A Girl And Her Demons

Stripes stripes stripes (everybody)!

2011-12-03T07:14:00.000-08:00

Our assignment was to draw 50 things and then arrange them in a poster. I chose People Who Wear Stripes!

Top row: Sailor, old-timey bathing couple, Captain America, the Lollipop Guild, strong man, Abed

Second row: Tattooed lady, Timmy from Jurassic Park, mime, Harry Potter, scene kid, Rocky, Audrey Hepburn, Bananas in Pajamas, me

Third row: Marvel Sandman, Isabella and Hugo Cabret, Juno, pirate, Coraline, Charlie Pace, Mathilda, referee, Waldo

Fourth row: Freddy Kreuger, Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett, Raggedy Ann/Andy, the Fourth Doctor, Margot Tenanbaum, BBC's John Watson, a stereotypical Frenchman, Rat from The Fantastic Mr. Fox

Fifth row: inmate, Miette from City of Lost Children, a gondola man, Bumblebee, Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum, a preppy bro, and a barbershop quartet.

Jewelry Armor

2011-11-25T12:40:00.000-08:00

A piece for Lifestyle Illustration. We had to collage photographs of products into our illustration, with the understanding that it would be for advertising purposes. I wasn't super excited about the prospect at first, but then I discovered animal jewelry, and went a little crazy! I decided to draw two Amazon ladies battling it out, with jewelry as armor.

Doppelgänger

2011-11-25T12:22:00.000-08:00

This was for Sam Bosma's Digital Illustration class. The project was about doppelgängers, and it turned out to be a huge challenge for me for some reason; probably because I have an irrational fear of monsters that look like people/me.

I kept going back to this image of an eyeless doppelgänger stealing someone's eyes, though, and it was creepy so I went with that.

Holy Ghost

2011-11-25T12:17:00.001-08:00

These were some mix CD packaging designs for Junior Illustration with Rebecca Bradley. I tried some new things with ink and digital collage! I'm pretty pleased with the result. I recommend all of these bands.

Lord of the Rings relationship chart

2011-11-17T07:13:00.000-08:00

This was just a bit of stress relief. A map of the Fellowship's feelings towards each other! Because I'm ridiculous.

Fish House Punch

2011-11-08T17:53:00.000-08:00

This was for Lifestyle class. Our assignment was to choose a cocktail and make an illustration inspired by it. I chose the Fish House Punch, which has a little story behind its creation about a gentlemen's club called the Fish House which invited a bunch of ladies over for entertainment, and whipped up a batch of punch to make them more at ease and more likely to sleep with them, I guess. So here we have some sailor lads hanging out with some sexy fish ladies.

Barcelona

2011-10-24T21:00:00.001-07:00

This was for Lifestyle Illustration. The assignment was to create a spread depicting a tourist destination. We had to use multiple images illustrating landmarks, attractions, and cuisine, and dress the tourists in designer clothing from Style.com. It was a real challenge and a lot of work, but I'm quite pleased with the result!

A Broship comic short!

2011-10-20T21:22:00.000-07:00

Click here to read a 3-page comic that I made about the Broship of the Ring's adventures in Moria Bar & Grill.

Badass Scooby Gang

2011-10-17T14:26:00.000-07:00

My love of Scooby-Doo hasn't really diminished since I was a kid. I figured I couldn't be alone in this, so I decided to update the Scooby Gang to appeal to now-grown-up fans such as myself.

I latched onto Daphne and Velma specifically. Velma has always been my favorite, but I think Daphne always seems to get the short end of the stick, personality-wise. In recent years she's been portrayed as being one of the more physically adept of the group, however, so I decided to run with that and make her a tough-as-nails hitman/bodyguard for the group, and specifically Velma.

Velma's awesome, but has certainly never displayed much physical prowess. Hence, the Brains and the Muscle, with Daphne having to cover for Velma while she carries out her harebrained hacking schemes.

I'll get to the men eventually, but I like what's going on with these two right now.

What the Maid Found the Morning After the McNally's Dinner Party Turned Violent

2011-10-04T11:23:00.000-07:00

This is for a Maps assignment in Junior Illustration. Sometimes an art student just has to draw some blood and guts.

