Greyscale studies of the Macbeth set project

The assignment: Imagine Tim Burton has contacted you to create a set for his rendition of Macbeth or A Midsummer Night's Dream.

I really should have picked the latter, Macbeth is really stretching me. It doesn't help I had to speed read it. Guy and ambitious wife murder the King of Scotland and numerous other people because they're hungry for power. Ultimately, they are killed as well. There are dead bodies everywhere, and they don't sit still until Macbeth is off the throne.

Shakespeare had zombies. Really. Macbeth's friend, Banquo, is murdered by a hired hitman, and although his body was dumped in a ditch, it doesn't stay in the ditch. It moves around, and the sun takes the next few weeks off, all to prove how unnatural it is for Macbeth to kill the king and take the throne.

His wife is the scary one. Macbeth is a bit wishy-washy, but his wife keeps him on task, like a terrifying personal trainer, killing people who could take the throne from Macbeth.

And this whole mess started because 3 witches decided to spread a little gossip. This play is dark and depressing and I am so frustrated because everything I make looks...just wimpy.

Some sketches

One of the assignments is to sketch every single day. This...is that thing. I like to draw from reference more than on my own, or it has to be inspired by something.

Dad told me about how China has this problem Japan started having a while ago. There's a surplus of men, and the women are getting more educated and independent. They don't want to marry/don't need to marry. The population will probably decline, I heard this happens in Russia too. People don't settle down as much as they did in the past, and the population is also in decline. 

It's really interesting to me, because I'm heading the same direction.

Reference photo at verticalizando. Oil pastel! I dunno how to use that stuff, so I just jumped into it. I always get better results when I don't read directions on these things.

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It's a SHOE.

Fancypants Strokes

You know the paintbrush icon with all the fancy little strokes you can use to outline your things? Instead of having a flat line, you could have dots or arrows or any little flourishes you want as long as it's found in Adobe Illustrator's library?

That's not enough. You want  more.

You can make more.

I didn't say it would be very good. Does the pupil look like a cat to you?

The Abstract Emotions of Macbeth

Problem: select a few adjectives for the scene you want to design for Tim Burton's rendition of Macbeth and create an abstract image based on one or two of them. If you want to know what I was going for, but otherwise try to guess it. If you get it right, tell me. If you don't, stay quiet so you don't hurt my feelings, we good? 

The words were: spacious and vulnerable

An Exercise in Abstraction

Problem: Visually depict the word "delighted" without using representational art. 5 minutes. (I am more embarrassed than usual about my post today...)

But hey, I did a few things well. The pastel color choices help lend themselves to feeling happy. (I'm trying to make myself feel better.)

The First Actual Big Project in This Class

The problem: Pretend the Tolkein foundation contacted you to create a road sign for the Lord of the Rings universe.

Enjoy, nerds. It's cute, right? <3 We've all been recommended to email this to Peter Jackson, or whoever we can get a hold of who works under him. There's a Cal State Fullerton student working in that company now, who knows?

Wednesday, July 17

We learned how to make eyes in illustrator. Basically we played with the pen tool and the different gradient tools.

I learned how to put a copyright on my work today

Bam.

The Fun of Week One

I'm sorry, I'm not a poet.

But this piece above was inspired by poetry and an extremely short time-limit. 

We've also been studying how signs are made. I hope you can tell what this guy is doing. This exercise is all leading up to making a street sign for the Lord of the Rings universe.

This just hurt. Only squares are allowed--make a Little Red Riding Hood as fast as you can. It could pass as an 80s gameboy game, right?

Anyway, see you next week, hopefully a marked improvement will be evident.

Dear bloggers and readers

I want you all to know...

I check this too often.
And hi, Russia.
...I'll delete this post when I have something better to put on, yes?

The Initial Post of This Blog

There were some things here that are no longer important.