Risk Assessment

An illustration for a business article on the topic of "risk." This was an assignment for Fantasy Art, so the idea was to add a fantastical element to the image.

Some Thesis Stuff!

Okay, so I realized I haven't posted anything from thesis this year. . .so here are two inked drawings! I'm holding off on posting the final versions until I get the colors just right. There's also a larger piece I'm working on that I'll try and post this week. For those of you who don't know the theme of my thesis this semester, basically I'm working on a series of illustrations inspired by a fusion of the themes behind the Roman gladiatorial games and the classical styles of the Italian master artists. The gladiatorial games, besides being a perverse form of entertainment, also served as a visual metaphor for the threats faced by Roman society at the time, including the threat of criminals, invasion by foreign enemies, the danger of wild animals and the ever-looming knowledge of an early death (life expectancy was less than half it is today). Order and peace of mind was maintained by the literal slaying of these threats, whether it was a formal execution of a criminal, the slaying of a prisoner of war, or a mass slaughter of wild beasts.

WIth this in mind I'm exploring the threats of modern Americans and how we face them, using both gladiator imagery and reference to the figurative poses seen in old Italian master paintings. The two images shown represent two different modern-day battles. One is the defense of the environment and natural resources against constant threat, a sort of never-ending loop of self-perpetuated disaster (the small boys in the forest area are nurturing the baby hogs while the adults defend the same forest from an onslaught of wild hogs.) The other image shows our relationship with beauty and the futile attempts to stop the process of aging (the girl is piercing her own reflection, which is indestructible). That's all for now, more updates to come later!

Sea Woman

I did a quick sketch of a Jules-Joseph Lefebvre painting ("Graziella") at the Met last Saturday and decided to do an inking based off the piece during studio time today. I just recently discovered his work and love the way he handles figures--I think more studies will follow! I'm going to color this piece later, but for now, here's the black and white version.

Nine Lives

So, here is the final I did for my folk art and folk life class. My idea was to collect and illustrate various stories from my dad and his 8 siblings, and the idea evolved a bit along the way. I definitely improved my inking, and enjoyed working with minimal, vintage-y color (I've always loved the limited color palette of children's books like "Blueberries for Sal") The tales themselves are another story--many have tweaked or added elements, just to help them fill out or wrap up in a slightly cleaner way. I'm not very fond of the re-telling of the stories, mostly because the book was put together during a very limited time frame, where I was spending most of my time trying to ink, scan, and color the illustrations. It never ceases to amaze me how long inking takes (always about 3x longer then I suspect it's going to take. . .) Anyhow, here is the "finished" book! I think the babysitter and car seat comps are two of my faves.