Lifestyle Illustration

2011-10-04T11:16:00.000-07:00

Kali Ciesemier is another of my uber-talented and inspiring teachers here at MICA this semester. For our first Lifestyle Assignment, we were told to choose unusual jobs and illustrate that job to look fashionable and attractive using designer clothes.

"Gumologist," or a gum taste tester

Tanning butler, who is employed by resorts to rub sunscreen on guests

Digital Illustration

2011-10-02T09:51:00.000-07:00

This semester I'm super excited to have a class taught by none other than the fantastic Sam Bosma, especially since I'm such a fan of his art! Our assignment was pretty open-ended: make three pieces illustrating a hierarchy (sort of in the manner of Jack-Queen-King playing cards). I chose pirate bullfighters because of course I did.

Jack: Banderillero

Queen: Picador

King: Matador

More Broship!

2011-08-20T20:08:00.000-07:00

I have been updating the Broship of the Ring fairly regularly on my Tumblr, but here's a roundup for anyone who missed it!

Saruman is pretty hip for an old dude.

Hip metrosexual dad Elrond doesn't care if you are Isildur's Heir, he wants his daughter home by eleven.

Queen and king of the Lothlorien hippie commune!

Legolas and Gimli have a Roman Holiday moment.

Hobbit love!

SOUNDS LIKE YUPPIE MISCHIEF TO ME

Mash 'em, fry 'em, dip 'em in ketchup! Even you couldn't say no to that.

Broromir and Faramir!

Roses are red

Violets are blue

Thanks for killing the Witch King

That was pretty cool

He's a faithful old bike.

Gamer Geek Wormtongue.

Gondor bros!

The Broship fights some troublemakers in the Moria Bar and Grill.

The Broship of the Ring

2011-06-03T12:37:00.000-07:00

The Broship of the Ring is Lord of the Rings interpreted as a modern-day buddy road trip story. It started as a half-formed idea and a doodle while watching The Two Towers and very quickly escalated to ridiculous proportions. The internet seems to approve and I'm having way too much fun with it! To be honest I'm not really planning on stopping anytime soon.

The van is named "Shadowfax," Legolas is trying to get signal so that he can check his ElfEyes™ GPS app, Sam is barbecuing up some nice taters...the gang's all here!

Eowyn as a biker chick

Arwen as an indie coffee-shop queen

Eomer as a biker bro

Hipster hobbits!

The drinking game...

...and a Nazgul on his fixie!

Doodly funtimes

2011-06-03T11:45:00.000-07:00

I present, silly doodles for your enjoyment!

Doctor Who doodles!

Duchess doodles!

Self-portrait doodles!

Suspenders doodles!

Carmen Sandiego doodles!

Europe doodles!

Lady pirate doodles!

Pirates fighting doodles!

Siren doodles!

Baudelaire doodles!

House doodles!

And some comics based on my true life:

Illustration II and procrastination doodles

2011-05-05T18:08:00.000-07:00

My final Illustration II project! All pen and ink. Otherwise it's...pretty self-explanatory.

Other stuff:

BONES DOODLES:

James Susan Roberts was always eager to help

2011-05-05T17:09:00.000-07:00

This is my Book Illustration final. The assignment was to design a character based on three words which were randomly assigned to us and then choose a classmate's character and incorporate them both into a spread. The little guy with glasses is mine and the purple lady is Emma's.

My words were ROUND, OBLIVIOUS, and SPANDEX. Meet James Susan Roberts, an alien trying to pass as human who doesn't quite grasp the concept of clothes yet. Emma's character is also an alien, and by some bizarre twist of fate we both made our alien characters 92 years old which is frankly kind of a freaky coincidence.

Matador Madness

2011-04-29T17:24:00.001-07:00

I've been having a bit of a matador thing lately. I'm not sure what brought it on, but their fancy jackets and tight pants are super fun to draw.

SASSY.

Roller derby matador!

Fun fact! Absolutely nothing in this post was done for class.

An image from a dream.

A girl done in illustrator Aurélie Neyret's style

KATNISS EVERDEEN, everyone.

