Fredonia Mall Pizza Box Finale

The pizza box is complete, and has been sent out to be printed! I am really stoked on the outcome, and even more stoked to see it in person here in a few weeks. The design will be revisited in the near future to be printed on tees that are going to be sold at the gas station, too. It's been a few years since we have done that up there, but we have had at least four designs in the past - I have always wanted to do the honors of making one myself.

Now it's on to making a design for the Johnstown-Ohio's Relay For Life. A close family friend of ours recently lost her battle to lung cancer, and I have been really wanting to do something to commemorate her as well as support the effort of cancer awareness and research. I am going to be joining a team I joined last year - "Buck Up Cancer" (for Cindy Buck), and doing a poster design that I will be selling for 5 dollars a print. If I sell 100 posters at $5, I can raise $500 for the American Cancer Society. I will also be sitting there, all day (sunrise to sundown, and then some) sketching and drawing anything that anyone wants for any donation amount. That's my goal. I am really, really excited about it. The date is July 27-28. Time to get drawing. Here's a very quick sketch of my idea:

Fredonia Mall Pizza Box

I have been working on this project here and there for awhile this summer, but have just recently had time to completely pursue it. First is my initial sketch/scan, then my idea breakdown, and then my silhouette, and then the point I'm currently at. I keep making adjustments and experimenting, and I have a ways to go yet. I am using Illustrator, and falling back in love with it (the knife tool is my best friend). The piece is going to be featured on the pizza boxes of the gas station I work at/my family owns, and printed on tees, and actually painted on the side of the gas station itself. Exciting times in small-town, Ohio!

Fixed In Color - Lyric Video

I haven't posted in awhile - but not out of complete laziness. I've been busy with Orientation, the 9-to-5, and this project I've been working on for the past month. I'd never touched flash beforehand, but my summer goal was to learn it. This video gave me the extra push to really get comfortable with the program. I had lots of fun learning and creating this, and I was so happy to be able to it. I am looking forward to/and am really interested in working more with flash in the future, definitely.

The background is composed of lots of photos I've taken over the past year, pushed around in photoshop like crazy - antique shops, late night adventures, sparklers, parades, etc. For the logo, I was happy to finally get a grasp of how to create a grimey-looking effect, and also VERY happy to realize that live-trace has a "ignore white" option (I know, I know... about time, Sarah).

Check out Fixed in Color on facebook and show some support!

http://www.facebook.com/FixedInColor

Combining time-based artwork of music and visuals is always really rewarding to me, and I feel very fortunate that I can use my skills to support other young artists. Now, if only I could finally run with my "Support Local Hardcow" idea... it's going to happen. I promise.

Blind Beast

Had some fun today with a piece of copy paper, a pencil, a trusty Pilot Precise V7 Fine-tipped pen, and a quick pass in Photoshop (times like these make me realize how nice it will be to have a tablet again - can't wait for it to get here)! I am trying to push myself into using line-work other than thick-weighted outlines, which is why I tried to pull in extra details this time around.

The idea behind this piece is a take on the idea of people being incapable of "hearing you out" - because they are, for lack of a better word, blind. You could say that being blind can lead to some beastly consequences.

Character Sketches

Things are rolling along nicely this summer. I ordered a new Wacom Tablet today, and I am really looking forward to that showing up at my doorstep.

One of my summer goals is to keep a sketchbook handy at all times and to keep on drawing. Here's my first attempt at really getting around to filling up the pages of this sketchbook, starting with character sketches of a character I have always drawn.

Summer Start

Summer is here, and I am having a blast with my spare time. Here's a graphic I composed with pen and paper, then pushed further on Illustrator. I love this process and aim to do more along these lines - I would be very interested in doing promotional pieces for events, such as music shows, in this format. For now, I am composing quoted lyrics from songs I enjoy - creating new audiences for these posts as they hit sites such as tumblr.com. Here is the original scan and the finished Illustrator graphic:

Here's a piece I inked out tonight. The next step is to pull it into Illustrator and do a few tweaking via the pen tool (for example: the T's. They drove me nuts, looking first like stylized, backward J's, and now I see them looking like lowercase r's):

I have a handful of projects I am aiming to tackle this summer, including two [extra exciting projects] that will require me to replace my currently janky/scratched-up-&-un-working Bamboo tablet with a new one: thankfully, I started my first shift at my gas-station since winter break today. Until I get my tablet, I will be consistently posting more of these drawings as well as some sketches and comps, including a design that is going to be on tees, pizza boxes, and painted to a building (...for the gas-station). Here are sketches of my grandma that I did on mother's day:

Sophomore Year Finals

Finals have wrapped up and I am all settled back into small-town, Ohio. The 133d Annual Student Show was fantastically inspiring; especially the Friday presentation for the Animation/Cinematic Arts pieces. I definitely see the direction I want to head in this summer and the upcoming year, and am really glad to see such great work from my classmates. All 20 seconds of my Animation 1 final played in the "Animation 1 Sample Clips" portion, and my Computer Animation and Video finals made it into the Kinney Hall TV-Screen gallery that will be playing on loop next year, which I am extremely happy about! My two video posters got printed and are hanging in a collage of 6 other posters in Canzani, and one of my photographs from the first Art and Tech project made it into the photo room in Kinney as well.

I updated the Sheep final with sounds - a quick fix that made a huge difference. I definitely be adding sound to all of my future animations.

This is my final for Computer Animation I - also with sound, which happens to be a "demo" track recording from an old keyboard that is my 90's gem. This animation was a very big trek and feat for myself... animating in Maya was incredibly different than animating in a 2D program. In the end, I learned so much information that I am sure I will be visiting again someday.

And, finally - this is my Video 1 Final Documentary: a documentary about the Fredonia Mall, the workplace I shall be returning to this summer.

Here are my two video posters that made it onto one of the many walls of the student gallery on campus:

And here is the photo that made it to the wall of the photography room: