Imaginary Travel Poster

 Madda

            In the late 1800s, an amateur bike maker named Victor Madda went for a test run with one of his two-wheeled, self-propelled vehicles he’d been working on for a few months.  As he rode down a dirt country rode, his wheel hit a large stone and he flew forward toward a large, ancient oak tree.  Instead of a collision, he found himself in this surreal, alternate universe full of plants and animals with unnatural colors and patterns.  The most dominant and unusual feature of the world was the mountains of bike parts randomly placed among the trees.  Since bike making was Victor’s only skill, he used his knowledge to build a house, well, transportation, and other mundane tools.  Overtime, more people came across the rift in the old oak tree and were transported to Madda, where a civilization dependant on bike technology was formed.  Bike makers became the kings of the land and were highly admired and revered.  However, Victor stayed in seclusion in his mountaintop laboratory with his family.

            The world is bathed in rich, deep colors.  There are two moons, which look like bike wheels due to the spoke-like ridges.  The capital city was founded where the rift opens up, which is in the valley of steep, rocky mountains the color of deep lavender.  Victor lives on top of one of those mountains, overlooking the city but far enough away to not be disturbed.  Bike makers adopted the style of dress of scientists.  People from Earth, after discovering the rift, travel to Madda to witness the spectacular bike architecture and surreal landscapes.

52 Card Sketches

So you've seen these plenty of times.  This post is meant to make it more convenient for my professor to view all of my sketches in order.  

For me, this is a very slow process.  It took me five hours just to draw 26 sketches.  It took me six hours to paint the first 10 sketches.  Hopefully as my skills develop I'll paint faster.

OMG Brett Helquist!

So I just went super fan girl a few minutes ago as I searched the web for Brett Helquist's illustrations.  I practically grew up with his Lemony Snicket illustrations and I guess I've always subconsciously channeled that through my work.  As well as the Harry Potter illustrations, but that's a different story.  So as I searched for images to put in my artist presentation, I came across his blog and several interviews.  Who knew you could actually get in touch with an illustrator?  I mean, people always say it's not that difficult, but Helquist always seemed to me like Santa Klaus.  I first saw his illustrations when I was nine.  I guess when you haven't allowed yourself to take advantage of the Internet and its possible connections, you believe everyone is surreal and magical.  Here are some of his images and the link to his blog and that really great interview.

http://bretthelquist.blogspot.com/

http://mormonartist.net/issue-9/brett-helquist/

My favorite cover

First 30 Card Sketches

So I've already posted the first ten sketches, but I want to show where I am right now.  I have the compositions for the first thirty figured out and have already started painting.

I'm not familiar with Photoshop, so don't take any advice from me.  I started with a sketch layer, then created a new layer where I painted a base color within the sketch.  I chose not to use the pen tool mostly because I didn't want to lose that hand drawn, messy look.  However if it's not working, let me know.  Then I made a paint layer and went at it.  Since I'm still at the timid stage of digital painting, I tone down the opacity and treat it as if I'm painting in washes.  The final revised sketches will have more contrast.

As for these?  Well, these are still sketches.  Some of these I drew from imagination, such as the balloon, tree, and statue.  For most of them I took specific reference photos of friends who matched the general descriptions.   

So yes, I have a whole album of embarrassing reference photos that may or may not be used as blackmail.  Especially the third card in the second batch, of Shirley.

Arabian Nights

So I decided with this design for Miriam Brooks' Arabian Nights product.  It's very simple, but I think it gets the point across.  Miriam liked the blue the best.  I agree.  It goes with the night/sleep theme.  

In case you forgot, Miriam's company is the rival company to Mary Tuttle's floating pillows.  The purpose of Mary's pillow was to levitate children as they tried to sleep.  So Miriam created Arabian Nights rugs, which cause the whole bed to float.

Familiars Logo Color Scheme

Hi, so I've been playing around with different colors for my Familiars logo.  I changed the black to a dark blue, mostly because I hate using straight black and white.  I've also played with monochromatic and complementary colors.  There's also the issue with racial ambiguity.  In one design, the beige and orange, the girl appears white.  I played around with different colors, un-naturalistic colors, for the skin tone.

Playing Card Sketches Part 2

 These are the second batch of sketches.  I didn't work on them as much as the first (I'm in need of sleep and I'd like to function in class tomorrow).  I do have the compositions laid out and I played around with card designs as well.  Here are my refined digital thumbnails:

I hid the colored background and fill colors to show the line work much better.

And this is just a rough sketch of what my card design will be.  Remember, the gear shape is Violet's suit sign.

I plan on using actual burned paper, then scanning it in.  However, I didn't realize that there's an actual BURN TOOL on Photoshop.  I won't use it for the finals mostly because it doesn't look convincing enough.