Senior Thesis Project at Ringling

So it took a while for me to find the time to upload this, but I can finally show you my Illustration Senior Thesis!

my display

me hanging out with my thesis

To quote my artist statement, "For my senior thesis project, I created editorial illustrations based on articles that dealt with psychological issues such as interpersonal relationships, personality, happiness, confidence and willpower. I took the main idea of the article and created a simple image for the viewer to think about and possibly reflect on how it relates to them. Psychology is an important subject because everyone is on a path of self-discovery, and understanding why I am the way I am or why people act the way they do is an enriching part of life."

It was such a great/grueling learning experience. Since I put this update off for about 2 months and I'm looking at my thesis with fresh eyes; I'm truly proud of what I did. Enjoy.

“Together Alone”
Original Dimensions-13 x 15 in
Acrylic and Photoshop

This image is about how technology has negatively affected relationships and how we are losing the desire to interact with others in real life because we are hooked to the internet.


“Food Addiction: Ice Cream”
Original Dimensions-13 x 17 in
Acrylic and Photoshop

This image is about how food addiction is just as bad as drug addiction.


“Food Addiction: Donuts”
Original Dimensions-13 x 17 in
Acrylic and Photoshop

This image is about how food addiction is just as bad as drug addiction.


"How Optimists and Pessimists View Their Worlds”
Photoshop

This image is about the different viewpoints an optimist and pessimist have when overcoming an obstacle. The pessimist can only see the roadblock while the optimist sees the potential after.


“Spreading Happiness”
Photoshop

This image is about how easy it is to spread happiness. A mundane commute becomes a great start to the morning all because of a clown nose.


“How Failure Makes You Stronger”
Photoshop

This image is about how a person who dealt with the weight of failed relationships is able to be strong in her new relationship.

2010 work- First Project

Heyyyyyy,

So I guess I've been hiatus. Last semester we had a bunch of open assignments and I varied them to tailor different styles/portfolios. I realized that I couldn't decide on one style (not because I'm indecisive, I just don't want to limit myself) so I pinned down my styles to Editorial, Cutesy, and Creative. I'll be updating this with last semester stuff in the next few days... I PROMISE!

My first project was an editorial based on an article in Psychology Today. It was about how introverts aren't necessarily antisocial, but like to reflect and organize their thoughts. A nice quote from it was "Introverts are collectors of thoughts and solitude is where the collection is curated and rearranged to make sense of the present and future." Here is some process work.


Thumbnails


More thumbnails


Revised thumbs


Tight line


Value studies


Color studies


Final!!


I was really happy with how this turned out. Even though some people mention it looks like her guts, I wanted to convey her brain and how she "organizes" her thoughts into brain-like containers. Puzzle pieces would have been to obvious. Hooray for conceptual thinking!

Throwback Junior year Illustration

This is some work from Junior year. I realize I like primary color schemes a little too much lol. It was a busy year and I was able to get some great work for my portfolio.


Remember this first doodle? Well she turned into the next two pieces!


My pretentious girl character sheet. Her name is Michéle and she is a recent NYU drop out who first came here from France. She felt she was too good for school. She's was inspired by all the cool hip art students I've come across.


Her favorite spot to judge people who pass by.


This assignment was to create a poster for a job. My job was sheep shearing and my teacher suggested I have the text sheared into him.



Sheep Shearer final. During critique classmates thought he was in a bubble bath lol. I was having a pattern/ texture phase last year so I spent about 1 hour drawing those swirly circles. The piece is about 20 in by 30 in so my hand was tired. Acrylic and color pencil.



This was an assignment to create a series where our pieces had to be develop from monochromatic to complementary to triad. The subject matter was self consciousness among women and their body image. I wanted to focus on those parts they try to hide and use color to glorify them because women are beautiful yo! Acrylic on 16 by 16 in canvases.

This was a sketch about a femme fatale and her relationship with her loser dancing partner.They are using each other to get something they want. She uses her boobs to get to his wallet. Ain't that the truth. The final wasn't great, but the line drawing is cool.


This was in advanced media and the theme was fantasy/ folktale. This cute satyr is just chilling with other kids during lunch and no one cares that he's different. yay!


