the journey of the welcome home banner.

So I wanted to post the major project I did this semester for the USS Santa Fe. I already posted the thumbnail, here are the following steps:

 So this was the linart. I did it at I believe 18 by 20 something big. it was pretty big. I enjoyed doing it, and luckily had both Joe and Andy there while I was finishing it. That proved helpful since I first realized I hadn't included any officers, and then I made one of the Sailors female. Andy pointed out that currently, females aren't allowed on subs, so I had to change her back to a guy.

 This was the first color rough. I STILL like this one more. I was torn between the two for a long time and everyone preferred the one below, but this one alwasy called to me. I love the rusty reds and neutrals of the piece. I think if I were doing a personal illustration I would have gone with this, but for a welcome home banner, everyone including myself felt this just wasn't celebratory enough.

 This is the color rough I went with. Actually now that I'm looking at the rough right next to the finish, that highligh on the top side of the front of the sub is large in the thumbnail and I like it. I should have exaggerated that more in the finished illustration.

 This is the finished piece without the text. I knew there was going to be a lot of text and I was ok with that. I knew parts of the piece would be covered up...

 This was my first attempt at the text. Sam did not like this at all. I agree the fonts are a bit competing, I would have probably emplimented a little more hierarchy in the piece anyway, but Sam really didn't like how much text there was. She wanted it to remain mostly a painting, so we revised.

 this is the final product. Apparently there will be multiple banners, and the other will be all text that reads very clearly, "Welcome Home!" so mine didn't necessarily need to say it. Sam wants to have a border around the piece so people can sign it before it goes up inside the submarine permanantely.

I feel pretty good about how it turned out. I also really like the exposure it's getting me. I've already gotten some serious talk about prints, which I already have a printer and prices for. I hope I sell a lot of them!

If anyone comes across this blog and would like a print, you can contact me at LMLY@mac.com for details.

new sketchbook

I bought a couple new sketchbooks. A white one and a small brown one. They'll probably act both as sketch books and note taking books. I decided to illustrate a cover for the white one. Inspired somewhat by james gurney's sketchbooks. More sketches soon I promise!

Welcome home

I'm working on a welcome home banner for the sub wives here. All I have is a thumbnail for now, but I'll have the line drawing done soon. I'm glad I get to use this as a school project.

It's been a while, hiking sketch

So last time I posted I mentioned that I wasn't sure about having this be a painting a day, because I was cramming in crappy paintings. Now that I'm in school, it's definitely not going to work. I'm not a fine artist, I'm an illustrator, and any daily paintings I do are usually working towards a studio painting, so I decided to transform this into a sketchblog instead. I always enjoy sketchblogs, so I figured if anyone liked my work, my might enjoy mine as much as I've enjoyed other artists' in the past.

So today I went hiking at sunrise. Joe's been sick so he couldn't come with me this time. The hike was easy, but the wind was really strong. I had brought my gouache and watercolors with me to do sketchbook paintings along the way, and I did this one relatively quickly with my little water color set while the wind threatened to whip my sketchbook out of my hands and the water out of my cup. It was a bit challenging to get out. I didn't do any more after this, and I thought it was shit until I came home. I actually like it quite a bit, and now I'm mad at myself for not doing more. I'll have to remember that my little paintings look better than I think they do :)