Embedded Files
JJ VanDerGinst, Galaxian Phoenix
8" x 10", Graphic Illustrator, 2025
My first idea of this project was to chose a animal with lots of different colors. I also was gonna do a bird because that's what I've been doing for the past few projects. I originally chose an Eagle, but then realized the pictures didn't have much color, so I chose a Phoenix bird instead. I've used these cool colors before, and I think they go great together. My process for this project was first put the image as a template. Then I used the pen tool to outline the bottom feathers of the bird. I then did the body and lastly did the wings. I also colored as I went. I didn't do it at the end, but once I finished one part, I decided to color it. A difficulty I encountered during this was that sometimes it wouldn't let me paint the individual shapes. What I needed to do was click "merge live paint." After that, it went smoothly. If I were to change this, I would make the shapes look more like feathers in a way. This art style is a little abstract because it's just putting many shapes together to create the image. I've never done a project using shapes to create an image. I really like how this turned out because the colors really compliment themselves because there are dark parts and there are light parts. All in all, this project has been fun to do because of the shapes and colors.
This is just another polygonal animal that I made because they are fun and cool to make.
I made "Star Wars" as my visual pun. I used a picture of a star and some light sabers to create them having a war. I also used filters on Darth Vader's side to create a different look for the stars.
JJ VanDerGinst, Walt Disney Portrait illustration
8.5" x 11", Graphic Illustrator, 2025
With this project I was tasked on making a famous person turn into a cartoon character. I chose to use Walt Disney as my character. The significance of this piece to me is because I like learning about his history and how he made the company of Disney. My insparation comes from when I visited Disney World. I liked all the stuff there and they had lots of tributes to Walt Disney there as well.
The creative process that it took to create this piece consisted of using multiple layers for the different shading. As well as using lots of colors and shades of that color to achieve darker parts to make it seem more 3D.
I am really drawn to the suit more than anything in this piece. There wasn't many things that created problems in this piece. One problem I did have was some areas it didn't like me trying to fill in a full area like the face or the suit just one color. To overcome this, I had to manually paint those parts. I would've changed lots of things if I started over. For example, the nose looks very much not like a real nose. It looks way to big and very wonky. I would've also changed the hair. That's a part that I rushed to get it finished.
This artwork doesn't really have a specific style to it. It's more of a mix between realism and surreal art. I do like how it really does resemble to actual image that came from the internet. You can see the similarities between them.
JJ VanDerGinst Double Exposure
8.5" x 11", Graphic Photoshop, 2025
My idea for this was to put a Disney character inside of the Disney castle. I decided to put Mickey Mouse's face inside the castle. This was inspired by many of my other artworks as well as real life experiences.
My process was placing the image of the castle in there and then putting the image of Mickey Mouse's head inside the castle using a layer mask.
At first I knew what my image of project was gonna look like. This turned out just like I had envisioned it. I wouldn't change this if I had restarted. This project was overall good.
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