Tag: illustration

OTM #14: Reaction

katelynski 2 Comments

Happy almost-Halloween! I went to the theater to watch Perfect Blue with my friends last week, an old horror classic for animation nerds like myself. Every time I watch it, I’m profoundly affected; it so wonderfully blends reality and fantasy, its horror comes from its psychology. However, I think I was in a different mindset than the rest of the crowd. Several times throughout the film, people clapped, cheered; it was as if they’d seen the film millions of times and weren’t affected by it anymore. I was kind of shocked at this. I wasn’t mad by any means, but with such heavy subject matter, I wondered, how can they all be so cheerful right now? So when the lights came on at the film’s end, I sat there motionless, tears filling my eyes while the rest of the crowd happily moved on with their day.

This isn’t the first time I’ve experienced this – an insanely different reaction than the rest of the theater – but with this particular film, it felt personal. I want to laugh at myself a bit more, to say, “stop taking it seriously!” But I am who I am. I guess in some ways I like to be profoundly affected by media. Hope you are all able to enjoy a good movie (perhaps a horror flick) this week!

A Day In Our Lives: Diag Squirrels

rissaw 4 Comments

Hello everyone! My name is Marissa. This is my first post of many to come, and I am so excited to share with you all! 

I think that the squirrels on the Diag are always a positive part of my day and I like to imagine their lives. This series will touch on a lot of different aspects of living on campus or in Ann Arbor but I wanted to start with these cuties! They are a huge part of the culture here on campus and everyone seems to love them. One time, I had a baby squirrel hop on my feet! I grew up here in Michigan and nature has always been a big part of my life. I love all of the fall colors here in Ann Arbor and I’m ready to see what else I can incorporate into my art. 

OTM #13: Nap

katelynski 2 Comments

I’ve been really burnt out lately. I think everyone has a little, it’s around the time for midterms, but I just want to sleep all day. My roommate’s cat and I have always gotten along well, but it seems like lately he’s been able to pick up on my feelings. Almost every morning, like clockwork, as soon as I open the door he runs in and crawls up on my bed. He lays square on my torso, and sleeps. Even if it’s just for a minute, it’s like he understands. It’s a great mood booster, a familiar warmth that makes me think, “I can make it through today.” So thank you, Haru, for bringing me a little comfort (even if you start biting at my hoodie’s drawstrings after a while). Hope you’re all able to find some comfort, maybe in the fall weather, maybe in a friend, maybe in a TV show. Whatever it is, have a great week!

OTM #12: Virtual Professionalism

katelynski Leave a comment

Hello, and welcome back to OTM! As of late, I’ve been trying to book an internship for this summer (a draining process in itself). But with Zoom interviews comes with Zoom etiquette, and I’ve been paranoid as of late that my fun, personal side is hindering my professional life. Every Zoom interview with every company brings a new layer of fear; will they say something about the amount of posters on my wall? But every time without fail my huge head covers them up, saving me from embarrassment. It’s times like these where I contemplate if I’m too cringeworthy at age twenty, but why should I stop decorating my room to my tastes just for some interviews? It’s mostly funny to me at this point, reminding me to loosen up a little. Be cringe (in moderation), and have a great week, everyone!

Industrious Illustrating #12: A New Semester

Robin Leave a comment

A new season means a new semester, and a new semester means a new Industrious Illustrating banner! It’s been a while since I last posted to this blog, and I hope that the summer was a restful or productive time for all of you, whichever one was your goal. While I have some exciting new projects I want to share with you guys over the next few weeks, I want to focus first on a brief recap of a few pieces I made over the summer.

For most of the summer, I was spending time living with my parents in Hong Kong. We lived pretty close to the beach, so sometimes I’d go down to the beach and look for interesting-looking animals in the sand and rocks. Attached are a few watercolor and ink sketches I made of a Fiddler crab, as well as some clams, sea urchins, and sea snails I found when the tide was low.

Aside from sketching the wildlife, I also made more refined illustrations based off of the scenery and sights I saw in Hong Kong, albeit with a few changes for artistic effect. For example, one of the new pieces on my year 2 banner features a tiger girl dressed in summery clothing while leaning over the railing of a staircase next to overgrown terraces. This is actually based off of a real staircase near my summer home that led down to some tropical fruit trees and a tiny beach (though it wasn’t the one I frequented).

               

If you look at the other side of the new banner, one of the pieces I added features a girl floating in a brightly lit vestibule as if she’s in a spaceship. This is actually inspired by the Moncler clothing store display in Hong Kong’s International Commerce Center, which always caught my eye when I was walking from the Kowloon MTR stop through the ELEMENTS shopping mall and the ICC lobby. I made a few tweaks to the lighting to make it look more dramatic, but otherwise I kept it close to the reference in an attempt to capture what I liked about the design.

For a side by side comparison:

       

Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten around to making more studies of the sights I saw in Hong Kong, or even more pieces inspired by what I saw in Hong Kong, but I’ll be sure to work on some and post them when I have time!

What did you guys do over the summer? I would love to hear about it in the comments.

LOG_011_MEDUSA

Traveler Leave a comment

The payload spun and spun within the planet’s stormy atmosphere, buffeted by high winds and fickle vortices. Visibility conditions were nil as it tumbled through the clouds, its camera feed only offering grainy flickers of orange-red and the overexposed glare of lighting, falling, falling, falling– until it plunged through a particularly dense layer and into a patch of calm.

Two purplish objects floated into view, shapes reminiscent of Earth-native Cnidarian medusae: radially symmetrical, a translucent, bell-like structure, and trailing, wispy lines starting from the bottom of the bell. The currents gently tugged at them, and like kites in a storm, they vanished just as quickly into the reddish haze.