Final Project: Open

My Proposal:

For my final project I would like to like to create on image of Earth with an anatomically correct heart at its core. I want to have the veins growing out and turning into tree roots, which will connect to trees sprouting off the earth’s surface. The trees will not be to scale with the earth; I have in mind a sort of one-point perspective approach for the trees. The concept is the idea of the Earth being alive and needing proper nourishment and care, just like any living thing.

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Early Sketches:

I decided to sketch all the components of my design separately and assemble them in Photoshop. There are a couple reasons I chose this approach, 1) Since they are already separated it will be easier to edit them separately in Photoshop, 2) I can start the editing process on the early sketches while I'm still working on the later ones.

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I had some trouble trying to draw the trees in perspective, but this is an early attempt.... 

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So my next attempt began with establishing the perspective lines first on a separate sheet, then drawing the trees over them on a light table.

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I wasn't happy with the density of the last sketch, so I did another sketch with more stylized leaves in the North American trees and less shading in the South American trees. This is the tree sketch I used in my final image.

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Final Image

For the final image, I complied all of my sketches and colorized them. Viola!

Creating A Narrative

Proposal:

I used to struggle with drawing anything without a reference to look at. A while back, I started sketching little monsters as an exercise for drawing from my head. It was a good exercise because my monsters didn't have to be perfectly anatomically correct, but they still needed to give the illusion of having weight and working muscles and all the things you have to consider when drawing a form. They also forced me to work with foreshortening and really consider how bodies are put together. I'm still struggling with all of the above, but not as much as I used to.

For this project, I would like to create a narrative using my little monster sketches. I want it to be fun and whimsical, and hopefully I'll even get a chuckle from someone... 

Early Sketches:

This was just my initial brainstorming phase. Trying to figure out what I want my monster characters to look like. I know I want to have a little monster getting picked on by a bigger monster, and then the little guy will get help from an even bigger monster....

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The Little Guy: Foodo 

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The Bully:

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The Big Guy:

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Bringing Them Into Photoshop

My next step was to digitize them and begin forming my narration. I assembled them together to construct my scenes and created an environment for each scene. I decided to leave the loose hand drawn line form of my sketches instead of making them really clean cut in Illustrator, and I wanted the background to integrate with that form as well.

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Assembly

The last thing I did was put them together in comic book form....

The Cyclical Nature of Things

Artist Statement:

For this project I would like to focus on the cyclical life of a flower. I've recently developed an interest in gardening, and I've been looking into flowers that bloom at different times of year. I think it would interesting to tie this fact into my concept somehow. 

Right now, I have an image in my mind of the flower blossom giving off pollen, and as the pollen floats away in transforms through the stages of germination while in the air. 

This is one of the images I'm considering starting with...

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My Process 

Step #1: Creating the Background

To create my background, I layered a few textural images I have begun to collect for this very reason. Then I worked with blending modes and such to get an effect I like. 

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Step #2: Making My Flower

Next I manipulated the flower because I didn't want it to look like I'd just pasted a picture of the flower on to a textured background. 

          

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And then I pasted my flower onto the background I'd created and played with some filters for a bit until I got something I rather liked....

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I didn't like how the flower is just floating in midair instead of growing from something, so I decided to extend the stem using one of my other images and apply similar effects to those of the flower.

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  I added that image to my main image, played around with the hue/saturation tool on the background,
and introduced the idea of the pollen coming out of the flower.

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Step #3: Change in Direction

I began looking at images online of seed germination so I could start incorporating that idea into my image, but I wasn't satisfied with the concept. Instead, I decided to approach the issue of the rapid decline in the bumblebee populations across the globe and how they are a vital part of the flowering plant cycle. 

I wanted to capture the idea that our flowering plants would die off without the bumblebees, so I started playing with different ways to show that. 

I liked the idea of dividing the image in half to create a before-and-after effect, with the living flower on one side and dead flowers/bumblebees on the other. Here's the beginning of creating the atmosphere for that...

                    

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Step #4: Creating the Dead Flower and Bumblebees

I collected several images of wilting lilies and dead bumble bees and manipulated them in various ways.

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Then I added them into the main image and messing around with which ones to accent....

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Final Image

The above image was too dark when we had a critique in class, so I lighten up the corner and adjusted some of the colors. I also lightened the mustard color in the left side flower to connect with the tones in the dead flowers. I wanted to show that the living flowers were already being effected by the death so close to them.