Mid Program Portfolio Review: Aka "Great Job Amber, You Suck"

So I just finished submitting my mid program portfolio for upper division consideration and ehhhhhh. It's not great. I used my best pieces so far from the program but I know I can do so much better! I feel like a slacker and that bums me out. I submitted despite my knowing that the work wasn't good enough. But really, I submitted this semester for the practice. I'm just gonna have to work my butt off next semester!

Uggggggggh I'm garbage at graphic design. I should pick up a book on it. My layouts suuuuuuuck.

This one I added to make me feel better. Being dumb amounts of dorky always makes me feel better!

Bwahahaha next semseter! I'm going to destroy you portfolio review!

Tinkerbell mock ups

For the first 2 I figured the background would just be some sort of gradient or abstract coloring.
The last 2 I imagined as parts of a scene in a movie so the background is a specific location.
Image would be done in acrylic or gauche and would be as close to a 2d cartoon as possible.

this is how i read

Comic Book Characters

Sooooooooooo those designs didn't turn out like I wanted....I wanted Egon Schiele + Jhonen Vasquez and I got Amber.....uhhhhhh. That's not what I wanted. I hope my team likes or at least isn't disappointed. I'll post the designs tomorrow maybe. -3-

One Hour Wine

Oh! The homework! Still not even done yet! I took the day off from school today just so I could finish it all! So far I've gotten my still life underpainting done, my cover letter/resume/thank you assignment done and my four 1 hour paintings done. Still have 15 character designs to do. Ugh! I just wanna play battle block theater. I feel like my attention span has been depleted for the day.

Well, here are the 4 paintings. I had the hardest time deciding on the object to paint.....I have no interesting objects. So I defaulted to my one wine glass. Ohhhh poor lonely wine glass. He needs a friend. I ended up using coffee in place of wine and slowly depleted in over the course of the four paintings. I'm not sure if there was an improvement in the painting....I did get fast. So at least there's that. However, my shapes are not accurate. Poor lopsided wine glass!

Acrylic on illustration board

Color Comps for Still Life

Arg! I'm getting so far behind in my school work. I've been working on on a design for a business card and it's taking more time than I expected. I really wanna get it done! Hopefully he likes the last version I sent. That way I can get started on my homework!

Here are some color studies for my still life that I'm working on in my painting class. My values are a little off... that's why the figure is blending in so much with the plate in the background. They were fun. I just put them off for way to long. I ended up painting all of them the day before they were due!

50% saturated

full saturation

monochromatic

complimentary

limited, neutralized

analogous....although it's so subtle that it looks monochromatic!

Figure Drawing. I'm Not Great At It.

I just gotta keep practicing! I'm so disappointed in myself that I haven't been drawing. I feel like all the pressure to produce good works is making me feel to stressed to draw, so I haven't been. I feel like it hasn't been a positive semester. At least it's spring break now! No chilis. No school. Imma spend my time studying art and anatomy and sitting on the balcony painting the mountain. We'll see how that goes.

Rabbit Versus Kitten: Apartment Turf Wars

So one of my many current residences includes the apartment that my boyfriend has started renting with  his best friend Trevor. I happen to like it alot. I like the freedom to come and go, I like the location and most of all I like Trevor's kitten. Now, normally I'm allergic to cats but I've been doing pretty well with this one so far. I think the little guy is adorable.

The kitten, understandably, is questionable about the lil dude. He seems to confuse the kitten. Like the cat is aware that lil dude is a giant rodent and that he should be easy prey....but he's not. Lil dude, on the other hand, seems smitten with the kitten. He seems to want to be his friend. He likes to wait for him. He likes to sniff him. He likes to follow him. It's real adorable. What's most entertaining is seeing them take turns chasing each other around the apartment.

Painting Kicks My Ass

So I haven't posted a whole heck of a lot since school started...I actually don't think I've posted at all. I've just been so busy with all the homework. There is so much painting. Arg! And I'm not that good at it. I wish I had examples to post. The only thing I have at the moment is this pretty sweet painting of an apple painted in the Zorn palette (This palette consists of black, white, cad red and yellow ochre). This is the only successful piece so far this semester. All my drapery studies are pretty shitty. However, it is a learning process so I'm completely all right with failing so long as I know why. Learning from mistakes. Yea! School! F's for everyone! But at least you grew as an artist. Hahahahaha.

So School Started...

...and apparently I like to draw fan art instead of practice classic techniques and do homework... I just wanna read comics all the time...is that so bad? And then when I'm not reading, I'm drawing them. That's cool right? I'M COOL!!! SO COOL!!! Validation!!!

I'm so cool that the guy at Hijinx Comics remembered my name the other day. Oooooh I was so excited.

Random art dump. These are some of the pictures I've come up with.

