It's almost the big finale!!

It's almost the end of the year and everything has been so crazy! All the final projects are pretty much over, all we have left is the english presentation. Soon we'll all be at our graduation and then wherever we're heading after this. This year has been different than anything I've ever experienced. I've had more freedom, more responsibility, and more HOMEWORK than I've ever had before. I know I've changed from the person I was when I first drove into Dawson in August. I'm more sure of myself and more comfortable with who I am, largely because of the friends I've made here.

I'm also taking more pride in my art, which is a really food feeling, I’ve got to say. Before I came here, I’d been stuck in this place where I could see what I wanted to draw and I knew how to do it, but whenever I tried to put it onto paper I was never satisfied with the result. Gradually I’ve been moving closer to getting out of that place and I couldn’t be happier. I’ve had my comfort zone pushed a lot this year and it’s forced me to take on challenges I normally wouldn’t have considered.

Take the second 3D project I did this semester: a sketchy circus themed dart game with a motor powered spinning baby head. I never would have even considered messing around with electronics and stuff like that to make art before I came here! I can only hop that my skill level and pride continue to grow and push me to new limits. 

I've been working on my 2D project, (40 images) and I did a comic book.
MY GOD.
I DID NOT.
REALIZE.
HOW DIFFICULT IT IS.
AND HOW TEDIOUS.
I have STARTED it and am nowhere near close to being finished (it was due today oops). I have 22 panels drawn of the 65 or so that I have planned out. And the ones I have drawn are just in ink, I still have to add some shading and the minimal amounts of colouring that I was planing on, and I definitely have to clean up the pages themselves because they're covered in finger smudges of both the pencil and the ink variety. Because I know no one besides my english prof looks at this blog (hi Justine) I'll post a picture of one of the pages because I'M NOT INTIMIDATED! I'll give up the page with my favourite panel on it (it's the one at the top with the big monster hint hint)

So yeah, I have 2 full pages, front and back, and another third page, just the front. Even though the due date is passed and I already presented what I had to the class, I still want to work on it and finish it. I'm really excited for the final project!!! :)

Getting back into Photoshop!!

I need to start getting back into Photoshop for this project, so I've been working on this image for a few days and I'm pretty proud of it, I must say. It's going to be a fan poster for this Batman series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRIUR3tU7r0

I combined a screenshot of the joker's face that I got from the trailer as well as an image I got from the internet and I'm pretty happy with the results. I don't know if I'm going to make this my school assignment or if I'll start another one, but for now, this is an example of the kind of work I like to do: dark, simple, interesting, and a little creepy. :) I'm going to touch up the hand because it still doesn't match the tone of the joker's skin, but other than that, I'm content for the moment.
Below are the two images I combined.

I'll probably add in some other small things to give it some extra oomph, like maybe I'll put the floating cards in the background or something like that. Hopefully this turns out well!

Children's book

I’m having so much trouble with this English children’s book assignment. I want to write something fun and quirky and me, but I also want to write something with a little bit of meaning behind it. SO far, my ideas have branched off of the 2^nd graders suggestions.  I thin my main idea right now is something about an octopus in space, but I’m not sure I can really take that idea anywhere. As I mentioned in my last post, in order for me to be able to put forth lots of effort and make something look really good, I need to be really interested in the idea. If I have to force myself to complete something, half of my effort goes into making myself start it.

For this story I think I want to do something about an alien or a monster because those are always interesting and fun to design; something where I can make a fully original character species.

Children’s stories have to be interesting and engaging to hold their attention and get a message through to them in some shape or form. For example, if a child is read a story about an elephant, you have to make it entertaining as well as informational because if you sit there reading elephant facts, the kid is going to get real bored real fast. If you tell them a story about an elephant and just drop little facts here and there as part of the story, for example - “Jimbo the elephant lived I the warmest, driest part of Africa. Every day he would travel with his friends and family to the watering hole to cool down and get a drink." they have a story they can connect to, and they’re learning about something. Hopefully the more I think about my message the more the rest of the story will come together!

To start off

Okay, so to start off this blog of mine, I’m just going to be speculating on what I want to do.

I'm going to be making a promotional movie poster using my favourite design tool EVER, Photoshop. I'm not sure what movie I'm going to use yet but you can be sure that it's going to be a sci-fi/action hardcore blockbuster or something along those lines because I love that stuff. It's going to be a movie that I'm really excited for or passionate about because if I tried to do it for a movie that I don't like, my heart just wouldn't be in it. I'm thinking I might take a minimalistic approach and do it as simple as possible. But I also really like doing big jobs and putting lots of detail into the poster image. For example, when I did a fan poster for the new Star Wars movie coming out in 2015, I put a reflection of the destroyed Death Star in a battered and grey Stormtrooper visor. Actually, yeah, now that I think about it, I want to do something I can really put my heart and soul into. I want to do something dark and edgy in the image because those kinds of images are always more fun to do and they really interest the viewers. I’m really excited to start this project because I haven’t done a hard-core Photoshop project in a while.

I always say that the work-in-progress looks like shit so when the images and screenshots of my poster start coming in, don’t be too quick to judge what the final project will look like! :)