Portrait I did of my friend Lindsay. Oil is awesome.

summer lovingg

vasup? i've applied to lots of places but no one is hiring. i caught up on sleep in may and have been recently waking up at 9 or 10 instead of 1 or 2. i've read, cleaned, worked out, eaten healthy, practiced driving and more. i need a 21 year old to drive with me as a practice, but all the ones i know want to nap until dark so i'm kinda screwed. i made a list of goals for the summer and i'm slowly checking them off. selling shit on ebay ain't easy. i've seen some friends and i want to see more. being alone at home is letting me grow a lot. i want to get out and not be such a lazy lazy. my second cousin wants me to illustrate her children's books which is cool since i'm taking the class in fall now. watched singing in the rain, rocky 1 and 2 and i can't believe i've been missing out. gotta watch more classics! i also need a new sketchbook really badly since i finished my yellow one already.

anyways here's some stuff i should have posted months ago! some stuff is missing/ someone gessoed over it/ haven't been able to photograph.

from illustration media:
had to draw any fish of our choice in pen and ink. i chose an veiltail fish and combined two photos.

scratchboard of a ram.

oil rub technique of amy winehouse. we had to chose any famous person and put something in the illustration that summed up their accomplishments. i thought the old jazz microphone was classier than a crack pipe.

watercolor portrait of our classmate.

watercolor still life of an umbrella

watercolor still life of mr. brandes' scooter.

had to make up a cacaroach off the top of our head.

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watercolor of my favorite candy, m&ms

acrylic paint of "every hair on the dog" technique, i chose a fox.

illustration 1:

extreme realism assignment of an object with a box that would fit the object. i call this one.. flashlight.

spring break graphic advertisement for fun in the sun! using 3 classmates and crazy foliage.

tattoo assignment where we had to use symbols and research to convey the meaning of our word. Mine was wisdom.

self portrait opposite assignment. I had to use medium, color, objects, layout, etc. to convey "comfortable"

self portrait opposite assignment. had to convey the opposite of "comfortable" which was "stingy".

pieces of pieces

I recently completed a 12 piece series for Ms. Cooper's painting class, and I chose to paint things I have broken in my lifetime. It was funny looking back and it kept me interested (I'll put pics up later). This was a continuation of what I focused on senior year of high school..

I've had this concept of feeling incomplete and breaking away into pieces since sophomore year of high school. It started with my "Alzheimer's triptych" showing some old guy(Lou Reed) losing his mind/memory, literally. I liked showing the physical pieces representing as emotional pieces.

Alzheimer's Triptych - 22 x 38 in Acrylic on Paper

That continued to these "Self confidence" pieces where a girl rips away the ugliness to shine through her inner beauty. It's sorta gruesome to think of, but representing them without blood, gore and METAL keep them somewhat sophisticated.

Ripped 1 - 20 x 26 in Charcoal and White Conte

Ripped 2 - 20 x 26 in Charcoal and White Conte

Over the summer going onto senior year, all the seniors went for a month back to school to produce work for college auditions, like a head start. I chose to continue with the concept and came up with 3 self portraits. I felt really boring and wanted to be more open and confident. I wanted to break free of my self conciousness and just be myself. SOO I produced 3 portraits of me letting go of my inhabitions and bad feelings. Doing them made me feel a lot better. I also got to explore color! woo

Breaking Free Self-Portrait/ 22 x 24 inches Acrylic on Canvas

Letting Go Self-Portrait/22 x 24 inches Acrylic on Canvas

Falling Apart Self-Portrait/ 22 x 24 inches Acrylic on Canvas

I feel like the self-portraits are my strongest pieces. I had to continue though, so I did portraits of my friends breaking apart too! They had fun.

Blowing Away- 22 x 26 inches Acrylic on paper

Falling Apart 2- 26 x 32 inches Acrylic on canvas

Facing your pieces - 26 x 32 inches Acrylic on canvas

Pick up the pieces- 22 x 28 inches Acrylic on Canvas

I took traditional photo senior year, and to coincide with making my portfolio for college, I did more! This was supposed to be for a show called Progressions. I got the idea to make a story of peacefulness, to oH SHIT IM BREAKING APART. It has some of my quirkiness that isn't seen in the other ones

Progression- 12 x 22 inches Photo Installation

After seeing a Dash (another design school in Miami) senior show, I was inspired to do more installation work and have things coming out and displayed 3D.

Change of Scenery - 36 x 6 Digital Photo Installation.

To continue, I thought it would be cool to have photos of someone doing something, and then the photo being manipulated. Melissa has a lighter and the photo has been burnt With Jacob, he is cutting with scissors and look at that there are pieces where he cut! I miss being such a smart ass.

Burn away- 8 x 10 inches Digital Photo Installation

Cut Away- 8 x 10 inches Digital Installation

I'm really proud of my work in senior year of high school. It was a big part in helping me express myself. The Ringling guy who interviewed me saw my work and said I should go into Fine Arts. I want to minor in it because I don't want to lose that side of me. Part of me feels like I've improved in certain things here but I should really push myself to keep thinking and not just do technically good work. I want to have awesome concepts and keep going though I'm not sure which teachers can help me do that. I have time .

-Kristen


PS. I'll put up my college work soon! :P