Final Project

Today our final project was due. I decided to make my final a collection of illustrations based on the short story, The Cats Elopement, rather than illustrating the story. In the PDF file, the full story is described, but for sake of the blog format, I have just posted the images. So, here are the five illustrations:

Overall, I am pretty happy with the outcome of my final piece. The style wasn't exactly what I was going for originally, but I think it worked well for what the piece was in the end. If I had more time, I would've like to have actually illustrated the entire story, and had it presented in book format. But, all in all, I think the project was a success.

Week 4b

Here is another illustration I did:

This image is of Koma and Gon falling in love and being together. I am considering doing borders around each image, I am not sure yet though. My final image will be completed by Thursday night, and I will be able to compose my final project, which I am still not sure what the exact formatting will be. I am thinking I may do a PDF which has an intro page that explains the project, has the story, and then the images. Or maybe I will just do an ebook. I will continue to think about this before tomorrow night. 

Week 4a

Today I completed a 3rd illustration. It looks like this:

This illustration is of when Koma and Gon first meet. I really like the color scheme I did for this. After this, I only have 2 more illustrations to do. The next one will be of them falling in love basically, and the last one will be their kittens and them residing in the castle. I am not sure if I still want to do a book, or just say that these illustrations are a collection based upon the story. We will see.

Week 3b

Today I finished another illustration. This one is of the female cat named Koma. For this illustration, I decided to make Koma white with blue eyes. She is also fluffier than Gon. I also decided to do a more frilly and girly background because I really wanted it to come across as a very cute house. Anyway, here is the illustration:

Week 3a

Today I finished my first illustration. I plan on finishing another by Thursday night. This first illustration is based on the passage from the story which says:

"Once upon a time there lived a cat of marvellous beauty, with a skin as soft and shining as silk, and wise green eyes, that could see even in the dark. His name was Gon, and he belonged to a music teacher, who was so fond and proud of him that he would not have parted with him for anything in the world..."

Here is the illustration:

I chose for Gon to be a black cat, since they traditionally have green eyes. I may go back and add a white spot on his forehead to reinforce this idea of yin/yang, but I will see how Koma's design/illustration comes out first. I put him on a music bench next to his owner, who is supposed to seem like he is playing the piano, given that he is a music teacher. I tried to add lots of texture, some subtle and some not. While this isn't the exact style I was going for in my head, I think it still works well for what I am doing.

Week 2b

Today I worked on sketching out all of the thumbnails for my project. I decided to do a total of 6. Here they are:

I also did another sketch of one of the cats, trying to nail down a style. I'm still not happy with it though. 

I plan on starting my first illustration next and hoping the style just comes naturally.

Week 2a: My Project Brief

For my long-term project, I have decided to do an ebook of illustrations based on the Japanese fairy tale The Cat's Elopement. Here is a short selection for the story to give some idea of how it goes:

"Once upon a time there lived a cat of marvellous beauty, with a skin as soft and shining as silk, and wise green eyes, that could see even in the dark. His name was Gon, and he belonged to a music teacher, who was so fond and proud of him that he would not have parted with him for anything in the world.

Now not far from the music master's house there dwelt a lady who possessed a most lovely little pussy cat called Koma. She was such a little dear altogether, and blinked her eyes so daintily, and ate her supper so tidily, and when she had finished she licked her pink nose so delicately with her little tongue, that her mistress was never tired of saying, 'Koma, Koma, what should I do without you?'

Well, it happened one day that these two, when out for an evening stroll, met under a cherry tree, and in one moment fell madly in love with each other. Gon had long felt that it was time for him to find a wife, for all the ladies in the neighbourhood paid him so much attention that it made him quite shy; but he was not easy to please, and did not care about any of them. 

Now, before he had time to think, Cupid had entangled him in his net, and he was filled with love towards Koma. She fully returned his passion, but, like a woman, she saw the difficulties in the way, and consulted sadly with Gon as to the means of overcoming them. Gon entreated his master to set matters right by buying Koma, but her mistress would not part from her. Then the music master was asked to sell Gon to the lady, but he declined to listen to any such suggestion, so everything remained as before..."

Basically, the story is about two cats who fall in love, but have trouble being together due to their owners, so they elope. They face conflict and are separated, but reunite.

