School is very close to ending I cannot wait to leave. It has a been a long busy year.

Second semester was more challenging than the first but I've made it through in one piece. Hopefully summer till take its time.

This is the t-shirt design that I came up with for the contest. The same concept "The Legend Fades" applies.

I took this sketch,

and I put it into illustrator and edited it with photoshop.

In the picture we still have batman "fading" into the darkness. In the background I have a distorted version of Gotham City(The city in which the Batman series takes place). You also may noticed distorted versions of flying backs in a few places. This depiction symbolizes everything fading behind Batman, and then himself fading into the darkness. 

This was the final idea for my codex project. In the drawing you have the "CD" shaped objects fragmented and suspended on a pole-like structure.

The idea was for the objects to have text and images on them. The viewer would be able to see all the disc by moving the fragmented portion of the disc around to see the next disc.

This was the sketch during one of the stages during my t-shirt development for the contest. This is drawing of "The Dark Knight Rises" version of Batman. The theme of the movie is "The Legend Ends" symbolizing that this will be the final movie for this particular series.

My concept was titled "The Legend Fades". This concept was derived from this being the last movie, we as the viewers watch as he performs his final acts before fading into a memory. I have half of him fading into the darkness.

This is a drawing of a "flower bomb". This idea or concept was derived from a song by the rapper Wale featuring RNB singer Miguel called "Lotus Flower Bomb".

In the song he refers to a female as his "Lotus Flower Bomb". I took the concept "Flower Bomb" and turned it into something more literal.

This was a sketch that I did in pen while sitting in  the cafeteria. It is the center piece on the table.

I like using pen, but something about pens and flowers together bothers me. I'm thinking about taking this particular drawing to illustrator and created some type of logo using vectors.

This is a really random picture that I posted. It includes my favorite anime character "Naruto" making a face at an orange.

The point of this picture was to help me improve with prisma color blending. I do want to take the orange and develop a concept with it.

This is a portrait I've started of a friend of mine. Its unfinished, but I 'm most definitely going to come back to this one.

I am actually very close with this particular friend even though we do argue about unnecessary things sometimes. I am mad that the picture she wanted me to draw had her making a face resulting in the mouth being distorted. Still I'm going to try and make this drawing come out nice.

This was a drawing I did still practicing the human figure. The only different this time is that much of it is detailed and she is wearing clothing.

I did not finish the face because at the time I did not have a hard led pencil so I could not do fine detail. I do plan on going back and finishing this one, but I am also scared to mess it up

I personally like anime characters. I have learned to draw them from my head to a certain extent.

This character is original and unfinished. Even though she does not have a name, her personality usually allows her to be calm at all times and she is very nonchalant  about many things.

This was my first idea for a codex project assigned in class. This idea was taken from the research I had done dealing with codices.

The idea did not make it to the end of the brainstorming process because I felt that it was too basic. Still maybe I can use it for a concept later on.

This was another charcoal drawing that I did. It came from one of Ciara's(RNB singer) album cover.

I altered the drawing in some ways. Some alterations were by accident and others were on purpose. It came out more as a concept drawing.

This drawing I did was to improve my skills with portraits. The medium used was charcoal pencils(hard, and medium).

Charcoal blends much more smoothly than graphite. I'm starting to get better with the shades on the face. I do notice however, that her face looks too much like a mask and lacks much shading still.

This is a concept drawing that I did to draft ideas for a t-shirt design contest. The theme was "The Dark Knight Rises" which is the upcoming batman movie.

In this sketch I have a bat with a moon in the background. At the bottom I have 3 thumbnails of ideas for my t-shirt. I ended up taking the one on the far right and developing it more.

This is a collage of fabric that I was required to draw in charcoal. I personally like the different patterns given in this collage.

The downside of this piece is that striped patterns are very difficult to mimic. The charcoal piece came out very successful, but when I went back with prisma color it did not come out so great. 

This was a 3-dimensional animated character from the game Final Fantasy 13-2. My goal was to do everything in black and white except for the hair which I use prisma color to color blue.

It is an unfinished sketch and  it has some crucial errors. The spacing between the eyes and the nose is too much. The mouth shape is wrong. I should have waited to shade until after I finished the shapes.

This is a "characture" of myself. I think that I accomplished a "cartoonish" look for myself.

I do need to go back and finish this because I feel like it would turn out successfully. I am currently having a little bit of difficulty finishing the mouth.

This picture is a  sketch of a male figure. I was trying to study the male anatomy.

The picture is unfinished, and I have yet to go back and finish it. I already see that I am struggling with the proportions and shape of the legs.

This drawing was a quick sketch I did of my hand. I was trying to emphasize my practice on the indents and creases in the hand.

The drawing was done completely in pen. I probably should have shaded more around the edges to maintain the 3-dimensional look.

These are some drawings of eyes that I've done. In the middle is the basic shape of the eye.

The eyes around the outside have all been derived from that basic shape. I've added plenty of detail into the other eyes and given them different styles. Some are more realistic while others are animated

These are some sketches that I drew dealing the with face and head. The structure of the skeleton is very complex.

I believe that I messed up with the shape of the head and the placement of the ears. The back of his head also looks a little strange. Hopefully I'll do better next time

These are the notes I sketched about the human form. The notes were taken from a video given at alien think.com

Sketching this has allowed me to understand the human figure a little further. It has also helped improve my memory dealing with the human form.

This is my attempt to practice drawing the human figure. I definitely see improvement but I still have areas that I need to work on.

My proportions are still off in some very obvious areas. I also need to work on memorizing the human form rather that mimicking it.

Flower

This photograph that I took of a Magnolia flower. My goal was to draw this in pen.

After the pen drawing was complete I went back and attempted the same flower in the prisma color medium. I believe that the prisma color attempt was more successful than the pen.

Useful interent Sources

I have come up with a list of some websites that are useful to artists.

www.flyerdesignsecretsrevealed.com

www.spyrestudious.com

www.sixrevisions.com

www.designmodo.com

www.allgraphicdesign.com

These are all good websites giving tips and tutorials on graphic design. They also discuss the importance of concept.

I'm ready to start off the new week. Had some snow fall last night. I wanted to take a picture so I could design a landscape but when I woke up, most of it was melted unfortunately. Hopefully next time I'll get a chance to take some high quality photos.

I have been very busy lately designing flyers and drawing due to assignments. Going to work hard tonight to clear my schedule so I'll have time to actually do a piece that I want to do. I've been working on the human figure as well as human faces I see improvement. Hopefully it won't stop there.

     It's been a long week. The talk about Whitney seems to be dying down but I'm still going to draw my portrait of her. Right now I'm currently working on an 18 x 24 pen drawing of a lily flower. I have to edit a flyer template for someone then I'll have time to do what I want.

     As far as the background for the blog goes, I can't exactly decide what color I want to use. I kind of have the effects im going to use marked down so when I find the right color scheme I'll design the background and apply it.

     It is really a shame that Whitney Houston had to die on Saturday. She will be missed by many people and she has made a great impact on a generation of people that will never forget her. I will most likely end up drawing a portrait of her some time later in the week when I have time as more of a personal tribute and a way to improve on my skill with portraits as well.

     As for me I've been experimenting with photoshop lately. I have been doing a variety of logo designs as well as templates for flyers. Hopefully soon I will be able to design a custom background for the blog that complements the theme "Portrayed Paradox".