Adventures in the 3rd Dimension!

It is semi late... a bit before midnight where I live. I'm working on homework, but surprisingly, I'm having lots of fun! Why you ask?

BECAUSE I'M SCULPTING! YAY!!!

Yeah, I really love working on 3D stuff, and one of my biggest projects this quarter is all about sculpted characters for a story I created called "The Potty Mouth". Strange name, huh? Ha ha ha! It gets better. "The Potty Mouth" is about a little girl named Ramona who is bullied by this oaf named Ralphie while she's playing with her stuffed animal. At first, Ramona is all sad and crybaby-ish, but then she decides to do something about this injustice! What does she do?? She wishes for her fairy godsister to come and punish Ralphie for being mean, of course. Rhododendron appears, uses her magic on Ralphie and... ah, well... I don't want to ruin the rest of the story, but of course, wackiness ensues which I'll sum up in one word: sentient body parts. Huh? That wasn't one word...

Two words: Learn to count, lady!

Don't get the wrong idea when I say sentient body parts! My story isn't some weird remake of Idle Hands for unsuspecting kids!!! That movie is pretty bad, by the way. I wouldn't recommend it.

Possessed hand? Gimme a break...

HAHA! Sentient body parts looks so goofy typed out. I guess I'll just spill the beans about the rest of the story so that things start to make a little sense. Where was I? Oh, yeah! Rhodo does her fairy magic on Ralphie to teach him a lesson (since bullying is wrong), but she messes up! Instead of zipping up his mouth or just making him be quiet, her magic makes Ralphie's mouth pop off and become an entity all it's own. Well, the mouth turns on Ralphie, making fun and calling HIM dumb names. Ramona feels bad about this, so she decides to make amends by helping Ralphie catch his mouth, teaching it a lesson, and also putting it back where it belongs: on Ralphie's face! After their adventure, Ralphie, Ramona, and Rodo become friends. Ah... I love happy endings.

The cloud is a poof for when the mouth goes back to normal!

silly mouth

phbblthlthbbthprbl!

This is the mouth or monstrosity, as he's affectionately known. I've got them doing different poses, two for each scene of my story. I made them out of sculpy, which is one of my favorite mediums now. Once I've got the right form, I boil them, sand them a bit,  and then paint them with acrylics. After I finish the other mouths, I will make my kid characters as well. Here are my sketches for the kids! They're kind of silly, but so is the story.

Meanie...

Rhodo the fairly cute fairy.

This is Ramona, the spunky one!

There's still so much work to do. I'll just have to keep chugging along at a steady pace. I'll try and post more of this as I go along. I love seeing it come together, and I hope others will, too.

That's it for me. Until next time! <(*-*<)

Munny for your thoughts?

*Phew*

I just finished up a very interesting quarter yesterday, and I feel as free as a bird! Overall, I got good feedback, and for that I'm thankful. I always get a little nervous when I put my stuff in front of the teachers (better known as our critique panel).

The one item I'm excited to share with the world is a little sculpture I worked on! Anyone heard of Munny dolls? Of course you have!- but just in case... Munny dolls are the adorable little (or very big depending on what size you order) vinyl toys that are like mini canvases. They're perfect for drawing, painting, and even sculpting on! On kidrobot's website (www.kidrobot.com), they're billed as DIY toys. They even made an appearance on the Martha Stewart Show! Yep, apparently, Rosie O' Donnell loves them.

They look like this when you get 'em, and there are other models, too!

Well, I saw one in a bookstore and bought it on a whim. Luckily at the same time, I was taking an acrylic painting class. Our teacher (Theo Rudnak! Look him up!) wanted us to experiment with something dimensional. Obviously, this chance encounter with the munny was fated, and I took it out of the box and started to imagine what it could be... 

I quickly decided that I wanted to sculpt my munny into a colossi type creature, inspired by the awesome bosses you fight in Shadow of the Colossus! After a little research into my subject (which consisted of pizza and about 5 hours of playing through some Shadow), material (super sculpy), and possible process (curing of clay, creating texture and what not), I got to sketching. I didn't want my colossi to be a replica of one from the game, but I wanted the inspiration to be clear, as if it was a piece of this already existing series.

My 2nd favorite colossi, Barba, and partly my inspiration for my doll.

So began my sculpy experiments. Super sculpy is actually pretty cool, and is easier to use than regular clay, in my opinion. Especially since it doesn't dry when you leave it out! The vinyl was too smooth to just stick the clay onto, so my first step was sanding the surface. After drawing my design onto the doll, I started rolling and pressing pieces of clay onto the face. I sculpted into these with my clay tools and even used random stuff like toothpicks or paintbrushes.

Ze super sculpy

My baby's face.

Slowly but surely, the face began to come together. As I was working on it, though, I realized I had not payed much attention to my reference. The stoniness of the face is more like a mask than just stone features, so I began to fill in certain areas I had missed.

