Illustration.
Digital illustration is a skill I've explored to enhance my options when working on design projects. Here are some of the illustration-focused projects I've worked on.
Buena Vista "stAR" Reader
ABOUT
For this project, I worked with Buena Vista Elementary School to design a t-shirt for their program called "stAR reader" – the capitalized "AR" is a reference to the Accelerated Reader website that was the foundation of the program. The shirt would be given to students who had earned certain achievements in the program to incentivize reading. The school's main color is maroon and its mascot is an eagle. I incorporated both of these things into the shirt to evoke a sense of pride in the children regarding their school. For the main design, I played on the "star" part of the name and used a sky/planetary theme.
TOOLS
Adobe Illustrator
The Shining Poster
ABOUT
My goal for this project was to redesign the movie poster for The Shining in a way that alludes to the main elements of the story. This movie is known for lots of iconic things, but none of them on their own would suffice to summarize what goes on in the film. Here, I drew the maze and hotel to set the scene, coupled with a dark sunset to create an ominous mood. You can see the silhouette of Danny feeling, with a large specter of Jack armed with a knife emanating from the hotel – reflecting the true message of the original book, which is the evil nature of the building itself and the way it controlled Jack. Last was the title of the movie, using a chopped up font resembling the door Jack hacked through,
TOOLS
Adobe Illustrator
Spirited Away Poster
ABOUT
This project was about creating an alternate movie poster for the Hayao Miyazaki film Spirited Away. Recreating elements from the film, like the bathhouse or Chihiro riding Haku, was very time consuming, but necessary to successfully emulate the style or drawing in the film. I used the composition to communicate the message of the film: the bathhouse is isolated with seemingly no escape, but Chihiro perseveres to rise above her challenges.
TOOLS
Adobe Illustrator
Mechanism Drawings
ABOUT
These drawings were inspired by my experience growing kombucha SCOBYs to make SCOBY leather.
TOOLS
Procreate
Frankenstein's Monster
ABOUT
This was an exercise in digital illustration using a grid to create imagery. I created a grid of squares, which I then mapped and filled in accordingly to create a portrait of Frankenstein's monster. I then rounded the corners of the squares for a more smooth and stylized look. I started by layering a grid and tracing paper over a references image, then blocking out different shapes and colors.
TOOLS
Adobe Illustrator
Method Soap Poster
ABOUT
My goal for this project was to create a realistic rendering of a real world object using gradients in Adobe Illustrator. The final product was a poster advertising my object of choice – french lavender scented Method hand soap. This piece took a lot of patience and attention to detail to carefully and accurately recreate my reference photo.
TOOLS
Adobe Illustrator
The Other Side
ABOUT
This was a piece created for the Reflections In/Equity exhibition at the Hubbell Street Galleries in San Francisco, California. It's 24" x 36". This was made during my time in California College of the Arts' First Year Honors Program (FYHP), a group for students who have been selected by professors for creative and academic excellence.
My design was inspired by reflecting on how my understanding of the relationship between the concepts of equity and equality has changed since taking part in the FYHP. The idea behind my design is that when we strive for equality, though we do it with good and egalitarian intentions, we are actually doing a disservice to those who are most in need of help. The design shows a world on one side that is literally “sunshine and rainbows”, while the underside is stormy and full of unrest.
What I want to communicate here is the difference between what we think we are doing by pushing for equality and what we are actually creating when an equal amount of resources are spent on everyone, even those who don’t need it, thus leaving people with greater need still
struggling.
TOOLS
Adobe Illustrator
Mural Project
ABOUT
This piece was created collaboratively by myself, Ryan Kilmer, Shuyang Zheng, and Xioalin Deng. I contributed the portrait and illustrations of people, as well as the scene with green and pink protestors with signs.
With this mural, we were asked to create a collaboratively made digital mural honoring the history of critical ethnic studies in the Bay Area of California, as well as other key figures in the field. This mural was intended to be displayed on California College of the Arts' website, which dictated design choices like the size and resolution of the artwork.
TOOLS
Procreate
Planetary SCOBYs
ABOUT
This series was inspired by the kombucha SCOBYs I was growing to create SCOBY leather. The SCOBY was naturally creating a very unique and intriguing pattern as it grew more and more, and its appearance began to remind me of that of an other-wordly planet. This inspired me to draw a recreation of the SCOBY and apply various manipulations to create this solar system of SCOBY-inspired planets.
TOOLS
Procreate
Mapping Motion
ABOUT
This series was inspired by the kombucha SCOBYs I was growing to create SCOBY leather. The kombucha fermentation yields the growth of yeast flocculation, something that is very visually interesting and captivating to watch when in motion. I noticed that it moved in a flowing and graceful manner whenever I moved my jars of kombucha, which inspired me to illustrate the flow of yeast flocculation when movement is applied.
See below for more illustrations and for photos of my inspiration.
TOOLS
Procreate
