FInal Portfolio

The following are the items I feel sum up my illustration year. I found myself sharpening my skills particularly in water color. I used this as my main media for creating illustrations.



My last Illustration for Illustration class ended up being my favorite. I have always been a fan of critters which is why I feel my peacock is strong. I used a variety of brushes to accomplish the different textures i needed to make between the thin feathers, and the smoothness of the beak.



I choose this montage because i enjoy the pick out method i used on the cheshire cat, and the corset.



This is the one and only water color of a person I am going to put in here. I have struggled with this throughout the semester and feel as though I was able to capture loose features while maintaining her bone structure. I went with a light blue back round which gave a nice contrast between her shirt making her as the subject pop.



I chose to put the life and death project in my portfolio because I enjoyed the concept which I feel led to a strong illustration. I used similar layouts, one that led into the other. I like this combination because i used colored pencil to add a texture. Through this project I learned the benefits of adding two different media together.



I'm putting this food montage in my portfolio because i like the overall composition. I enjoy the vertical layout and the color pallet. While working with negative space i made the cereal clusters, also giving them a crispy looking texture.



I chose to put my cold corn illustration because it is my only cartoon illustration that I enjoy. I used three different media in this illustration. I used pen, water color and colored pencil.



This martini glass is part of a number 11 project. This was my second revision, which I feel shows I know when to redo a project. I particularly enjoy this water color because I was able to use implied line to give a fragile effect.



I chose this flower picture mainly because of the back round. I liked the free flow of the wet on wet technique. The bright blue and pink/red also show a strong color pallet.

Thank you for looking at my blog. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed the class!

SOI round 1

For the Sociey of Illustrators I decided to water color a ballerina. I wanted a sense of movement but will redo because her arms are giving me a world of trouble.

World Peace rev 2

I decided for this rev to use a free hand effect on the peace sign rather than complicated stripes. The world shape isn't quite circular giving some breathing forgiveness to detail.

World Peace

This is my first rev of the cheesy airbrush. I choose to symbolize world peace. My contact paper mask bled through while I was trying to create stripes.

3 image montage

I decided to give this montage a food theme. I found some buttons that have witty sayings about eating more and paired it with bowls of cereal.

Life and Death

These are my final life and death watercolors. After putting them next to each other the chairs don't line up how I would like them to. My final blog version will have a revised death chair.

Lincoln Final

I decided to paint my lincoln final in mostly water color and i added subtle details with colored pencil. After my first critique it was suggested I use darker features and add more stars to the flag.

Life and Death

For life and death project I decided to go with a girl in a chair and an empty chair. I'm trying to imply the girl never making it home and leaving it up to the viewer as to where she might be. However the name of the project explains it all.

Memory Portrait 2

This is round two redo of the memory portrait . I think i perfected some features better, but her face is like line work structure I would like her to have.

Memory Portrait

The memory portrait asked us to paint a portrait of a family member from memory. I decided to paint my cousin margaret. She's very girly and loves to wear bows in her hair. I decided to do a traditional portrait style water color and capture her light skin features and wavy hair.

Number 11

This project called for a subtle hint to the number 11. I decided to use a martini glass with two stirring straws. I used water and water color paper to create a loose back round and implied line for the structured glass. I found it difficult to illustrate a transparent surface, however i also found that water color was the most flexible in allowing me to create a glassy gradient.

Barn Door Water Color

For my post card I decided to use water color paper and water color paint with line art on top. I used a grid to create the rectangular pattern for the doors. I used a thin tip sharpie to add line art. Unfortunately I wasn't able to achieve a wood grain look on the barn doors. I will probably go in another time and and detail with a finer point micron pen.

Barn Door Comp

This assignment called for a 4X6 postcard representing our home state. I am from missouri so decided to a grid of different barn doors and patterns.

MID TERM BLOG!!!!!!!!!!

I hope you enjoy my blog! I came up with these five images based on different technique, subject matter and stages of learning. Thank you for looking at my projects I KNOW you will enjoy them I specifically put in a little birdie at the bottom if the rest of my blog fails your expectations!