Navy lady.

HAVE SOME COMICS

Mumford and Sons comics

Sassy boss and weak noodle arms comics.

Weeeee

2011-04-14T21:11:00.001-07:00

I had NOT VERY MUCH real homework this past week, and so general farting around on Photoshop ensued. Some came out nice, others were a little weird...but anyway, here!

I like tattoos and sailor-inspired clothes and ladies.

Another lady! I was inspired by Janelle Monae's hair.

Bearded sailors with pipes are my idea of a good time.

LET'S GUESS WHAT NOELLE'S INTERESTS ARE

I discovered a new Photoshop brush. I did not know that Photoshop could make lines like this.

A doodle after MOCCA!

In a World of Conjoined Twins, One Man Stood Alone

2011-04-07T15:09:00.000-07:00

My most recent comic endeavor! This will be printed out at 18x24 so I dedicated a lot more of my time to the layout and colors than usual. This is entirely digital so there's not as much process as in my previous comics. I don't really like doing linework digitally, but I was pressed for time and didn't feel like mucking about with light tables and ink and scanners and whatnot. I guess it worked in this case, and on the upside I rediscovered the inky Photoshop brush I'd been using last year before my brushes got shuffled up and I lost it!

I came up with the title sentence sometime last year and always wanted to do something with it, and finally got a chance when our prompt for this comic was "alternate reality."

A Mental List

2011-04-07T14:53:00.000-07:00

For Illustration II, we were given a list of five random objects and told to incorporate each one into a different stage of a familiar journey (i.e. our morning routine). It has something to do with some kind of memory exercise. Or something. I didn't take the assignment very seriously, but unexpectedly ended up having a LOT of fun making them by being as ridiculous as possible and using way more obnoxious colors than usual.

I decided to turn myself into a superawesome rock star.

Word #1: Birds

Word #2: Soft pretzel

Word #3: Guitar

Word #4: Leather jacket

Word #5: Blimp

Scarlet City Bitter Sea

2011-04-07T14:46:00.000-07:00

Book Illustration! We were given a list of fake book titles and author names and told to choose one to make a book cover for. "Scarlet City Bitter Sea" was the one that jumped out at me, because it made me think of prostitutes and pirates. MY FAVORITE SUBJECTS! Seriously though, I'm gonna try and branch out from pirates. Eventually.

Anyway, here we have a manly bearded pirate getting felt up by a lady. YAY!

The critique for this turned into a discussion about nipples. Sigh.

A very Gorey rip-off

2011-03-31T11:33:00.000-07:00

I did a presentation on Edward Gorey and was assigned an illustration "inspired" by my research. I elected to do a straight-up Gorey tribute because it seemed like fun, and why not?

I used a crow quill dip pen on Bristol board. It stopped being fun by about the second or third hour and I thoroughly wrecked my drawing hand. I don't know how Edward Gorey did it; he probably took frequent breaks to pet his nice soft cats.

These are some of the images I referenced/stole from:

Longer post with more stuff in it coming a little later, stay tuned!

Rhosymedre

2011-03-24T20:17:00.001-07:00

Pronounced Ross-uh-me-dray, if you were wondering. It's Welsh.

This was my first time making a comic that was more than one page. Also I had a week to do it, so...it was hard.

Comic, then process.

I don't quite know how I feel about it. I think I need some time to cool off before I can look at it objectively, since I worked on it pretty much nonstop for a week.

This was mostly traditional. I worked on Bristol board with water-soluble ink, using a flexible quill nib for linework.

Here's an example of what was scanned:

I then brought it into Photoshop to fix up the values and downplay the worst of the streaks and splotches in the ink washes. There are some other minor tweaks, like the sizes of the word bubbles.

I'm not all that good at using ink, but I feel like my skills improved. Also I somehow managed to complete this project without upsetting the ink pot once!! This is a big deal.

Some fun facts about this comic:

1. I added the llamas on the hillside later, using a custom brush. I've never had so much fun with custom brushes. Clearly:

2. I needed a light table, but sadly don't possess one. However, my roommate improvised one, using...a shard of broken glass and a clamp light.