I'm adding the rim around the eyes in this part!

The munny head shape is a little like monkey, so I decided it would be interesting to give it that push towards a primate face. There are a few colossi that are inspired by animals. I remember the bird colossi being especially cool. Anyways, I cut small slabs of clay that I put together carefully to create a squarish snout, which I then added nostrils to. 

His little club's laying in the background.

The face was the most difficult part, but once I got warmed up, it was easier to get into the body and arms. Those details were kept much simpler in order to let the face shine. I also added blocks of clay down the middle of his skull, sort of like a mohawk.

I'm finally DUNNY! Haha, that was bad...

I had a feeling that if I put this little dude in the oven, I'd be setting myself up for some serious heartbreak, so I looked up a different way to set the clay and found that boiling it was just as good! Just a minute or two for the thickest parts (less than half an inch) and it was all set! Then the even more nerve wracking part... the paint! I knew it wouldn't be enough to just paint it a stoney color, so I took a big bristle brush and dabbed this stuff called AcrylPro all over it. It's glue for ceramic tiles but it's the perfect consistency for adding interesting textures to smooth surfaces. I did two dabbed layers, getting a roughened texture that was more to my liking. Then I painted some watered down gesso on it. Let me say, it was very difficult getting the paint into all the little nooks in this thing.

Looking good, little guy!

Finally the paint. First was my base, kind of brownish gray. Then I took a funky sponge and stippled the bajeezus out of the munny. I mixed a few different grays so I could layer the stipples and have it look more organic, but I'd actually like to paint it again. I'm not quite satisfied with the color of it.

Dun dun DUN!

Here he is. In the end, I decided against any hairiness. I wasn't sure I'd be able to pull it off, so I stuck with what I knew I could. In the future, however, I'd love to try this exercise again and see how much I can improve on it. Oh, and I also forgot to picture him with his weapon. I should do that!

Well, that's it for me. 'Till next time! <(*-*<)

Resolution, part two...

It has been about a month since my last post, but I'm trying, I swear! I'm just a little forgetful is all. Well, today I wanted to share some doodles I've done for a pattern making class that I'm very excited about.

My series is called The Hunt and is based around traditional English fox hunting. I've decided to create a story around the characters I see taking part in this hunt: a chicken, a fox, a hound, and a hunter on his mount!

I have inked the first few and scanned them in so I can digitize them and make them into vector objects. For this project, I will be working in Illustrator. I'm familiar with the program but this class has opened up a host of possibilities.

fox prints

the rascally reynard

the plump hen

I'm not quite finished with all of my pattern elements, but so far I am liking the style. I can't wait to put everything together! So far I have ideas for a toile, damask, and a couple of stripes, but I need to mix it up. Throw a little toss in there or something.

nice colors

I love the shapes of the elements! So cool.

That's it for today. Until next time! <(*-*<)

A NEW new beginning!

SO! Here I am almost 6 months later with barely 5 posts to my name. What a travesty, so I've decided to make one of my new years resolution to do this blog thing more often.
There it is, out in the open. Now to deliver.

Lots of time (and projects) have passed this little blog by, so I'll put something up a few just to get started!

Serenity was the word I had in mind when working on her look.

Here I present an inked drawing of a character I worked. She is from the book John the Revelator, the mother of the main character John. I don't remember her name, though. Through the later parts of the story she is very sick and ends up dying. The last scene has her coming back as a ghost, almost like a rebirth.

This part really hit close to home, and I decided to draw her young, beautiful, and reborn (like she was in the end) instead of sad and sickly as she was portrayed in the last moments of her life. 

I also worked on the main character John and a sort of demon crow character that he dreams about throughout the story. My goal was to step away from the cute stuff I love (Hello Kitty) and try my hand at something grittier, darker.

Caw, muthuhflippahs!

Crows are imbued with interesting and dark characteristics that I tried to push and warp to create a creature that might be seen in someone's nightmares. The descriptions in the book weren't overly detailed, so I felt I could take a good deal of freedom with the crow. It's also a dream crow, so a lot of freaky things could be done! My favorite part is the bird's head.

"Oh, the places you'll go!" was the groups main inspiration

This piece was a group project, actually! My school buds Abbey and Michelle and I worked on this ad for Portfolio Center (our school)! It received positive reviews from teachers and students. It also got me thinking about a more signature style for my art, which is frustrating me to no end. OH! I got help from my friend Jamie with this ad, too! This truly was a nice collaboration.

All the pieces dropped into the blue space are different student's work. 

Well, that's it until next time! <(*-*<)

My Gift To Give

Today has been a pretty okay day!

