art making "epiphany" 2013

So an overdue update: I finally graduated from Lesley University with an MA! Now I am waiting for the arrival of my degree while I prepare for the state licensure exams..

So why the "art epiphany"? I decided to explore the use of my water soluble color pencils and watercolors.

"Waltzing with Matilda" (2013)

Sketch of sugar skull owl (2013)

Final sugar skull owl birthday card in color (2013), including pen

Below here are observational paintings I made of two macadamia nuts in their final seed stage during my stay in Hawaii. During my visit to the Hawaii Village Plantation, the tour guide gave me the nuts that fell directly from their macadamia trees. Unfortunately, I am not allowed to bring them back due to the state's agricultural regulations. So I decided to paint them with the watercolor pencils. Each day, the shell's crack grew bigger as I left the nut(s) alone. Unfortunately, I did not have the chance to open the nuts. They are really hard to crack open! Hammers are required to get these little guys open. No wonder macadamia nuts are so expensive to buy in bulk. 

Day 1: Macadamia nut upclose

Day 2: Macadamia seed and core nut (2013)

Day 3: cracked shell and final nut (2013)

termination book part 2

Here are my final results from the Termination Book!

 To do a quick review (not sure if everyone will have the chance to look at the last post), I created this book for my individual client at my internship site. It just so happened that there are no such books to educate toddlers about saying goodbye (most are about attachment to objects or death), and my supervisor suggested creating a picture book for him. I tried to describe the sessions and the overall experiences in the images through the client's favorite things, which are motor vehicles (cars especially). I was inspired by a character design (Thanks, Putt-Putt! Please don't sue me, Humongous Entertainment), and I added my own twist to my design of a expressive vehicle.

Concept: Music Therapy truck makes sense, since we often have to carry and pack up huge bags of instruments for every sessions :P The little car was colored black-blue because his teachers reported his favorite color being black. For the use of fonts...pfft. I'm still learning! I used other fonts just to play around with the type of senses for the client to see.

I wish the book was made better, but with limited sources and time, I had to do what could be done. Perhaps I'll just print through Blurb next time for future copies. I'm not even sure why I put myself through these approaches...maybe authentic handmade-ness?

Medium: Derwent Inktense Colored Pencils with water
Edited with Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator.

Page 1

Page 2 

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Page 7 (skipped because text was added in the next page)

  

Page 8

Page 9

Page 10

Page 11

page 12

The book was created around 5" x 7" with matted pages. 

Front Cover (handcut quarter note)

Title Page

My client loved the little car. He wouldn't stop pointing at it the entire time we read it together :)

Now on to the next project... 

the art brain is ticking

Hi All! 

I am slowly rolling back to illustrating (since I just finished my Spring semester of my studies!). The upcoming projects I have now are: album cover design for a friend's band and creating a book about saying goodbye for a toddler client. 

I am posting up my sketches for a book because of the inspirational "spark" that started coming back. Thanks to a familiar PC-game character (Thanks, Putt-Putt), I was able to tie in the idea for my drawings.

 The explanation: as part of any therapy-related internship, terminating the session with a client is a necessity (especially if the time is not long term). I was trying to find a book about saying goodbye for children, but to my surprise, most of the "goodbyes" are about letting go of items (like pacifier) or saying bye as in to people dying. Morbid, huh? After a meeting with my supervisor, she advised me to create a book for my client. I thought about his favorite things, and one of them is cars. 

Without further ado, my sketches! (autotoned to show details of sketch)

sketches of the client car (the bottom right one is my favorite <3)

Sketches of the MT truck

The meeting 

The music making

musical drive of xylophone! 

The images will be colored in with colored pencils and scanned in for edits to format into a book. I got about... 3 or 4 more pages to sketch to wrap up the story. There won't be much fancywork done, since time is short (with planning the session and such).

More updates will be on the way soon :) - Mel 

Settle for Nothing Less

Hi,

It has been a long semester, and I finally got some time to upload the final results from the last project. I finished doing the digital illustration, and (after working out kinks on Adobe Illustrator) the logo. There are too many files floating around to organize, and the collection of colors should give you the idea of  choices used for the logo layout (since there were 6 different palettes used).

