Raconteur Raven

Pegasus

Graphite and Digital Flats

9x12 Spread

Kelpie

Graphite and Digital Flats

9x12

Photography by Randle Reed, DCAD staff.

The art student experience is one of funny incidentals.

Despite what everyone else assumed, no real thought went into this. In my 3D II studio class at the Delaware College of Art and Design, we were told to “create something out of many smaller somethings.” Some people fused candies together to form models. Some people got lego happy. I went down to the local craft store and bought some hollow chola wood pieces, proceeded to frighten the people working with me in the shop (I swing a hammer pretty violently) while busting the logs up into shards of twisted wood. Then I got a little paintbrush and some wood glue and went to town. Turned it in and forgot about it. It was in the 3D office for a while, someone broke it, and someone put it back together with super glue (looked terrible, too—if you break someone’s piece, please, just let the artist deal with it. Super glue is never the answer). In short, it was a piece that I didn’t really care about and that no one else really worshiped either. I graduated DCAD and forgot about the little neglected tree I left in the office. One of the city’s art museums put out a call for students and recent alumni at the college to submit pieces for an “Art Inspired by Nature” exhibition. I submitted some scratchboard illustrations that were rejected and forgot about the whole thing.

Then I found this glossy, nicely-photographed postcard in the mail. All incoming students are required to sign a form that basically allows the college to utilize any artwork we make there/leave behind, and apparently someone in the office got a hold of this forgotten little tree. And shipped it off to the museum. My friend Jessie, who started at DCAD this year, informed me that the tree graced a window-sized banner for a good month. It also became the main image for the exhibition advertisements, which is the only reason I found out about it.

The lesson here is this: Anything you make is subject to praise that it doesn’t deserve, and any piece you are not so proud of CAN AND WILL COME BACK TO HAUNT YOU EVERYWHERE. I’m half-happy and half-humiliated that this was displayed in the museum’s exhibit hall for a month.

That said, in the immortal words of Linus, “I never thought it was such a bad little tree…Maybe it just needs a little love (read, awesome photographer). This is a case of “Well, if you like it, I guess I like it too.”

After much harassment, I have managed to convince Miss Elisabeth that finals should not impede the maintenance of this tumblr.  Have a pattern swatch. 

Front cover for the A Swiftly Tilting Planet project.

Preliminary sketch for a wrap-around cover of A Swiftly Tilting Planet, by Madeleine L’Engle. It’s the story of Charles Wallace, a boy whose interaction with magic goes something like this: 

Gaudior, The Winged Unicorn:  Want to stop a nuclear war?  Get on my back!  And hold tight, because the devil himself and his fallen angels will be trying to murder us as we go gallivanting through time and space! 

Charles:  Oh boy, I get to go for a ride! 

Miss Elisabeth informs me that, in fairness, it IS a ride on a WINGED UNICORN through SPACE.  Kid’s got moxie. 

Rear-side for the Humminghorse postcard. 

8x10

Pen (Crowquill nib) and Ink

Another spread from the Ugly Unicorn project

Graphite and digital flats

Graphite and Digital flats

8x10

Tentative final colors

Humminghorse

Graphite

8x10

This will be colored as part of a promotional card. 

Elisabeth finally blew off enough homework to finish this.  Demolished two used HB pencils and ate through half of a brand-new one.  But look, it’s pretty! 

Thumbnails for an environment spread.  Elisabeth is a huge dork and is paying homage to C.S. Lewis’s space allegory, Perelandra. 

Slow going on the second spread—and not even for lack of time!  Miss Elisabeth barely had any work this weekend, and yet nothing got done.  Personally I think this is probably a rare sign of mental health, but the mistress seems to disagree with me—she’s over in the corner, muttering and throwing things about in disgruntled temper.  This graphite stuff is intense, slow-going, and liable to give her terminal carpal tunnels at some point in her life. 

Sketch spreads for The Ugly Unicorn.  Working on the final for the second one on my off time.