more of "The Alchemist's Heart"

Here are a few more selected drawings from "The Alchemist's Heart." Hopefully I will have some images of the final book to post shortly! There are a lot more images than this, but these are my few favorites.  I didn't get to spend as much time on these as I would like to, but I think they still turned out pretty nicely considering! Thank you, art school, for forcing me to draw quickly!

busy busy busy!

Wow, I feel like this week my hand might as well be glued to a pen! (or wacom!) Besides sketching a lot at work, I have been illustrating a story written by Andy for his friend who is binding it all together for a bookbinding class project! Here are a few of the drawings so far... eventually I will hopefully have pictures of it all put together as a book! I like how this is turning out, its been a while since I have drawn in anything other than sketchbook pro!

Alphabeastiary-Bush Dai-Dai

My submission for the letter B on Alphabeastiary: the Bush Dai-Dai.

This obscure monster hails from the jungles of Guyana in South America and has its roots in Caribbean folklore.

The Bush Dai Dai will take the form of a beautiful woman and appear to travelers or in miner’s camps, and seduce a weak man she might take a fancy to. After having her way with the unfortunate she will change into a wild animal and eat her victim as they sleep. She is a mixture of the succubus myth with a dash of werewolf thrown in for good measure.

Alphabeastiary: Angha

Alphabeastiary is a bi-weekly art challenge blog that I will be contributing to! Each week, a new mythical creature is posted and we are to submit our original takes on the creature. Eventually, we will make it through the whole alphabet! The first creature is an Angha, which has the head of a dog, feet of a lion, and peacock tail and wings.

Here is my submission! Check out the rest of the blog for other cool entries!

sloth

a doodle for a friend.

Today's project: Comic Book Coasters

I got a new table that is wood, so therefore, I needed coasters!  Someone gave me a bunch of old comic books, so I went through them, found some cool panels, and decoupaged them to cork board to make my own coasters!  I think they turned out pretty cool...but the mod podge kinda wrinkled the paper more than I would have liked. I think I will look for a new technique next time...maybe I will make more!

A detail I like...the front and back side are from the same panel, just different parts of the image.

this guy is cold.

I am not cold.  Still about 80-90 degrees here in Atlanta...though it feels a lot cooler than it has been!

just for fun.

Some recent work

Been getting into watercolor lately...having a lot of fun with it!  Also seem to be into bunnies lately....

opposites attract

something I have been working on for a friend.  not sure if it will go anywhere after this, but I think its pretty cute...and a clever idea (I did not come up with it, he did!)

Hello from Atlanta!

I am all moved down to Atlanta now, and have completed my first week at my new job!  So far I am liking everything a lot...my apartment, the city, the people, my job....So I think its all going to work out pretty well.

Here is a doodle of a couple of faces that are polar opposites....

Trylvia - Wagon Wheel Cover

Well folks, tomorrow I am headed down south to move into my new apartment, start my new job, and enter the REAL WORLD, as they say. Last week, Tracy and I made this Trylvia video to commemorate the event, and send me off in true Southern fashion.

See ya'll in ATL!

a few doodles...

Wow! What a week!

This week has been one of the biggest and most exciting weeks of my life, and its not even over yet!

Tuesday I had my last critique of my college career.  It went over really well, the critiquers were really impressed with my work!  Here is a picture of my final set up:

Last night was the IDSA Professional Night, where local professionals came to look at the work and hand out three awards to the top three projects.  I was so surprised and excited to learn that I was awarded the gold!  Congrats also to Ed Mangum and Chad Hodge for winning Bronze and Silver.

For those of you who don't know much about my project, it is called Bloomlife and it consists of a line of products and services for the burial of cremated remains.  This includes a burial urn, memorial seed packets, and a burial plot where the seeds can be planted.  I will probably post nicer photos later.

If you would like to see the process book for the project, click here!

Now, onto graduation (tomorrow!) and then moving to Atlanta!  I can hardly believe it!

For those of you in the Cincy area, DAAPworks is up today from 9-9, and then from 12-2 tomorrow!  There is a ton of amazing work from all of the graduating seniors on display, definitely worth checking out!

Up up and away!

A sketch for a friend!

Sherlock Holmes

Finally got around to watching Sherlock Holmes tonight....and then proceeded to sketch him.  LOVE the costumes Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law wore...sometimes, I really wish that men wore coats like this today.  Nice to take a break from the thesis and sketch something fun.

sketch

A little sketch I did during "survey of film" class that I kind of liked. We watched Easy Rider, which is quite an interesting film. I mean, check out Jack Nicholson in this clip...

