Illustration and Protozoa

Above is my latest Illustration work. This was done with pen and ink then a watercolor wash was applied. With this work, I am not terribly satisfied, though the instructor seemed pleased. Well semi pleased, I used a color for the frame out of the tube and he wants us to do more mixing, and he would have been happier if I had used a different blue for the wall paper then I used for the background behind the image. By the way as a total aside I based this portrait on a photograph of my grandmother when she was 18. Since I believe she was born around 1880, that means the photo is over 100 years old. I did a much better job on her face in the pencil study then I did with the  ink version. Got some ink marks where I didn't want them, and working as small as we were all it takes is one or two marks out of place to make major changes to how a face looks.  Below is my pencil study, sorry it is so hard to see, lighting for the photography wasn't the best, and even though I have upped the contrast and brightness the quality of the photo isn't very good. It probably doesn't help that I added extra pencil lines when I was tracing the drawing down onto the water color paper.

 
A couple more comments about this work, I used hot pressed water color paper for the final work. What lovely paper that it, it has a lovely smooth finish so it takes the pen extremly well, I would say as well as bristol board does. I love britol board so you should realize that I really liked the hot pressed water color paper, except for the price. I didn't want to spend the money on a paper tablet so I purchased large sheets and cut the paper into quarters. The sheet was approximately 7.00, so each piece is worth over 1.50 don't want to make many mistakes with this paper. Still I think it was worth the cost. Also the yellow dots in the wall paper are done by painting on a resist to the background then painting the background color, when it dries you remove the resist (call frisket) and then paint in the small area color. If I were a better watercolorist  who could paint the background without streaks it would be hard to tell how I had painted the yellow dots.

My next two pictures are from my 3D design class. These are photos of my space sketch of my protozoa design. The instructor approved so I started cutting aluminum which is our building material for this project. I was almost the only student in the class to start doing so however. Many students didn't have their space sketch done, and even those who did have them done had issues that cause them to do some reworking. The cut aluminum is due for the next class so we can spend class time assembling the structure. It won't be this coming Tuesday as that is Veterans day and we don't have classes so I have till the following week to get my metal cut and made ready for assembly.  Had to buy lots of tool type things for this project, the hardest to find was a rivet gun, which we will be using to rivet the pieces together. I eventually found one, but I think I visited half dozen stores before I did.

I think it looks a bit strange but it was approved by the instructor so that is what counts in this class.

That's it for this week. I am still working on my poem design for Graphic Design, though that is probably due next week so I may have pictures of that for you then. In Illustration I have to do a bird/flower composition and that is due Monday. I am almost done with the 2nd mandala, and am beginning to feel the need to sew so who knows what my next personal project will be.

Per usual comments are welcome.