Illustration!

Wow, that month was fast. I didn't post anything! How did that happen? I have no idea, but I wanted to write about the work I have done for my illustration course at the Museum School since October. We have been doing weekly assignments based on different contexts in which you would find illustrations. We had already done cookbooks, Times Magazine spots, and portraits last time I posted. Since then we have done illustrations for a short story published in a literary journal, an opinion piece for a newspaper, an article about deforestation from an environmental publication, a book cover, and an album cover.

For the deforestation article, I collaged together different watercolor paintings I did of landscapes and cows in Indonesia, where deforestation is currently a huge problem, as all the Greenpeace canvassers in the street keep telling me when I'm trying to walk anywhere. There is some ominous smoke in the background. My class felt that it was a lovely piece of artwork, but that it was not ominous enough for the article.

Next is my illustration for a short story entitled "Charger." It is about a teenager in Kentucky trying to figure out whether he will go nowhere in life like all of his classmates and neighbors, or do something crazy and different. The scene I illustrated is when he picks up his girlfriend from her job at the mall. His truck was an important element in the story, so I made the point of view from inside the truck. My classmates pointed out that the angle of the side view mirror is wrong. This is something I was not aware of, since I don't drive. I have spent so little time in a driver's seat, that I did not notice as I was creating the image. 

I think if I were to do this piece again, I would change the girlfriend's hair a bit. In the text, her hair is described as a bird's nest piled on this girl's head, but what I drew is just poofy ridiculousness. I would also have the two figures holding hands or something, because it is actually a very affectionate moment in the story and the way I have presented them, they seem still and distant. Other than those details, I'm quite pleased!

For our opinion piece illustration, we had two options of article. The one I chose was about censorship. Apparently, many years ago a large bookstore chain was accused of selling child pornography because they carried a book of photography by Jock Sturges, who is a photographer known for his completely consensual photos of families on nude beaches. Look him up if you would like. For some reason, I think his photography of figures outside on beaches is stunning, but when the photo is taken inside a house, it squiks me out. But for opinion illustrations, my own opinion doesn't matter. The goal is to illustrate the author's opinion. I drew this:

A book with a fig leaf, the classic symbol for covering up nudity. My class thought that it looked too much like a photo album, and that it would be effective in black and white, so I did another version in pencil. You can decide which one you think is more effective:

For our book cover illustration, we again had two choices of books to illustrate. The one I chose was a self help book about how to stop a procrastination habit. I focused on the idea of balancing time and all of the things you want to do, by collaging an old-timey brass scale with images to represent different things someone might do with their time. Once again my class thought that the image was well done, but the concept needed work. They pointed out that procrastination is about avoidance more than it is about balancing work and things outside of work. That's when I made the connection that balancing work and other things has been a preoccupation of mine for a while now. I guess subconsciously I was tapping into that instead of doing the assignment.

And finally the most fun assignment we have had yet, probably because it allowed us the most freedom, was the album cover. We could choose any band or musical artist we wanted and imagine that they were coming out with a new album and we had been hired to design the cover (or if it is an artist who is no longer living, perhaps a record label wanted to put out a new compilation of their recordings). Naturally I chose The Cat Empire, my favorite band of all time. Their album covers tend to be fairly simple and the all include the band's cat eye symbol. I happen to think of them as a fun, crazy, experimental, exciting, upbeat band, so I wanted to use watercolors because of their unpredictability, while keeping the design itself relatively simple so that it would fit in well with the rest of their albums. Incidentally they are recording a new album right now! But I bet they already have cover art for it... 

Cat Empire: If you're out there reading my blog, what do you think of this album cover?