This is me and Eric dressed up as our fav superheroes while reading comics. We actually do this, in real life. Also we fight crime. I am Powergirl for reals tho.

Sailor Jupiter. It is my goal to paint every sailor scout in photoshop!

I was so proud of this one! It has story. It has expression. It looks like a comic panel taken straight from a comic! Looooooove it!

Amethyst got all sassy. What the hell iiiiiiis that thing. I know its woven out of mist but what IS it?

Day 24....Horses are hard to draw.

For day 24 I didn't even want to do a horse. It just sort of happened.

On the list, day 24 reads as "a multiple legged monster" so originally I wanted to do a creepy crawly. I was looking at shrimp for inspiration because I love the way they move. However, I found that after scribbling a few shrimp, I just wasn't into the idea.

For whatever reason my next idea was a watermelon with spike spider legs. I'm not sure why. It was a really random idea. I didn't go into that idea because for some reason I was convinced that the design I had in mind already existed. I think that I was thinking of the water melon called walter melon from the aqua teen hunger force movie. Ha! So i nixed that idea.

Lyndsay has been talking a lot about how she's looking into buying a pony so I've had horses on the brain for a while. I ended up drawing a pegasus for today's challenge. It's not really a monster I guess and who can tell if it's even female. Oh well. It's alright. I like it ok. I'm quite sure its the best horse I've ever drawn. I think what I liked most is the red lines in contrast with all the greens.

She's a cubby one!

Day 23 Yokai...And Bad Imitation of Ink Painting.

So according to the all powerful wikipedia, a yokai is a catch term for all japanese supernatural beings. There are so many that I ended up picking one that sounded the most interesting.

A kitsune is japanese for fox but within the realm of yokai, a kitsune is a shape shifting fox that varies in personality. Kitsune often shape shift into young girls, beautiful women and old men. It is said that if you come across a beautiful women alone in the forest, she is a kitsune in disguise.

For my yokai picture I wanted to go for a sumi-e style of painting. I was aiming toward a Hokusai-esque digital painting but...haha....of course one can only ever aim for Hokusai greatness but can never obtain Hokusai greatness. I chose a brush that I hoped would imitate the undulation of an ink brush line but it fell short. However, I have a fondness for the piece, despite it not coming out quite right.

Day 22. Flying Ninja Rabbit Jerks

I'm watching my rabbit fight like ninjas right now. Man, they really don't get along. Rabbits are adorable little jerks and I'm pretty sure they are aware of it! I really should do a rabbit monster. I could make t-shirts with that image! lol

Day 22 is a canine girl! I wanted to pick a specific dog and showcase a specific trait of that dog. I chose great dane as the breed. Great danes are known as racing dogs so I wanted to showcase dog ability to run great distances. I went with a girl runner character. This is dear to my heart because 1.) I used to be a runner and 2.) I used a sketch of the east bay hills as the background. Great danes typically have slender waists and muscular thighs, both of which are traits that I carried over into the character design.

What I like best about the piece is the composition specifically in relation to the background. I thought it would be interesting to have a low horizon that showed a vast background but then trapped that background within the confines of a square box. The character is not confined to the box which I feel pushes the character forward in space.

Eric pointed out the irony of a dog girl taking herself on a walk. I love it! Unintentional!

Day 21....Color Evolution

Day 21 is cat girl! I actually was proactive and did this picture as well as day 22 yesterday! I'm ahead of the game!!

So this cat girl picture was an experiment in color. I tried coloring the piece 2 different was and got 2 very different results. I'm definitely glad I went with the second.

Originally the cat was not in the picture. I wanted the pose to look jumping around playing, as if she was playing hopscotch....but when I add the background, it just looked like she was making eye contact with some invisible thing...so I added a cat.  

first try 

second try

Day 20....Daaaaaw, isn't that cute!?

Day 20 is a satyr girl. Satyr's are normally male but they have female counterparts named satyresses....so I guess this is technically a satyress. Satyrs exist in both ancient roman and ancient greek mythology. According to the all knowing wikipedia, the roman version depicts satyrs as humans that have the lower half of a goat as well as horns. The Greek version depicts satyrs as being mostly human with the ears and tail of a goat. These satyrs are companions of Pan and are follows of Dionysis. My satyr is mostly the roman depiction with the exception of the hare she is carrying. The hare symbolizes a shy satyr. This may be the cutest piece I've done. Shy is just such a cute personality trait to depict!

This one is just all sorts of win. I love the lines, the color, the design and even the fact that I got to incorporate a bunny into the picture! I love it all!

