Wind In March Book Cover.

For Book Illustration we were asked to do a book cover for a nonexistent book of our choosing from a list provided to us. I chose Wind of March, a fictional book by "author" Ray Parker. I had to figure out what plot I thought the book should have and then do an illustration based on that- I ended up deciding it would be a sort of coming of age story for a young girl (though why it would be written by a man is beyond me). For the pattern in the background I tried to reference lace and flowers- I ended up making it a full page pattern which I will probably upload at some point with come color variations.
I am not sure which color I prefer- the green version was my update post critique, and the pink was my original.

Pantone.

In my Illustration Concepts II class we had to listen to three NPR articles- one about Pantone and the fashion industry, one about the study of fleas and how they jump, and one about turtles and their internal navigation system. We were then asked to do an illustration based on whichever story we preferred- I took the opportunity to do a fun fashion illustration.

Mr. Linden's Library.

For Jaime Zollars' Book Illustration class we were assigned a "mystery" piece where we needed to do a black and white illustration based on a quote that we got at random. Mine was "He had warned her about the book. Now it was too late." I have always really liked doing fairly detailed interiors but never seem to apply that to my work, so this was a good chance to. I ended up basically making my dream room (A bed that is nestled in a wall? Sign me up!) that had elements inspired by my fabulous roommate Colleen Roxas (namely the zebras). The protagonist of the story is sleeping after a long night of studying, while a ghostly hand reaches down to grab her.

I need to revamp my "colored" version, as the black and white did not have enough contrast, but I figured I'd throw the sketches up here because, well, why not? The first one is the drawing sans the hand, so that if I decide to re-draw it I don't disturb the environment. The second is my sketch with my ghostly hand included. At some point I hope to do a full color version of this, but that of course is time permitting.

Words on Wheels.

So I was lucky enough that my hand lettering class was selected as one of the ones that would compete for Words on Wheels (which is "contest" based on a partnership with MICA and select Baltimore grade schools) for the chance to have your work with the child's poem featured in the Baltimore City public buses. I ended up getting "My Dreams and Beliefs" and decided to illustrate the narrator (long with a future version of himself) "thinking" the text. Unlike the Concepts classes that got this assignment, I was allowed to hand letter my poem as long as the title was the only thing done "fancy"- the poem itself needed to be pretty simple so it was easily read. We needed to follow specific size and orientation guidelines, which is tough when you are working with something so long and thin, but I think I did alright with it.

I am pretty happy with how the illustration turned out, but I edited the thought cloud to be larger upon my teacher's suggestion, causing the text to feel too rigid in the center. If I get selected I will be reworking the way the poem is spaced out and it's size- I didn't have enough time before I had to go print and submit it to the Illustration department.

On a fun side note, this assignment forced me to break my habit of perpetually drawing women and get some dudes in. On a not so fun note, I had to spend 5 hours in our school's print lab waiting to be able to get a print with the correct colors due to their large scale printer having issues with it's ink distribution.

8 1/2 DVD Cover.

For my Illustration Concepts class we were asked to create a DVD cover for a film- not only did it have to have been created before we were born, but it also could not be animated or Mary Poppins. I ended up deciding on Federico Fellini's 8 1/2, which eventually spawned the musical Nine, which in turn was then put on film in 2009's Nine. In essence, 8 1/2 is a film about the creative process, the business and artistic clash of movie making, and the main character's struggle to balance and manage his relationships with the women in his life. This is currently unfinished, as I need to figure out the hand lettering for the title, but I figured I should throw it up here anyway before I alter it. There are two versions up- the first is an untouched scan of the original painting, the other is one edited so the hair's contrast is toned down. I'm not really 100% sure which one I prefer.  I ended up deciding on the edited version.

Planet Produce.

This was an assignment to make a graphic iconic shape for the local produce stand "Planet Produce" based around a fruit/vegetable alphabet we had to create. I ended up going with the motif of a bean and adjusted my lettering to fit. The words surrounding the "Planet Produce" are key words that we were told to include in our work. This will be checked out by the stand owner in the coming weeks, where he may choose one of our interpretations to be used for his shop. Clothing mock up model images came from the wonderful site Design By Humans.

Handletters Blog Header.

Another semester has begun! I started it off with a bang by getting my gallbladder removed the week before winter break ended (I had gallstones that affected me throughout last semester). It was a pretty crazy experience but luckily I'm healing well and things have overall been going well.

So this piece is a header that we were asked to design for the class blog in my hand lettering class with Whitney Sherman. I have a ton of preliminary sketches for this assignment I might eventually scan, but for now here is the final. Unfortunately, mine did not get chosen, but I did make it to the top 8 in the class which was exciting.