Two pages from Calliope

The Brief
Examine two pages from Neil Gaiman's Sandman story Calliope. Read the script carefully and then interpret the story visually in the format of a graphic novel spread.

Illustration Outcome

Pencil Sketches

Inked and Lettered
Semester 2: Form and Object Studio with Gail Rogers Perazzo

Crow & Fox: re-discover wisdom through poetry

The Brief
Pick a children's story and illustrate it with 4 spreads, and design the book cover for it. The goal is to make the illustrations interesting for children, colourful and fun. The medium for the work is line and wash.

Illustration Outcome
I selected to illustrate a Russian fable that I memorized when I was a kid. It's called "Crow & Fox," and it explores the cunning power of flattery. Of course, I needed to translate it as well, which I did during my morning runs by trying out different lines in my head over and over again. I've also brought the fable to Aussie context, cause I am in Sydney after all, and I've used Snowgum trees as the setting.

Well, here it is, my creation.

How many times the world was told,
That flattery is cunning art,
But all in vein, and to the person's heart,
The flattery is solid gold.

One day, God sent the Crow a slice of cheese.

The Crow flew up a snowgum and picked a comfy stick.
Preparing to eat the cheese with pleasure.
But clever Fox too smelled delicious treasure.
She tracked the snowgum, and then thought up a trick.

The Fox spoke sweetly to the Crow,
"What beauty! If only you could also sing,
We would select you forest King!
Please sing for us, give us a show.

The Crow lost his head with such intoxication.
To be a King, now that's a worthy goal!
With all his might he made a loud "Caaaww..."
And cheese fell right into the Fox's teeth.

And here is the original Russian version, just for a good measure :)

ВОРОНА И ЛИСИЦА
Уж сколько раз твердили миру,
Что лесть гнусна, вредна; но только все не впрок,
И в сердце льстец всегда отыщет уголок.
Вороне где-то бог послал кусочек сыру;
На ель Ворона взгромоздясь,
Позавтракать было совсем уж собралась,
Да позадумалась, а сыр во рту держала.
На ту беду, Лиса близехонько бежала;
Вдруг сырный дух Лису остановил:
Лисица видит сыр, -
Лисицу сыр пленил,
Плутовка к дереву на цыпочках подходит;
Вертит хвостом, с Вороны глаз не сводит
И говорит так сладко, чуть дыша:
"Голубушка, как хороша!
Ну что за шейка, что за глазки!
Рассказывать, так, право, сказки!
Какие перышки! какой носок!
И, верно, ангельский быть должен голосок!
Спой, светик, не стыдись!
Что ежели, сестрица,
При красоте такой и петь ты мастерица,
Ведь ты б у нас была царь-птица!"
Вещуньина с похвал вскружилась голова,
От радости в зобу дыханье сперло, -
И на приветливы Лисицыны слова
Ворона каркнула во все воронье горло:
Сыр выпал - с ним была плутовка такова.

Semester 2: Form and Object Studio with Gail Rogers Perazzo

April: Inspirations & Observations

Welcome to the April issue of Inspirations & Observations. This is my monthly reflection on the 5 things this month that inspired me, and 5 things that were cheesy, ineffective or just plain boring.

Inspirations

1. The illustration and collage work of Eric Carle
   
   
   
2. Veerle's Blog: http://veerle.duoh.com/. She has some amazing and beautiful tutorials.
   
   
   
3. Mystwood self-contained accommodations. It's called Mystwood for a reason, look at this magical morning fog...We spent 4 days there with the quiet stillness of Nature. It was one of the most inspiring experiences.
   
   
   
4. Alice movie by Jan Svankmajer. I've blogged it earlier this month in the collection of animation techniques, but it's just really really amazing work.
   
