Digital Illustration

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FINAL: Candy Heart Werewolf Character Sheet and Biography

The Candy Heart Werewolf was born of the Roman god Cupid and the She-wolf Lupa before she mothered the founders of Rome. After this abrupt union, the Candy Heart Werewolf was raised by his mother in the mystic forests at the base of Mount Olympus where even the gods can’t see and the humans can’t reach. Over the centuries, he was much loved by Lupa and during Springtime they would exchange messages of love with candy hearts, which in turn gave him his name. When he became of adult age, he wandered into a human town and instantly fell in love with a beautiful princess. After many weeks of watching her and leaving romantic gifts and poetry in her path, he took a more humanoid form and confronted her with all of his confidence and charisma and offered her a simple candy heart that simply read ‘I Love You’. However, she laughed at him and never once believed that a creature like him could ever be capable of leaving her such romantic and meaningful gifts. Heart broken, he retreated to the mystic forests with his heart full of rage, grief, and unrequited love. From that day forward, he vowed to make sure that no one would feel the same way he felt and punish those who disregard other’s feelings.

On every night of the full moon, the Candy Heart Werewolf would scope out individuals who would purposefully break other’s hearts without remorse. He would take the abuser’s heart and trap it in a heart-shaped case kept in his jacket pocket. If the individual can’t prove that they can genuinely love another by the next full moon when the Candy Heart Werewolf appears, the Candy Heart Werewolf will shake the case and the heart inside will turn into candy hearts which he will consume afterwards. That person will never be able to love another or experience love ever again. The bouquet of hearts is the Candy Heart Werewolf’s personal collection of declarations of affection from his willing lovers. Since he is immortal, spending a life with a human is impossible. In order to compensate for his loneliness, he would take the hearts of those who are willing to look pass his appearance, fall for his charms, and find it in themselves to love him, and add it to his bouquet to cherish for eternity. In doing so, they can love no other but the Candy Heart Werewolf.

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A Touch of Color

For my color palette, I have chosen pinks, reds, blues, greens, and some minor colors to compliment them in the highlights and shadows of my character. I want my colors to support my character’s personality which a mysterious and suave Casanova that, despite his appearance, is the master of of love like his father Cupid.

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Cotton Candy Yeti Project

The outline of this project was to choose one type of candy and one mythical creature and combine them to create an illustrated character with a brief biography, a full outfit, and two instruments/weapons that they wear or hold. My choice was a Candy Heart Werewolf. He is a humanoid werewolf dressed in a seersucker suit with a bouquet of hearts that he has collected and a candy heart case in his pocket. We are to illustrate a front, back, and three-quarter view of our characters and so far, I have everything down packed except for the three-quarter view. I plan on giving him a different pose and experimenting with my color pallet to bring my character to life.

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Illustration Friday 4.3.15

This week’s theme was Outside. I didn’t really have any abstract ideas for this theme, so I repainted a picture of flowers I took many months ago in Photoshop. The only difference is that I used a soft brush to outline the whole picture. In order to see it more clearly is to step back from it and look at it at a good distance. Only than will you be able to see the whole picture.

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Illustration Friday 3.27.15

The theme this week was Ruckus and I really didn’t have any strong pull towards this theme. However, what can make more of a ruckus than a busy city night life? At first, I was thinking of using a reference, but I wanted to do something off the top of my head for once. It wasn’t so bad.

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Portrait of a Poem: Messy Room by Shel Silverstein

Final product of the Messy Room portrait! After redoing the colors, inspired by Anita Kunz, and most of the line work, my instructor assisted me on how to change the contrast and saturation on the background to make it look like it is falling back but still part of the piece. It is a subtle change, but made a big difference overall. I’m so grateful of the feedback I got from this piece. So everyone else, enjoy!

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In-Progress Critique #3

Now that my portrait is on computer, I decided to add a little color to it to see how it would look. Sad to say, my instructor was not satisfied and honestly I wasn’t either. All in all, my baby opossum is fine, its just I have to find a way to make my objects in the background fade into the background with their colors. Easier said than done. Now to start almost back to the beginning. If I had more time, I would do this all over again.

