Graduated and happy.

Hi everybody! I'm home and graduated. Can you believe it?!

Unfortunately I'm out-of-range of a scanner or card-reader, but I'll post some photos of my grad show soon. It came together really nicely, and it was wonderful to work together with everyone to bring together such a successful show.

I have to say, I really lucked out with my space. I was honored to share an awesome room with Annie Wu, Babs Tarr, Alex Gracey, Bonnie Bladen, Jen Mussari, Michael Clayton, Lindsay Bolin, and Alyssa Nassner. They're all intensely talented, and I'm so glad to be counted among them as graduated from the 2010 MICA Illustration program!

As for me, I'm back in Sewickley, enjoying some down time while I search for jobs and unpack. Next week will be spent with John--I'm going to New Jersey for his graduation party. We're both very happy MICA graduates (although a long-distance relationship isn't our favorite thing), and we're looking forward to what the future holds!

The best of luck to the class of 2010!

The End of the MICA Chapter

Classes and finals are (essentially) over for me!

My plans for the next few days are:

-Hang the commencement show.
-Start packing.
-Attend a super-fun Victorian tea party.
-Go to a wedding! As a bridesmaid!
-GRADUATE!

I had my interview with Sarah Vinas, the art director of Glamour magazine, yesterday. Overall I think it went well! I was a little intimidated at first, but she proved to be really personable (but professional), and she offered some good advice--some which I'd heard from others, but that's normal. My biggest concern (and don't I know it)is settling on a style/media/vision. I need to focus myself. This summer will be an excellent time to explore that, so I'm looking forward to it. :) So, Sarah offered to e-mail me with a few references for people/places that could potentially be interested it my work, and offered to be a contact for me (which was very generous). Successful, I think!

Oh my gosh, here comes real life!

Old People are Cute, Part Two

Here are the finished pieces for my final! My professor for this class says these drawings are a real breakthrough for me. Yay!




(These pieces have to be posted at 72 dpi--they won't post correctly at full size! Sorry!)

My (very interim) portfolio site.

http://alyssadevlinart.carbonmade.com

Old People are Cute. :)

Here's an update on some inked sketches for a final!

The theme is the Seven Deadly Sins and their corresponding Virtues--I chose 'Invidia' (Envy) and 'Humanitas' (Kindness). I was the only person in my class to pick that pair! Which is sort of nice--no comparing imagery (or skill!).

The nice grandpa is based on my own. :) My Mom's dad--both of my dad's parents died before I really knew them.

Hope you guys aren't dying from finals!

-A.

Some older art that is dear to my heart. (It wasn't meant to rhyme, really!)

I invented Melvin Bloo shortly before I started at MICA. I'm not exactly sure how I stumbled upon him--my next-door neighbor, an interior designer, was talking about paint colors, and I think we might have been talking about what goes into naming colors, and I called out Melvin Blue offhand as a joke. She loved that and asked me to draw what Melvin Blue would look like, so I did. He was a bit skinnier then (which my mom and sister prefer), but I like the big blue boulder he became (I subsequently changed his name to Melvin 'Bloo'). :)

(I'm pretty sure the last panel of the third comic is the most depressing thing I've ever drawn.)

His friends in the three comics below (which I drew sophomore year for a book/sequential assignment) are Sherwin (Melvin's periwinkle dog), Taylor (the red one--although I never thought up a satisfactory 'red' last name for him.), Sandy Brown (the love interest with a Cat named Queso, as you might have read), and the bully Buster Black (POKE).

My mom has always encouraged me to market Melvin and my other original character (more on him in the next paragraph), which sounds like it would be really fun, should I get enough money together to print tee shirts and hats and promote them. Who knows?!

I must say that Melvin is my most sympathetic character. He was the second original character I came up with (the first was Ug, a caveman with the Barbie-like talent of being able to wear and be anything) and therefore the more sophisticated. His friends didn't exist until I made the book, but I find I like the newer characters just as much! :) I hope you like him!

-A.

Some final pieces!

Updated from here.

Not too bad considering this was my first time using a tablet/layers/Photoshop since that brief semester of EMAC in Freshman year. Overall I'm pleased (I especially like the pipes behind Welder Lady), but I'm still working on making things look the way I want them to. Digital media is easy and clean, but it's difficult to come in knowing almost nothing. :/ But I am learning, and I'm confident that a little more playing around is just what I need.