Embedded Files
Another Cycle of Metamorphosis
Digital (Photoshop & After Effects)
22" x 31"
For my final project, I decided to combine the value from week 6 and animation from week 13. I feel like I struggle with digital painting, I aimed to capture a semi-realistic, painterly style of rendering that I typically find hard to achieve. Once I finished the painting, I wanted to add some animation to create more visual interest and movement. For the subject of my final project, I wanted to revisit a drawing I did in a Drawing I course and rework it digitally since it is something I had on my mind for a while. I feel joy when I repurpose concepts and visuals from my old artwork, comparing the new to the old always serves as a visual reminder of my journey and growth as an artist and I find it comforting, especially in those moments where I doubt myself. I started with a thumbnail sketch to better visualize my idea, basing it off the original drawing but altering it slightly for some change even though it is only minor changes. I load both the original drawing and the thumbnail sketch onto my digital canvas and create a digital sketch. Once I am satisfied, I block the colors and when the flat colors are down, I go in with different values to add shading and lighting. I keep the certain parts I want to be animated on separate layers, in this case, the flowers, butterfly, chrysalis, and caterpillar. Once I’m finished in Photoshop, I load the file into After Effects, using the puppet pin tool to add points to my illustration. Then I drag the point to move in the specific manner I want it to, repeating this step for the parts that need to move and, in the end, I have an animated illustration.
Embodying the Elements
Digital (Photoshop)
11" x 11"
For Week 14, I chose the Elemental Me assignment where we had to draw ourselves as the four elements: water, air, fire, and earth. Keeping the elements in mind, I sketched out a general composition of where I wanted each embodiment of the elements to go and sketched out a few outfits for each figure to wear representing the elements. Aside from the element motifs in each outfit, I also included some aspects of the elements in the background where each of the figures was. For example, the rain and the waterfall closest to where the embodiment of water is standing. I also tried out a lineless art style, lowering the opacity of the sketch and having separate layers for each section, such as the body, hair, outfit, and the sections of the background.
A Scissors Transformation
Digital (Photoshop)
10" x 6"
For Week 13, I chose to do the metamorphosis assignment where we took two objects and made one morph into the other. At first, I was unsure of what to do but after staring at a pair of scissors on my desk, I decided to morph a pair of scissors into a toucan. I sketched out a general storyboard of key moments before going into Photoshop and sketching them out before starting at the beginning, slowly zooming the pair of scissors in to focus on the blades before lowering the opacity down and sketching the next part where the transformation starts on the next layer until I got to the end with the final toucan frame. After that I added color to each of the layers before going into the animation timeline to organize each frame, making a few adjustments before the animation was complete.
A Pop of Red
Digital (Photoshop)
31" x 42"
For my main assignment for Week 12, I chose to do macro abstraction where we had to draw a still life and zoom into an area twice to make two other panels to create a triptych. I used an image of a still life I set up for a previous course as a reference and attempted to paint it to get more comfortable with blending in Photoshop. Once I finished I zoomed into the area with the strawberries twice, cutting it, and then copied it onto another canvas where I placed each panel next to the other to complete the artwork.
Taking a Walk with Mini-Me
Digital (Photoshop)
10" x 13"
The other warm-up assignment I chose for Week 12 was the mini-me assignment. I decided to create a scene of me walking with a smaller version of myself. I started with the background image that I took outside and cut separate images of myself to layer on top.
Bison Next to a Bison
Digital (Photoshop)
16" x 11"
For Week 12's warm-up exercises, one of the assignments I chose was the animal scale assignment. I thought it would be cute to scale up my dog, Bison next to a bison. I found a picture of an actual bison lying down, a grassland background, and cut my dog out of a picture I had on my phone. I had some difficulty with layering the grass but overall, I think it looks alright for a warm-up.
The Gluttonous Butterfly
Digital (Photoshop)
98" x 75"
I based my surrealist artwork on ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ by Eric Carle, specifically the scene where the caterpillar comes out of its cocoon as a butterfly. When creating the initial ideas, I sketched out scenes from the book and slowly put my own twist on them as I created more thumbnails. I went with the idea of combining the butterfly transformation with a body horror element, crafting the main body of the butterfly with human body parts, and then creating the wings out of the images I took. Aside from the images I took of myself and my arms, the rest of them were mostly objects used to mimic the shapes in the butterfly wings. To create the shape of the wings I started with a petal and adjusted the hue to make it as colorful as the source material. After I made the initial base, I used what I had to build up the patterns on the wings and adjusted the hue of the objects as I went along. For the main body, I decided to get rid of the eyes, keeping the bottom half of the face untouched so the butterfly could still enjoy its food even if it couldn’t see it. For the background, I used a stock image of a sky, put some leaves on the corners of the canvas, and decided to place the caterpillar on the bottom right leaf replacing its face to match the butterfly.
Candy With Her Parasol
Digital (Photoshop)
11" x 11"
For Week 8's main assignment, I focused on the original character assignment where we had to draw our character and add in some additional elements such as shapes, patterns, or texture to add interest to the composition. I decided to draw my character Candy, she is a candy corn themed batgirl. I wanted to draw her looking cute whilst holding a parasol since I thought it would be fitting since she has a warm and bubbly personality. For the background I blocked out the sides with orange, add stripes to the sides and then for the middle area I lined up some candy corns on each side to create an even composition with Candy being in the center.
