MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Program: Animation Edition!

Last week in Mathew Richmond's Digital Portfolio class we had our first animation assignment.

For the past 9 weeks we have been laying the foundation for this sort advanced application of photoshop: learning to color digitally, composing scenes out of discreet layers of scanned drawings, harvesting textures from scanned and photographed source material.

The theme of the assignment was "Transport." I happened to be flying back to NYC from my show in California, and took the opportunity to do an airplane piece. All the drawing was done on the tray table, then enhanced digitally once I got back to the SVA campus. Initially, I was having my pilot stop what he was doing to watch the sunrise, but I like that he is multitasking, and that enjoying the view is just one of the things he is juggling.

 Enjoy!

SVA MFA Illustration: Week 9

Week nine already!

As far as I can tell, the first semester of the MFA Illustration program is designed to overload whatever production strategy you came in with in September. It isn't impossible to get all of the work done, but at a certain point, it becomes pretty difficult to keep track of all the plates you are being asked to spin. Without the luxury of taking a step back, I have been trying to put faith in my work reflex, and hopefully in a few days I will have a little more perspective.

I am going to keep this post light, so I will just share a few recent assignments. . .

First, a little scratchboard study from Carl Titolo's studio class. . .

This second technique is something I had never seen before until Marshall Arisman introduced the class to it. To prepare the surface, you cover a slick board (Foam Core works well) in undiluted watercolor, straight out of the tube (It needs to be a tube,) then subtract the lights with a normal watercolor brush or a sponge. With a little water, the paint comes up faster than you would believe, the trick isn't in gettin back to white, but to keep any midtones at all.

I used the assignment to do a character study of my protagonist for "Book Seminar," Penkov. More on that later. . .

That's all for now!

Final Art for "Surface Tension"

A few weeks ago my friend David Peak asked me if I would create a new image for the cover of "Surface Tension," his full length poetry manuscript being published by BlazeVOX Press.

David had commissioned two illustrations from me previously, and once again brought an exciting visual challenge to the table. A section of "Surface Tension" explores the way our bodies become a part of the way that we define ourselves, and David had an idea for a picture of a man floating in space, deteriorating layer by layer, with constellations pulsing behind him.

After a round of preliminary sketches, I developed the final art over the course of a few days, drawing the layers seperately, ( I used a spray bottle full of FW acrylic ink for the starts ) and compositing the image on photoshop.

SVA MFA Illustration: Week 5

I just got caught up enough to put together a few J-pegs for the website.

All of the classes are hitting their stride, and at any given time, MFA Illustration class of 2011 might be working on as many as a half dozen illustrations at once.

Here are two assignments from Digital Illustration, with M. Richmond. . . .

The theme of this first assignment was "Breakfast," (and still is.) We are learning various Photoshop strategies, mainly designed to give us greater flexibility in our composing and revising. The challenge for this particular assignment was to draw, scan and color each element separately, so that they can be rearranged with no degradation of quality, and even animated ( if you know how to do that sort of thing.)

For this second assignment the given theme was "Fall," and the technical challenge was to incorporate 5 scanned textures into the composition. For these fabric patterns, I scanned in a stack of canvas bound books from the SVA MFA Illustration library. ( Who doesn't have a few items from the Zombie Male catalogue? I'm pretty sure I have all of these in my closet right now. )

And now for something completely different.

For M. Arisman's critique we were given the assignment to tell a story without words in 3 panels.

The story above is dedicated to my dad, for everyone else, I will briefly explain what the heck is going on.

One day in the early 90's, my dad and I were walking through San Francisco (see panel one.) There was a street vendor selling drawings on the street and she invited me to use her materials. I drew a few favorite motifs (some fish eating one another,) and then, (once I had established my chops,) I dipped into my fairly shallow well of religious iconography, and came up with the image that is seen in the last panel. As you can see, it is the nativity and the crucifixion ( a neat trick of compressed storytelling in and of itself) which inadvertently changes the meaning of both scenes, and produces a new, singularly creepy one.

