had with these makes me very excited about my future work and how far I can push myself.
The accompanying spots are likewise being cleaned up and polished as we speak. I'll be posting the rest on my webpage as I finish them real time.

All of this of course will be on display (for those in New York City) here:
Class of 2012 MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Show

The MFA SVA Illustration Thesis Show! April 27th through May 12th. Be there or be square!

Peaceful

A quick spot illustration inspired by an article about how feelings of gratitude can enhance people's quality of life and combat feelings of aggression.

Location Drawings

This spring I've had the fun opportunity to take a 'drawing on location' class - we've been traveling about the city drawing at different locals observing people doing day to day things. These are some of my latest drawings done of the farmer's market and general goings on in Union Square.







The drawings were done on Heavyweight Drawing Paper with Brush-Pen, Color Spots added later with Photoshop just for fun.

Foxy

I've been busy with so many technical drawings these little guys have been popping up in my sketchbook as their own sort of cute therapy. Foxes and Wolves - Some dancing!

Philosopher Sketch

Latest Cover Drawing - all cleaned up and ready for color.
More updates coming soon!

Next 3 + Spots

Hello all!

Finally another Potter update,

3 more line-works waiting for final tweaks and color.





And some color work on my spot illustrations - still need a bit more work but they're coming together!
Getting ready for finals so things are crazy. but all around progress is being made and now that several line-works are being finalized some serious painting is about to start around here. All very exciting. More updates to come.

Next 5

More Potter Project coming soon! Making some exciting progress, for now here's a fun (very quick) challenge I did with the ever awesome Paul of autodestruct:
You find a random photo from the web, and use it as the first panel in a storyboard, then you build from the original image and come up with the "next 5 shots" You wind up with a six panel sequence.


The original idea found:
here
and
here.

And you can see Paul's here.
Once I saw his nice clean layout I stole it.
I just love seeing people's different take on the same project and this prompt is addictive. Go make 5 panels!

Post Service

Some quick pen/ink - marker sketches from this afternoon, owls!

Snakes and Spots

My first round of work for the Potter portfolio project! In this post we have...
My line-work and final color test for my Chamber of Secrets cover:

My first attempt at designing spots/chapter title images:

And my some experimental designs for a Quidditch Snitch and a Snidget (info about Snidgets here): These are the first of many,
my sketchbook is delightfully brimming with strange HP details.
For those of you curious why I'm working on Potter themed art I'm simply using one of my
favorite book series as the creative juices while I learn about creating more complex
compositions. This allows me to play with fun subject while sharpening my
design skills and keep me excited about such a big project. Thus far it has been
oodles of fun and I'm very excited about the progress I've made thus far.

How about you blog readers? Any HP objects/scenes you'd be interested in
seeing made into spots?