Leaving Oxford - Redone

Remember THIS piece that I did just over a year ago?

I decided to redo it. I ended up doing a whole new one without Mrs. Coulter and her monkey. I like it better. I have certainly come a long way.


Here it is. I wish I had had the time to use pen and ink for the linework, but that's okay. Still lots of work to be done on it.

Jessica Hische

A couple weeks ago Designer Jessica Hische came to the Universtiy in neighboring town to lecture. It was awesome. SHE was awesome. I really loved everything she said, and it was nice to be able to laugh about art jokes.

I really admire her career. She is doing something so new and different, and she's doing it well. It was inspiring for me to see a woman make such a name for herself in a such male-heavy profession. I'm going into Illustration, and right now it seems like my competition is mainly women. But when you look at the business it's mostly men.

Anyway. Everyone should go and look at her site. It's fantastic. My favorite things are the Daily Drop Caps.

Here are Sean and I with Jessica. Photo credit: Kristin Gulledge.

PS. I have an internship next summer in NYC. :D

The Myth, The Hero's Journey, and some more Character Design

My focus for my BFA project creating a graphic novel inspired by the modernization of a myth. I'll take a Celtic myth (Lleu and the Tynghedau of Arianrhod) and using the classic "Hero's Journey" pattern to create a modern retelling of it. By modern, I mean in the last few hundred years. The story, of course, will follow the 17 steps of the Hero's Journey as laid out by Joseph Campbell.

I've decided to set it in an alternate-historic WWII Britain. Sorta steampunky, but not in the Victorian Era. And not really steampunky at all, really. The world I'm portraying will just be a little bit different than what we know the world to be. They'll be more advanced in some areas, and less in others. The war will take different turns.






I'm planning on the show going up sometime next September, a month after I graduate.

I'm incredibly excited. Seriously. I love mythology (especially Celtic) and I LOVE the Hero's Journey. It's fascinating, especially when you realize that almost every story or narrative you read falls into that pattern. Go read about it, it's awesome. But...really, I'm going crazy with excitement. I already have a pinboard on pinterest dedicated to finding things that inspire me. Mostly it's just propaganda posters and fashion, but soon I'll be looking around for artistic inspiration as well (mood, etc).

Here's another drawing of Flora. This is her in a wheat field. Not being consumed by flames, even though it looks like it. This is from the part of the story that lines up with the "Belly of the Whale" step in Campbell's 17 steps. She's not the main character, I just love drawing her. She's like...a semi-main character. She has her own little hero's journey.

Next to her there's a really rough sketch of some bombs being dropped. It's...yeah, you can't really tell they are bombs.  Yet.