That's it for now.

Over and out. . .

SVA MFA Illustration: Week 4

Not much time for reflection at the moment, but I thought I would post a few of the projects I have been working on over the last week. (for a little background, check out my previous posts regarding the MFA Illustration program.)

First things first, two new pages of comic for book seminar. (For the introduction to this narrative, check out my post from last week.) In these panels, the adventure of my three little communist continues as they evade Nazi soldiers and look for provisions in an occupied Bulgarian village circa 1940.

Next, an assignment for my digital portfolio class, where we are being introduced to digital coloring techniques on Photoshop. For this assignment, an illustration of the following quote colored two ways:

"The poet, the artist, the sleuth - whoever sharpens our perceptions tends to be antisocial; rarely "well-adjusted," he cannot go along with currents and trends. A strange bond often exists among anti-social types in their power to see environments as they really are."

-Marshall Mcluhan, "The Medium is the Massage"

It was a big week for comics. In Marshall Arisman's Critique class I created the following comic as the illustration of my life in Big Sur. ( Liberties have been taken with the details, and I appreciate the involuntary participation of Big Sur dudes everywhere.)

(You'll want to click on this one for a more legible size.)

Finally, a few hats from my sketchbook for C. Titolo's class. We will be turning these into stencils, and I should have some examples of the results next week.

That's all for this week. See you later illustrators. . . .

Rough Sketches

Here are a few thumbnail sketches for a new illustration commission I am working on. . . .

The image will adorn the cover of David Peak's poetry manuscript, to be published later this year.

The poem(s) deal with the idea of layers, and as a metaphor for this, David Peak suggested the (I think) rather evocative image of a human figure deteriorating in space.

 

After a literal take of the splitting layers, I try exploring the character's response to the situation. . .

Then a POV shot. . .

The second pose seemed a little silly for the project, and seems to inhibit the reading of the situation as a metaphor, so I try to focus on a sense of weightlessness, and repose.

This seems to get closer to the feeling, so I develop the composition with this value study.

Tune in next time for revisions and final art. . . .

SVA MFA Illustration: Week 3

The genius of the MFA Illustration program is the way that the classes are integrated into one another. Coming into the program, I had planned to find a balance between what I see to be the central occupations of a professional image maker; (in no particular order.) Skill Building, Experimentation, Self Promotion, Generation and Refinement of Concepts, and  Portfolio Building. I knew that a few of these boxes were going to be ticked by my classes. I hadn't expected, however, for the curriculum to so neatly correspond with my own agenda.

Over the course of five classes each week, the program establishes a model professional practice, challenging you in areas were you may be undisciplined, and allowing room for you to maintain the aspects of your practice which are your strengths. Without setting out to, a student could simply meet assignments and come away from the program with both a professional portfolio and a greater freedom in there studio practice. For students whose careers are already gathering momentum, the studios and the community of artists provides a great support for maintaining a stream of side projects. As opposed to my BFA experience, talking about professional applications for the work is expected and encouraged, although commerce and trends do not, as I feared they may, provide the student's primary motivation. The program can be shaped to meet nearly anyone's agenda. For me, just being here is an end in and of itself, like going on an extended vacation into some sort of elaborately themed "Art-Department of the 1930's" reenactment village.

Now for some work. . . .

Here is a Gorilla from Carl Titolo's "Critique" class. The class is a studio class focused around introduction to new materials, textures, working methods. Its all heart and no head (no headache anyway,) which is a nice relief. Carl has a long list of shortcuts to achieve textures that mimic every form of printmaking and painting. He is a real believer in traditional craftsmanship, but when it comes to materials, encourages his students to pass-up the art supplier in favor of a trip to the hardware store. Painters tape, sponges, and wire brushes are well represented in his tote bag.

