Illustration Friday-Phobia

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This is my entry for Illustration Friday's topic "phobia".

For this one, I painted a background in acrylic, collaged some paper over for the bottom portion, then cut out some photocopies of a snake and a bug from a clipart book and cemented them down with gel medium. Painted a frame over the edges. Scanned into Photoshop, applied a filter to give it slightly more graphic feel, and added the lettering with a blending mode. This was a quicker effort than usual. Created today, Friday, specifically for this challenge. I enjoyed the process, even though it was much quicker, more organic and more spontaneous than my usual modus operandai.

Feedback welcome!

Love

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I was inspired by wedding news!

I painted two hearts and cut one vertically and one horizontally and wove them together. Then painted a background which was a b&w printout of roses with a color wash painted over. Painted scraps for a frame. Tweaked in Photoshop till I was happy with it.

Feedback welcome.

Illustration Friday-Change

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This is my entry for IF's topic "change".

My process lately... Check for the topic on Friday. (Imagine that!) Consult the Dictionary/Thesaraus/Internet for a little research. The word "transformation" seemed important to me. I thought about the metamorphosis process that caterpillars go through. They struggle for while trying to get their basic needs met, then they go through a phase that sort of resembles death, then they reemerge with a a renewed life, renewed strength, and a renewed purpose. Perhaps it's trite. Frankly, I never thought I'd be drawing butterflies, damn it anyway. It just seemed appropropriate. For IF, and many real world jobs, I try not to over-impose my style, but to think about the concept and do something appropriate for the task at hand. For this concept, something clean and perhaps Asian-influenced seemed appropriate. What do you think about all this???

Oh, a little more, since people seem to like this. Once I decided on my theme, I went to Freehand where I thought about a composition. I decided on a triptych, to represent the three phases. I hacked out a composition that I liked. I knew I want things to start low on the left and then work upwards toward the right panel, to emphasize and upward movement. And I also wanted to go from sparse on the left to "fuller" on the right. Then, I researched and found some photos to help with the caterpillar and the butterfly. I went to my yard and broke off a couple of branches which I photographed. Then I pulled everything into Freehand and drew my lines and shapes. I thought about doing pen and ink, but did not. I might still try it. I scanned some cool paper for the back ground. I then brought everything into Photoshop to color and include my scanned paper texture.

One more thing. I never look at other entries until after I've done my artwork. Some of us odd folks find comfort in our little "rules".

I'd welcome any feedback. Try to be kind, but more importantly, be constructive! I can take it. It's part of improving.

Check out Gracie's illustration, she and I have nearly the exact same composition! Pretty cool. Her blog is here:
http://isaacgracelily.blogspot.com/2006/09/change-by-gracie.html

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Illustration Friday-Farm

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This is my entry for Illustration Friday's "farm" topic.

I decided that I wanted to try a collage style, forcing myself to do as much as I could NOT on the computer this time. I first thought of my composition. Then I did a pencil sketch of a cow with graphite. I painted a chicken with acrylic paint. I painted "farm rows" with watercolors. I actually painted two sets of rows. Then I cut one into vertical strips, and the second one into horizontal strips and wove them together for extra visual interest. I drew the carrots in Freehand, and ripped a paper strip for the earth behind the carrots. I scanned everything in separately and then recomposed things into my original composition. I added drop shadows in Photoshop to simulate a cut paper effect on the pieces, and ran a few filters on a few things.

This is unlike any previous illustrations I've done. I did this all today for the IF challenge.

I may come back and rework things for a different verision.

I'd love your feedback.

Illustration Friday-Safe

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This is my entry for Illustration Friday's "safe" theme.

Here are some powerful statistics:
There are 4.2 million porn sites (12% of total sites)
2.5 billion porn emails are sent daily
116, 000 daily searches for "child pornography"
20% of youths have received sexual solicitation
Average age of first internet porn exposure: 11 years old
40 million US adults regulary visit porn sites
10% of adults admit to internet sexual addiction
The porn business earns $57 billion worldwide

I got my stats here:
http://internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com/internet-pornography-statistics.html

Here is my Freehand file before I brought it into Photoshop...

All of my IF entries are original illustrations created for each challenge. No recycled art.

I'd love your feedback, good, bad or otherwise. I'm here to get better and grow.

I also just posted my very late entry for "opposites". So take a look if you have a minute.

Thanks for taking a look, and taking the time!