NAPKIN SKETCH

This is a sketch I did last night. On top is the forecasted floor plan of my dorm room next year. (A friend of mine is currently staying in the same room, so I'm aware of the dimensions and layout.) On the bottom is a quick detail sketch of the room as seen from the south end facing north. I struggled with accurately drawing the portion of the wall that slants up to the ceiling. Below the floor plan, I attempted to draw a better representation of what it looks like.
Sketch was done with flair pen on a paper towel.


Personal side note: My roommate and I are extremely excited to move into our new room, even though it won't be until August. It's 12'x18' which gives us tons of open floor space, as we bunk our beds. Our current room is pretty big, too, at 10'x16'. I can't wait to see what we end up doing with the room.

PERSONAL WORK

Within the past few days, I've had some newly-found inspiration. As a result, I've been drawing in my sketchbook a lot more. Below are a few samples of what I've been working on. All drawings have been done in felt-tip flair pen.

The above photo is a combination of two separate sketches. On the right is the first sketch that I did while looking at a reference photo of a cow skull. The skull on the right was done partially from memory while occasionally checking back with the first completed sketch. I combined the scans of these drawings in Photoshop where I also added the color.

   

I've become rather fond of drawing redwoods, though I'm not sure why. Perhaps it's because I can do them fairly quickly, and can sketch the trees in a variety of states. (The right tree looks full and healthy while the center one is a bit sparse.)

Finally, I've been hooked on drawing deer antlers. I've found that I'm much better at sketching them in a more stylized manner like I did for the bottom set (which are not a prime example of how they typically look.) I struggled a bit with the top set of antlers, and I believe it's because I attempted to get a more three-dimensional feeling by curving them forward, as they would naturally. Were I to use pencils instead of my flair pen, I could probably get a more realistic shape (and sense of dimension.)

TESSELLATION

The above tessellation is the first one that I made in Photoshop. It's my personal favorite, as it has a more radial pattern, and there is a greater sense of circular movement. It is also simpler than the other tessellation (below), which was the second image that I created. In the second tessellation, I think that my grid is too visible, which may be due to size of each repeated piece. 

Were I to do a similar recreation, I think I would also attempt to have the edges of each piece better mimic the curved lines within, instead of the jagged line which I used. I also feel like I should have experimented more with color. (These two images make it pretty clear what my favorite color is at the moment.)

To create these tessellations, I found photos of Romanesque architecture online, cropped them down, and distorted them until they were largely unrecognizable. Then, for my first tessellation, I placed an image in one quadrant of the canvas, and rotated it 90 degrees clockwise for each quadrant in a clockwise order. With the second tessellation, I erased parts of the photos and merged six of them into one tile. I then made a jagged cut along one vertical edge, and moved it over to its parallel edge, and then repeated this with the horizontal edges. After I completed this step, I used InDesign to place the pieces so that they fit together.

Overall, I enjoyed this project, because I am very familiar with Photoshop, and found that I could experiment with it more simply because I do have a solid background with the program. This knowledge especially came in handy while working with numerous layers.

PALOUSE SKETCH

I struggled with this project in the beginning because it was the first time I worked in Adobe Illustrator and my first experience using a tablet. I found Illustrator a bit difficult to work with because there are many aspects of it that are similar to Photoshop, yet they work a little bit differently. Eventually, however, I did adjust to the differences, and was able to apply my knowledge of Photoshop to Illustrator to produce a piece that I find acceptable. 

I had trouble with the truck for a while, as I couldn't get a solid color. After playing around with it, however, I found that I could use a layer underneath to provide a solid rust-color. I particularly like the brush that I used and the way that the trees in the background turned out. For the sky, I would have preferred a more solid color with softer variations. I find it to be too streaky. I would also like to have used a different brush for the grass.

Overall, I would say that this was a successful first experience with using Illustrator.