More sketchbook creations

Pencil Line Art

Final inked image plus freckles.

SCA266: Short Stories Book Cover: Rough Concepts

So our final assignment for our Photography class is to build a cover for a short story. We had a set list of stories to choose from, I chose "Greasy Lake". The story is about 3 friends who travel to Greasy Lake as their hangout looking for trouble (drugs, sex, alcohol etc). However, they run into real trouble after one of their friends gets in a brawl with a biker.

With both designs, I went with a vignette effect. I find that it helps focus the viewer towards the focal point of the design. The first cover I went with a black and white and an accent colour. The red type and the blood on the hand against a black and white background will really jump out at the reader and grab their attention. The bloody hand relates to the brawl one of the characters gets in. The hand is not mine, it's there just strictly as a mock up for the real composition.

Cover Design 1

Cover Design 2

When I got the bulk of this design done, I got the "movie poster" vibe with this one, so I went with it. Added a blue hue to the picture and the vignette to make the image look more eerie and ominous. The shooting location was a pond area in my neighbourhood right next to a shopping centre. It had heavy tree cover and murky, dirty water, so I knew right away that this location would be the best place to shoot my pictures.

GRA230: Typography Book cover

For this assignment, we were to design a book cover for a novel from a selected list. I chose the book 'Slaughterhouse 5'. It's a story about a U.S. soldier who gets captured by German soldiers and imprisoned in a disused slaughter titled "Slaughterhouse 5". Synopsis here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughterhouse-Five

We had to design 5 covers as rough concepts and then choose the best design and refine it as our final cover.

Initial designs:

Final Concept:

I like the Stencil typeface because it reminds me of the way military units would mark crates for rations, medicine and weapons, given the fact that this book is set during WW2, I figured that typeface would be appropriate. The deep red is a very eye-catching colour, it shows the aggressive, gory nature of the book. The red to black gradient symbolizes the "out of body" experiences the main character has during the story; believing he travels backwards and forwards in time, jumping to all these different scenes including being abducted by aliens to a docile, post-war lifestyle.

More sketchbook creations

Now that I have 2 and half weeks off before the start of my next semester, expect more drawings over the coming days and weeks.

An Alien character I got from the book "Awesome Things to Draw". It's primarily geared towards children's book illustrations, but it's still a good way to be introduced to drawing all kinds of things from animals, dinosaurs, monsters and vehicles. I've done some drawings from this book before: http://graemethedigitalmediaartist.blogspot.ca/2011/10/even-more-drawing-practice-from-book.html

http://graemethedigitalmediaartist.blogspot.ca/2011/10/more-drawing-practice-from-book-awesome.html

http://graemethedigitalmediaartist.blogspot.ca/2011/09/oh-my-god-its-ufo.html

http://graemethedigitalmediaartist.blogspot.ca/2011/09/vector-sports-car.html

A concept car that I found in a book titled "Start Your Engines" and it was created by Scott Robertson. The book is full of concept cars, tanks, bikes and even boats. Really cool book, lots of inspiration to be had. Will definitely try a few more of these sketches before I head back to school.

Polar Bear illustration from the same book as the Alien drawing

Sketch Book creations

Now that I have 2 and half weeks off before the start of next semester, there will be a lot more of these to come.

GRA170: Book Binding

These 2 book binding assignments were by far, the most challenging and unique projects I've ever taken on. I never thought I would actually build books like these two. The tools used, especially the for the screw post book, were very interesting to use. In order to punch holes through for the screw post book, you had to use a tool that's like a hole puncher on steroids and then you have to whack the top of it with a rubber mallet so the holes get punched through.

After these assignments, I'm far more appreciative and a little less ignorant about the art of book binding. Definitely two assignments that will stick with me for awhile.

Stitched book using a needle and thread

Screw post book

Poetry Book

Project for my Gen Ed course EAC519: Spoken Word Workshop. My title draws inspiration from the Rise Against album "The Sufferer and the Witness"

More sketchbook creations

my attempted drawing of Ken Block's Ford Fiesta featured in one of his Gymkhana videos. There are a ton of decals on his actual car that'll I'll trace in once the car itself is digitized in Illustrator.

Roy Lichtenstein

On the botton is a piece by Roy Lichtenstein titled "Crak" on the top is my drawing loosely based on Lichtenstein's work. This assignment was done in my Art History class in my Art Fundamentals program when we were studying the different movements of fine art i.e. Pop Art, Surrealism etc.