Hold on, I'm on my hamburger phone

Yes, you read right!  For my product illustration i painted a hamburger phone.  They are real and you can buy them!  I thought it would be fun and it was, we had to have them to turn in on Friday so I had to stop sometime.  I would have added more detail to the cord had time allowed, but for the time being, it's not to shabby!  Fine enough to be printed in any magazine still printing illustrated pictures of products and willing to sell a hamburger phone.

How do you like them avocados?

Gouache has been getting considerably better, i just found out out that i have to paint things i actually like!  Not things that may seem easy.  Below are my avocados, my first non train wreck gouache pick out painting.  I am really impressed with it!  I hope you enjoy it as well.  I am currently working on my third gouache product illustration, yes third!  I first attempted a rubber duck ,he got to muddled with color, and then i tried a toy race car, but the sizing was wrong and the colors wouldn't go on right.  As for my product illustration, you'll just have to wait and see what it is for yourself.  until then, enjoy some avocados:

The good, The bad, and the ugly. There are only two but the bad and the ugly one are one in the same, so...

Here it is!  MY favorite and least favorite.  My least favorite was one of the earlier watercolors from the 5" x 7" series.  It was of the side of a building i took.  there were a lot of contenders for the worst, but this one took the cake.  There is not one redeeming quality about this one.

And here is the better one.  I had a lot to pick from here too.  I like my horse, but i don't think it shows much skill, i think it's a good example of me loosening up with my technique, but that's about it.  I thought about my hen i drew earlier too, but nothing tops my triceratops!  It's a good example of some watercolor skill, but I feel it's a great example of me adapting to the media presented.  I will be honest, i'm not to good with watercolors, but when combined with line art, i can really make it work.  Here it is:

Final Red Barn Illustrations

These are my final red barn illustrations.  I watercolored then put a sheet over them and did some sketching, scanned them both together because i tried scanning them separately and it would not go over well.  Well, here they are.  The first one will be on the cover and the lower one will be inside.

Gou(head)ache thoughts, actually that sums it pretty well.

So on Friday the 15th, we started playing with Gouache.  Try imagining painting with mud, it's something like that.  I like the fact that it can be reworked over and over again, unlike watercolor, where i try to go over something again and it stains that area.  speaking of watercolor, i had an a-ha moment while painting my red barn photos this weekend.  I realized that i hate watercoloring.  Oh wait, i already knew that.  Hmm, despite my disadvantage to this media, i will continue to attempt to work at it.  I think I do a lot better when I go over it with marker.  I value my drawing skills over my watercoloring skills and think the two combined can turn out some pretty col stuff, i refer to my triceratops painting: 

http://eriksillustrationblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/upscaled-watercolors.html

I really enjoy the graphic style i get from it.  This is, after all, Illustration class, and i have been dying to do some illustrating.  Than again, illustration  is a kind of generic term.

fud

SO...apparently Wednesdays are bring breakfast to class days.   I can live with that.

Ryle Collage final Marker Comp.

For Wednesday's class we had to do a to-scale marker comp of our concept for the Ryle Hall cafeteria's non-existent wall.  Yes, that's right, there's no wall there.  We went there to look at the wall, and guess what?  It's not there!  So, needless to say, i was a little unmotivated on this one.  I mean seriously, the only place where there was anywhere close to enough room was the temporary wall they have up while the other half is being finished and there is no way they would paint on that right?  Hmm...I reminds me of a mural I did my senior year of high school.   this custard place asked two high schools to do murals for their blank walls.  I had the idea to do our on a big canvas so that if (really when) the place closed, it would be able to be moved.  The other school just painted theirs on the wall, with a projector mind you!  Cheaters!  Anyways, the place closed months later and ours got moved somewhere, i have yet to be told its location, and the other school's mural is still on the wall, you can see it as you drive by.  Here's my mural, scanned and posted.  It is meant to show campus, community and global diversity.  I showed this by having a student, then a recent grad in a suit going to her new job.  Next is community and i showed that by having a police officer.  Last is global and i showed some world-leader like people.  On the other side i did a similar thing.  Closest to the middle is a guy showing campus by cleaning up.  Community is next showing a guy teaching environmentalism to the next generation, and then a global power at the end, the prez. to be exact, it seemed like the right thing to do.  My only concern with that is how well it will date.  I don't want kids looking at this years from now and laughing because "he was president sooo long ago!"  I got that feeling looking at the one collage with all the technology as well, i mean in 10 years, heck 5 years, all that stuff will be out of date.  They don't even make film for those polaroids anymore either!  Oh, and i was going for curtains behind the prez. on the far left.  Enjoy:  

I did not eat glue

For today, we had another two 8" x 10" water colors.  I used a failed start of a water color for some practice and ended up getting the horse/jockey illustration.  It just took a few minutes to get me sort of loose before starting up on something big.  I then proceeded to paint another mesa because i was so enjoying what happened with the one i painted for Wednesday's class.  Number two was not as exciting, but okay... I also painted a boat on the sea because i was thinking of a painting i did for painting for painting II.  I considered doing wreckage flying all over the place, but decided against it because i liked what i had.  I think i'm improving, but still a way away from an a-ha moment.

Not Secretariat or glue, yet...

Mesa II

The ship's bow and the sea

Finding Orange in Nature

For Wednesday's class we had to do another two 8" x 10" watercolors.  For this, i decided to use an orange palette in favor of the fall atmosphere.  FOr the first one i tried a bunch of changing trees, with leaves on the ground.  It turned out okay.  In retrospect i should have painted in the tree limbs in later, they look a little weird as is.  I will definitely have to peek-a-boo them in next time.  The ground gave me the most trouble, i had to wait a while for it to dry, but i got my leaves down okay, i will try putting the leaves down first next time.  Then i had a lot of warm colors left over so i asked myself, what's quick to paint and the same colors?  A mesa of course!  Something in Arizona or around there.  It was a pretty quick painting.  I really liked how the sky turned out, and i think it scanned down pretty well.

Not Inspired

I had absolutely no inspiration or interest in painting over the weekend, so i played around with the fan brush.  Meh, it's okay.  I think it's too big for what i was i was trying to do.  I got some pretty good effects, i really liked how my water turned out, the rest of that second one, not so much.  The first one i did i actually tried a little bit of glazing, it turned out okay, and only one tree casualty!  So should i get better at glazes, i should have no issue.  WEll here they are, i will probably use my fan brush more, should i find myself in a state of apathy.

Imagine you're in a clearing, looking up at a forest

Another forest?  With a lake and some majestic purple mountains

Another big one

For Friday we had to do another big watercolor, no (marker) line though...  I was completely inspired, so i decided to go with something else big, so i chose an elephant.  It turned out decently.  I did a background wash then blocked out the body of my elephant.  I then went in a did painted line for his features.  The body was a grey/purple and the line was slightly darker.  Then i did some little plants here and there.  Again, the scan is a little dark...