Well, a few days of rest and relaxation for midterm has come to a close and that, of course, means back to work! I've been getting slack in my blogging, but luckily, I have plenty to share! Let us first begin with what became of Mr. Lincoln's illustration shall we?
I was happy with how the gouache rendering of Abe himself turned out. The tremendous size of this illustration literally killed my white and purple tubes of paint. For inexplicable reasons, the color was altered on the actual printed version, and this troubles me. I fixed the color in Photoshop accordingly, and it looked fine on the computer screen . . . and I ended up with varying shades of blue instead of purple. Humph, I say. Oh, and just to clarify (coughRustycough) good ole Honest Abe is listening to Southern rock. Let the funnies commence!
Now, the next project we have here is the "Five" project. That's the only rule, that. Five, demonstrated in some illustrated way. My original intention was to still use the Little Prince theme, but I was going to show the lessons the Prince takes from each planet he visits. Unfortunately, there were six planets and strange grandes personnes, and I couldn't really combine any of them. So, I decided to metaphorically represent the success to a fulfilled life using the Little Prince and his closest encounters. The five most important representations are 1. The individual itself (the Prince leaving his home planet), 2. The challenges one faces in life (the baobab trees consuming the second planet), 3. The parent (the pilot), 4. The best friend (the fox), and 5. The lover (the rose). It's rather abstract, but that book touches me so much that the idea just stuck and wouldn't leave my head. Fortunately for me, this illustration only had to be 13 X19, so that meant less painting, but a lot more problem solving when it came to scaling my drawing size down. Drawing II conditioned me to not be small and intricate with my drawings. I now find it difficult to draw tiny pieces.
Next, we have the color comps for the following project, life and death. Once again, I think I am letting my imagination run a little too far from the literal. I had three ideas that were inspired by my favorite poet and author. The first was taken from the Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. Life is depicted as Paloma, an extremely insightful and intelligent little girl who has figured all of life out and realized that is all a sick hoax, really. She plans to kill herself on her 13th birthday, just because she sees no point in living what she understands as pointless in the end. However, she meets the mysterious concierge Renee, who seems to be a dumpy, dull-witted worker by day, when secretly, she is a brilliant woman and a lover of film, art, literature, and culture. Just as Renee is revealing her true self for the first time, no longer acting like the little hedgehog she is, she meets an untimely death, and inspired by her, Paloma decides to live in her honor . . . and decides there is more to life than she had figured out. Life was drawn here as Paloma, and the little hedgehog was supposed to represent death.
The next ideas were inspired by Billy Collin's poems, The Death of a Hat and The Death of Allegory. Throughout history, gentlemen have worn hats. They told everything about a man, from his status to his personal spirit. But such traditions are long gone. For the most part, if men do not go bare-headed, they wear ball caps . . . good and well, but not nearly as passionate and beautiful. The next was much harder to explain in a drawing. The first piece is supposed to be a medieval drop cap of say, Chastity, represented in something grander than itself. The other is simply a razor in an ashtray (Collin's own example) of an ordinary object symbolistic of nothing more than itself. Life and death . . . life and death.
My plan is to rework the hat comp over for Wednesday, just cuz it's my favorite, other than Hedgehog. That one, I'm afraid, is just too dependent on context. No one would get it if they have not read the book. But the suits me just fine. I'm enjoying these projects! Stay tuned for more, if you so feel inclined! Haha!
Cheers! Love to all, and goodnight!
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| iAbe |
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| Le Petit Prince's Guide to Life (Five Project) |
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| Life and Death: Paloma and the hedgehog |
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| Life and death: hats |
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| Life and death: Allegory Chaucer: "Right, well, it was allegorical." Roland: "Well, we won't hold that against you. That's for every man for himself to decide." --A Knight's Tale |
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