Illustration+Print+Motion
HELLO BRANDON
MY NAME IS
For the past four years of my life, I have dedicated my time to the study of Graphisc Design and Illustration. My hope is to combine the two and create a successful identity/
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stlye for myself. Illustration was my first love. As a child I admired people like Stan Lee and Dave Gibbons. My ideal career would be to work as a character designer
for Pixar one day. As of the moment, I am a student, Intern, skater, coffee addict, cadet in the rebel alliance and musician. The following are examples of my work over the past
four years. Some, I’ve grown to love, others, not so much. This is a guide, a walk-through the past four years of my life. Enjoy.
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THE PROCESS OF ILLUSTRATION
Some say that the process of an illustration can be more interesting than the final product. I have a collection of process books from different movies that I have enjoyed. A recent purchase was for the movie Avatar. It is always interesting to see what characters or atmosphere’s could have been. Here is just some of the process I have investigated in over the past couple of years.
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The characters depicted here were for a comic book series in which we were to explore the different costume opportunities for ous characters. Eventually we took these thumbs and explored them in a more detailed version.
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These facial features were to practive the depth and expressions of the human face. The darker thumbnails were to explore the methods of tenebrism, which has very high contrast in values. We were also to explore the different facial features of the students in the classroom to apply them to our character. Eventually this led to our understanding of archetypes and how the facial features of a character can lead the viewer to believe which character is the hero, villain, bastard, librarian and so on.w
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CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT When approaching characters, one can not avoid the possibility of influence from other illustrators. It seems almost impossible to create anything truly original. In my personal experience I have been influenced by many styles. What I have noticed is that you should not dwell on what style you have, but what you enjoy doing. It does not matter if the character has Mickey Mouse hands or a Ren and Stimpy butts, the character
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the character you created is your character. As long as it came from your mind and your hand. From the advice of a wise old man, just don’t draw Mickey Mouse. The characters shown here are a reflection of who I have grown to be over the past couple of years. I have studied many illustrators, I have grown and I believe that my breakthrough is coming very soon. Here’s to that day.
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CHARA CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: VARIOUS CLASSES
ACTER DEVELOPMENT: VARIOUS CLASSES
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COLOR EXPERIMENTS Before we start to work on a piece, it is always good to do exercises. Practice makes perfect. If hands are shaky and we make the wrong mark on an illustration, it is not always forgiving. Clients will not appreciate mistakes.
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COLOR TESTS: VARIOUS CLASSES
COLOR TESTS: VARIOUS CLASSES
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COLOR TESTS: VARIOUS CLASSES
THE FINAL
PIECE
Can the final piece be the most imortant part of the process? Where do we draw the line of what mistakes can be made? How much give is there in a piece? Where is the line between art and design? The question that plagues our minds every day. What boundaries do we set ourselves? The answer will never come. My mindset is to quick thinking about it. If it becomes art, the it becomes art. If it becomes design, it becomes design. My process can vary from each project, it all depends on the limits of the project. If I feel limited, then my process becomes rebellious. If it is wide open I hang loose and do the things I like to do. It feels as though at the beginning of my illustration studies, I was trying so hard to fit in that I lost myself. So, afeter realizing that, I became extremely rebellious and
only wanted to do something that would make the heads turn. Being influenced so much, style-wise, by the graffiti culture, it is my responsibility to be this way. The final piece represents the journey that you took to get to that final step. Everything you have done since that point should reflect on the final piece. This book has been a frustration for me, meaning I had a problem showing people that journey. I could not get over the fact that none of this work is who I am. Only in the last semster do I feel like I am really breaking free of this burden of self-doubt. I still don’t feel as though I produced a single piece that showed people what I can
do, or even what my style is. I feel that way because of that phrase, what is art and what is design? My idea of illustration was to please the client. To me, the feeling of self-satisfaction to a piece is more important than whether or not you can draw an Allan Lee cover or not. I’m going to consider this point right now to be the start of my new self. This is where I actually pursue my own identity, Everything before this is to be forgotten.
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MUSIC SCORE: ILLUSTRATION II
MUSIC SCORE: ILLUSTRATION II
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AVATAR: ILLUSTRATION II
LIMERICK
This is a style that I had been using for my personal artwork for the past couple of years. It never occurred to me that it could translate into this class until recently.
LIMERICK: ILLUSTRATION III
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LIMERICK PT:2 21
Ox plays hard rock, he plays it alot, almost everyday. He plays it so hard that when he takes charge, he gets dizzy and loses his sight.
LIMERICK PT.2: ILLUSTRATION III
MUSIC SCORE:PT 2
This one was a hard one for me. I felt very held back in this project, I would get tired of the story line which could be my own fault. Splitting up a song into three frames was the hardest part. But I am happy with what came out of this project. I really love the colors in this piece.
MUSIC SCORE PT.2: ILLUSTRATION II
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AVATAR: ILLUSTRATION III
REVISIT
AN OLD FRIEND: AIRBRUSH ILLUSTRATION
The best part of this project was the feeling that you were creating these characters that you had held so close to yourself as a child. My friend drew a version of a Ninja Turtle and it was awesome. It was empowering to know that we were capable of accomplishing this task. Airbrish was a fun, fun class.
REVISIT AN OLD FRIEND: AIRBRUSH ILLUSTRATION
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