Inspiration: Urban

Thumbnail

For this painting I used the inspiration word from Illustration Friday, "Urban". I decided to do a mock billboard for Visa. When I thought of "Urban" I thought of Hollywood. The billboard reader has 4 seconds to take in the concept of the billboard information. The Hollywood sign was a good concept for Visa/ the billboard as you look at it and can make your own thoughts from it; a trip or living your dreams. This image is my thumbnail for the billboard.

Painting the Sky

I illustrated my Hollywood sign and Visa logo on the illustration board. From there I painted both the text pieces with rubber cement. I did this so I could paint right over the text without actually colouring it. In this picture, I am painting the sky with Gouache paint.

Painting the Grass

Next, I started painting the grass. First I painted a wash of green over the entire bottom of the board. Then I took a rough sponge and created some texture to make it look more like grass.

Finished

After I painted the sky and grass, I removed the rubber cement over the text. Then I used a white gouache paint for the "Hollywood" sing. Then I mixed my paint with the colours of the Visa logo. After, I put some finishing touches on the painting by adding a thin black line on the sides of the text from the "Hollywood" sign. Just to make it pop a bit more. This is a picture of my finished billboard.

"Talent" Magazine Cover

First, I took a cute picture of my Jack Russell, Cricket.

Next, I created a water color painting in Adobe Photoshop CS5.5. To do this, I created three copies of the image. Then I used a series of brushes on each layer. I also set the layer mode on each layer to a different mode, so all the layers would show through. Thus, creating an image that resembles a water color painting.

Third, I placed my water color image into an 8.5in by 12in canvas on Photoshop (magazine size), and sized it accordingly. Then, I placed my vector title, I had created before in Adobe Illustrator CS5.5, and scaled it accordingly.

Next, I created more text in Illustrator and placed it at the top of my magazine, resembling an issue of this magazine. With this step, I also placed a date for the magazine issue and I placed a barcode at the bottom left of the cover, again, to resemble the cover I chose.

Last, I created some cover stories. I created the text in Illustrator. The one cover story "Congratulations Lori Smith Art Contest Winner!" was created to tie in the water color image to the magazine. I really like how the cover turned out and I had a lot of fun creating it!