Watercolor Experiments

Water color for me is a very difficult thing to figure out - I had a few points of advice from Don Duga - keep your paper and brush wet - and remember the shading technique - the wetter the brush the lighter the color - Im not sure I have figured it out yet. Perhaps this is where the mistakes began - I started with a colored pencil base - it was a good method for roughing out what I wanted - Then I added the watercolor washes - it filled in all the gaps - keeping in mind the light source - finally I added ink - its a cowards way out of water-coloring - with patience in mind, I plan to some day figure out the proper methods.

Malibu High Logo Designs and Demographics

Here are some designs I made for Malibu High. It was a certain challenge for me to think like this - having never done so before. The challenge was to design something kid friendly but also make something adults would wear - I had to stay under 4 colors - and I had to think like the beach. I had many designs - these were the picks. It was difficult to figure out a flow and pattern to them all - In the back of my head I had to think of placement and style - The demographic element to design is very difficult to get the hang of - its either hit or miss - I think these turned out well. I hope they like them.
*Update - Some shots of the product -

Developing Ideas

A simple sketch is never enough anymore - you have to present something new and fresh - something that is going to open some eyes - so it started as a simple sketch of a woodland creature - I colored it a new color - unlike its natural "expected" color - it seemed too boring - so I began to build on the idea - add a background - develope the background a bit more - creating something with a little interest - putting in some color - then cutting it to a workable size - I have noticed many kids books are square - so I made this image square - the text would co-exist on the illustration itself - If I were to try it again I would adjust the size to at least make that interesting.

Tenniel Inspired Drawings

These drawings were for a short film pitch.
I started with a rough then overlayed a detailed piece. 2 sizes of pens give the piece different looks - It is likely Tenniel used something like a crow quill - which is far more difficult to control - so you get some more organic lines and splatters if you have the control.

After many many revisions - these are the final designs. They are cartoony but offer the exaggerated realness that is common of Tenniel. The difficulties were keeping that delicate balance while doing as the client asked and thought was corre. The other difficulty was thinking below the costume of the characters - the texture and crosshatching must suggest the shape of the character.

I was also asked to create backgrounds for the project. We ran into some problems with communication so the backgrounds had to halt - but these are some of the roughs from the designs.