   
   
   
5. The gloss!!! I am talking here about the Web 2.0 craze that makes graphics on screen look shiny. I know it's overused, but it's fun and sometimes it does have place. There are many tutorials and way to do it. Here is the tutorial I used referred to by Good Tutorials site:
   
   
   

Observations

It seems that this month few visual bothers jumped at my sight. My eyes must have been wide-open with awe and inspiration, and it's been more of the soul-searching work. Hence, I'll list personal internal challenges that came this month:

1. Confidence, or lack of it, sometimes cripples my creative flow...although an event recently occurred that made me decide that I will always believe in myself from now on. I got High Distinction on my recent assignment, and I remember having many doubts about it before.
   
2. City noise has been especially prominent this month. Perhaps my time at Mystwood has created a standard to compare with, and I am craving the peace and quiet.
   
3. Feeling that I don't have enough technical skills with CS4 suite, while everyone else is a whiz. I know it's an illusion, and I just need to keep working at it until proficiency is reached.
   
4. Time. How do I get all the assignments done, and still have time to relax and enjoy!?
   
5. And finally, I found one visual disturbance on a Pizza box from my beloved Reggio Pizzeria. Look at that kerning between P and i!
   
   
   

Previous months

• March: Observations & Inspirations
  
• February: Observations & Inspirations
• January: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Wolf - texture & line

The Brief
Working from a B&W photo with high contrast, we were to re-create the image and mainly the texture of the animal using technical pens. I used a set of four Staedtler pigment liners sized 0.1 mm, 0.3 mm, 0.5 mm and 0.7 mm respectively.

Rendering Outcome
After about 8 hours over a period of 2 days, I produced this drawing.


I am happy with the way it came out, and most importantly I enjoyed the process. A lot.

After about 10-15 mins you go into a zone where only lines and marks exist. It's like a form of meditation, when the mind is quiet and only shapes matter.

Semester 2: Form and Object Studio with Gail Rogers Perazzo

Russian folk tale illustration

Tale of Swan Geese
also known as "Gusi Lebedi", Гуси Лебеди

Getting is touch with my roots... this is what this assignment was about. As designers, we have to tap into our unique backgrounds and characters to produce something new, personal and satisfying for clients and ourselves.

To create this tale illustration, we had to look into the history of our ancestors and select a folk tale to be re-told using 6 illustrations. Each illustration used a different medium, which I list under the each illustration. The first is a symbol from Russian Art style called "Hohloma" and I rendered it using gouache paints. This symbol (or its parts) will subsequently appear in all illustrations, see if you can spot it ;)

Gouache on watercolor paper

The Story
"Zhili bili..." that's the classic beginning of a Russian tale, which literally translates to "There lived, there existed". So let's stay true to the traditions and start with that.

There lived, there existed a grandma and grandpa with two small grandchildren. The young boy was named Ivanushka, and his older sister was called Alenushka. One day they were playing outside of the house, when mean birds called "swangeese" came and stole the little Ivanushka!

Watercolor on watercolor paper

Desperately Alenushka tried to catch the birds, but they were long gone. Worried, she set out on a journey to find her brother. As she walked, she met a River of Milk.
"Alenushka, have some of my delicious milk," said the River.
"No way, my Daddy has yummier milk." And she went on.

Later she came across an Apple Tree and a Baking Oven. Each offered her their gifts, but Alenushka just turned her nose away and said that her Daddy has better.

Acrylic on watercolor paper

And so she went on... Towards the end of the day, Alenushka came across a House on Chicken Legs, where Baba Yaga lives. She was terribly scared, but she loved her brother very much, and she she went in. Ivanushka was sitting in a pot ready to be cooked (!!!), while Baba Yaga was organizing her spices.

Alenushka felt a small tickle on her leg, and she saw a little mouse speaking to her.
"Alenushka, give me some of your bread, and I'll distract Baba Yaga so you can escape!"
This sounded like a fine deal, and Alenushka shared her bread with the little mouse. In this moment, Alenush learned a very important lesson of sharing and gratitude. Without waisting a moment, she grabbed Ivanushka by the hand, and ran out of the house.

Collage and acrylic on watercolor paper

Again the brother and sister came across the River, the Apple Tree and the Baking Oven. However, this time they accepted their gifts and said "Thank You." In appreciation of their kindness, the River, the Apple Tree and the Baking Over hid the kids from the chasing birds.

