Twisted Rapunzel Book Illustration

For my book illustration class, we were asked to re-invent a public domain story, I chose Rapunzel. here are some of the original concept ideas as well as a piece from the version I chose.

Swing dancing Skeletons

My first piece for my book arts class revolving around alliteration.

"Sophistocated Skeletons Skillfully Swing dancing"

Inked traditinally, colored digitally.

Pop up!

What a busy weekend! but here it is! An "autobiographical" popup card. Most little girls stick to the "I want to be a princess" phase. Me? Sure, I wanted to be a princess, but many many other things too. Like a pirate! Yes, I went through a pirate phase. So here is a depiction of the "make believe pirate world" of little Kate.



This is the cover of the card, done in colored pencil.and here's the back of the card, papercut and colored pencil.

and the inside! Also cut paper and colored pencil.

Papercut opposites

An assignment involving opposites, mine were hope and despair. Here's my first pass at it. I haven't done a paper cut assignment before, but I think I may try and pursue it in the future.
Also, I believe I've met my "drawing monsters quota" for a while....maybe.

Editorial and Fortune Cookie

This was a quick editorial assignment based upon an article discussing polygamy


This assignment was based off a fortune cookie fortune, I thought it turned out pretty adorable!

Nature Conservancy Calendar

The first assignment for my summer illustration class. We were asked to design a calendar with a nonprofit organization in mind as a client. I chose the Nature Conservancy and completed a series of acrylic paintings highlighting environments from around the world and animals that live in that given area that function as a group.
Landscapes painted in acrylic, completed digitally.

Handletters Blog Banner

Each student in my Handletters class had to propose a design for the class blog's banner. The letters were inked traditionally and the remainder was done digitally.

Fruit Letters

This was for my Handletters class, we were asked to make an alphabet entirely out of fruit. Mine were painted with acrylic.

Words on Wheels

My school contributes in an annual project called "Words on Wheels." It is a collaboration between MICA art students and local elementary schools from the Baltimore area. The MICA students design a banner for poetry done by the elementary school students to be displayed upon in public transit buses. In my class, we not only had to design the artwork in the poster, but also the typography that the poem should be in as well. Art: Done in acrylic, Text: ink with digital manipulation.

Zodiac Bugs!

For my Illustration class we were asked to create several spot illustrations and a half page illustration for a hypothetical magazine (selecting 5 zodiac signs). I was given the category of Children's Magazines. This inspired me to use colored pencils as a medium and to pursue a nature/educational theme that was still fun and full of color. I selected the theme of bugs to represent each sign chosen based upon personality traits In keeping with the notion of being educational, I tried to remain as true to the insect/bug's actual anatomy while stylizing them just enough to be appropriate for a young audience.

Saggitarius: the Mantis, independent, strong, goal seeking and wise but sometimes unemotional. I also felt that they appeared very centaur-like, which is often associated with their symbol, the archer.

Leo: The Butterfly, proud, confident, a leader although sometimes vain.

Gemini: Lightning Bugs, full of energy, sporadic and often mischievous.

Cancer: The caterpillar, often puts on a tough exterior, but truly have soft heart.

Aquarius: The Dragonfly, witty, intellectual, and wise, sometimes snarky, sarcastic characters.
Virgo: The Queen Aunt, pure, nurturing and motherly, although very opinionated, fussy organized and often overly analytical.

Valentine's Assignment

The following were for an assignment for my Illustration class which asked us to choose from a series of "do's and don't's." The ones I selected were as follows:

"Do: make her a home-made Valentine"

"Don't: do 'guy stuff'"

When You Serve a Pig Ham.

This assignment involved doing a spot illustration for a selected magazine (mine was a food magazine) that used a combination of sound words. My words were "Clink, Oink, and Wham!" This was completed in acrylics.

China's Flight

A concept piece for commission. I was asked to do a series of concept sketches and a few digital works for a novel that may potentially be published. This was one of my first digital paintings, and I'm still quite fond of it.

The High Violets Poster

I was given the assignment to re-design a band poster for a musical group we were randomly given. I was given "The High Violets" a "dream rock" indie sort of group. This was the design I came up with. Originally painted with Acrylic, touched up in Photoshop.

Exquisite Corpse

This Illustration assignment sprung from a game of "exquisite corpse," where the players each draw a section of an animal or character (head, torso or legs) without knowing the appearance of the other sections. The end result: some really strange looking characters. These are three of such characters put together into one illustration using pen and ink and some ink washes as well.

School Editorial

An editorial illustration for an article that focused on the over-crowding of elementary schools in Baltimore City. Inked traditionally with pen.

Practical Joke

This piece was inked traditionally and colored digitally. The subject matter was left open as long as it illustrated "a practical joke" and utilized a primary color scheme.

An Accident Waiting to Happen

This piece was inked traditionally and colored digitally. The subject matter was left open as long as it illustrated "an accident waiting to happen" and utilized a color scheme where the foreground and background were separated by warm and cool tones. I chose a cool pallet for my background and offset my foreground with warmer tones.

Book Cover

For this assignment, I was asked to redesign a cover for a book of our choice. My selection was that of an old R.L. Stine book "Aliens at Work" in which a young man stumbles upon a toolbox left by aliens. In tampering with some of the tools inside, a great deal of mysterious and sometimes terrifying things happen to him. The event I chose to illustrate was the instance in which one of the tools begins to give the protagonist a third arm.

This piece was done digitally and generally keyed to burnt umber. I have posted here two different versions of this project. The second shows a few adjustments made to the initial piece. There are elements that I like of each. The colors in the first I feel were stronger, but the second piece improved upon some compositional errors in the first piece. However, in altering the colors for print, I feel it does not look as strong in terms of color on screen.

Crime Scene

My first painting of the semester for Narrative Color. We were asked to illustrate a "crime scene," which was open to interpretation. The only requirement was that we do this piece strictly from life and not use the human figure.