The Enchanted Snake

"The King and the Snake"

"The Princess and the Snake"

My second project in Illustration. We had to design vignettes based off of any work of fiction. I wanted to illustrate the fairy tale "The Enchanted Snake" from the Green Fairy book, but I decided to place it in a middle-eastern/arabic setting, rather than in a boring and overdone medieval fairy tale world. 

I experimented with a new coloring technique with these! I used lots of layering of custom brushes in photoshop to give them a watercolor-like look. 

The Princess and the Snake is actually hanging up in the illustration building at my school, along with my Mary Margaret Alacoque vignette, and a poster I made for the Ohio Roller Girls!

One Year Down, Three To Go!

I'm back in Illinois for the summer!


Feels odd being back home. The house is in disarray, my mom is working on remodeling everything so moving in has been a bit of a hassle.

(also Brian Ewing visited my illustration class a few weeks ago and I nabbed a poster we worked with           Becky Cloonan on!)

But I have lots of art making plans! I'm going to continue my Fearsome Ladies project on a weekly basis, and I'm doing a weekly sketch group with some illustration buddies! On top of that I have a few other projects in the works.

I really need to do a better job at keeping this blog updating haha. I'll be posting some of my illustrations and other school work here asap!

Red Moon

View Here

I made a comic for my freshman design class! The assignment was “interactive design.” 

I’ve been a big fan of Emily Carroll’s creepy and awesome webcomics for years, and wanted to take a shot at making an interactive webcomic.

You’ll get to a point where you’ll have three choices! I can't say what happens when you click what, but each ending is different!

Les Mis On Tour!

I had the amazing opportunity to go see the Les Miserables US tour last weekend! I'm a huge fan of the cast, espcially their Javert, Andrew Varela. We've talked a bit over twitter and I've shown him my stupid Les Mis doodles (which he found hilarious.)

I wanted to be able to give him something when I met him at the stage door, so I threw together a quick vignette of Valjean and Javert!

The show was FANTASTIC and the entire cast was just SpECTACULAR. I was able to meet Andrew at the stagedoor after the show and give him this piece (also have him sign my own copy and snap a photo haha.)

I'll post my (quick) process for this piece tomorrow! I actually experimented with livestreaming while I worked. It was fun but I need to work on being more entertaining haha. I might try again soon so keep a look out! 

Illustration!

Here are some the illustrations I've been working on all semester!

I'm pretty happy with both! My instructor really liked the second one, which is a supposed to depict Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, who introduced the "Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ" to the church. He recommended I re-do the first one. For the assignment, I had to make 2 illustrations with one being done in any style and the other realistically rendered. He thinks the first would be more successful if I just did it in my own style, and I completely agree. Another project to do over spring break! 

I'll try to post the individual process for both illustrations next week! For both I had to go through a thumbnail, sketch, sketch, line drawing, value paintings, then final colors done digitally. 

Design: Essence

My first design project of the new semester! THe assignment was to capture the essence of something, and I chose to capture the essence of "misery."

I was inspired by a few quotes from my favorite book, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. He writes:

"So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation, which, in the face of civilization, artificially creates hells on earth, and complicates a destiny that is divine, with human fatality; so long as the three problems of the age—the degradation of man by poverty, the ruin of women by starvation, and the dwarfing of childhood by physical and spiritual night—are not solved; so long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words, and from a yet more extended point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless."

From there, I decided to try to capture the essence of misery in a single person. I went back a forth between child labour and prostitution, and came to the terrifiying conclusion that child prostitution exists. I did research, and re-watched one of my favorite documentaries "Born Into Brothels" for inspiration.

I did a quite a few value studies in watercolor, then used photoshop to make color studies. My professor ended up really loving the color studies as a group, and encouraged me to use them for the final project. I ultimately decided to use a finished illustration for my final, but I still think the color studies are powerful on their own.

 
 

Final Version

I based most of my research and visual inspiration off of the sex trade in India. Here are some statistics:

• There are estimated 900,000 sex workers in India
• 30% are underage

source

Some Doodles

Just some musical-related doodles

Kind of going back to Jesus Christ Superstar as my go-to listening material, especially the broadway revival with Josh Young's Judas! 

The "Masquerade" sequence of "Phantom" is one of my favorite parts of the show. SO many awesome costumes, great choreography, etc. My favorite costume is the monkey with cymbals. 

(image source)