3. This was my home while making this comic:

Notice the printer tray doubling as storage. Pure class.

Charles in Charge

2011-03-14T22:06:00.001-07:00

Sorry, this isn't actually about Charles in Charge, but the kid with the flashlight's name is Charles. Also sorry if you now have that song stuck in your head (I do). Also sorry if you have no idea what I'm talking about...

What? Oh right. This is an illustration based on Phillip K. Dick's short sci-fi story "The Father Thing." It's some kids trying to kill a bug in a hole. An evil space bug. Or something. Little punks.

COMIC THING

If I never made anything other than these quick doodle comics I think I'd be okay with that. Comics make people happy.

Tiny fat noodle-armed self. FUN FACT! I actually was wearing pants, but fat noodle legs are fun to draw.

Hello Duchess, where have you been? Since...a month ago? (I am in the process of making a short comic for her!!)

I actually drew lots of Duchesses, but these were the only two decent ones. It's very easy to make the Duchess look...somewhat derpy, to put it delicately.

PUMPKIN-HEEEEEEAD

See you after Spring Break! I'm working on some stuff that I think will turn out to be pretty exciting.

Mystery and some daily comics

2011-03-05T15:02:00.000-08:00

Another time, another place
If there was an answer, he'd find it here.

A little (HA) something I whipped up (HA) for Book Illustration based on the above prompt. Okay, truthfully, this took for-freakin-ever.

I keep planning my glorious return to traditional art but then I realize, "Wait, this is hard, and there's no ctrl+Z, and I know it's gonna look bad" and so I end up finishing it on Photoshop and faking traditional media with textures.

Someday, though.

HAVE SOME BIOGRAPHICAL DAILY COMICS

THAT'S ALL I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THAT

The Adventures of Doctor Flagellus Hurt

2011-02-24T08:59:00.000-08:00

I've just finished what I consider to be my first "real" comic, and I'm pretty darn proud of it. This has been a three-week assignment, so here's the finished product, followed by the process.

So there's that. Ha ha penis.

Character development was the first step. We were given prompts in class to create a doctor character, and of course my brain screamed PIRATE, shortly followed by SPACE PIRATE, but then just back to PIRATE. Here's mine, the unfortunately-named Doctor Flagellus Hurt.

Then at the end of class we were told that our assignment was to write a comic about the character interacting with their worst nemesis, or someone that they could not stand. That's where the beefy fellow on the right comes in. I really like his name and I'm kind of disappointed I couldn't shoehorn it in to the final comic.

Next was this super-rough Photoshop sketch to get a feel for the layout and the story:

After receiving helpful feedback on the rough draft, the next step was making a tighter sketch. Unfortunately I haven't done math in more than two years, so I mismeasured and this is a good deal narrower than 6x9, meaning I had to re-draw it before I could ink it.

After more feedback from class and teacher, it was time to move on to the final.

I don't know what I'd do without Photoshop. This was only part of what was scanned in. I wasn't happy with the first panel, so I didn't finish it and instead redrew it on another piece of paper. I did the same with Flagellus's poses in panels 3 and 4, and cleaned up the smears since I make such a mess with ink and yet insist on using it anyway.

I called these pages "Flagellus bits" which sounds dirty. Basically this is where I redraw the stuff I'm not happy with and then insert them into the original.

I cleaned it all up and started to digitally color it, but decided I didn't like the look of flat digital color. So I made the process even more stupidly labor-intensive by markering in sections on a separate sheet of paper and scanning that in too.

The texture on these was a bit too streaky and distracting to use on their own, so I compromised and used them as a texture on the digital color, which I think I like.

And that's about it! Hopefully as I learn more about making comics I'll figure out how to do this in a more efficient way.

Darker and edgier!

2011-02-21T10:20:00.000-08:00

As an assignment for Illustration II, we were asked to create an illustration based on the style of another illustrator. I chose Sam Bosma because A) monsters and B) he has very detailed and helpful process posts on his blog, and I knew I could learn a lot about digital coloring from him. It's the first time I've allowed myself to directly reference another artist - certain decisions like "How would Sam Bosma draw pants?" were drawn directly from his work posted online. Thanks to him I tried a much grittier linework style than I tend to do, and also discovered the magic of texture brushes.