Day 19....Oh Cyclops

Day 19 is cyclops girl. I knew for sure I wanted her to be interacting with her one eye so I thought depicting her applying makeup might be a funny situation. I wasn't sure if I wanted to have her putting on mascara or eyeshadow....I feel like makeup is depicted to often as part of a girl's daily routine so that lead me to depict something a little less talked about....female facial hair.

Not my best peice. It was sorta drawn half heartedly. Even though I liked the concept of the situation, I just wasn't up for the execution.

I did make it a point to incorporate the face that everyone makes when applying mascara! Haha so true.

Day 16, Day 17, Day 18. Three Days Crammed Into One.

So I fell behind. Life happens. Cars break down. Bank accounts become barren. Crying ensues. Full bottles of wine are drinken. All that Jazz. We can all learn a lesson from St. Walker and the Blue Lanterns....(pst...those are the hope lanterns!). So here I have Day 16, Day 17, Day 18. Yea! Drawing marathon! This catches me up to date. I have a lot of free time tomorrow so I might actually work ahead, that way I have time before the semester starts to design and print the book!

Day 16 Ghost

This is my second attempt at this piece. The first attempt was sketched out in photoshop and, after a bottle of wine, was discarded for massive amounts of ugly. I sketched this one, as well as the following two monsters, out on paper first. Then inked and transferred it to photoshop. I just feel like my thought process is different on paper than it is on the computer. Also, my line work is better overall with pen.

I really enjoy this peice. I think its adorable and fun. I was pleased that I got a sense of personality out of my ghost girl. She comes across as quite the little prankster. This piece acheives what I believe slime girl achieves, and thats a sense of story by use of solely character and prop. Coincidentally both pieces have that pudgy simplified style. As for the color, I wanted the feel of a dark, empty, dirty space so the colors are muted as well as on the purple side.

Day 17 Robot

Whenever I think robot girl, I immediately think of a sex robot. This is what sci-fi has taught me! It's not my fault! So I wanted to come up with a robot girl who is aware that robots are used as sexual objects but rejects that idea...in this case with weaponry.

Again, this piece was sketched on paper first, then inked and scanned into the computer.

Features of this robot girl:
 -Buzz saws. Good idea? Or Great idea?
- Wings comprised of automatic guns. How do you reload the ammo? Refer to your handbook, this is   not a FAQ page!
 - A mouth that is not a hole, but instead flaps that move up and down over a screen that shows the                    sound wavelengths of her voice during conversation. Results in a lot of staring at her mouth while she is talking.
- Semi Automatic sold separately.
-Wi-Fi

Day 18 Alien

So I've been told that a lot of inspiration for sci-fi creatures comes from deep oceanic creatures. Things like squids, angler fish, funky coral and the like are used as spring boards for a lot of alien concepts. This is due to their ability to function in an environment that mimics space. These creatures can survive intense pressure, extreme cold or extreme heat, and little to no light. I, however, did not take this approach. Instead I went with my fascination for fungi. The fungi this alien is based upon is the bioluminous mushroom. These mushrooms produce a soft glow from the edges of their gills as well as from the area where the gills and the stem meet.

I was proud that I figured out how to create a glow for this peice. Hooray refine edge! I knew you could do it! The piece would loose a lot of story and effect without that glow. In fact, if I didn't add it the alien would look like a sea creature! I like the expression I got out of this character. I wanted the piece to show an alien girl (princess?) whom is lost. I really wanted scared or disoriented to come across. This creature is able to twist her head around multiple times due to a lack of structure or muscle in that area. The same goes for where her elbows would be. The more twists, the more stressed the alien.

I just can't get over how varied the styles are for the pieces even though I drew them one right after the other. What's up with that?

Day 15. Dragon....I bet she'll want some serious snacks

Day 15 is dragon monster! At first I was hesitant about this monster. I didn't want it to turn out like just a typical dragon with the addition of boobs. However, at the same time I didn't want her to be to humanoid to the point were it looked like I just stuck a tail on a girl. Simultaneous, I was wondering as to why I hadn't been liking my monsters for the past few days. Why did my slime monster turn out so well but all these other ones are all....blah? I've come to the conclusion that slime monster was such a success because she had a definite character....a definite story. She didn't come across as just some flat character that exists and floats around with no personality.

Story was something I wanted to strive for a little more in this peice. I wanted it to be interesting and different. Not just some Dragon.

I thought about what kind of dragon I wanted and settled on a fire dragon. What are traits of a fire dragon? Breathing fire. Exhaling smoke. Being reddish in color. Exhaling smoke caught my attention. What if breathing fire didn't refer to shooting fire from a dragon's mouth, but instead referred to inhaling fire. The idea that a fire breathing dragon was actually a creature that was a stoner crossed my mind. I laughed at how silly it was but ultimately I ran with it. In the end, I like it. I feel like the pose should be more slouched but not all the drawings can be winners!

To cool for school man.