A Lone Cactus
Digital (Illustrator)
11" x 11"
The other warm up assignment I chose for Week 8 was the cacti assignment where we had to create a cactus in Illustrator. Once again, pretty simple I primarily used the shape tool and the shape builder tool to combine shapes together. For some shapes like the spines and the flower on the cactus I used the pen tool. To add some more depth to the cactus I added minimal lighting and shading using the layer blending modes.
Plummeting Gumballs
Digital (Illustrator)
11" x 11"
For Week 8's assignments we had to choose three assignments, two warm ups and one main assignment. One of the warm up assignments I chose was to create glossy marbles and create a composition with them. It was pretty simple to do and I went with a diagonal composition and I increased the size of the marbles as they got closer to the other corner of the canvas.
One Landscape, Four Seasons
Digital (Photoshop)
18" x 11"
I chose to do the four landscapes for this week’s assignment, and I stuck with doing a simple landscape since I was dealing with some art block recently. Despite it being a simple landscape I am happy with how it turned out and I do think the adjustments I made to each image conveyed the seasons well though I probably would go back and change the color scheme for winter just because I don’t find it as appealing as the others. Still, it does read as winter since it is duller in comparison to the other seasons, and typically in winter plants start to decay. I would also push the other seasons a bit more by adding extra things like leaves on the trees for fall, spring, and summer with some flowers on the ground for spring and leaves on the ground for fall.
Incomplete Portrait
Digital (Photoshop)
12" x 16"
The second assignment I chose for the first few assignments in Photoshop was the portrait painting assignment. I am familiar with digital painting, I recently started to experiment with digital painting in my own time in Clip Studio Paint. Unfortunately, I was not able to finish my portrait painting this week so it is incomplete. I will make sure to update this when I finish it. My next few steps are to block in some more colors and begin to use the color mixing tool to blend all of the colors in together while making adjustments as needed.
Autumn Leaves
Digital (Photoshop)
4" x 4"
For one of the first few assignments we did in Photoshop, I chose to do a pixel landscape since I've never done pixel art and I thought it would be fun to experiment with. The photograph I based this artwork on was photographed by Mickey Shannon, the photograph's name is Firebolt. I blocked out the shapes separating the land, sky, tree branches, and leaves on different layers with a base color. After that, I locked each layer and went in with different shades of the base color to add the shades and highlights. I didn't spend much time on this so if I were to go back and change a couple things I would've added more texture to the tree leaves, added more detail into the ground along with some leaves from the tree onto the ground.
The Purple Emperor's Beauty
Digital (Illustrator)
7" x 6"
I chose butterflies as my subject because they are one of my favorite insects, there are various types of them, and they each are unique with different wings and colors. I chose the purple emperor butterfly because of the vibrant purple present in their wings, purple is my favorite color. Aside from their appearance, I have always felt a connection with butterflies due to their metamorphosis, I tend to connect the stages of their transformation into a butterfly to myself in reference to how much I’ve changed and grown as a person. For my composition, I knew I wanted to showcase the wings, choosing to have a close-up shot and a pile of butterflies. I was unsure of what to do for a third tile and decided to include the caterpillar form of the butterfly since they are technically connected to each other. I primarily used the blob brush tool in Illustrator to create the shapes and lines in my artwork.
Juniper's Imprisonment
Digital (Illustrator)
6" x 8"
For the negative space assignment I decided to create a scene with my character Juniper being trapped inside a bird cage with their captor looming in the background to create an ominous atmosphere. I primarily used the pen tool, going in with the blob brush to create shapes I couldn't achieve with the pen tool such as the captor's eyes and hands, Juniper, and the details on the lower and upper part of the cage. I also used the shape tool for some minor details and to create the table. Overall, I am happy with how this piece turned out, it was fun experimenting with negative space and figuring out which areas needed to be adjusted, if I had to fix or add anything I feel like I would have tried to make the cage have more intricate details if possible and maybe add some red rim lighting on the outer edges behind the cage and Juniper to push the fact that they are in danger.
A Recreation of Kandinsky's Several Circles
Digital (Illustrator)
13" x 13"
The other assignment I chose to do for one of my first weekly assignments was to recreate an abstract artwork through vectors. The artwork I chose to recreate in Illustrator was Wassily Kandinsky's, Several Circles, 1926. I initially chose to do this piece because of its simplicity and overall, I found the colors the artist used visually appealing. Surprisingly, I had the most trouble with this assignment due to my lack of experience with Adobe Illustrator. I struggled with figuring out some features and ended up mainly using the shape tool, eraser, and blob brush. I tried my best to make the areas where the circles overlap each other clean but unfortunately, I think a few of them are a bit wonky. It also turned out more flat than I wanted it to, but I couldn't figure out to approach the texture. Regardless, I believe I still did a decent job with this assignment, though if I were to redo this piece I would figure out the masking tool and experiment with texture.
Vector Self Portrait
Digital (Illustrator)
13" x 18"
I chose to do the vector portrait for one of my first weekly assignments since I am familiar with doing digital art and I typically draw characters in my personal time. Once I got more comfortable with using the blob brush tool in Illustrator it was pretty easy. I referenced a photo of myself, tracing over the overall shapes and filling them in with flat colors before going in with shading by blocking out more shapes to add more depth. The background felt a bit empty so used the shape tool to create a honeycomb-like pattern to fill in the background. In comparison to the assignments requirements and directions I believe I did pretty well, it is simple but overall I am pleased that I can take one look at this and tell that it is me.
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