Here's the final piece. Honestly, I'm not 100% happy with it, especially the background, but it was a cool experiment. I call it "Final Boss."

And my final spread for Book Illustration based on my character sketches! I went with druggie rock star Hook and got very attached to him. I've been obsessed with shaved heads and haggard profiles lately, so that worked out.

Clearly there's a Sam Bosma influence in this one too, since I was working on them at the same time. I'm pretty happy with it.

More to come, probably later this week, so stay tuned!

Hmm, observation

2011-02-08T12:38:00.001-08:00

Wow three new posts in a little more than a week! It must be your birthday.

Just some observational sketches here, which is not something I do naturally but was required to do for a class and is probably good for me.

Creative writing sketches

Sketches while watching The Darjeeling Limited

Kitty sketch

Sketch of the kitchen, please ignore wonky Russian nesting dolls

Sketch of the tabletop

Bandy hands.

He was never more sinister than when he was most polite

2011-02-06T21:14:00.000-08:00

Our Book Illustration assignment is to reinterpret a well-known character in five different ways. I chose Captain Hook, for a couple of reasons: one, he's a complex and interesting character who was treated appallingly in the Disney adaption, and two...well, pirate.

The essence of Captain Hook is that he is a grown-up, and the ticking crocodile of time is chasing constantly after him, and he can't delay his end forever. This is why he hates Peter Pan, the epitome of youth and cockiness and childish joy. A gentleman though a scoundrel, he is classically educated, a snappy dresser, and obsessed with "good form."

"...he staggered about the deck striking up at them impotently, his mind was no longer with them; it was slouching in the playing fields of long ago, or being sent up for good, or watching the wall-game from a famous wall. And his shoes were right, and his waistcoat was right, and his tie was right, and his socks were right.

James Hook, thou not wholly unheroic figure, farewell."

If you only know Captain Hook as the buffoon from the Disney adaption, take my advice: pick up the book.

Here are my sketches:

"Captain Hooker." Clearly my first idea, since the second place my brain goes, right behind "pirate," is "prostitute." She's an aging stripper who is jealous of the young, pretty, girlish dancer who is winning the hearts of all the patrons. Not afraid to fight dirty. Also she has a hook for a hand because of an unfortunate incident with a pair of handcuffs.

"James Hook," Creative Writing professor. His own works have failed, leaving him very much embittered. He takes it out on his students, verbally destroying any student who happens to show promise. Then one day he receives a laid-back, mouthy lad, who, despite being a classic slacker, also happens to be a brilliant writer. Hook's normal tactics of failing grades and biting criticism fail to affect the boy, leading to a heated rivalry between the two.

"DOCTOR HOOK," evil supervillain extreme. So basically Captain Hook but a cyborg whose arch-nemesis is WONDER LAD, superpowered wunderkind and savior of the city! A very easy jump to make, really, but I had a lot of fun with his costume design.

"The Hook," bassist in a wildly successful rock band. Somehow manages to play bass with a hook for a hand. An alcoholic and addicted to drugs (his "ticking crocodile"), and is frequently visited by an apparition of himself as a child, who expresses disapproval at his life choices. This youthful entity drives him crazy and he desperately wants to get rid of it. Clearly he has some issues.

"James Hook," very serious fisherman. Not much to say but HE WILL GET THAT DANG FISH IF IT'S THE LAST THING HE DOES. Hint: the fish is Peter Pan. Hint #2: the fish bit off his hand.

Now have a bit of comics silliness. We were assigned to make individual panels based on prompts like "something that happened at lunch" "the beginning of the world" "the end of the world" "something that has nothing to do with any of the other panels" and "something that happened right after that." Then we had to rearrange them to make four-panel comics.

Mine don't really make sense.

Violent Victorians and birthday "fun"

2011-01-31T18:46:00.000-08:00

More, more!

First Book Illustration assignment! We had to invent a four-word alliterative phrase and then create an image based on it. Mine was "violent Victorians vibrating vodka." I had a blast making this. I love cravats. Why did guys stop wearing cravats? They are great.

