Communication Arts

Officially entered my work to the Communication Arts Annual.

Communication Arts Entry

The size, shape, and content of this assignment is entirely up to you, but should be thoughtfully conceived as a submission for the Communication Arts Illustration Competition.  Choose something you’d love to illustrate, but also something that is ambitious.  Don’t just pick a subject you already do on auto pilot or that’s too easy.  Challenge yourself, but stick to techniques and methods with which you are familiar or at least feel that you can master easily.  Take a look at Communication Arts Illustration Annuals and specifically, at past winners.  Visit their blogs and websites to see how their usual work compares to the pieces they submitted.  This can be one image or a series of images.  The entry fee for a single image is $35 and the fee is $70 for a series.

I'm really fond of series of images that really have no concept behind them other than I thought it would be fun. This particular series is just that, fun. Simply, Popping nasty zits. 

Create 8 spot illustrations, each with an intended print size of about 3x3" (vignettes are fine), but executed at twice that size. The illustrations are two-color, so you have black, white and a color of your choice to work with. The subject of the spots is to be taken from Group A. The metaphorical device used to communicate that subject is to be selected from Group B. You can only use a given device once.

           Greed-Juxtaposition             Fear-Shadows              Revolution-Sequence           Isolation-Cityscape

                Love-Hands                 The Devine-Still Life        Leadership-Animals               Aging-Interior

Lettering Studies

As a professional working with designers, it is important for an Illustrator to understand formal typography. However, illustrator's may also use distinctly informal illustrated letterforms as a powerful element in their drawings. The following exercise is intended to open the illustrator to some non-typographic approaches to letterforms, and begin a wider visual investigation of words.

Negative Space
Using the brushes provided and the same page of letterforms as the previous exercise, draw out the words, this time filling in the negative space, so that you have white letters surrounded by black ink:
Blind
Eyes
Trace

Blind Contour
Looking at the attached page —not your drawing—create blind-contour versions of each of the words, emulating the fonts in which they are presented:
Blind
Eyes
Trace

Bread
Using the slices of bread provided, create the following words:
[Your Name]
Bread
Dough
Xerox your letterforms, and place the Xeroxes in your sketchbook.

 Bugs

Cut apart the provided images of insects, and create one of the following words:ThoraxMandibleCarapaceYou may wish to make additional copies of the provided pages before cutting them up.

Using two of the lettering approaches from today's exercise, plus two of your own invention, create four cards. Each card should contain a single word, at least four letters long, and an image of an object executed in a manner that is visually compatible with the letters. The content of the cards is entirely up to you, although you are encouraged to consider interesting juxtapositions and resonances between your words and card. The print size for each card is 4"x6", and the cards may be black and white. 

Generating topics

Start by choosing one of your six topics.  Next, decide what images help communicate your topic.  Is it Animal Liberation?  Can you take a photo of an animal in a cage, a photo of a revolutionary fist in the air, and finally a photo of the empty cage?  Do those images arranged in that order communicate the idea of animal liberation?  Maybe!  You may photograph two to three objects for each of your six topics.  These photos may be from a camera phone as long as they are clear.  Absolutely no Google images are allowed.  The images should be of just the object—any background or secondary elements should be de-emphasized. Do not make scenes, or juxtapositions within a single image.  It is preferred that they be composited in Photoshop, cropped down to 3”x3” squares, and each topic grouped together on its own 8.5x11 sheet of paper.  They may be color or black and white. Remind me to draw an example on the board.

None of these are too conceptual but the first topic was "Stepping up to the call". It fell under things going on in the world that I like. A friend of mine who has always had so much potential but never took advantage of it recently stood up and became a marine. The series of photos represents him going from being a goofy boy, to a determined, respectable man.  

This one is one of my passions, Tattoos. I don't do them myself but it's an art form that fascinates me. So this series is simply the process of me getting one of my favorite works on my arm.

This is about the fad of bath salts after the "Zombie" attack on the homeless man in Florida by the Man who was high on Bath salts. So the images are just a fun representation of the decision and consequence of taking the drug.  

This on is still comical but is a tad more serious. It's referring to the current trend of celebrating teen pregnancy by MTV and other sources of pop culture. It simply says, "Oh you're pregnant? Heres a check. Go you!"

Silhouettes

Silhouettes

In your sketchbook, draw, in ink, 40 silhouettes of objects that are immediately recognizable. Select the fifteen you think are most interesting, and retrace them as pencil outlines. Now, draw completely different objects inside of them, making them conform to the silhouettes. For instance, if you drew the silhouette of an octopus, you might fill in the form as a flower, or a man with an unruly beard, or a dancer trailing ribbons, and so on. Strive for interesting resonances or contrasts between the "interior" images and the silhouettes. Can you create meaning by juxtaposing the silhouette with the interior image?

Select your three best silhouette/interior images, and execute them as finished, color images. Size should be approximately 8x10", and you may use any media you would like except digital.

Circles

One Hundred Circles
In your sketchbook draw one hundred 2” or 3” circles in pencil.  Color in these circles, using a different color for each of the one hundred circles.  Try to avoid repeats.  Using strong black lines (either a magic marker or brush and ink), add linear elements to these circles to make each circle into a different recognizable image.  Do not limit yourself to images that lend themselves to objects such as baseballs, planets, or balloons.  Think outside the box…or circle.