Final Display

Forgot to get this up here. The final frame design for the BFA show. It will be hand painted.

Final Images

The final images for my BFA senior project. The CMYK images look cloudy, but are normal in print.
Next step is mounting.

Narrative Scene 2 Completed

Completed narrative image 2.

Narrative Scene 5 Completed

Completed narrative image 5.

Narrative scene 4 Completed

Completed narrative scene 4 of 5. Edits will be done after the Final Defense.

Narrative Scene 4 WIP-1

Getting one of those cartoon images out of the way to avoid falling into the end of the semester's flaming iron skillet.

Centerpiece - Wip 2

Colored version. I'm not sure what I think about the crack yet, so it may be adjusted later.

Narrative Scene 1 Final

Characters were finally added in.

Centerpiece WIP-2

Showing the current progress of the central image. The ground and sky are not yet settled either, but I'm making decisions on what to add into those empty places.

Centerpiece WIP -1

What I am currently working on for the central image. It will be scanned and then finalized in Photoshop.

Narrative Scene 2 WIP

A quick update on the second scene for the series of narrative images. It's still a work in progress.

Narrative Scene 3 WIP

I forgot to follow up my progress with this image on the blog, so it is very close to being the final for this scene. After speaking with my adviser last Monday, we agreed that I needed to quickly figure out the character styles for the worlds and so I moved on to work on the middle narrative image. There may be a few more things I need to finalize this image.

Narrative Scene 1 WIP-3

The colored clock tower. Instead of making line works of the other narrative scenes this weekend, I wanted to make this first scene determine the tone for the rest of my images. In this scene, I've used the pen tool to create my image to reflect that clean orderly design of the light world, but I may not use it so much while creating the alternate world.

I may move on to the other background scenes or try to figure out how my characters are going to react to this design.

Narrative Scene 1 WIP-2

The clock tower in line work. I'll be adding colors next and then the characters.

Character Line Adjustments

 I think what I have in mind for this project versus what everyone else is thinking, isn't connecting. It seems that I'm looking to have more simple and animated characters for this project while some are looking for more realistic bodies to shade. I'm not sure I have much time to get really fancy with my figures.

I made a quick sketch of these two and didn't try to apply any style, but I'm not real fond of this much detail in the line work. I threw on some shading for a better sense of what I'm visualizing, but I thought I was giving more of a three-dimensional feel to my environment and the characters would be slightly flatter.

 It was suggested to me that the darkness of the line could be affecting their design and so I've lightened it to a dark grey with a Hard Light effect.

Tried to simplify the heads from the design above. This bland lighting is terrible, so I'm going to move on with my environments and put the characters in later.

Narrative: Looking to the Clock tower- WIP

What I've been working on all week. I'm almost done fiddling with the perspective on the tower with some edits that need to be made. The characters are posing a problem.

Character Subtitute Sketches

Trying to keep on track with what I'm doing each class.

I'm finding it hard to sketch this style on the tablet, so I've drawn each character's scene by hand to speed up the process and move on to the line work.

Modified Character Design

I spent most of my Saturday and Friday redesigning the style of my main characters for my narrative. Jenny's line thickness is a bit much, so I will be leaning more towards Alexander's line thickness since I'll be adding color and shading to their forms.

Dark Clock Tower

The dark world clock tower design. Snakes wind around the body of the structure. Their heads hold orbs that light the entryway.

5 Narrative images

The following are the 5 images that tell a short narrative about Alexander and Jenny jumping through the clock tower and into the other world. The black boarder around the image is where the frame will be.

 The first image, reading right to left because they start in the light world.

 

 Second image, Jenny pulls Alexander towards the mysterious glowing crack.

  

 This image sits above the centerpiece image and forms the arc that plays throughout the images.

 The falling arc of the two characters jumping into the dark world. Not the final clock tower design.

Final image stops the flow movement with Jenny giving Alexander a spell book. The narrative ends in the dark world.

A mock of narrative images within the frame.

Final Frame Examples

I am considering this frame shape or something close to it for my digital paintings. The flat colored frame on the top would be a simple boarder with no edges sloping in towards the image, but the bottom is an example of a beveled edge for the frame.


My BFA advisor is interested in the idea for the frame and wants me to build it in the wood shop here on campus. We looked over some frame ideas that may be feasible to work with.

 This is a more detailed example of the beveled frame, however it could have one bevel or some slope to draw the eye into the frame.

 

This is more simplistic, yet the thickness of the edges makes it pleasing. 

This poster is a general concept of what my frame is imitating by using the circles above to surround a central image.

Final Frame Sketch

This is the rough sketch of the frame I have chosen and I will post a cleaner version very soon.

I am planning on taking the frame to the wood shop and creating an art nouveau design to compliment the artwork. I will have a total of 8 digital paintings. The top 5 circles will tell the narrative between Jenny and Alexander, the clock tower will be in the middle and have the cracked glass and on either side will be the dark world on the left and the light world on the right.

The circular images will be about 12 inches in diameter, the center image will be 3 feet long by 1.5 feet wide and the two images on the side will be roughly 3 feet in long and 1.5 feet at the widest width. The shape comes from a window design I had found on an art nouveau building design by Gaudi.

Narrative Frame Concept

The following sketches are for the 5 images that go above my clock tower centerpiece. They read right to left and form an arch over the three images that will be below them. I plan to fit each image into a circular frame that will be 12" in diameter.

I have cut the narrative down to just Alexander and Jenny and the process of jumping between the worlds and the development of their relationship.

Frame Design Concepts

A basic narrative structure to show the connection between the protagonist and his familiar.

The oval is the concept for my centerpiece, where I plan to crack the glass to show the imbalance of the worlds.

A more art nouveau style frame that incorporates the narrative along the top and holds the centerpiece and two images that will show the opposites worlds.

A similar concept to the one above, but with a thicker frame and different design.

Based off of the yin and yang symbol.

School Concepts and More Clock towers

Light World Design of Witchlyn High School

Dark World Design of Witchlyn High School

Light/Dark World Clocktowers

Character Design

Alexander (Protagonist)

Alexander is a 16 year old trying to survive Witchlyn High School as a popular kid. With a talent in theater, he wishes for nothing more than to perform his way through school and be admired by his peers. Born with the gift of the medium, a modern term for witch, it is his duty to protect the balance of the light and dark worlds. He has shirked from the responsibility to accept his birth right for far too long; for fear that high school would burn his reputation if they ever found out.



David (Best Friend)

David, Alexander’s best friend and theater classmate, is a drama king. He specializes in plays with dramatization and tends to be loud and obnoxious both in and out of class. Because David doesn’t believe in the supernatural, Alexander has used him as a means to ignore the duty of being a medium.

Jahi/ Jenny (Alexander's Familiar)

Jahi, is Alexander’s familiar and is supposed to protect and teach him how to use magic. Playful and a little curious, she follows him around in either her creature or human form to make sure he stays focused on his studies of witchcraft.