An overly-dramatic biographical comic for my Sequential Art class. It's about how I got sick on my birthday and New Year's Eve.

Oh and here's the final version of that poster, with text! I did a lot of the type by hand WHICH WAS VERY HARD but good practice nonetheless. Making this piece was a nice exercise, since it had more of a real-world feel - a sort of "can you get this to me by Friday?" thing and then emailing back and forth to resolve issues and work out the placement of text. I felt very legit.

That's all for now! Assignments are going to keep coming, so stay tuned.

The first assignments of 2011

2011-01-26T09:26:00.000-08:00

Illustration II, first assignment. This is based on an extremely vivid childhood memory of mine. The accompanying text is as follows:

They announced the winners of the art show after the school play; I was eight years old, and I was dressed as an Indian. The art teacher (my favorite teacher) took the stage after the curtain call to present the prizes, wearing a blue dress and pearls, hair freshly curled. My age group was first, being the youngest. I was fully prepared to take first prize; after all, I was amazing, obviously. Third place – second place –first place. It wasn’t my name. How could it not be my name? Feeling sick, I continued waiting to hear my name called, certain there must be some mistake; after all, my art had been hung on the wall with the ten-year-olds. But my name wasn’t called with the ten-year-olds. The last prizes were given to the oldest group, the high school kids, and I knew all hope was lost. I was close to tears. “And now for the best of show,” said the art teacher, beaming at some private joke. “The best of all the students – of all the age groups, first through twelfth grade – the very best…” she carried on like this for some time, “…goes to Noelle Stevenson.” And my little heart almost stopped.

Something kind of different. This is a poster I did for a friend about a soap label design contest, sans text.

D0odles:

Just a bit of silliness really. I've ragged on sexy pirate chicks before but they are fun to draw.

Tiny Sailor Self funtimes

Wee indeed.

You know it's going to be ONE OF THOSE DAYS when you wake up with Bon Jovi stuck in your head.

uhhhh

Bits and pieces

2010-12-22T20:23:00.000-08:00

Some life drawing stuff and few experimental ink doodles from winter break. IMAGE HEAVY SO VERY IMAGE HEAVY

Naked men below, beware of penis.

I think Jon might be my favorite model ever.

SASSY NAKED LAD. I think I drew the female model a grand total of twice. I mean I like drawing girls just fine, but the ones we had were all Barbie girls. Borrrrring.

And some ink experimentation with an old busted crowquill.

hello may I eat your babies

DOGGY

Yeah no clue.

FINALS NONSENSE: Illustration I

2010-12-16T14:48:00.001-08:00

By a stroke of bad luck, my two most important classes are on consecutive days, and both required multiple pieces for my final. So I died a little or a lot getting everything done.

For my Illustration I final, we had to create box art for a hypothetical special edition DVD of a movie chosen for us by the teacher based on our aesthetic. I had a choice between Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and City of Lost Children, and while I loved both movies, City of Lost Children had too many amazing characters that I just had to draw: conjoined twins, narcoleptic clones, a dwarf princess, a brain in a jar, scary cyborg men.

But really it was the two main characters that I loved the most, Ron Perlman as a circus strong man in a spiffy sweater, and Judith Vittet as a nine-year-old femme fatale in her stripey red getup (which I want to imitate). They're so fun and easy to cartoon. I tried to get a kind of circus-y feel with this cover without being cheesy.

This is the booklet cover. More One and Miette.

Aaaand some spot illustrations for the inside of the booklet. I needed more time on these, as they are kinda sloppy in places.

Frankly I'm just tired of looking at these though, so maybe another time.

I'll photograph my life drawing stuff and put that up soon, maybe.

FINALS NONSENSE: Digital Illustration

2010-12-16T14:28:00.000-08:00

Both of my illustration teachers decided to team up and make me lose my mind! YAY!

For Digital Illustration, we had to create an identity packet for Brooklyn musician Heather Christian, who has a nice sound, and you should give her a listen. Sort of a Regina Spektor/Norah Jones type thing.