Dr. M. Nyantanga (author) will be releasing this book shortly! Keep your eyes out for the release!

The rest of the process work will be uploaded into the portfolio website. Right now, finals are not exactly the right time to work right into making changes and touches to the work.

Book Cover (Medium: Adobe Photoshop)

Color sketches for final logo design (also done in Adobe Photoshop)
*yes, I know the bottom hasn't been cropped.*

The logo (Medium: Adobe Illustrator)

...And that's the update so far with this part of my life.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving next week and stay warm for Black Friday!

Process of Book Cover #2 and illustrated logo

I have returned from my last weeks of vacation! I travelled off to Hawaii (O'ahu, no time for the other islands) and Saint John, New Brunswick. Well now that classes started... I have sketches to show from working with my client on her second book cover design, Settle for Nothing Less! I am not sure if I am allowed to release the summary, but I can tell you that it is continuing from the last book (that I also helped design) as a series! It included the strange emblem I made called Happy Boy.

She also requested a logo for me to make for her publishing company, Unilock Books (independent). I am already surprised at how much I manage to get finished, especially in the given time before the deadline this month. A lot of mishaps took place during the start, but I managed to catch up with what was needed to be completed. Note that using the Mail program on the Mac frequently is not always reliable 100%! Always double check the options before pressing "Send"!

This is what I am posting for tonight: early sketches (both logo and cover), rendering (bigger sketches), and color sketches (book cover only). The logo is still being worked on, and I may need some Graphic Design opinion on how the company name is rendered...Message me if you are willing to give some advice (professional please, NO trolls)! More on the way hopefully before I begin my internship!

THE EARLY STAGE

Drawn on a tiny sketchbook (3" x 5"), but not pursued in the desired direction 

Facing Happy Boy from behind

Facing Happy Boy in front of the house 

*THE CHOSEN SKETCH* Facing Happy Boy/Skies from the side view of the front porch

MIDWAY

Logo rendered as requested, but chain was too long. Right one was chosen

Rendered final sketch (requested to take out Happy Boy)

CLOSE TO THE FINAL 

Color sketch 1

Color sketch 2

Color sketch 3

Finalized color sketch (with some Photoshop editing)

Final logo image (Unilock Books is still in progress)

In ending this entry, I say never again will I EVER use water soluble colored pencils EVER again for  color sketches (especially for tight schedules)! It has been quite painful trying to get the desired colors and to deal with frustrations of watercolor paint/pencils!  I have not reach that stage of awesome to do it :/

I think I found my next image that I would love to work on...A NAUTILUS! :D If only there is more time...

New Name: Wanderlust Arts...issues with Illustrator

Hello~

I have decided on a new name for my freelance illustration :P It was random, and I just wanted to play some pun on my last name. Since Melody Wan is such a common name to use in email and everything else, I decided on "Wanderlust Arts" as the choice. I feel like its definition is suitable, especially in describing my own artistic journey. In that sense, I am always exploring new mediums and creations.

The logo was born from my doodling during my weekend intensive class. All I did was play around with the lines, and I liked how it looks. I want to define the lines better with Illustrator so it can look clean cut rather than uneven (as it can be seen in the sketch). I supposed the weird lily on the bottom formed "W" while the curls forms "M". So much for boredom, eh?

All I have to show is a rough sketch for my new logo, but I am quite frustrated with Illustrator right now. I was on the verge of creating strong connected lines, and the program crashed. After 2 hours of working on it non stop without the tablet. Ay the frustrations! I was trying to save every minute, but I guess my poor laptop does not have that much power to save anymore. And so the long road to reconnecting with Illustrator begins again.

Rough sketch of logo

I am supposed to be doing my final paper haha...

..but I just want to share my excitement of seeing my book cover image with the story itself now being sold through Amazon! This still feels strange for me, and I am quite glad that I took this opportunity to do it.

http://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Box-Dr-M-Nyatanga/dp/1463506813/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1312396748&sr=8-3

Ok Happy time is over, I must finish my academic work!