Teachers, Classes, and Projects, Oh my!

     Hi again! I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted new work, so I’m using this post to discuss some of the courses I’m currently in and the great professors who are teaching. The department I am in has acquired a new full time staff member who was a Detroit native, and I’m very thrilled to have him for one of my studio courses this semester. He teaches a few classes currently, but the one I am taking is Intermediate Digital Illustration. This course allows us to combine both digital and traditional media to create compelling images. The instructor for this course is a great illustrator, Francis Vallejo (you can check out his work here). He graduated from Ringling and has been teaching for a few years, but he’s now moved back to Detroit to teach at CCS.

     I appreciate his encouragement for us to experiment with our work and just have fun with it. We’ve done a few smaller assignments so far, but I’ve already learned so much about digital manipulation. The first few dealt with retouching our own work and cleaning it up in Photoshop to make a high quality digital version of the traditional piece. The next project dealt with using one of the previous pieces and flat coloring it in Photoshop, a technique normally used for coloring comics. I’m not into entertainment illustration very much, but I loved learning this technique. It really brings the original black and white inked piece to life. The other image shown is just a quick digital painting study from reference (and gives you a peek of my studio setup!).

Poster design using flat coloring, and a digital painting study on Photoshop.

   
     My other two studio courses are taught by the same instructor, Dave Chow. He is popularly known in the story boarding industry and for logo design. In addition to him being my teacher, he is also my mentor. I’m taking my Junior Studio and Retail Illustration courses with him, and have been very pleased with where his assignments have taken me so far. In studio I have been working on branding for a fictional punk rock band, the Skittish Sphynx. So far I’ve done a logo, album cover, and band poster. In my Retail class, I have done a beer label design that was inspired by Alice in Wonderland and glows under black light! Definitely a beer for the club scene. I also have been working on hotel toiletries based off of Bates Motel. I will have better photos to show of these assignments in the coming weeks so stay tuned for them. Overall I am having a wonderful experience this semester, and I’m excited to share it with you!

"Drink Me" beer bottle label design for my Retail Illustration class. 

Preliminary sketches for the Bates Motel toiletries.

Until next time,
Rachel