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!

Printmaking work

So I took a printmaking elective in the fall and I wanted to show some of the work I did. It was a really nice class to keep my creativity flowing since you could do whatever you wanted and didn't have to worry about it looking pretty. Printmaking would be fun to continue if it wasn't such a hassle to have a good facility available out of school. Oh well, at least I have this work. Enjoy!

Color print - Sheep

Etching- Pensativa Blue (Pensive girl)

Etching- Pensativa Black

Aquatint/Etching - Brick wall

Sketches of flowers for my monotypes

Sketch of chica for my monotypes. I did the same image of the girl but with different flowers in her hair. Wanted it to be feminine and latin ;)

Chica Bonita Oleander - monotype

Chica Bonita Jacob's ladder flower - monotype

Chica Bonita Sunflower - monotype

Chica Bonita Orchid - monotype

Chica Bonita Magnolia - monotype

Chica Bonita flower series


sketch for woodcut!

Woodcut- Femme Fatale

sketch for last piece

Linoleum cut- Hedgehog . This eventually became my business card image :)

Intro to Web Work- CSS, Coding, and Cool sites

So last semester I took Intro to Web which is an open elective GIC class. It was really fun learning Dreamweaver and coding because it reminded me of my old myspace days and learning what code to put in to change my background color. I made 5 sites and we had to compile them in a final site which is http://webspace.ringling.edu/~kcruz/ if you're interested in seeing them online and in action!! My first few sites suck but it was fun once I got the hang of it.

This is the main page with the highlighted hover action.


My first site! ughh so bad lol.

My second site! so bad yet so cute because of my cat Sushi.


This is 3rd site, a mock music site.


This my portfolio site, the final site I made.


My favorite site was an informative site about an simple object that we picked. I chose glasses but wanted to explore them in a fashion timeline. I made all the icons/patterns and picked colors that reflected each time period. Here are some screen caps it.

Glasses vectors

Objects from the different eras.

Main page

Bifocal page


Cat Eye page

Hipster page

All 9 pages together


Hope you enjoy!!

Cappuccino Pillow

So after doing two editorials, I decided I wanted to have work for my "cutesy" portfolio. I wanted to do a pillow design and make it by hand with a cute image on one side, and a pattern on the other side. I found out that Michael's has fabric paper that can be printed on so I printed them in the labs, and tried sewing them the night before my critique at the 3d labs where there are sewing machines. OF COURSE they weren't working and I ended up going to a friend's house to sew it together by hand. Then I slightly ironed it to flatten the top but the ink mushed away. I don't have a picture of the pillow but it was 5 inch by 5 inches and it was too cute for words.

My teacher was confused because he thought with the coloring and style that this pillow was for kids, but kids don't drink coffee. I told him it was for Urban Outfitter type store where grown ass people drool over cute plushies (me being one of them). I changed the colors from pastels to more vibrant ones which is what is here now. So enjoy! and maybe I'll make the pillow again one day!

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!