Project 3: design a book cover

For this project we had the option of creating a book or c.d. Cover. I chose a book cover and I decided to create my own book idea about my dog chip.  I used all my own photographs to work from. I scanned several watercolor washes I had done then used those images to create my illustrations.

Front cover character illustrations....

Front cover without title...

Backcover without type....

After creating this font for the front cover, I wasn't sure how much I like it any more... So I ended up using Hasty Pudding and filling the text with a watercolor wash.

last minute changes...

Project 2: Digital Collage/Contemporary Topic

Project 2 is a digital collage that discusses or tells a story about a contemporary topic. Some people chose topics such as recycling, or obesity, but I chose acid rain. Right away I had an idea, but first, I had to do some research.  Through my research I found that acid rain occurs when there are higher amounts of nitric and sulfuric acids in the atmosphere (wet and/or dry deposition), and when the gases react in the atmosphere with water, oxygen, and other chemicals. Acid rain mostly occurs in a higher altitude.  Acid rain doesn't kill plant life, but it takes the nutrients out of the dirt that the plants needs, and can cause a future threat to forest productivity.  Acid rain can also corrode metals and deteriorate stone and paint on buildings, cultural objects, and cars.  The corrosion seriously depreciates the objects value to society.

For the project I used several of my own photographs, and a few I found on the internet.  I used all of my own Italy pictures and found on-line tutorials on making rain, and creating a paint splatter/dripping affect.  

This is what I originally started off with... and as you can see I didn't make a lot of changes, just several improvements...

Revised Image...

Week 1: Everyday Objects

So I just started a new Saturday class at COD - a Digital Illustration 1 class and even though a blog isn't required I grew rather fondly of the idea of documenting class projects. Needless to say I'll be discussing my progress during this class. Part of this class is to create a digital sketchbook, essentially taking photographs of various topics to keep on file for future use.

The first project for this class was to collect several found objects that coincide with a theme. Arrange those objects on a scanner bed and scan the items. Once a good scan is taken, import the image into PhotoShop to manipulate the photo. During this process I have learned a lot about Photoshop. Apparently while in eraser mode if you hit 'x' it inverts the eraser and adds to the selected area. 

Here are the stages of the project up till now - starting at the original scanned, then slowly editing, finally spending several hours but not quite finished yet....