My mom got my little bro and me up early to run some errands today. First the oil change, then to the fabric store to get some scraps for a quilt I'm making for a class this quarter (By the way... SO EXCITED!), and then my mom got a drug test! AH!!! I'm not kidding, though. She had to do it as part of the interview process for a job she wants, so it's cool. She's not addicted to anything. Except poppy seed muffins... uh-oh!

I wish I had Elaine's hair... :(

After getting home I finally finished this scratchboard kitty I'd been working one for about a month! Jeez, I know. It's not that I was having a really bad time with it... maybe it's just not the style for me? I made this kitty following a pattern. Actually, it's a little kit that is sold at Michael's stores. Pretty cheap, and it's always nice to try something new. Now that the cat is done, I'm going to ship it off to Mexico City. My cousin Gabriella loves cats, so I was thinking of her while scratching it out. (I'll probably do another, better one to make it up to her!) The one thing I will improve on the next time are my values. Especially in the body area!

Me-OUCH!

 I've also been decorating this little accordion book I got in a trash pile at my school. It's super cute, and it's handmade! Who would want to throw it away? I've decided that when I'm done, I'm going to give it to my Aunt Carmen. She's Gabriella's mom.

Their trash is MY treasure!

Ah, sounds so French!

I've drawn little vignettes and pasted some pressed flowers and leaves on each page. I also wrote a few things for her to keep her spirit up. She's been having a rough time with cancer, and I wanted her to feel loved. The book is mostly nonsensical and a little weird, but I hope she'll like it. Here are some pages from the book:

I got these clippings from a book in German, I think.

Ferdinand Lassalle in a Warhol kind of style. Green and purple suit him, I think.

It's kind of a bad habit of mine to give away the stuff I make all the time. Guess I need to take some good photos for my records and for this blog! It's decided then! My next big purchase shall be....

A DIGITAL CAMERA! <(*-*<)

My Precious!

It feels nice to be home after a not so long but tiring day. Last night was one of the worst sleeps I've ever had in my life. It wasn't even the storm! It's this dumb pain in my back that's been getting me lately... Darn my lower back!

Well today I stopped by a store that I've come to love in Atlanta called Sam Flax to get a sketchbook after my class today. I actually needed it FOR the class but was able to make due with an older one, so I'll have to move the sketches I did in class over to the new one. I decided to change it up and get a book with a horizontal orientation. It's not too big, but it'll do.

The new book! I think I'll name it Harry.

Harry's first words.

Our teacher, his name is Theo, told us that the concept work we do in the sketchbook will be a big part of our grade for the class. This at first made me nervous, but then I started to really think about it. Sometimes I don't feel like I sketch or doodle as much anymore, and this is a great chance to get back in the habit and also let loose. It's not just a class sketchbook but like an artist journal. I've already put a little doodle on the first page! It's the inaugural doodle!

Oh, no! There goes Tokyo! Oh, oh, Blob-ZILLA!

I always get super excited about a new sketchbook, but this one feels different. Maybe I'll post some pages up for people to see like the sketchbook project? -And since I've decided to doodle more often for fun, I have another little drawing to show. It's called "Starlight". I found this funky Japanese paper at Sam Flax for $1 and decided to get it.

By the way, I do like Muse and listen to their music a lot!

I wonder what tomorrow has in store?? <(*-*<)

Quest for Myself!

I am sitting at the dining table, scared out of my wits because a storm is a'brewin'. I'm sure the neighbor's outside dogs are more on edge than I am...

Well, I've been working on some homework for my first Monday class. It's called The Business of Illustration. Our first assignment is to create at least 10 thumbnails for our own personal logo which will go on our promotional material such as business cards and stationary! Jay, our teacher, said that we didn't have to feel constricted by the word logo. More than anything, he wanted a simple and readable image that represents us.

 Well, I thought this would be a cake walk, but it seems I don't know myself that well. I even wrote a list about ME. It's entitled Jessica: Who the hell is she, and what the hell is she all about?! I've got words on their like childish, carefree, and pudgy... After that, I decided to move on to the sketching step. For the first filled page, I took inspiration from my initials which are JAR! From there, I thought about how people catch fireflies in jars during the summer. Since I will most likely be a free lance artist, it made sense to have the firefly represent me and my ideas, what I can bring to the table for a client artistically. The jar and the act of being caught is like being hired. Hmm... It makes more sense in my head...

I even drew a funny little firefly with dinky little legs! She's even got long lashes like me!

I thought the lil' fireflies looked like mini Navis! Less annoying, though.

Jay also showed us some student examples where people put little self portraits. My mom thought it might be cute if I drew myself in the style of some characters I did recently for a comic strip, but all the characters are animals...

"What animal do you think I am, mom?" I ask her in Spanish.

"A bunny because you are so cute and fluffy!" she laughs, giving me a hug. I sigh... pudgy AND fluffy?

I admit that's not what I look like, but it's pretty close! <(*-*<)