I was excited about choosing this truck image for my portfolio since thus far it has been my favorite project in illustration. Thanks to our favorite Terry I was able to put some of his techniques to good use. For the wheat back I used multiple tones of yellow and brown and avoided structure and blending to create a nice gold. After that was dry I added in line work to create an implied wheat field. The imagery I was working with was a rusty truck, which I was able to use a wet on wet technique to move color around giving a spontaneous rust stains. I also enjoyed using the transparency effect to create a fairly realistic window on the side, front and back windows.


I chose my round 2 of the three image montage mainly because I felt I had a great improvement from the last 3 image montage I painted. For the woman's lingerie I painted the whole thing a navy blue and then went in to pick out the lace- up detail. To give it texture l later went in with a thin brush and added details. On my cheshire cat I had some struggles picking out the teeth but over all I feel as if i was able to perfect his creepy smile. I used multiple purples and greys for the cat and picked out the fur detail. After I achieved that I went in to add more details by using light browns and darker purples to make the fur appearance more effective.



I chose this lily for my portfolio particularly because I like the back round. I think the contrast between such a strong red and blue makes the flower really pop. This is another early exercise that I was able to experiment with multiple color palettes which led to me perfecting this one. After I let the original form dry i was able to go back in and add detail to the petals, while using a wet on dry technique.



Here is an early water color from our 10 image of whatever we would like exercise. I particularly like this water color because I was able to work with fluid shapes and values while working with a structured image. Because this is a smaller image and had less importance than our larger scale projects i was also able to play around with splatter effect, giving the stilettos an edgy look an creating movement.



I chose to put this cardinal water color in because i enjoy the wet on dry technique. By blocking in an overall shape and letting it dry i was able to go over the bird with a thin brush and and make directional lines implying feathers.

Montage 2

After being told that our montage's were of poor quality (to put it nicely) my class was required to go for round 2 of the three image montage. Luckily this time we didn't need a comp. I choose to combine a dominatrix, cheshire cat and prescription pills. I decided to go for a more tainted theme since i had a more vibrant theme for the previous montage.

Montage 1

My first try at the pick out method did not go as well as I had hoped. I learned from choosing a tennis shoe, lady gaga and balloons that picking out textures is very important. When dealing with smooth surfaces the pick out method although possible, is not ideal. Since I was having problems I decided to go for a more graphic approach. by using implied lines and layers darker colors rather than taking out

20X30 watercolor

For my 20 X 30 watercolor I decided to paint a truck. I choose to use a close up with a wheat back round. Do get the rusty texture I use the wet on wet technique and had the color drip down the board. I also used multiple layers of water color for the wheat and then went over it with thin brushstrokes to imply movement in the back round.

Montage Comp

Our next project is a gouche pick out medium. The assignment required us to choose three pictures that don't relate and combine them in a three picture montage. I choose to use a picture of a tennis shoe, balloons and lady gaga.

Product and Newspaper

These are the final water color and line drawings. The gatorade water color was enhanced by line art to give it a more graphic feel. I used a sharpie to do the suggestive and simple line work on the Bellagio Hotel. I decided to keep that drawing simple since its purpose is to be printed on newsprint.

Initial Comps

The next assignment I have has two parts. The first part is a black and white line illustration for a recent news article we've read. I chose to illustrate the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. This will be a tightly rendered illustration using different width markers and implied line technique. The next part to our assignment is to choose i product and create a color illustration. I am currently working on a Gatorade bottle, but have a feeling I am going to change my subject matter.

Multiple of One Subject

This project called for taking one picture and creating 10 water colors to experiment with color and scale. The objective of these exercises is to make us think out side of the box and work with composition as well as variations in color palette.

Water Color Exercise

Here are some water color exercises I have been working on. We are assigned 10 a night, and I choose my favorites to blog. In these exercises I used various techniques: splatter, subtraction method, wet on dry, dry on wet. I also choose various different subject matter to experiment with texture.

Yellow Fish Wash

This assignment called for us to mix a water color wash with our previous 8.5X11 ink drawing. I choose yellow for the body of the fish and contrasted it with a red-orange backround.

For this assignment we were told to use line art to create 10 drawing of objects we see everyday. I choose mostly metallic or plastic objects to avoid to difficult of a texture. This allowed me to really experiment with line weight and strokes. Coming soon will be a larger drawing of two objects chosen by my professor.