Trylvia: Passion Pit's Sleepyhead

Tracy and I made another music video. Check it out!

Thesis Development

Midterm Thesis crit was today, so it is full steam ahead for the next three weeks! Click HERE to view my presentation.

Things I Like #1: Handwritten Elements

Loving the use of handwritten typography in everything from packaging to stationary and illustration...

Father's Day Cards by Rifle Paper Co.

Men's Skincare Packaging by Michael K Chapman

Everything is Great/Everything Sucks by Jim Tierney

My Video for Professional Development Class

Who is Sylvia Spencer? What does she design? What is she all about?

Just watch the video.... :)

Click HERE to watch!

Posted using ShareThis

doodle

This is the kind of thing that usually ends up on the page when I sit down to sketch products.

Clearly, it is not a product. Heh!

Trylvia: OK Go's This Too Shall Pass

Tracy and I made a music video! Check it out! We had a lot of fun doing it and hopefully we will have another for you soon....

Thesis Concepts Take 2

Here is a link to a PDF of storyboards of the two concepts I have narrowed down to for thesis...

Download HERE!

Let me know what you think if you take a look...I am trying to narrow down to one concept so I can start refining ASAP!

sketch dump!

Various sketches I have done lately, mostly during class or meetings. I can't resist doodling!!

Thesis Progress

Today (in hopefully the next 45 minutes or so) I will be presenting some initial concept work for my thesis. I am still looking at the growing rate of cremation and how funeral homes can still make the same amount of money as they did on burials. I am looking specifically now at the future of the cemetery and making it a place that people might actually WANT to go to (I mean, to visit. Well, I guess to be buried there as well! But not immediately..) So here are some initial concepts and thoughts...

UC ID Seniors 2010

For our capstone show, our class has split into various committees to organize, plan, and promote the event. I joined the graphics team and we are responsible for designing all posters, t-shirts, giveaways, and designing a book of all of our work. Here is a poster design idea to show to the class tomorrow.

Egg Saucers-Happy Easter!

A few things to talk about today...

First, spring is here! So it was time to change the blog banner to a more spring theme...although here in Cincy it has felt a lot more like summer than spring!

Secondly, please go see How to Train Your Dragon. It is simply amazing. You won't regret it...my favorite animated movie since Bolt. I might even like it MORE than Bolt!

And thirdly, aren't these egg saucers adorable!? Imagine showing off your beautiful dyed eggs in them!

Check out the other products at yoyo ceramics...quite beautiful!

Becoming a young professional...

Its Monday...
Originally uploaded by kennymatic

Tomorrow is my first ever full time job interview! And while I will not be wearing a Storm Trooper outfit, I will be wearing some sweet new threads I got last week.

I have spent the day readying all of my materials, reading up on Kids II, and doing overall research... and I have to say, I am pretty excited!

Atlanta, here I come! Wish me luck!

Canada's graphic identity

I have been visiting Canada the past few days with some of my best girlfriends, and it has been a great time! One of the things that always strikes me about Canada is the overwhelming presence of the maple leaf...

At first I thought that this was due to the extreme national pride that most Canadians seem to embody. Don't get me wrong, I think that this is definitely part of it. But when I look at the actual ways that the maple leaf symbol is used, I think that it is just a much easier symbol to integrate into a graphic identity. Red white and blue stripes and stars are a lot more to handle...probably the best recent use of the American flag is the Obama logo.

Do you think if America had a symbol closer in comparison to the maple leaf that it would be seen more often in branding?

Thesis Proposal

Last Friday we presented our thesis topics for our class and a few faculty. I got really good feedback from my presentation and everyone is excited to see what I come up with. Take a look at my proposal, if you like!!

Click here to download!

Sometimes I think I am crazy for choosing this topic, but I feel like there are SO MANY opportunities, and it is a very emotional problem, which I also like.

In other news, the new Gorillaz CD, Plastic Beach, is A-MAZING. Check out the video for their first single, Stylo...

They did an amazing job transposing the characters to 3D without losing any of the character of the hand drawn style. Usually, I think that some of the character of the original designs are lost in translation when going from 2D to 3D. Example: the concept art for How to Train Your Dragon that I posted last week. After watching the trailer for the movie, I don't think the 3D characters have the same quality as the hand drawn designs.

Way to go, Gorillaz animation team!

How To Train Your Dragon concept art

REALLY inspiring video of concept art from Dreamworks's upcoming film, How To Train Your Dragon.

On a side note, here is a little teaser of something I am working on for my portfolio...