SmithDB ART 2104 Blog

I have illustrated several aspects from Wil Mara's novel, The Gemini Virus  (2012), a very graphic and detailed novel about a deadly virus that started in a small American Town, then quickly spread throughout the surrounding cities and states. Because of the amount of disgusting detail in the novel and with the very real Coronavirus pandiemic I thought I'd spare my classmates that amount of gore.  I chose images that stuck with me as I read that I think would give the viewer enough information to interest them in possibly reading The Gemini Virus , themselves. So, I guess it's kind of a promo image. I wanted to show part of my process by showing the copyright/royalty-free images I used from Pixabay.com (left side) and the end results of my Photoshop Illustrations (right side).

I decided to work on the illustration for The Gemini Virus, as I didn't get any feedback since my last post and I felt strongly about this story. I looked up hospital rooms on this royalty free image site, Pixabay.com, to set a base for my illustration. Here's the original image: Here's my progress on adjusting the image and creating an illustration:

Hey gang. My idea is to make a book cover or book spread illustration, perhaps for a children's book, or a more mature genre. I've been reading a story about a viral outbreak called The Gemini Virus by Wil Mara. Though it's a very graphic novel with quite disgusting imagery described I've been very intrigued in thinking about what an illustration would look like, and thought it might be interesting to make one of my own. I have made little quote images for The Gemini Virus, as well as an image I Photoshoped of myself  having the early stages of the virus for Instagram. See below.

This post is for an in-progress critique. I feel that it is pretty close to complete / resolved. I decided to keep the open space on the lower left panel and write a haiku about the images. Growth of life can be Full of unknown and known Blessings are made clear I used natural brush filters and effects to make the middle and right images look like a painting, and then used my Wacom tablet to hand-paint the background and around the figures. I also used the Wacom tablet to completely draw the Ultrasound image. I used yellow in the middle panel to represent the fear I felt at and right before the birth due to the high-risk pregnancy I had, as well as the emergency c-section delivery. I chose the use of the blue color for the right panel to represent the calm and good health of our present day.

For project 4, the Visual Sequence Narrative , I immediately thought of comic books and animatics / storyboards. Though this was my first thought I stopped myself and asked a hard question: What matters to me? What is important? What tells a good story in my life? I have two children, and both pregnancies were difficult at times. My youngest's birth, though, was a very scary and difficult experience. I had developed a condition where my blood had become toxic and almost shut down my kidneys and liver. I had to have an emergency c-section. Sparing the details, I wanted to use the classic triptych design to represent three stages of my son's life: in the womb, first born, and present-day. My boy is a healthy and active two-and-a-half-year-old with a wonderful and funny big sister. Below are the beginning ideas for my triptych narrative. My goal is to use photographs to reference and to digitally illustrate each image in Photoshop using my Wacom Tablet. In version one (v1) I...

Cyclical Nature  of Things The theme of this work and composition was my personal traveling routine and transition. As stated in the last entry, on my daily walk I would always stop to admire the beautiful and ever-green moss growing on the branches of trees, mailboxes, and fences as I walked down my neighborhood street. Because it was the highlight of my morning walk I wanted to place that image front-and-center, making it the focal point of my composition. My composition is made with four key images: The mossy branch, the street, a tree I pass on my way to the art building, and the side of the art building I enter for most of my classes. Some additional elements I've added are the sky-blue resting space at the bottom of the image, the streaks of white that can symbolize clouds, shine, or water, and a rendered tree to help the transition between two images. One of my main goals was to integrate the images to form seamless or nearly-seamless transitions. I was pleasantly...

For this project I want to convey my daily traveling routine. Because I walk down a fairly long road to get to my bus stop and admire the beautiful moss and sunlight I thought I'd make that the highlight or focal point for the viewer.  This is just the beginning progress / process of this piece, but I hope to make almost seamless transitions between the various scenes above and below the moss-covered branch. In this close-up screenshot you can see the effect of the drawing and painting filters I've added. From far away it would look like a photo, but up-close you can really see the detail of the artistry. I hope to do some "hand-drawing" with my Wacom tablet onto the image, as well. 

Project 3: The Cyclical Nature of Things  The following images reflect my interpretation of "The Cyclical Nature of Things" by showing my cycle of daily travel to and from school. I chose not to present images of traveling on the public bus because I did not want to impede on the privacy of others and use their image in my personal works. There was a particular tree I had noticed as I walked towards the Schaefer Center that had a few leaves on a particular branch that were barely hanging on. On several consecutive days I would take a photo of those leaves to see if anything significant would change over time. I found the nature around me in the spring season was very interesting and beautiful, despite the lack of full leaves.

Project 2: Destroy the Icon For project 2 we are to scan an iconic image and attempt to create at least four compositions using that image as well as a scan-o-gram of textures to manipulate the image enough to where it is still somewhat recognizable, but legal to use. I chose to use an image of the great Harry Houdini in chains before performing a trick to escape. My idea is to relate Houdini's anxiety and feelings through creating various versions of himself around the central figure. In creating several patterns and textures I try to indicate his stress and the social and mental trends Houdini had gone through in the later part of is life.

About the work: This is the fourth and [first-] final version of this design made with Adobe Illustrator 2020, that is completely vector. I have taken the record player and paired it with the concept of a time machine, as listening to particular songs or genres of music allow us to mentally travel to a particular event or time in our lives through memory. A walk down memory lane, if you will. I have arranged the record player to be on it's side with the lid open, as if it is large and set in a facility within a room. Set on the record platform is an analog clock representing time, and the arms of the record player are the mechanism that controls the experience as the subject walks through the door into another time and space. On the wall to the right of the device, "Audition for Life", are several years that may be familiar to the general public. Regarding the figure: The figure entering into the unknown through the door is actually Dorothy Gail from the Wizard of ...

I continue to play around with placement and shadow, and to ponder what I really want to show in the doorway.

The record player I was illustrating has become a time machine powered with the magic of music and memories connected to specific songs. This illustration was prepared 100% with Adobe Illustrator 2020, v.24.0.2. While the photo tracing is attractive, it's too photo-realistic. I will continue to think of ways to sort-of stylize my concept.

The above image is my progress on Project 1 using Adobe Illustrator 2019. Above is the original image source. My idea is to take the idea of a record player and use it along with the idea of going back in time. As we hear music from various eras or different genres of music we are mentally and emotionally transported to that time, space, and/or event within ourselves. This is the big idea I'd like to convey.

Incense Burner Barometer and Thermometer Vinyl Record Player