A progression of still-life studies from the last few weeks of Greg Crane's oil painting workshop. I tend to work with a very limited palette, but Greg has been encouraging me to invest in some new colors (and actually use them, instead of mixing them all down to grey.) A major epiphany came this week when I was introduced to size 16 Flat Brushes (a full inch and a quarter bigger than anything I have ever used.) and Drying Linseed Oil, which I have been adding to my paint instead of turpentine to thin it.

The video-game-inspired-graphic-novel continues to move forward in Book Seminar Class. The actual format of the book is still a little up in the air, but I have developed a story structure that I am using as a guide. It is my intention to augment my approach for each illustration to meet the demands of the scene I am depicting, and then, format a book based on the material I have generated.

Above, there are examples of a pretty straight ahead sequential narrative, a map, and more diagramatic rendering of the character design. Depending on the action, I will continue to look for graphic approaches that draw on both the tradition of graphic novels and movies (linear, POV shots, Narrative Driven, etc,) and a survey of more diagramatic references ( User's Manuals, How To Guides, Anatomical Drawings, Architectural Rendering, etc.)

I am using Photoshop to digitally color these images. (The original drawings are done with 3B pencil on Vellum Bristol Board.) Once I get the colors in place on there own layer, I am dropping out the line work, then refining the shapes so that they can hold there own without the information provided by line. I will be learning how to use Illustrator and Flash over the next semester in Digital Portfolio, and I hope to incorporate both of those tools into the finished project.

Finally, these are some of the pictures that came out of our first assignment in Marshall Arisman's Critique class. The assignment was to make a dog out of cardboard and photograph it around the city. Marshall's class is an introduction storytelling with pictures. For the rest of the semester, we will be bringing in a finished illustration each week, and telling a story to the class. The relationship between the image and the story will be something that we explore and refine as the semester progresses.



That's it for now.

MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Program: Week Two

Graduate students in the illustration program are given studio spaces on the 12th floor of 136 East 21st street. The elevator opens onto a security coded door, beyond which sits a surprisingly clean and well layed out lobby type area. Beyond this, along long hallways, the studios (6' x6' cubes, with 7' walls) fill the entire floor. A channel of air and light unifies the upper half of the space, and below it forty or so students work and converse at nearly all hours of day or night. (Student's are given 24 hour access to the building.)

Despite the workload, I have found that it is possible to keep something approximating bankers hours, and still keep ahead of the eight-ball. This may change as the semester wears on, but with a little planning, and "front loading" (doing the hard stuff first, ) I usually find my "in-box" empty by about 7 or 8 pm. Which has given me plenty of time to play cards with my wife, and enjoy home cooked meals. The secret isn't too mysterious: If you work until 3 in the morning, you probably aren't getting into the studio the next day at 8. (if you are, my hat is off to you.)    

Book Seminar with Victor Koen: Week Two

The first week for most classes seems to include a grace period. The exception to this is Book Seminar with Victor Koen. Once all the classes are going full steam, it is hard to imagine what the work load will look like, but for the moment, I am taking advantage of this ability to focus, and trying to develop my book idea into something I can begin executing. (We have 15 week, the length of the semester, to complete our book project. But, until we are "green-lit" by Mr. Koen and our classmates, our work doesn't move beyond the sketch phase.)

My three ideas from the first week, (see my last entry)  have become integrated into a single illustrated response to the text. My assignment for this week was to create "advanced thumbnails" of the book. What I presented bears closest resemblence to my "Video Game Strategy Guide" proposal, but expands the focus to include the entire story arch of the book, rather than just the sequence involving gypsies hunting for monuments.

The structure still needs some fine tuning, but i was happy with some of the visuals that were developed.

For next week, I will be developing "levels" based on 4 or five more scenes from the book, then doing a test painting to demonstrate what a finished page would look like. The final project should stand alone as a story telling device, so I will also be thinking about ways of compressing certain elements of the book, and perhaps, taking some liberties with the chronology. ( Buying Lenin is told in a strictly non-linear way, which works very nicely for a short memoir, but may be a create a challenge for comprehension given the limited vocabulary I am giving myself.)

More to come, stay tuned. . . . .