I find this story to be charming and I also have a connection to cats, as I have always loved them, even when I was very young. I think the story would make a nice children's book. I also would like to use this story to help develop and work on a style of illustrating. I am not sure how to describe the style, but I will be using a lot of textured brushes to achieve it. I suppose it will almost be like a watercolor, but done digitally. Here are some inspirational images:

I am also considering rewriting the story to shorten it, or perhaps at least to bring the wording into a modern context. I think I will do a total of 8 illustrations, each one will probably be about 4.5x7 and the ebook itself will be 8.5x11, thus giving each illustration a 2" white border. I might actually make it larger so that the illustration is 6x8 and the overall book is 10x12.

Before I do anything, I really need to nail down the style. Although I don't think this is exactly the direction I will be headed, here is a preliminary character sketch for Koma and Gon:

Koma is based on a ragdoll cat for right now, and Gon is a black cat with green eyes. I am contemplating making Koma a white cat with blue eyes instead, because then when they are together, it is like yin and yang, which I think adds to the story symbolically. Either way, I really need to practice stylistic cats more. 

Day 4: Finished Concept Illustration

Today in class we had to finish our concept illustrations. Here is mine:

The article I chose on the first day dealt with how the stock market is "weirdly calm", and it suggested that there is a possibility of turbulence in the future due to the current administration. I decided to do a wall street banker type doing yoga to give the idea of a calm setting. However, he is sitting on a Jenga pile of money. This is to suggest that it isn't as stable as one might think, and that one or more changes could result in a change from stability to instability. As for the setting of this piece, I just chose a New York skyline and sidewalk with a graph overlay. I chose to do the graph overlay to relate it to the boards you see inside of the stock exchange. A dark cloud also looms behind the figure to suggest the potential of something ominous. 

Day 3: Compound word GIF

Today in class we finished animating our compound word illustrations. Here is mine:

To complete this piece, I mainly just worked on animating it in class. The app I use on my iPad allows you to export artwork as Photoshop files, which is very useful. Towards the end, we guessed what each other had done. I think everyone guessed mine correctly - it is honeycomb. For the rest of class I just worked on developing my concept illustration more. I also started to think more about what I want to do. I am thinking I will illustrate a short story.

Day 2: Museum and Compound Word Illustration

Here is my compound word illustration. Can you guess what the word is?

Also, today for class we went to the Brandywine Museum in Chadds Ford. This museum featured various artists, but some of the more popular illustrative ones were Andrew Wyeth, N.C Wyeth, Jamie Wyeth, and Howard Pyle. We were introduced to some of them by a guide, who explained some of Howard Pyle and N.C Wyeth's work. She also showed us some of the golden age of illustration. The golden age of illustration was marked by an advancement in technology and an increase in illustrations published in books and magazines. Thus, the illustration business began to boom. In terms of the art, I found the Wyeth family to be the most interesting. N.C Wyeth illustrated for books such as Treasure Island. His artwork felt more illustrative than others featured in the museum and I was particularly fond of his use of colors and light. His pieces which stood out most to me were the ones featuring Native Americans. I cannot remember the artist (it was on the same floor as N.C Wyeth), but there were also sketches of  Andy Warhol which had illustrative qualities and were generally eye-catching. It was also nice to see some rather popular artists which you don't necessarily get to see often, like Edward Hopper and Georgia O'Keeffe. Aside from N.C Wyeth's work, I also enjoyed his son Andrew's work. It felt photographic in nature and I was particularly struck by one which featured a statue. Otherwise, I would've liked to have seen more pieces, since Nancy said that some illustrations were missing. The gallery felt lacking in some spaces, probably due to the exhibition happening on the top floor. I think that seeing the works that I did helped me change my perspective on what exactly an illustration is. This made me think more about what kind of style I would like to work on as I develop. Overall, I found the experience to be rewarding, as it was nice to see some of the "golden-age" of illustration.

Day 1: Concept Illustration

Today is the first day of class. In class, we had to choose an article and do an illustration for it. Here is my article that I chose:

Economy Article

Then, we had to do a sketch of our ideas. This is mine:

I decided to do a Wall Street business man doing yoga, but looking suspicious since the article is about how the stock market is weirdly calm. I also did a version with something ominous looming behind him.

I chose to do something ominous behind him because the article says that there are many things happening in the current administration that could change the stability of the stock market.

We also did a GIF: