My eyes feel like hard boiled eggs covered in salt

That is the best description I can think of. I have officially been staring at the computer screen for 5 hours straight. xdeathx

So, its crunch time for everyone. Everyone's scrambling to get their IP finished. I'm close to being done. Kind of. Composition 1, VertMelancholia is ready to be printed. My 100ft roll of luster paper came in a couple days ago. Composition 2, HorizMelancholia is... coming along.

My biggest obstacle now is working this thing until it cannot be worked anymore and balancing everything. There is some blending and fine tuning that needs to be done as well. I think in a couple more days this piece will be finished and ready to print!

In other news... school... -____- bleh.
Also, I'm pretty sure I'm getting carpel tunnel... no joke.

Almost there

Click for the larger view. I've only got 20 more inches to go. :)

Work all day, worry all night

Today I spent a few hours working on expanding my piece horizontally. So, here are the new additions I've made to this horizontal composition.

Hopefully the overall feel of this composition will remain as ethereal as the last.

EXHAUSTED :(

This month has been and will continue to be so crazy busy. I'm super stressed out. I have midterms this week, essays due, and then I have to get a hard copy of my portfolio printed. Next Thursday I am leaving for New York City for two interviews and studio visit. My portfolio has to be OUT OF CONTROL SWEET. AHHHHHH, I'm super nervous.

Also, I will have to look for apartments while I'm in New York. I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO LIVE!!! Then, later this month I have to take a trip to Chicago for an interview with a firm there.

AND, I have to get design work sent out to Grooveshark so that I can hopefully be embraced by praise?! I just want them to like meeeeee. I love Grooveshark and I use it everyday. I would love to be able to represent them with my artwork.

As for IP and art school... that is also kicking my ass. I have worked on my horizontal piece a bit. I have refined the background, took out some parts that felt too heavy and awkward, and added some more textural elements and shapes. It will hopefully begin to balance itself out as a I continue working on it and expand horizontally more.

Progress Report

Here is the progress I've made today on my horizontal composition. I spent about 3 hrs on it.

Danielle and Michael came to talk to me today and they really helped me out a lot. So, I intend to hang my compositions freely, as in no weird set up or kitschy, and they will reside on two separate walls. This is a great idea because then these two very long pieces won't be clashing as much. Hopefully, I can snag a corner spot so my two pieces can be near each other.

I have a lot of experimenting left to do with my vellum print out. I'll put pictures up when I get the chance.

I rode into the sunset

Here's my first post on my horizontal composition. Today I've spent almost 6 hours messing around with this thing in and out of illustrator and photoshop.

I'm happy with how its progressing. Its no where near complete. I would say maybe... 20% of it has been illustrated. It has much more of a spatial quality than my other piece and it feels very much like a painting. Its introducing a lot more colors than the other piece, although color is still a minimal element.

Comments welcome!! :O And as usual, click for a larger view.

FINALLY

Finally in 300dpi, my finished composition. :) Time for another test print

I'm careless

This composition has progressed a lot since my last post. I think its almost done. I've left the breaking through the river area blank because I can't seem to do something that I'm happy with. Tomorrow I want to test print this composition on the plotter printers, for size and resolution test. Hopefully, it'll turn out perfect and I won't have to make too many changes... but I doubt it.

I also have no idea where my student show piece is. Floating around the art school? Who knows.

Here it is, be gentle. I've spent a long time on it. Please, click for the larger image.

Well, it's Sunday

I have pretty much finished the vector illustration and have started integrating textures. I think there is more depth now with the addition of texture and slight color. The image is a work in progress. I hope to finish soon.

I have also started re-working the horizontal piece.

Tonight's Work

*Click for larger view!!

So, I'm really happy so far. I've been enjoying working on the irrational stage. I plan to add more detail and equal refinement to the other stages. Then, hopefully, this vertical piece will be complete. I see it being done by Sunday. :/

I'm playing around with a hand cranked "conveyor belt" to show this vertical composition. I like the idea of having to work by cranking the belt to view the piece (working through the process). AND I love the idea of printing on a more organic feeling paper than mylar but still keeping a translucent quality.

For the horizontal composition, I am thinking of making a surprising shift. :)

ANYWAYS, work work work... think think think. repeat.

Slight Progress

I had a very crazy winter break. My father came home after 3 years of family absence. So, a little uncomfortable but overall break was nice.

Here is what I've completed since last time. I am going to try and finish illustrating this composition, refine lines, and then bring it into photoshop for some raster image layering. Sorry again for that horizontal line, this is a screen shot.

I'm also continuing the horizontal composition.

I'm running into a problem with vertical format. I really love the amount of detail in the linework, but if it is hanging from say the ceiling, a lot of that will be lost because people won't be able to see that high (particularly the first illustration). That's a problem...

I am going to have to figure out final format technicalities. :/
Also, I'm starting to consider the idea of the horizontal composition being a "on medication and doing therapy" timeline. Maybe, for a little compare and contrast action?!

Rap music doesn't have to make sense...

I've decided this.

I've set two realistic goals for winter break:
1) Complete the two most recent compositions I started.
2) Update my portfolio!!! << DO IT!

Here's what I did today. (That's right, I worked today. High-five to myself) It's a continuation of the last composition. It's leading into irrationality. Sorry for the random black lines, these images are screen shots. :/

 

Heavier

I tried to make this shape have more weight and seem even MORE precariously hung. I moved the fluffy cloud-like texture so it doesn't seem like its floating. I've made one of the string's snap and also fray... does it look heavier? I hope so...

First semesters pretty much over.
I've been feeling really weird lately. Not myself...
Hopefully, winter break will let me unwind a little bit and regain some stability.

Vertical Melancholia

I've reintroduced an "actor." The last piece seemed... unfocused. I still think it reads as a landscape though. :/
Anywayssss....
I'm ecstatic about this illustration. This is a work in progress. The further down it goes the less detailed it is because, obviously, I have spent less time working on it. I intend to bring this into photoshop when the Illustrator file is more complete.

Comments, impressions, and reactions are appreciated.
Please click for larger view.

A Work in Progress

I think things are moving in a good direction. Since talking to Hannah, I've decided to try to work on a canvas size outside of a normal poster frame. These are becoming more like "emotional landscapes." I've removed the actors or characters I had before. I want these strips to be longer I think. I want it to feel like there's a long time being portrayed.

This image below is a combination of sadness and the beginnings of irrationality. Again, it's a work in progress and is no where near done. In fact, I would still consider this an experiment and may never be a complete piece.


Anyways, here's my wip. I suggest clicking to see a larger version. :)

Attempt

to integrate some kind of text to support the graphic narrative.

But apparently it still adds nothing?

Change

is good?

I'm glad that I decided to ignore the 3D form for now and experiment without that certain triangle. It's really let me try some really different things.

Here is are some versions of a composition I've made for sadness. I really need feedback...
(pixelation is on purpose. i just wanted to play around with that censored out, low quality, web... look. anyways, i'm not super in love with it)


























Yep that's right... there's text in there. :/ I just wanted to see if I was losing anything if I didn't have text. And, I still feel the same. I don't think I need it.

Then, I started to feel like... I don't even need that drippy blood shit. Why do people like that so much? It's so distracting :|

Last version, and also my favorite:

Therapy

Is designing things for myself without the pressure of a boss, a professor, or a client.
Without needing to explain to you a meaning or concept.
This is what makes me happy.

Anyways... these compositions are explorations of the negative shapes left from the triangles I lasercut. I used that lightbox I built. :)

Puttin' out dat fiya!

Ignore lame title.

So, I'm still into the idea of a flat black triangle on a black background, but I thought I'd play around with smoke. I was thinking about how smoke signifies the end of a fire, but also the beginning.  The white lines extend from the previous poster in an attempt to create a distinct viewing order.  Also, they create a foreground, which pushes the matte triangle even further into the background.

PS - I'm not attached to the idea of a vector illustration of smoke... just tried to get a sketch out there.

Sadness

A lot of people were really drawn to the paint splatter version of sadness. They were interested in the movement and the contrast levels. They thought it was very expressive.

When I talked to Seth Ellis last week, he also liked the mystery of that composition, but we both decided that the organic paint splatters and trails were too disparate from the geometric form of the triangle. So, in this iteration I tried to make the composition feel and look the same as the other but use only geometric shapes. I really want it to be possible to create all the same feelings as the splattery version with these seemingly "less expressive" shapes.

I like the noise that the small squares (liquid splatters) are creating. That is all for now. Comments appreciated.