Here are the posters for Armin Mühsam’s show – Narratives of Inevitability.

Here is my final portfolio for Illustration (Fall 2011).

I’ll start of talking about the Society of Illustrators poster. (Top Left). I started this poster originally wanting to do watercolor washes inside heavy black line drawings. After an incredible amount of attempts, i realized i wasn’t able to achieve the quality i was looking for in watercolor. I wouldn’t say it was “impossible” but it definitely wasn’t happening for me. So i went to a digital drawing to make a new marker comp, and really started liking what was going on. By using different brushes, and different pressures on the Wacom tablet, i was able to start blending those colors and strokes the way i had envisioned before with the water colors. That makes this piece 100% digital, washes, line art and all. It went through a couple of revisions, mostly to clean up the line qualities and such. It was challenging because the print out size is so large; for me that meant that every detail was really obvious when printed out, that wasn’t necessarily apparent when i was looking at it on screen.

Second piece is the World Record illustration (Top Right). I struggled with this one for a long time. Developing a good concept for embodying the “World’s Largest Screwdriver” was tough, and though i’m not 100% sure i chose the right way, i do think this illustration is at the very least really fun to look at. This piece is gouache and sharpie, with some photoshop manipulation in the planes. The concept (if you can’t tell) is King Kong on top of the Empire State building holding the world’s largest screwdriver. I was actually very pleased with the illustration of Kong, the brush strokes in his fur and body, and the facial line art. the addition of the planes really were necessary to try and further convey that this is King Kong, and not just a gorilla. The color choices work out really nicely here, the yellow complimenting the purples and blues nicely. I think those background splashes are what really save the stark white background.

My third piece is for the Native American Heritage Month. This is a poster that also contains typesetting and a logo for the Missouri Arts Council. This illustration was done in three parts. One layer of the illustration is a gouache painting of  a horse, the next layer is an ink wash of the teal background. The third layer is the type, done in In Design. I chose to do the ink wash and the horse in a dramatic contrast with the black to really snap attention to the poster. This is a 2-color job, so i chose an aqua for the pantone, and made sure that the black lent a dark quality to contrast with the lighter aspects. I struggled with this layout a lot. I like where it’s at now, but i still could see where things might be laid out better. The type is good, and is balanced with the surrounding illustration.

My last piece is for a classical cd cover. This piece was done using a watercolor wash and a vector graphic. I chose to keep the canvas pristine white, so that the colors in the splash would really stand out. I did consider putting them onto a black background, and someday i might still go back to that idea, but for the vector graphic cutting through the splashes, i really thought the white was better here. I chose Kinderszenen for it’s playful tone, and so decided the cover art should be three things: 1) visually stunning and noticeable from any distance 2) playful and childlike and 3) competent in conveying suggestions of music. I think i’ve met all three of my goals. The colors are mostly primary and fun, the graphic definitely conveys a sense of music (and also a sense of childhood with the young figure playing the piano) and no matter what size or distance, the watercolor definitely pops quite well.

Alright, here’s a go at the very first layout. This is spanning across two pages, and is meant to give the feel of King Kong holding the world’s largest screwdriver.

However, i think this one accomplishes that task a lot better. I really like the splatters outside of his figural lines, i think it gives a sense of depth and attention to that white background, as well as highlighting some action for the angles of his arms. I’m not sure if this is portfolio quality, but i am happy with the outcome.

oh, thanks Shelby-cat.

here’s my first draft.

here’s my final!