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Rapid Fire Sketches 3.17.15

FINALLY!!! I can gladly say that I am making some type of progress. The next step: working on my speed. You try drawing an image in Photoshop with only five minutes and see how your work turns out.

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Illustration Friday 3.13.15

The theme this week is Path. So the image that came to my mind is like a grim version of Alice in Wonderland. Honestly, my favorite part about this one is the pebbled path leading to the unknown. 

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Rapid Fire Sketches 3.12.15

I feel like I’m back right where I started. Maybe I should start doing rapid fire sketches during my free time. Oh wait, I forgot, I don't have any; the life a junior.

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Portrait of a Poem: In-Progress Critique #2

Compared to my previous sketches, this refined sketch is way better! Since baby animals are so adorable, a baby opossum was recommended because of its youth and its love for hanging upside down by its tail, which worked great for the frame. Besides the need for slight changes to some of the objects, this piece is ready to be inked, scanned, and brought into the computer. Oh the possibilities of a color scheme . . .

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Project Two: Portrait of a Poem

With my chosen Shel Silverstein poem, the Messy Room, my task is to illustrate a portrait based off of the details in the poem. With Anita Kunz as my inspiration, I developed a concept of a young opossum as the main character because of their messy habits, with the objects described in the poems scattered hazardously around it. As you can see, some fine tuning is in order.

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Illustration Friday 3.6.15

This week's theme for Illustration Friday was Reflection. After skimming through the recently submitted pieces on the website, a lot of people were using water, mirrors, and any kind of shiny objects that reflect. I wanted to take a different approach and use technology in my illustration. I used a phone in the process of taking a picture as my reflection since the screen is showing a reflection of the person holding it.

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3 Poems by Shel Silverstein

RAIN

I opened my eyes And looked up at the rain, And it dripped in my head And flowed into my brain, And all that I hear as I lie in my bed Is the slishity-slosh of the rain in my head.

I step very softly, I walk very slow, I can't do a handstand-- I might overflow, So pardon the wild crazy thing I just said-- I'm just not the same since there's rain in my head.

MESSY ROOM

Whosever room this is should be ashamed! His underwear is hanging on the lamp. His raincoat is there in the overstuffed chair, And the chair is becoming quite mucky and damp. His workbook is wedged in the window, His sweater's been thrown on the floor. His scarf and one ski are beneath the TV, And his pants have been carelessly hung on the door. His books are all jammed in the closet, His vest has been left in the hall. A lizard named Ed is asleep in his bed, And his smelly old sock has been stuck to the wall. Whosever room this is should be ashamed! Donald or Robert or Willie or-- Huh? You say it's mine? Oh, dear, I knew it looked familiar!

RECIPE FOR A HIPPOPOTAMUS SANDWICH

A hippo sandwich is easy to make. All you do is simply take One slice of bread, One slice of cake, Some mayonnaise, One onion ring, One hippopotamus, One piece of string, A dash of pepper-- That ought to do it. And now comes the problem... Biting into it!

The poem that I choose to use for my second project for Digital Illustration is the Messy Room. Our task is to illustrate a portrait of the poem inspired by professional illustrators such as Anita Kunz, Valeria Petrone, and Eric Gory. 

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Spring 2015 Charrette: Expansion

My idea for this semester's Charrette is the complete redesign and expansion of our Art & Design Department building Fauntleroy Hall. Since I believe us artists require more room to function in a working environment, I design the layout to be more accommodating to the comfortability of the students and better working conditions for the teachers. Since our art gallery is not in our own building, I added it to the layout as a circular, two-level space with a glass dome roof. There are sitting areas on each level, elevators, a teachers' lounge, and more classrooms, studios, and computer labs. If I could change our building, it would look exactly like this.

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I give you my final printed children's book cover for The Princess and the Pea! It took a lot of time, dedication, and computer space, but as you can see, it was well worth it! Please give me your thoughts.

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Rapid Fire Sketches 3.3.15

These are today's rapid fire sketches. I will admit, I felt more confident with this set unlike I did the week before last. I'm still doing the basic blocking colors and going in with a smaller brush for finer details, I just have a better sense on where to start with the photos. It's a good start in the right direction, but I have a long way to go and can't wait to get started!