shine, crazy diamond.

Some of the pieces I made for Maggie's christmas present. I should try to take pictures of the resin'd old photos (made into jewellery) as well... soon perhaps! They were so much fun to make :)

your cat is dead

Maybe I ran over your cat, but this dog would probably like you

. . . . . . .

appx 1 hr sketch for an emergency prop at work

pssst...

a sample from a job I'm currently working on...

The old cover I was approached with:

The redone type by moi:

Yesterday I was approached to redo some type for a book cover done by Agnes Yi (more of her work here: http://www.agnesillustration.com). I absolutely love her illustration, and when I saw how she had written her name in the corner it seemed appropriate to use that style for the title. I heart type! It was a little tricky trying to make the title stand out against her bold colours but I'm very happy with the outcome. 

My display and business card from the Grad Show at OCADU, May 3-6th, 2012! It was such a great show! If you'd like to see more work from the graduating Illustration class of 2012, go to  http://ocaduillustration.com/.

displaying (1) search result

Another thesis pic for you all: Where's Waldo gets all too real when information is more accessible with GoOgLE GlAsSes! (I want these...)

lost&found

These were my pieces and setup from the Lost & Found exhibit on Feb 2, 2012 at the Arts and Letters Club in Toronto. Just want to give a HUUUUGE thanks to Liz Emirzian for organizing the whole thing, and for having the sweet hookups that made this show possible!

With the theme being that of an atmosphere of discovery, of a collector and his treasures, I made my pieces to look as though they were found photographs. The images all have a common theme of the ghosting of shared spaces, which takes on different interpretations in each piece.

burnt toest

Process for red rover/ firewall piece:

1. my approved concept sketch

2. since I really liked certain parts of the rough, I just traced those parts on new paper as I worked out a more finalized sketch.

3. finished figuring out the details like lighting and how to manage the space under the entwined arms.

4. after scanning that in, I made a colour rough in photoshop. turns out having this step done helped me later when I wanted to experiment with different sky colours, who would've thought!

5. Jody made the awesome suggestion of making the sky golden. I think it looks wayyyy better! To get that fire to really glow I kept it as white as possible till the very end when I dashed some yellow/orange on it.

6. See?

7. the very final! did some sanding touches to the sky and foreground, and brought in some slight "highlights" in the shadowy area on their backs.

giant steps

Process work for the hopscotch / touch screen thesis painting:

1. after getting a concept approved, I work out the finer details like my horrible horrible sense of perspective by taping the sketch to a wall to get farther vanishing points.

2. worked out the placement of background elements, shadows

3. a mock up of the approximate colours for Jody to look at and discuss in class

4. to final! looks different after I took into account some of Jody's advice (like moving the tablet to the left of the page, how the smoke from the annihilated swing set moves lower and farther to the right). so here's where I had some MORE problems with perspective, also wish I was able to get all the background elements lower than the raised knee without making the kid look like a giant... le sigh.

5. all the little details done, texutres, etc.

So crit tomorrow! We'll see how this badboy fares.

creep a ture

ocad is upping their game... CHARACTER DESIGN is an incredible course! Everyone should take it! ALL OF YOUUUUU! These are concept sketches for a character described in a movie script we received in class. Horrifying and OH SO FUN

snappy

BUSINESS CARD first attempt! Guess I got on a little design kick after the poster, plus thought it was a good idea.

SHOW ME

OUR FIRST GROUP SHOW!! Very excited. This is Liz's blurb on the event:

Come explore the beautiful St. George Hall where the Arts and Letters Club resides, we will be exhibiting a collection of paintings, sculptures, drawings, photography, trinkets, and wonders for one night only!

We are creating the atmosphere of a collector, of all things explored and examined, cast aside and crinkled. Using Victorian and old fashioned themed pieces to string together a piece of history captured in time, and a fun place to explore!

Just want to give Liz Emirzian a huuuge thanks for putting this whole thing together, TANKS BUDDAY!!! Know you worked very hard to make this whole thing happen, and we all appreciate it!

COME OUT ALL!!! THURSDAY, FEB 2nd, hope to see you there! <3

pretend friend

Two latest thesis pictures! The first one is a game of musical chairs, where the poor chairs have been inflicted with a case of the shuffles. During crit yesterday, most people said they couldn't tell the chairs were moving, so I'll have to fix that. The other is hide & seek: a picture window becomes the surveillance post for the IT kid to do a little cheating. The technique is waay different than the ones from earlier, but I'm still sort of playing around.

cat(s)

The finished product, just a few pictures of the inside!

12 pages and no idea how to bind a book.

DADCAT

This is the other project I'm working on, it's kind of gripping my sanity while thesis is uhh, not. It started as the single image about my dad getting another cat (a homework assignment for Blair Drawson) and kind of flew off the handle from there. Anyway just a peek, the rest of the drawings are done but I just have to assemble them into something tangible!

Pretty sure my dad has replaced his kids with cats.

chase

I've been really hesitant to post anything thesis related, because I'd rather wait and have it all pretty and done feeling before I show anyone! ... but then, what would be the point of the blog. Especially if I want to show more process work.. heh. Well, here it is then. Right now I'm playing around with the idea of meshing classic children's games with technology, in an attempt to show the versatility of the imagination and even as I'm writing this I'm yawning. SO! Game of Tag. Cursor is it. The end.

I hope I will feel better about talking about this stuff soon :/

Here's the other one. Both of these suckers endured MegaCrit a couple of weeks ago.

perfect disguise

just touching up some old things.

tangled in stripes

drawing & painting with gillian iles: sweet setup by mike fan, jen ilett and jen phelan, and i forget who else. but SO nice! working on a pre-activated surface (cardboard with marker on it)

skinning

Back on Manitoulin for reading week, I was able to attend a coyote information seminar put on for farmers and hunters in the area... my sister MaryEllen works for Manitoulin Streams as well as with the Ontario Federation for Anglers and Hunters, focusing on ecosystem rehabilitation programs for the island. She was on a committee that helped organize this event, so we went together on Saturday morning to Mindemoya where it was held.

There's a huge population of coyotes there, and farmers have had problems with these animals attacking their livestock, but also since the population is so large hunters have been able to hunt coyotes and sell their fur across the world. This seminar was so awesome, they taught us about calls and how intonations change the message you're communicating... yeah, I learned how to talk to coyotes.

The BEST part, though, was the skinning. The point was to teach you how to effectively skin the animal to get the best price for the fur. Me and mares got right up there, front and center and I was able to draw a lot of what happened... though everyone thought I was a bit nuts since they were all there to learn about hunting them. It was super fun. Thanks for the opportunity B!