Anyway, I tried to come up with some motifs to use, and somehow I got the idea that she liked rabbits. The rest of the imagery was just a kind of "what do I feel like drawing" kind of thing. The answer: naked girls, gramophones, bathtubs, banners, holes, water, clouds, and rain. I changed my mind about the rain after having to draw a billion raindrops but I stuck with it.

Album art.

Disc design.

Postcard.

(This was originally going to be my album cover, but I thought the album needed something that filled the space a little better. I think it was a good decision although I got some great comments about this illustration too.)

Aaaaand poster. The raindrops gave me hell so I had to redo them digitally, and they kind of suck, but there was no way I could've redrawn all those raindrops again.

I got a great critique on this. Heather Christian came and visited the class to help critique, and she was really sweet and very enthusiastic about them. In fact it was one of the most positive critiques I've ever had, and after what I went through getting these done, I really needed a good critique. I'm happy with how they came out although I had a mini freakout when I saw the poster printed out 11x17 and realized how many mistakes I'd made with the linework, but no one else seemed to notice. I love the colors. I don't even know how that happened, but they're beautiful, and normally I suck at colors.

Leaving Home

2010-12-02T15:44:00.001-08:00

This was a speed illustration done in-class based on the theme "Leaving Home." By "speed" I mean five hours. So not that speedy.

I'm not 100% happy with it. The colors need work. And the balance is wack but I kind of like it.

Here are some other Photoshoppy things I've been doing:

DEMONS, ALWAYS

Been trying out some new things, like not using lines for everything. Woah.

Aaaand a flapperish lady.

Kissing! Bubbles! Hipsters! And other weird stuff!

2010-11-22T21:02:00.001-08:00

I have too many websites. I get tired of posting this stuff everywhere. Oh what the hell EVERYONE LOOK AT MY ART ALL THE TIME

Book review illustration for "Love is a Mix Tape" by Rob Sheffield.

Book cover design for author Andrew Auseon.

And now, have some random doodles. Sketchbook doodles scanned and colored or tablet doodles done when I had better things to be doing.

Craft paper. All the time.

ALL the time.

In fact...

Ready for some weird stuff?

I don't know where this came from. I think that's why the title is "What? I don't know."

Hahahaaaaaaaaaa

Onomatopoeia

2010-11-09T10:16:00.000-08:00

This caused me grief but in the end it was really fun. I could draw these silly violence/noodly armed/people full of holes things forever.

I use a flexible quill nib for the ink lines and I love it.

Craft paper everywhere, always.

The cowboys were my least favorite at the beginning, and now they're my favorite.

Okay that's it.

The Steadfast Tin Android

2010-11-06T20:39:00.000-07:00

My Digital Illustration homework has been looking quite steampunky lately.

These are character designs for a futuristic version of the Hans Christian Anderson tale "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," only now it's the Steadfast Tin Android (SEE WHAT I DID THERE).

I have been so obsessed with paper textures lately (especially craft paper). There are probably four different ones just on the soldier.

I still have to make an environment for these dudes to live. Stay tuned.

The Exorcism

2010-10-25T22:19:00.001-07:00

LOOK AT THESE HERE DEMONS

So the assignment was to illustrate a classic monster and then put a modern twist on it. So I did what I do, DEMONS, DEMONS EVERYWHERE.

I did these with an ink nib, which was really fun, and then colored them on Photoshop. I really wanted to color them with gauche but I...failed. Trying to stay loose with my lines and just have fun, really.

I've been experimenting with putting these round holes all up in the people I draw. They signify different things: emptiness, heartbreak, forgetfulness, lack of identity...or a door for an inner demon in this case. We'll see where THAT goes.

Guess what I got?

2010-10-14T11:08:00.001-07:00

That's right. I bought an expensive piece of art equipment and I'm using it to draw like a five-year-old.

TABLET WE WILL BE THE BEST OF FRIENDS

Digital Work: Helena Bonham Carter and Edward vs. Jacob

2010-09-21T09:16:00.000-07:00

Have some art.

Helena Bonham Carter! I enjoyed this, but not the process. First I got really good at drawing HBC here, then decided I wanted to switch to Adrien Brody...drew Adrien Brody nonstop for a week, trying to get a good composition out of him...failed...and then went back to HBC. Poor Helena.

