India Stephenson Art 204: Image Studio Spring 2014 Portfolio
“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see” - Edgar Degas
India Stephenson, Art 204, Spring 2014
Table of Contents 1
Character Development
2
Digital Storyboard
3
Personal Branding
4
Image as Type
5
Digital Surrealism
Character Development
Franklin the Friendly Shark
Through the process work of thumbnailing, refining drawings, vector building, and color explorations, this project focused on creating a developing a character in Adobe Illustrator. I worked with illustration styles, character design, typography, and color theory to create an identity for Franklin the Friendly Shark. He is inspired by Japanese Kawaii art meaning lovable, cute, and adorable. Although large in size and scary in appearance, he is just a friendly shark who wants to be a part of the gang.
India Stephenson, Art 204, Spring 2014
Character Development: Sheet completed in Adobe Illustrator
Thumbnail Ideas
Refined Positions
Color Exploration
Digital Storyboard
Friends Not Food
The goal of this project was to create graphics for a short story that could be developed into a 60-second animation. Using the character I designed in my character development project, I created other graphics in order to create a visual narrative. Through a process of sketching, thumbnailing, storyboarding, digitalizing, and vectorizing, I created a digital storyboard, or visual sequence, to portray how each scene should look and feel to a viewer. I used principles of design as well as multiple camera angles to give the sequences narrative significance. This storyboard “Friends Not Food� focuses on my previously developed character Franklin the Friendly Shark, who befriends a local surfer through a series of events. This piece is meant for both children and adults to inform them that sharks are not as dangerous, threatening, and deadly as our culture and the media portrays them to be.
India Stephenson, Art 204, Spring 2014
Digital Storyboard: Sequence created in Adobe Illustrator
Storyboard Sketches
Secondary Character
Friends, Not Food
Title Slide
Personal Branding
Logo and Business Card Design
This project focused on creating a personal brand for myself. It was meant to reflect my self-identity as well as the nature of my work. Through the process of logo design and business card design, I created a logo and business card that truly represent my identity as a person and as an artist. After some self-reflection and research, I sketched logo ideas and digitalized the concepts I liked. Because of my organizational and process driven mentality, I focused on a simple, yet timeless design. As a communications major I incorporated language and words into my design, inspired by a traditional dictionary. Through a color exploration, I chose colors that I felt best represented me due to my love of the ocean as well as my calm and relaxed mindset. Through this process, I worked to establish a personal brand for myself, and convey it through the design and creation of a logo and business card.
India Stephenson, Art 204, Spring 2014
Personal Branding: Business Card and Logo completed in Adobe Illustrator
Digitalized Concepts
Color Exploration
Finalized Logo Design
Image as Type
I Am Not a Nugget
This project focused on understanding and representing figure/ground relationships as well as using texture to enrich design by using image clippings to create a phrase of letters and words that exemplify a theme. My intention for this project was to make a statement regarding the relationship between physically seeing and eating animals. I formulated letters into the phrase “I AM NOT A NUGGET�. I chose to use images of chicken faces and the beautiful feathers on their bodies to give the chickens a more personable feel so that the viewer could easily identify that they too are living creatures. I chose to contrast this idea with the image of cooked chicken meat, much like that on the inside of a chicken nugget, to imply that these beautiful creatures are often killed and turned into such a visually unappealing meal. My goal for this piece was for the contrasting ideas in this work to effectively persuade the viewer to eat less meat. India Stephenson, Art 204, Spring 2014
Image as Type: Poster created in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator
Individual “N”
Individual “G”
Individual “T”
Digital Surrealism
If It Didn’t Come in a Carton, Would You Drink This?
This project focused on developing a surrealist concept and portraying it through a Photoshop composition. Movement was included to create a seamless, looping animation, portrayed through a GIF file that can be viewed in a browser. This piece focuses on how unnatural drinking milk is and plays on the idea that “humans are the only animals to drink another animal’s milk”. It juxtaposes two realities to create this unexpected image; one of milk coming from a cow’s udders, the other of a human drinking milk. I incorporated movement into the GIF file by animating a fly, flying annoyingly around the cow’s udders. Society tells us that we should drink milk because it is healthy, natural, and calcium-rich. This piece opposes that concept by giving the audience another view and suggests that instead it is strange, dirty, and unnatural.
India Stephenson, Art 204, Spring 2014
Digital Surrealism: GIF created in Adobe Photoshop
Fly in Motion 1
Fly in Motion 2
Fly in Motion 3
India Stephenson, Art 204, Spring 2014
Artist Statement
India Stephenson
As an artist, I have a desire to create effective pieces in order to get the viewer engaged and thinking. I have begun to focus on topics that I feel are pertinent and relevant to today’s society. I seek to create imagery that is effective and insightful in communicating a message. I hope to advocate for opposing ideas and provide thought provoking art. Through my work, I hope to change the audience’s views and opinions of what media tells us and challenge the way society attempts to shape us.
Designed By: India Stephenson indiastephenson@gmail.com (724) 787-4376