The Blue Lake International Youth Symphony and Choir is performing Mendelssohn's Elijah this summer at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, and Carol Tice (the art director at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp) commissioned me to sketch up some mural ideas. Three panels featuring scenes/themes from the Old Testament story of the prophet Elijah will be painted by youth in the Ann Arbor area and displayed for the musical performance. I attended BLFAC for camp as a middle schooler, and worked as a counselor this past summer, so this project has a special meaning to me. The colors and compositions are of course subject to change--while I may be getting back to Michigan in time to help the kids paint, it's likely these sketches will serve more as a guideline for inspiration rather than a rigid map for the murals. I also have versions of these sketches with embellished borders featuring patterns and images, but personally I feel like they clutter the composition too much. I'm giving both versions to Carol and letting her make the call.
For those who are unfamiliar with the story of Elijah, in the panels I've illustrated a few major scenes of his time on Earth: the first shows Elijah being fed by ravens when there is a drought in the land of Isreal following Elijah's confrontation with King Ahab regarding the worship of both God and the idol Baal. The second panel is the depiction of the "face-off" between Elijah and Ahab to reveal the true God (both make sacrifices to their gods but only Elijah's altar is consumed in fire from the heavens. After this the drought ends, and a series of other events happen before Elijah ascends into heaven on a chariot of fire (last panel, also my favorite of the three)
I'm still working on the superhero pieces; the coloring is taking longer than expected. Also it's the first week of school and my professors have wasted no time piling on the homework!
Still need to do a little cleaning up on this one, but the drawing stage is over and now the painting begins!
Here's a little something I made for my cousins Mary, Kaitlin, and Katie--we're all around the same age and exchange Christmas gifts every year. Christmas with my dad's side is always a lot of fun: he has 8 brothers and sisters which makes for lots of cousins! I used a few photos for reference, did a line drawing in graphite, and colored it in photoshop with my Christmas present from mom and dad: a wacom tablet! It's small but very portable and gets the job done. Unfortunately I haven't been able to install the software on my laptop yet because my disc drive is broken. Not sure how to get around this-we've tried various methods with external hard drives, but nothing seems to work. Anyway, I'm excited to use the tablet for a few upcoming projects involving superhero characters: more to come!
Here is a sample of the prints I sold at Art Market last week, a four-day student and faculty-run event at MICA that raises money for the sellers and for scholarships for students at MICA. Pretty cool! I bought a few Christmas presents, sold some of my shark litho prints from last year, and sold out on my hand-lettered dragon alphabets! All in all the Illustration department had a strong showing, I saw a lot of impressive and creative work from my fellow illustration majors (everything from hand-painted pendants to printed tees to printed books and cards) For a sampling of some of the MICA Illustration work, check this out: http://blogthelab.blogspot.com/ I'm definitely going to participate in Art Market next year, with a focus on packaging and overall branding of my work. The experience was great practice!
