A Day In Our Lives #26

Hey guys!
With finals coming up, I thought I would talk about a class I have decided to take for an elective this semester. Intro to ceramics! Before transferring to Umich, I always wanted to take ceramics but couldn’t in my illustration program. I was fortunate enough to have room in my schedule this semester at Stamps to try it! I think that I learned a lot overall, I had no clue how to really build with clay despite the fact I used to literally work at a pottery studio. My favorite part of the semester was learning how to create dinnerware on the pottery wheel. I felt as if it was the easiest to pick up quickly. I also enjoyed how smooth the surfacing ended up being compared to some other items I worked on. I also worked on a large Greek-inspired amphora contemporary piece, reflecting my Greek heritage. I liked taking ceramics but I am unsure if I would ever take it again. I believe I will stick to textiles!

See you next time!

Marissa

FOTO- Flwrs

I decided that I wanted to change up this week’s post by featuring some photos of blooming flowers that I saw on campus this past week. These pictures are some of my favorites, as I decided to utilize my pro mist filter on my camera to defuse the natural sunlight to add a soft glow to some of the pictures. Also, I decided to make sure the colors were vibrant to show how youthful the flowers looked. Enjoy 🙂

A Day In Our Lives #22

Hey guys,

This week I wanted to talk a bit about my process and how I create a lot of my more complex digital drawings. I originally studied Illustration at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. During my time there, I spent a lot of time learning anatomy and perspective. In the illustration program, almost all of my work had to be on paper, they teach traditional art for the most part in that department.

With this, I usually start out my drawings on paper, and then take a photo of them. I then upload the image to procreate on my Ipad, where I color in the image. Sometimes I will include line work, but I really just love using value in my digital artwork. I like to think of it more as a digital painting than anything. It is a lot easier to digitally paint in the colors in my opinion. Then I am able to get exactly the right tones that I want, and if I mess up there is always the undo button.

I know this isn’t a good tutorial on digital drawing, but it is just my different way of going about most of my more complex artwork.

See you next week!

Marissa

A Day In Our Lives #21

Hey guys,
This week I am posting some of my character sketches/studies. I really enjoy creating characters. One of my favorite things to draw is human anatomy. I really love boosting the color in people’s undertones in order to create my painting/coloring style. For lighter skin tones I start with a base of sage green, for darker skin tones I use an undertone of red or blue. I also created a new header image for this series. I feel like this frame from one of my comics fits the vibe better here. I like creating a variety of characters in order to push myself to stay away from “same face” syndrome, which is a really hard thing to overcome if you have a distinct art style. This just means that because of your style, you sort of accidentally draw the same face over and over.

See you guys next week!

A Day In Our Lives #19

Hey guys,
This week I’m uploading an illustration that I had started for a zine that was accepting submissions here on campus. With my busy schedule, it was really difficult to meet the deadline and I was unable to enter, however, I felt like it was a good opportunity to work on my digital illustration skills.  I think that it could have ended up as a pretty cool submission. It is important for an artist, especially a college student, to have good time management. I draw digitally on my iPad using procreate. I hope everyone is having a good spring break!!
See you next week,
Marissa 

A Day In Our Lives #17

Hey guys,

This week I decided to draw Aphrodite for Valentine’s Day! This semester I have been added to the Arts Ambassadors here at Arts at Michigan and today we had a valentines day event! It was super fun. We make different crafts and had snacks. I love celebrating Valentine’s Day, it is one of my favorite holidays! I decided to draw Aphrodite in pink and red. I am Greek and have always thought that Aphrodite was one of the most interesting Gods or Goddesses. I love her celebration of love and beauty. She is a positive beauty standard for women today, as she is sculpted closer to the real female form, rather than the male gaze “ideal” one. Valentine’s day here on campus is really hard to navigate, especially at the last minute. My partner and I were lucky that we could get a reservation today, only two days prior. Very busy in Ann Arbor!!

See you next week,
Marissa