Anyway, I like it. The blue around her halo and the color of her roses are my two favorite colors in the world because they make me think of icing on a cake. Mmmm cake.

Aaaaand Team Edward vs. Team Jacob. Crazy tweens and their hormones. This isn't anti-Twilight per se, just anti-crazy fan girls.

A self portrait

2010-09-13T18:57:00.000-07:00

I hate self portraits for a lot of reasons. For one, I am very bad at drawing faces. What other object can you think of with such a precise placement of details? If you draw, say, a shoe, it's not going to matter if the laces are slightly too far apart, or if the tongue doesn't stick out enough, or if the sole is a millimeter too thick...it will still look like the same shoe. However, if an eye is slanted slightly at the wrong angle, or if the nose comes down a hair too far, or if the curve of the lips is wrong...well, it just doesn't look like that person at all. I am also very bad at drawing my own face. I've never been 100% sure what I look like. From what I can see in photos, my face seems to be constantly changing shapes. Sometimes I think I have a rounder face than I do, sometimes it seems longer, sometimes more pointed, sometimes not pointed at all. Some people know EXACTLY WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE and draw themselves all the freakin' time. I am not one of those people.

I also hate showing my self portrait to people. I'll labor over something until it seems right to my eyes, and then I hold it up and ask: "Does this look like me?" I hate that question, because when the person inevitably says "No," it seems like they are criticizing not only my drawing abilities but my face at the same time. Sometimes I just want to keep my self portraits to myself and just imagine that my face really is shaped like that and my nose is smaller than it really is. But of course, that defeats the purpose.

I tried everything I could think of to get my face right this time. I went as far as to put plastic wrap over my mirror and trace my features. Just as a guide, you know. It didn't work. After measuring and measuring and tracing and charting and staring at my face for hours and starting over a few times, I came to this conclusion: screw it. I decided that it was less important that this portrait looked exactly like me and more important that it had life and vibrance and didn't look like a death mask.

And what do you know? It kind of worked. Does it look like me? I'm...not entirely sure. Probably not. But, I think it's a better picture. And I kindasorta had fun with it. I didn't do any charting, any measuring...I drew the lines right into Photoshop and then moved everything around until it seemed right. I love how you can do that on Photoshop.

Then I drew a demon because y'know that's what I do.

Stars

2010-09-07T22:26:00.000-07:00

For my first assignment for Illustration I, we were asked to make at least three illustrations inspired by a favorite album of ours. I chose "Set Yourself On Fire" by Stars.

"Your Ex-Lover is Dead"

There's one thing I want to say, so I'll be brave
You were what I wanted. I gave what I gave.
I'm not sorry I met you
I'm not sorry it's over
I'm not sorry there's nothing to save

"Calender Girl"

I dreamed I was dying, as I so often do
And when I awoke, I was sure it was true
I ran to the window, threw my head to the sky
And said, Whoever is up there, please don't let me die

"One More Night"

Release to the sky, look him straight in the eye
And tell him right now that you wish he would die
You'll never touch him again, so get what you can
Bleeding him empty just because he's a man
So good, when it ends, they'll never be friends
One more night, that's all they can spend

There's definitely a narrative here, as I imagined recurring characters in each song. I love how each song deals with the various problems with relationships: love that amounted to nothing in the end, loneliness and isolation, and anger and bitterness being channeled into passion.

All is vanity

2010-08-16T07:59:00.000-07:00

...and a striving after wind.

This was a response to Ecclesiastes and deals with a lot of stuff I've been thinking about lately. It's also a culmination of several weeks' worth of church doodles. "Noelle! You doodle naked ladies and tiny scenes of hedonism during church?" ...yes. Does this make me a bad person?

Click to embiggen, it's a pretty crappy thumbnail.

"I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind." Ecclesiastes 1:14

I'm calling it a work in progress because it's definitely gonna keep changing. I had trouble with the background (as I always do) but I think I like the way it looks right now.

This is going to be my art blog

2010-05-10T22:32:00.001-07:00

I figured I should have one.