Book Cover - Marker Comp

I decided to go with the fancy gate idea. I thought this idea would look appealing, visually, but also have lots of deeper meaning. Thematically, the gate stands for the division of social classes, the wealth of some, the elegance of estates like Pemberley. I found a picture of one that had some elements I liked, too. All the swirls kept it a little feminine for the story and the top has two swirls around the main center post make a heart, suggesting the romance in the story. No one really picked up on the heart though, so I think I'll make that a little bolder. And I'm planning to find a really amazing typeface for the title and author. Can't wait!

Cheesy airbrush comp

Isn't he a cute little guy? I tried to make a cheesy little mouse guy with ginormous ears. To add to the cheese factor, I slipped a piece of hole-y cheese over his tail. The comp looks cute enough...to the airbrush....(cue ominous music)

I hate airbrush: part 2

Still hating airbrush. I thought a planet would be pretty simple. I cut my frisket, but as I was peeling it off the board (I really seem to be having trouble with this part), it wasn't cut all the way through on the bottom and it tore. Sad day. I wanted a made-up, blue, stripey planet. At first it looked like the AT&T logo, so I tried to add a crater/storm/spot thing. That was a trainwreck. To put it in space, I just scanned it in and photoshopped it. I tried to do all kinds of cool star field backgrounds, but even those failed miserably. It's a little speckly I guess. Of course, I completely forgot to fix that jagged edge too...

I hate airbrush: part 1

I don't understand it. I obviously can't do it. This is ridiculous. I will never be able to even work at a carnival as an airbrush artist. This orange started out well...I was being super careful to not add too much saturation and get the wet, glossy look. At least I was successful at that! But the little green stem thing looks very much like it was masked off. And when I pulled off the frisket, some of the board came off too, leaving blaring white marks. I tried to go back with the light brown that I was using and cover those up a bit, but that was pretty unsuccessful. It's better than my cubes and spheres at least...

Classic Book Cover - initial sketches

Pride and Prejudice is one of my all time favorite books, so I was super excited to see it on the list. It's also a book that has had new covers many, many times...most of them are SUPER boring though...I looked. I came up with several loose ideas/concepts that I think have some potential. The first one is pretty simple, I wanted to illustrate a pretty peacock feather that would wrap around the cover to the back. My sketch is terrible, but it's a pretty straight-forward idea. Second idea: several scenes involve walking, being outdoors, seeing pretty landscapes, so I have a tree with a stone bench under it, suggesting socialization here. The bench would probably have an open letter (Darcy's letter to Elizabeth explaining his actions) or an open book (Elizabeth loved reading) on it. Third idea: Pemberly. Pretty simple. Fourth idea: an illustration of a dancing/dress shoe from the period with music floating out from the back and spine, symbolizing the dancing, social aspects of the book. Fifth idea: comparison of Longbourn (Bennets' home) with Pemberley (Darcy's estate). I added a little sheep friend in there too. Sixth idea: Something a little different, pretty contemporary. It involved several illustrations, all collaged together in photoshop. Images include: Pemberley, coin purse with coins falling out, young woman walking, cloud raining. I also want to include lots of textures and unexpected colors in that one. Seventh (final) idea: back to the simplicity, just a fancy iron gate, symbolizing class, status, the barriers between upper and lower classes, as described by the brilliant Miss Austen.

I'm not really sure which I want to develop further. I think the collage idea would be interesting, but possibly harder to pull off successfully.

Album cover- marker comps

When I woke up thinking about Christmas music this morning, I decided it must be a sign that my LP/CD/iTunes album cover art should be for a Christmas album. Naturally, the first one I thought of is my favorite (and the one I listened to first on November 1)....Avalon's "Joy". If you haven't listened to it, you should. It's fantastic. While listening to it and sipping my morning coffee, I sketched out three different concepts/ideas. Not being able to choose one from my sketches, I decided to do marker comps of all three. Maybe seeing it bigger and in color would help me decide.

For this one, I wanted to create the idea of a pretty desolate, cold-looking, winter landscape with a few evergreen trees. One stands out with the star though, symbolizing Christmas, and the star would stand in for the "o" in "joy". Eh...I think it looked better in my head that it does with markers on paper. It might be easier to create the scene so it would look better in watercolor or gouache, but I'm thinking this isn't my favorite.
This idea also didn't come out as well in marker, but I'm pretty sure it would be successful in either watercolor or gouache (I haven't decided which of these two media I want to use yet). The idea is that in the mug of hot chocolate/coffee/dark, warm beverage of choice, the cream would spell out "joy" in kind of loopy letters. The mug is held in mittened hands and the light blue/gray background would represent cold, winter, etc. Although the "joy" in the mug isn't super legible in this sketch, I think it would work out well in the actual illustration.
Last idea. It's pretty simple really, a red, ball Christmas tree ornament for the "O". Gold letters to keep it holiday-y but not the typical red-and-green-Christmas-color blah. A simple background of lighter and darker tints of the same color. Something a little more contemporary. The "Avalon" would probably be at the top, I'm thinking a little off-centered...aligned right maybe? This one is my favorite comp, but I'm worried it might be too simple and boring as an actual illustration. Or it could look awesome. Not sure yet.

3 Image gouache montage- DONE!

My three image gouache montage is finally done! Overall it went better than expected. I had the most trouble with the parrot...I kept trying to fade out the edges of the different shades on his belly, but they would start picking out instead. Erg. I think my favorite parts are the candle and the parrot's forehead. The wings were rather troublesome too. It's not the most interesting composition...but I think it works.

3 image gouache montage- Marker Comp

This is actually my second marker comp for the 3 image gouache montage. I pretty much just changed the background (this one looks WAY better) and some of the shading and colors on the candle. I'm excited to start working on this! I think the colors work to pull the three items together. I think it's a fun, random collection of objects too! One frustration I had with the markers, though, is that they don't blend very well. This background looks better than my first, but I'm planning on the real illustration to have a smoother background that blends together more than this.