A flurry of activity

So the third week of Fall quarter has come and gone, and I've never had so much on my plate at once. I'm taking a course called 'Getting Published', where every assignment is basically a competition between students to come up with a proposal sketch for an actual art director, either at a magazine, newspaper, etc. Whoever gets chosen brings the work to a finish and is put into print! I've been lucky enough to scrape by 2 for 2, and just submitted my 3rd comp sketch for choosing. Because there is the possibility that your work may not be chosen, more assignments are given, to keep everyone busy. So I'm 3 weeks in, and am already starting on my 4th project. It's making my head spin, but I'm getting a huge morale boost from all the nice things professionals are saying about my work.

Assignment 1 was for 'What's Up Annapolis?' magazine. They were looking for an illustration to go with an article about the importance of researching your medical family tree, to see how it may affect you and your children. I decided that for this class, I would stick strictly to my humorous style, even if the source material doesn't call for it. If you think about it logically, I wouldn't be contacted for serious or somber material in the working world, so there's no point in being what I'm not! Luckily, they loved my solution. Here is the sketch I submitted:



They didn't ask for any tweaks, only suggesting a bright, vivid color palette. I shot this to them soon after:



Assignment 2 called for a cover to a new annual called the 'Savannah Green Events Guide', highlighting ways you can throw a clean, earth-friendly party or get-together. I became fixated on the idea of a couple riding a tandem bike to a valet, handing him a bike lock key as opposed to car keys. So...that's what I did:



It was selected, but with some minor tweaks. They would like updated, modern garb, and preemptively asked for a 'modern palette', which I'm thinking means bright and colorful. No problemo. I've just barely started the final piece, so I have nothing to show at this moment. The art director also asked me for work on spot illustrations and icons within the guide, to solidify a look and style throughout. I'm stoked!

Assignment 3 is a cover for and Augusta, GA magazine called Metro Spirit, and is a special issue for their 'Best of 2010' awards. The awards go out to local establishments (best haircut, slab of meat?, etc). Oddly enough, the theme is Las Vegas, the awards themselves being fuzzy dice. And the guidelines for what they wanted were really that simple: Vegas. We've yet to hear their decision, but this is what I came up with:



So that's 'Getting Published' in a nutshell, so far. In other news, I've been working really hard on character design development. I'm moving closer and closer to that 50s animation design look I adore so much. I've found an inspiring tool to help me get there. I've found that the best character design is full of continuous lines, and tangents. That's shocking because tangents are often problematic in image composition, and are treated like a plague. I'll let this most recent self-portrait-y thing speak for itself:



I don't know if you can tell what I mean by looking at it, but it makes sense to me, so I suppose that's all that matters. I titled this "If Only I Was A Cowboy". After making this piece, I decided it would be a great exercise in character design to ask my friends what they would like to be, and I intend on creating a series. More on that later.

For now, I gotta get outta here and get to work. Later!

-Kellan