Collage and typography on watercolor paper

When the kids arrived home safely, their parents were very happy to see them. They huged and kissed the children, who learned a very important lesson that day.

Typography print on scanned watercolor texture

Semester 1: Design Culture and Theory taught by Annette Lodge

Gutenberg pictorial essay

The Brief
Write and design a 700 word pictorial essay on two to three A3 pages on any historical character, typographical innovation or significant technological development during the period starting with the Cave drawings to the period of Art Nouveau.

Design Outcome
I have chosen Johann Gutenberg. The pictorial essay pages were created in the style of Gutenberg's beloved and infinitely magnificent achievement of "Gutenberg Bible."

The old paper texture was created using a piece of A4 cartridge paper and a cotton ball soaked in coffee :) After the paper dried, I ironed it to get the waves out and scanned it in. I then used Photoshop to blow up the image to A3 size.

The floral illustrations were rendered using gouache and color pencils. The font used for the body text is Goudy Text.



View body copy of the essay in a separate post

Semester 1: Peter McGill, Language and Systems of Communication

Atalanta and Hippomenes

Part 1: Myth Illustration

The brief asked us to pick a scene from one of the Greek Myths and create an illustration for that scene using at least 2 human figures in action poses, and employing principles of perspective.

I have selected a scene from the story of Atalanta and Hippomenes. The illustration portraits the race between Atalanta and Hipomenes, which decides whether Hipomenes lives or dies, and whether Atalanta gets to know the taste of intimacy. The viewer is positioned in front of the running figures with the road fading into the distance. I felt that this position makes the biggest impact on the viewer, and conveys the intensity and swiftness of the race.

pencil modello

When producing the illustration, my main challenges included deciding on the postures and composition, and then actually getting the figures on paper. Since my composition includes figures running forward, the drawing involved foreshortening and overlapping of masses, which seemed unnatural during sketching, but after stepping away looked realistic. It was also challenging to use the black pen, since the only mark you get from it is black or white, no grey.

Atalanta and Hippomenes illustration (black pen)

The biggest aid in producing the illustration was the use of reference photos. After creating a rough composition, I found numerous images of the items I wanted to depict. I have combined them one by one in the pencil modello, studying each portion in detail. When the time came to doing the final illustration, it was a relatively straightforward process of transferring the shapes and tone from modello to the pen illustration.

Part 2: Written assignment

Relevance Of Traditional Image Creation Techniques On Contemporary Multimedia And Graphic Design

Before an artist can fly, he or she needs to master the skill of walking. Learning the fundamental techniques of image creation is now more important than ever to the digital artists, since it allows them to apply this knowledge to the world of pixels.

The rise of modern technology had caused many young artists to explore the realms of digital image creation. Programs, such as Photoshop and Corel Painter, made it possible to produce dazzling on-screen artworks, with quickness and precision of the computer, yet with human touch of the creator. There are also many online communities, for example Deviant Art, where aspiring artists share their digital works with the world, and stand a chance at being noticed.

In order to shine among the many, these upcoming artists need to solidify their core drawing and image creations skills. They now realize that the best place to learn is from the people who have done this many times, before the computers entered the scene. All of a sudden, Andrew Loomis has become popular and necessary again, and the traditional knowledge base has mixed with the present.

Semester 1: Design Culture and Theory, taught by David Briggs

Cartoon for a definite great mood

No matter what the day is like - the creative juices are flowing or missing that friendly pat on the back - there is a cartoon that is sure to put me in a great mood. Send it to someone you love and make them smile too :-)

This is one of my all-time favourite cartoons. Yes, it's in Russian, but the whole dialogue consists of
"Is that for me?"
"For you"
"For what?"
"Just because!"

It's completely hand-drawn (it was probably born about same time I was, hehe), and it's just oozing with love and kindness. I think kindness will save the worlds. Seriously.

Enjoy some of the screen shots of this beautiful cartoon.