Behind the Scenes: Assignment for Scholastic’s Scope Magazine

I received an assignment to illustrate a short fiction piece for Scholastic’s Scope Magazine (for teens 12-14). They also asked me if I could make an animated GIF version of the image. Here’s a long look behind the process.

 

Initial composition sketches based on the last scene in the story.

next I drew lots of versions of the character in many different poses.

and cut them out

For the animation, I had an idea to create a stop motion turntable. The camera angle would stay with the girl running while the environment (a set I would build) rotated around her with birds flying in the air above her.

composing with simple cut out parts

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I was also asked to create the headline, the title of the story “13 and a half”. I drew the numbers on blue foam insulation and cut them out with a hot wire foam cutter (they’re super fun to use by the way. just keep the windows open). Then painted white so they wouldn’t overwhelm the image while composting.

adding more cut out parts.

The studio is starting to get crowded.

 

Here is the first composition I shot with my phone…

…and colored in photoshop

 

Then I made a few more the same way mixing up different cut out parts and referring to my first composition pencil sketches.

 

I sent them all in and the client loved them…BUT felt that the mood was too jubilant and girly for the tone of the story (no running girl so I had to scrap the turntable idea for the animation).

Round Two

a simpler thirteen

New poses. Hopefully more thoughtful; not so joyful.

 

And here is round two of sketches.

 

feedback from the editor was that the figure looked too posed. So we tried some more variations – done just in photoshop.

The approved sketch!

 

Now onward to final art.

 

Projecting the image onto bristol board.

 

I knew I would need to animate the girl so I divided the figure into parts.

and hot glued them to a wire armature.

Now to choose the fabric.

 

I mark the fabric with some margin around the figure and will then cut it out and hot glue it on the backside.

This red was perfect but it needed to be striped.

So I masked and spray painted some stripes.

I used my cutout of the house in the background as a template for cutting more blue foam insulation.

Same with the hills in the background, which I later sanded into rounder forms.

the main finished parts are in place.

Here’s the ugly backside.

I didn’t take a good photo but the backdrop is a 30″ x 40″ canvas painted in oil with a “Bob Ross” style sky. (i.e. wet on wet)

 

The studio is getting very crowded now.

The parts were looking good to me but it felt a little sparse and I didn’t like the seams between the hill shapes and the ground.

So I made some more grass by running three colors of green paper through my shredder.

Here is the final photo.

Now to do the other parts in the computer.

 

I sculpted a bird in Zbrush with three different wing positions to animate them flapping.

And did several variations on painting them so they wouldn’t all look like the same bird (though a key part of the story is that all of the birds look basically the same).

Then I rendered the variations of the birds in Zbrush and exported them to Photoshop for the final composition.

 

Here is the final image as it ran in the magazine.

The animation took another day of stop motion shooting the girl and then animating the rendering of the birds (there are eighteen total) on the Photoshop timeline. I know, it should really be done in Aftereffects or something but I’m too cheap to subscribe to the entire Adobe suite so I’m squeezing all I can out of Photoshop.

 

And here is the animation which went on the website.

 

 

 

Assignment for Columbia Magazine

I recently completed an assignment for Columbia Magazine, Columbia University’s alumni publication. I thought I would share the process for my 3D style.

(I’m delaying this post so it won’t come out before the magazine itself)

The article is about Mack Meller, a freshman who is a world renown Scrabble champion.

Here are the sketches I sent. They are drawn in pencil on paper with the scrabble pieces placed in. Color is added in Photoshop.

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They chose the sketch with Mack studying in the library – which I also like a lot.

Here is the sketch without the photoshop color or the Scrabble tiles.IMG_6917

Even though it’s not a true portrait of Mack, I’m not so happy with the face. So I tried drawing him again from a reference photo Jeffrey (the art director) sent.IMG_6916

 

Then I made a cleaner drawing on tracing paper which I will use as a template for cutting the figures out of watercolor paper and illustration board.

IMG_6919

I go through a lot of exacto blades.

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I kept checking to see how the drawing worked from the right camera angle to obscure his face and focus attention on the Scrabble tiles. This one feels too much like he’s looking at the tiles.

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So I tried redrawing his face directed more toward his notebook.

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and checking it again with the camera angle.

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Now for more details. The spiral of the notebook is the spring from a ball point pen. The pencil is a clipped toothpick with a little snippet of aluminum wrapped around it.

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IMG_6924

I knew I wanted to glue some fuzzy fabric on this girl for a sweater but wanted her pony tail to go over it. So I cut just the top layer of the illustration board to lift it up.

IMG_6925

balsa wood chairs.

IMG_6926 IMG_6927

Trying out different fabrics for the other guy at the table to wear.

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Placing pieces over the wash background I did to match my digital color.

IMG_6930

Painting more people.

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And more parts.

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this is the view of the piece straight on.IMG_6936

But this is the camera angle I’m going for.

IMG_6935

Placing more parts. Yikes! feeling way too busy – especially that book cart I made from aluminum and ball bearings. Like it’s squashing his head. IMG_6941

Better without the cart.But the book cases still feel heavy.

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Lightening up the book cases. I’m feeling better.Got rid of that guy in the background too.

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Here is a view of the side of the piece to give an idea of the dimensionality.

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So here I’m thinking I’m nearly done.

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I set up the lights and shoot the final photo.

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But once I get it on my monitor, I feel like the background is washing it all out. It’s too close to the color of the tiles. I try out some other colors and find a darker grey which makes the focal point pop out better. IMG_6958

Yeah, I could just leave the color change in photoshop (which I sometimes do) but it wouldn’t feel the same to me. So I paint the new color on the real piece and re-shoot it.

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Which brings me to the final piece which I send to my client.

wheelerScrabbleChampIllo

 

Client is happy but asks for just a couple of revisions: brighten up the exposure and remove the C from the hat in the foreground.

 

Thanks to Art Director Jeffrey Saks for the assignment!

wheelerScrabbleChampIlloRevised

 

 

UNH magazine

Cover and inside illustration for University of New Hampshire’s alumni magazine. The story is about moving from their history as a land grant university to an institution focused on helping students develop their own intellectual property.

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