Ghost Writer

So, for the last piece I did before sending my portfolio off to The Art-Dept, I decided to do something a little different. Stephanie from The Art-Dept had mentioned how much she liked the postcards I did for TFA, and how she would like more of that showing up in my portfolio. I personally was really unhappy with those designs mainly just because of the lack of...anything, really. It was pretty simple line and color. So I decided to give some of the technical ideas I was working with on the postcards another shot.


- Pretty cut and dry, a typewriter with a little bit of splattered ink for effect. The postcards I had previously done were entirely done with a wacom. I decided I would try and replicate wacom line with ink. Needless to say, this was a bitch to draw.


- I drew these distorted disembodied arms and the "shadow" of the type writer on the back of the piece of paper (I moved them around on photoshop because I didn't like the original placement). The arms were fun to do, drybrushing and liquid mask...something I haven't done in a while.


- laying the images on top of each other was a little tricky because of the key/finger placement.


- Let's ignore the arms and shadow for a while. I just started coloring the typewriter how I normally would, each color on a separate layer etc.

- I was actually pretty pleased with the cell-shading and thought that maybe it could stand on its own like that. But I wanted to try something new with it.


- Instead of doing over all gradients, I layered gradients within the selections of each individual coloring. Pushing and pulling in and out of the foreground, and adding a bit more form to it. You might have to view the whole image to really see what I am talking about. I have heard this is super easy in illustrator...unfortunately, I have had little time to even pick up the book I bought.


- I then did overall gradients on top of what I had already done, like I normally would do. I basically only layer gradients that are brown, yellow, or red.


- Then drop the arms and shadow back in. I went into the arms and added more colors and gradients just to flush them out a bit and not make them look TOO flat (though I do want them to look flat).


- I added a little texture, messed with saturation and layer opacity a little. My main goals here were to make an image a little more design based, with not all organic shapes, and keep the background white. It ended up pretty good.

Now all I have to do is reformat and resize every single image I have done in the last few years and zip them up and send them over. I am hoping Stephanie will do a little bit of subtraction for me, because I am always terrible at selecting work to show.

Doing this image was a huge pain for one reason alone...It meant that I had to stop playing Nintendo. After going to every game store and walmart in every small town between st louis and bloomington indiana on monday, I ended up getting a Wii off of craigslist a few nights ago. Handed a guy a wad of cash in a library parking lot and was at home swinging my arm around like an idiot in no time. I got three games with it (part of the deal); Zelda, Red Steel, and Call of Duty 3. I have heard Red Steel is crap, so I might just sell it before I even try it out. Call of Duty I have heard is pretty decent....but I just cant do war games anymore, my Medal of Honor days are over..but we'll see. And then there is Zelda, mother fucking Zelda. I have been playing it in small stints in fear of becoming too engrossed and never leaving the couch or getting any work done....I'm not very far yet, but that's just fine with me. I also "downloaded" Super Mario 64, a game I have been wanting to play since I stupidly asked for a playstation instead of an nintendo 64 for Christmas of 96.

Winter has finally come to Saint Louis, the weather is pretty fucking miserable and apparently we are getting a ton of snow tonight. Rachel might be off of work early, which would be nice. Who knows how our tiny little front wheel drive car is going to handle this crap.