M O U S E _ G U A R D

Hey all, at the recent involvement fair, I decided I would keep myself busy as I manned the Illustration Club booth by drawing.

Having jut read the first volume of Mouse Guard, I found myself with mice on the brain. So, I scanned some of those drawings, and now I'm trying out my hand at coloring (probably my weakest area).

I think it went pretty well, but I definitely need to spend some more time playing with brushes in photoshop.

Kenzie from Mouse Guard

original sketch

I N _ T H E _ S T U D I O

Here's a peak into my home life. I've recently been spending quite a lot of time in my studio, attempting to get a jump start on my senior project this upcoming semester. After cleaning out our incredibly crowded loft, I've made lots space for myself. You can also see that I like to surround myself with art that I've collected over the years, and lots of books that inspire me.

Recently I've been looking very closely at Craig Thompson, especially his book Blankets.

And if you're looking closely, you've noticed that I've been working on tracing paper a lot. I plan on having my upcoming book be comprised of screen prints, rather than traditional pencil and ink drawings. So I use the tracing paper to make the preliminary drawings for the screen prints, which are then transfered to screens later. To make sure the screens come out cleanly, I use a variety of different sized paint markers, as well as an india ink brush pen, which I find gives a nice combination of clean and decisive lines, while still retaining a looseness in the drawings thanks to the brush. And as for erasing, I use an X-Acto blade to cut out pieces of the drawing that aren't working, and then tape over a fresh piece of tracing paper to fix it.

There are some images of my upcoming, so far untitled, book seen down below. I currently have 6 pages completed for the book, and will have more detailed photos of the book coming soon.

E R R _ A H H

With 2011 being the 50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps, in my Illustration class this past fall, we were tasked with making posters for the event. I started with some very complex sketches, but eventually worked my way to this, which I am incredibly pleased with. Here are two different versions of my screen printed poster.

M A K I N _ C O P I E S

This past semester, I took a mold making class, where I learned several processes to make multiples of objects. Our mid-term project for the class was create multiples using two or more starting object, and then create 9 hybrid pieces of art, 3 made of all porcelain, 3 made of all latex, and then 3 made of both porcelain and latex. My starting objects were a Macho Man Randy Savage action figure, a Pillsbury Dough Boy Action Figure, and a small plaster head of a Doe.

P L A Y I N G _ C H I C K E N

It's that time of year again. That time for the annual RAAB Prize. This being my last year to participate in this UConn exclusive, Cricket and Scholastic sponsored, competition, I really did try my hardest, and must say that I'm infinitely happier with this years submission, especially compared to last years. Again, anther poem by Jane Yolen, this years work of literature that needed some illustrative company was "Chicken Parade".

I'm sorry to report that I did not win, but I'm still very happy with what I did.

Now because I'm not sure about the copyright here, I won't be posting my two page spread for the poem with the text template, but you can probably guess as to where the text should fit. So here's my piece, a screen print with some last minute digital fixing.

H O M E M A D E _ H A T

A little late, but here's a look at our first illustration project from this past fall semester. Starting our as a seemingly simple "get to know you" project, where we were to design a hat which would best embody ourselves (which I am always terrible at; I always find it difficult to boil myself down to one idea). The twist was that after having designed the hats, we to then construct them. Once constructed, we partnered with another classmate, and had to paint a portait of them in their hats.

I painted Kaiti Archambault in the woods, while my portrait was painted by Jen Allen. Have a look:

final painting, made with guache and acrylic paint markers

initial sketch for my painting

my hat, and my portrait by Jen Allen