Robin – Page 8 – arts, ink.

Industrious Illustrating #21 – Two-Tailed

December 2, 2022December 2, 2022 Robin Leave a comment

Hello again, and welcome back! When I was abroad vacationing in Spain and Portugal over Thanksgiving break, I saw a lot of interesting art and architecture, but one particular image I saw depicted on tiles particularly stood out to me (warning for some partial nudity):

After seeing the twin-tailed mermaid, I immediately had the idea of making a drawing where her tails more closely resemble legs. This is what came out of it:

I’m swamped with final projects and assignments at the moment, so I didn’t have the time to push this further than a black-and-white sketch, but I hope to develop this piece and this concept further in the future to make something interesting out of it. Good luck with the last few weeks of this semester, everyone, and see you again next week!

Industrious Illustrating #20 – Childrens’ Book

November 25, 2022November 17, 2022 Robin Leave a comment

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! This week I’m continuing off of last week’s post by showing what the end result of my sketching and exploration process for this ARTDES 270 childrens’ book project looks like. I edited together 3.5″ x 3.5″ square illustrations and added text digitally to create a cover and four spreads.

If you saw last week’s post about the material explorations I did ahead of making the finished illustrations, you might recognize that I took cues from the thicker paints (gouache and digital) I experimented with to try using saturated application of watercolor in a similar way. I ended up pretty satisfied with the results, so I’m glad I took the time to play around with other mediums first.

The end result will become a physical board book made out of chipboard, but I haven’t made the prototype yet because I’ve been too busy with schoolwork and holiday break travel to assemble it. I may post the finished physical book in another column if anyone is interested in seeing it, however.

Once I return from my trip abroad, I’ll do my best to find some time to make sketches of what I saw and integrate them into future illustrative projects!

Industrious Illustrating #19 – Material Explorations

November 18, 2022November 17, 2022 Robin Leave a comment

Welcome back to another week of Industrious Illustrating! This week I’m returning to discussing schoolwork and the creative process, as I’ve done for previous Industrious Illustrating columns.

For ARTDES 270: Visualizing and Depicting, we’ve been working on an assignment to create a short childrens’ board book about a letter of the alphabet. I ended up writing a book about mythological animals whose names start with the letter K. I made character designs and sketches in a mixture of watercolor and ink.

Before I made the final illustrations, I explored a few different approaches and mediums to figure out which one I liked best.

I tried gouache and colored pencil,

ink and collage, and digital painting.

In the end, I still ended up returning to using watercolors for the book project, but I now had a better idea of what I wanted to do with the character designs, compositions, and techniques in my final illustrations.

Next Friday I will post the finished layouts of my childrens’ book to compare between the conceptual process and the result. I hope everyone has a great and restful Thanksgiving break with the friends or family of their choice!

Industrious Illustrating #18 – Ten Thousand Buddhas

November 11, 2022November 11, 2022 Robin Leave a comment

Hello again to another week of Industrious Illustrating!

Last week I tabled at Youmacon with my tablemate Ria, another STAMPS student. My half of the booth was on the left, while hers was on the right. I blocked out everyone’s faces in the below picture to preserve their privacy.

By the end of the weekend, both of us had recouped all of our production costs as well as the cost of the table spot, and we’d made several hundred dollars in profit on top of that. Our total revenue was somewhere in the low four figures range split between the two of us. While we don’t plan on splitting a table again because we could both use the full 8′ table for our displays, we’re both hoping to apply to Youmacon again and table next year if possible!

Anyway, while I’m currently trying to keep up with a deluge of work and deadlines before Thanksgiving Break, I took some time last night to make a quick painted study of a photograph I took at the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery in Hong Kong this past summer. I focused on describing the value relationships and lighting as quickly and efficiently as possible rather than letting myself get mired in the details. Hopefully I can find more time to make these studies so that I can brush up on my painting skills and build up a better visual library in my head.

Good luck to everyone working on exams and projects close to the end of the semester, and see you again next week!

Industrious Illustrating #17 – Youmacon

November 4, 2022November 5, 2022 Robin Leave a comment

Welcome back to another week of Industrious Illustrating! This week is another week where I don’t have much new art or sketches to share because most of my time has been eaten up by logistics and preparation for the biggest convention I’ll have ever sold my art at — Youmacon in Detroit at the Renaissance Center and Huntington Place. For those who don’t know, Youmacon is an annual 3-day pop culture and anime-focused convention with a dedicated Artist Alley and Vendor Hall for independent artists and businesses to sell their wares. While there

I’m splitting a table with Ria, another STAMPS Art & Design student, and we will be located at table number PA3 between the Vendor Hall and Artist Alley. We will be there for the entire weekend, so be sure to come by, say hi, and maybe peruse our offerings of art prints, acrylic charms, stickers, and more!

Here’s a picture of our actual booth that we put on social media:

Next week, I may be briefly recapping how my weekend of selling at Youma went, and hopefully soon I’ll have some non-business-related posts to share with all of you!

Industrious Illustrating #16 – Table Layout

October 31, 2022October 31, 2022 Robin Leave a comment

Boo! You didn’t expect an Industrious Illustrating post on Halloween, did you? Yes, this post is three days late, but that’s part of the spooky surprise!

In reality, I’ve been so busy with preparing for Youmacon, aka the first big pop culture-related convention I’m selling at, that updating this weekly column slipped my mind. But I can now share the test table setup I made with my tablemate yesterday! We don’t have all of our prints displayed yet, and we’ll probably move some things around as well to maximize visibility, but this is close to what our final table setup will look like this weekend! Also, I wish I could share what our table number is, but that’ll likely have to wait until the post I make this Friday (first day of Youmacon). If any readers are planning on attending Youmacon 2022 in Detroit, I look forward to seeing you there!

Speaking honestly here, while I do enjoy working on more refined and detailed paintings to turn into prints, I also feel like I’ve been slacking a lot on making life studies and personal artwork, rather than just painting what I think will sell to an audience. That’s not to say that I feel like I’m not making progress in my art, but I do feel like I could be pushing myself in more ways than I am at the moment.

Even though it’s not New Year’s yet — we still have Thanksgiving and Christmas left to go before the end of 2022 — my resolution is to study more of the pictures I took of the scenery and other peoples’ artwork while exploring Hong Kong this summer and implement those studies into my artwork as an illustrator and character designer.

Anyway, I hope to see you guys this Friday either in person or with my next Industrious Illustrating column!