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.

Synergism projects

I took a class called "Synergism" which was basically a class where you combine more than one thing together to make your concept stronger. We did different assignments, a lot that didn't make sense at first but challenged us to brainstorm and think thoroughly to come up with a piece that was compelling! Here's my work.



Porcu-Sheep. We had to combine animals together that had a function. I figured a sheep could use protection from wolves by having porcupine quills. It also didn't hurt to put in an old lady using the wool and quills to knit. Needed that cute factor!


Kiwi dude.


This assignment was fun because we had to take a dictionary page and combine the words on that page into an illustration that made sense (kind of). So I wanted to have a flightless kiwi, and a flying kiwi. I also had words like kite, and kitchen that helped with the setting, and flying kite kiwi concept.



This was a sketch for an open assignment called "Connections".


I chose to illustrate the love connections that happen over the internet.


The assignment was to create an "Awesome Thingy" that would better the world. I chose to create machines that would help the economy and the environment, all in one go! The machines were supposed to resemble moneybags (kind of) and I researched the processes for making paper, coins, and plastic and simplified it inside the machines. The machines recycle paper for cash, cans for coins, and plastic for credit cards. It would be a great incentive for people to go green to get green.


Paper/Cash Machine


Metal/Coin Machine


Plastic/Credit Card Machine


This piece was a quick one. I chose to illustrate the possibility of cellphones giving you cancer. A month after I did this, new studies came out that it's actually TRUE! not that anyone will give up their cellphones, but whatever. Oh well! I'll be updating my thesis soon so watch out for that... and be careful with your cellphones!

Double Talk

This piece was from last semester and it's an editorial about Bilingualism! The article was about how people who speak two languages are awesome and that being bilingual benefits them in many ways. I wanted to show language without letters so I thought about shapes or as my teacher suggested "word turds". I thought about how German sounds very structured and rigid when spoken, hence the shapes on the left. When someone speaks French, it is fluid and pretty, which are the shapes on the right. The person can speak both so having two mouths and the language intertwining seemed fun! Here's the process. Enjoy!

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!

Long time no see

Hey everyone!
I'm not going to acknowledge the fact that I haven't posted in forever. I feel like junior year was great and I'm going to miss Advanced Media and Figure Painting because I learned a lot. Summer was fun in Miami- taking summer classes, working for a month as an office assistant and getting a CAR FINALLY!! Went to LA for a week and loved it. I also had my fair share of TV with Man vs. Food, Cake Boss, Ace of Cakes, Cupcake Wars, and DC Cupcakes. You know, a variety of things. I'm so excited for this year! Enjoy some stuff from last semester I finally updated :)


Balloon Boy Hoax editorial. This was a double page spread about how the parents wanted publicity and their own reality show and could care less about how they were exploiting their kids.


Song Reader Book Cover. The story is about this therapist in a small town who asks people what their favorite songs are. From there she can tell how they are truly feeling and can give them life advice based on that.


Open Assignment Editorial about a girl's reading preference. This is about a girl who is surrounded by superficial beauty and fashion magazines, but decides that she prefers to read the newspaper. It was a bitch cutting out all this stuff but the collage look is really cool.


This was for children's book illustration class last year! My story from creative writing in high school was the basis for the Lucy Mckay adventure. I was going through a phase of patterns and textures if you couldn't tell lol.


Man Pet Machine pen and ink. This is what I came up with for the infamous Advanced Illustration project Brandes gives out. I went the cutesy- children's book-Shel Silverstein route.


Linoleum cut of MIA. I had so much fun with this and we started the project the day before MIA's video for "Born Free" came out. Good thing Ron Weasley wasn't in town!


Linoleum cut of MIA with color. This took me forever to wipe the color out correctly. Printmaking is still awesome though.