WorkinProgress: Amy Winehouse illo

Hello all,

Forgive my laxness of reporting as of late, I have been quite busy with other work. I have reworked the image quite a bit, with this being the latest version. 

I'm working off the idea that John pointed out to me that its ironic that the media hails Amy as a genius while at the same time publicizing her troubled personal life. Thus I crafted an image that points out her grammy winning status as well as her "crazy" status.

There should be a break in the program next week for "Lecture Week" at which time I will try to work value and hue in this piece. 

Hope everyone is doing well!  I will try and send e-mails shortly.

Thanks

Great Flash Animation

Ok, so I obviously haven't posted a thing since I put up those sketches a few weeks ago, but today (when I should have been working) I found this link that I think you might all enjoy.

It's a short animation by Alan Becke called Animator vs. Animation. It's rather simple, but I think it's both interesting and a great example of an unorthodox approach towards concept and execution. Check it out.

Oh, and one day I plan on finishing the Elvis Costello editorial illustration… someday. Before then, however, all of you designers should be on the lookout for a project designed for you by Ms. Mary Rosamond and yours truly. The parameters will be posted within the next week.

Peace.

In process - Ellen and Gollum

Hi Summer Studio,

So I'm posting this in-process in the spirit of rejuvenating our somewhat dormant blog. 

I could use some help figuring out how to finish the composition of the piece. I learned from MikeC that I probably stepped outside of the goals of the original assignment, which was to make a likeness of someone that evokes a recognizable aspect of that person's life rather than making an editorial commentary with additional figures. Saddened though I am, I would still like to make this piece work.

The problem I am having compositionally: I have one figure, "Gollum"—who will have a cross around his neck—anguished and shocked, and a passable likeness of Ellen fingering the coveted "ring." I'm not sure how to synthesize these two figures other than how I've done it here. I've been thinking about maybe a flowery, Austin Powers movie poster-like design in the background, to reinforce that I am referencing Ellen's homosexuality. Or perhaps, I need to emphasize marriage, and place them in a setting of a church or something. Give me your thoughts please.

Thanks.

Best of luck on your drawings!

-Alan

Scarlett v3

Ha! I laugh in the face of paying work. As I have NO paying work I've had a little more time to devote to this project so...here it is. Although Marblehead does sometimes feel isolated and like a colonial village, it was financial restraints, not rustic living, as Hendrix implied, that made me unable to complete this piece with gauche as I would have liked. On the bright side I did get to stretch my digital coloring muscles. Some call it carpal tunnel, I call it devotion.

I'm fairly happy with my Scarlett although in the coloring process I think she started to look less like Scarlett Johannson than she did while in pencil form. I decided that I love Scarlett too much to give her a bad review so I decided to depict her singing happy flowers & butterflies, rather than wilting or rotting ones. I tried to evoke imagery from Tom Waits' "Orphans" album to suggest her taking on Waits' songs but singing them very differently....flowerly to say the least. It may be a bit of a stretch but it was fun! Hope to see some final work from you all shortly...Michael.

Cushy soft deadlines.

Greetings, all:

In the interests of honoring our project's "deadline," I feel it is important to acknowledge its passing: it is now 12:41 AM on the day after the editorial portrait was "due" and no one has posted, including myself. Well done, us.

While not unexpected in the least, it merits mentioning that many of you have good concepts and good sketches, and that the beauty of such an experiment is that rather than setting hard deadlines we can harass each other into actually producing the work that we intended. Believe me, harassment is imminent, and I expect the same directed at me.

What's my excuse? Unfortunately, paying work trumps fun work every time, and paying work has stepped up considerably since classes ended. Good for me, sure, but bad for my self-driven projects. I still intend to post an editorial portrait of Tom Waits in the coming week.

So, Summer Studio marches on. Submit the portrait when complete (we all know who you are and what you were doing, so there's no escape), and submit suggestions for the next project.

cheers,
m

Indy is Old

Hey All,

Sorry I have been MIA from this blog so far.  I have been having some internet troubles.  You'll also be shocked to know that I have been having trouble deciding who I want to make my likeness of.  I finally decided on an aging Harrison Ford from the new Indiana Jones movie.  Anyone got any brilliant ideas on how to make Indy look old in a funny way?

Also, I don't have a scanner so I'm not entirely sure I will be able to get my work up here.  You might just have to live with vivid descriptions I will be posting.

Meghan

DeGeneres VS DeGollum

Hi friends,

Here is a sketch that I've been working on for the Ellen idea. Sorry it's later than promised. I modified my original concept according to the feedback I received earlier, so that instead of Ellen masquerading as Gollum and prancing around with the ring, she is seen gaining possession of it, over the protests of the Gollum figure with a cross around his neck.

I like the drawing of Gollum. As it stands now--I think that it is hard to see in the scan--Gollum is tied to a tree, which I want to be read as the new legislation protecting gay marriage. Ellen I know needs a lot of work. The exaggerating features thing is new to me, and I'm not that good at getting a likeness anyway. However, I definitely learned a lot while doing my sketches from this website: http://www.tomrichmond.com/blog/?page_id=223 . The artist, Tom Richmond, goes over some basic principles of caricature and likenesses, so if you're interested, take a look. I'm definitely going to work on Ellen more, like give her an actual pose, etc. What do you guys think about the subtle (i like to think it's subtle) "finger" that she gives the shocked Gollum?

Thanks.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot...

The following image reminds me of Ryan, as I imagine him in his room in NY:

I bring this up because I'd like to suggest that our next "assignment" for Summer Studio be focused on people in studio. I get dibs on Ryan (he wont be Gollum)!