Narrative Illustration--Character/Background Project

After weeks of studying emotions, mood and character design, we were finally assigned to implement our unique character into a background to begin to tell a story (hence the Narrative Illustration course description). The background alone required several color studies and examination of lighting and additional research. The end product is what you see here.

Actually, the word "end" is a bit of a misnomer--this piece is technically still "under construction" as they say... but it's mostly finished.

Those of you who have in the past followed my cartoon blogs will hopefully recognize this character from my most-recent-yet-indefinitely-postponed Skum of the Universe. My current plan is to continue with a series of these Illustrations and implement them into said blog. It's the only way to get the character and his unresolved story out of my head.

gouache, prismacolor

Illustration 251 - Gouache painting

These were my first real attempts at painting. Some are more successful than others, but I'm happy overall with how everything turned out.

Silence and Cold Comfort

Peter the Pumpkin Eater

Health is Relative, or Food for Thought

Narcissus and His Echo

Cutting Loose

Book Illustrations, Fall/Winter 2008-2009

I was asked by the Second Counselor in my student ward at the time to do a series of drawings based off of childhood stories and experiences shared by his family, particularly between the mother and her children.

The majority of the work was done in Photoshop, actually during the same semester when I was first learning to use it. After a lot of late hours doing initial sketches, caricatures, layouts and scanning (not to mention the labor of staring at computer screens for unhealthy spans of time), these were the result.


They're far from perfect (i.e. note the awkward white spaces that were left for text), but they were a lot more than what I was asked to do initially... which in hindsight means I really just made the whole project difficult for myself for no real reason.

Foundations Course Work, Fall 2008

The following are some of my pieces created during last year's Freshman Foundations courses, including Two-Dimensional Design, Drawing, and Survey of Digital Technology.

This is actually an altered image taken from two
still life drawings layered on top of each other.

A poster design of a particular location of
some significance--I served half of my mission here.

A still life assignment using objects
that essentially form a "self-portrait."

If you speak French it's funnier...