Jagged Little Pill

Our latest assignment for Bil Donovan required us to conceptualize an illustration for an article titled Mood-Altering Scarves. The text was pulled from New York Times Fashion Magazine. Julien David, a designer who apprenticed with the likes of Narciso Rodriguez, was about to debut his scarf collection for fall. The theme this season was artificial growth and all about gigantism. We had to showcase his pill scarf in an 'au courant' sort of way while managing to grab the viewers attention. Furthermore, we were limited to a monochromatic color scheme reflecting the fall season.

I've included in this post the final illustration painted in gouache, the rough rendered in colored pencil, and an image of my workspace during the creation of this project. Thought my readers might be interested to see where the creative process takes place. Never imagined I could get so much work done in such a small space :) I just submitted the project this morning and was absolutely blown away by my classmates work. I go to school with some of the most talented young illustrators around!! Too bad the scarf pills are fake, I could use a cold remedy. Hope you're all well and enjoy!!

Here is the link to the actual article from this summer:

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/now-prescribing-mood-altering-scarves/

Femme Fatale

Halloween is fast approaching and all of New York is abuzz with pop-up costume shops on every corner. It might be fair to say that New Yorkers love Halloween as much as they love Thanksgiving or Christmas. That suits me just fine because it also happens to be my favorite holiday. The gory window displays, bags of little chocolate bars, opportunity to play dress-up, what's not to love about Halloween? I chose to post my dynamic drawing project you see above as a tribute to the darkest, most moodiest time of year. Something about the expressions on the girls faces reminds me of film noir femme fatales.

I've included four photographs of the 20 x 30 illustration board to indicate the process I underwent to complete it. We started with an overlay of newsprint with the figures drawn loosely on it. They were then transferred to the board with led. After which we had to construct the figures with sharpie markers, by using our magazine references, and finding only circles, squares, and triangles in their shadows. It took 3 boxes of sharpie markers to complete this project. I don't think I stopped seeing geometric shapes in everything I looked at for days after it was completed. This was the first major project I did at FIT. Nice to see how far I've come. Enjoy!!

Harajuku Girls...

you got the wicked style. I like the way that you are, I am your biggest fan. - Gwen Stefani

For the last three weeks, my fashion illustration block has been preparing a poster design for an upcoming Japanese fashion show. Since the show will be featuring both the traditional Yukata kimono fashion, alongside the contemporary subculture Harajuku style, so too must our posters. Our incredible professor, Joe Denaro, has been coaxing our models every Friday into wearing the most outrageous ensembles (wigs, tutus, you name it) in order to inspire our class with ideas.

Coincidentally, the Museum at FIT happens to be showcasing an exhibit titled Japanese Fashion Now. We were brought there for further creative reference. I thought this post would be a fun opportunity to showcase the process of a typical assignment in our program. So much work goes on behind the scenes of each final piece you see here. If you happen to live in New York, or are visiting the city, the Japanese Fashion Now show is a must see. Stay tuned for the final poster and enjoy!!

Museum at FIT

27th and 7th

Manhattan, NY

http://fitnyc.edu/3662.asp

The French air strike may as well be another ash cloud to today’s business traveller

I’ve just read on Travel Mole (http://www.travelmole.com/stories/1144591.php) that Ryanair has been forced to cancel 250 flights today and British Airways passengers are being warned to expect delays and disruptions due to the air traffic control strike in France. Flybe has also cancelled a handful of services to Paris and half the flights to and from Paris Orly airport and one in three at Charles de Gaulle will no longer take to the air.

This strike is the fourth in just a month by French workers and has lead to Ryanair calling on the EU Commission to remove the 'right to strike' from air traffic controllers. But whether you support the strikers or not, and whether you think everyone deserves the right to strike or not, my thought for that day is please spare a thought for the people who are – now, anyway – left on the ground: the business travellers.

Whether it’s an ash cloud, a strike or a terrorist threat, it’s always the travellers who get caught in the middle and end up being the most inconvenienced. But the real question is how – or even can – this inconvenience be avoided or at the very least minimised? And the answer is, yes. One of the big lessons we learned following the ash cloud was companies with travel policies or with travel management companies were best able to track, manage and help their travellers to reach their final destination. 
David Chapple, event director

Blue Mosque

Topkapi Palace Tile References

Turkish Carpet References

Blue Mosque References

Class Drawings

Standing in front of Blue Mosque, I suddenly realize how many places I have yet to see, how many things I have yet to do. I've only just begun my journey...

I would like to use today's post as an opportunity to introduce my readers to a bit of my creative process. So far on Travel Write Draw I've only displayed my finished works. For me, however, the most exhilarating part of the creative process are all the steps leading up to completion. Generating ideas, pulling from my own travel experiences, is the real challenge. I have the tendency to use a lot of my own photographic references to make my work organic and true to me. The piece you see above was a homework assignment given to us by Bil Donovan. About a week ago, we were asked to draw several models in box compositions. We weren't told how many figures to include in each box. We also weren't told what we would do with them once they were drawn.

As it turns out, we were asked to compose them together in a photoshop file, incorporate a background environment, and pop the piece with no more than three neon colors. While drawing my model friend Tomo's headpiece, all I could think about was placing her in Istanbul. I visited Istanbul and other parts of Turkey in May 2009. Thus I had the perfect background, textile, and mosaic references to make this piece work. I drew directly from my photos of Blue Mosque and incorporated the prevalent blue and red color combination you see in several Turkish textiles and mosaics. A process that began deliberately with no direction ended in a piece that was true to me and to the beautiful city I visited. I hope this entry offers a little insight into the method behind my madness. Enjoy!!

Doll Factory

Alone she sat, waiting and wondering, when would she ever have the chance to become a real girl...

The painting you see here is one I completed for my color theory class. The dimensions are 20 x 30 and it was rendered in acrylic from my professor's fashion reference. Without question, no other painting has ever challenged me more than this one. It took over one month to complete and a lot of sweat and tears. It began with a simple sketch on illustration board, which was followed by undertones starting with blue in the background, purple in the middle-ground, and green in the foreground. This was done in order to produce depth.

We were then asked to paint from back to front beginning with blue tones and ending in true color. Every color had to be mixed with its complement. I felt like I was painting with Michelangelo during the Renaissance lol. In the end I feel a real sense of closeness with it. Something about the expression on her face and the lighting I find to be quite haunting. She reminds me of a porcelain doll with life in her eyes. It was such a pleasant surprise to find it hanging in the FIT illustration cabinet at the start of this semester. Sort of makes all the effort worth it. Enjoy!!

The Seven Year Itch

Bil Donovan, Dior Beauty's artist-in-residence and my brilliant professor at FIT, assigned us a spot illustration for an article titled All Smiles. The premise of the article was that ballet companies are suffering from an epidemic of flirtatious dancers. They simply cannot contain themselves. Our job was to render a conceptualized illustration that conveyed this message and captured the viewers attention (hence spot illustration).

When it came to referencing, I immediately began searching for images of the most iconic flirt imaginable Miss Marilyn Monroe. I wanted to integrate her now infamous skirt-blowing pose above the grate with a traditional ballet figure. The end result is what you see above. I really feel like the Marilyn reference came through. Sort of makes me want to run through the streets of New York in a white dress. Have a great day everyone!!