Category: Editorial
Topic: Education - Robo-Readers Used to Grade Test Essays
Start Date: 4/24/12
Deadline: 4/28/12
This is just an all-around great article, fyi.
Hello! I'm Melanie, a freelance illustrator living in Denver with my dog, Violet, who often has things named after her without realizing it.
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Read how The Illustration Deadline works here.
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portfolio
flickr
-------- questions/comments:
contact me
-------- browse by category:
deadline details
finished work
process
friday finds
inspiration
other work
arrested development
browse by type of illo:
portrait
editorial
book cover
surface design
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deadline #36 - editorial - maurice sendak - finished!
(I finished this yesterday. I’ve had lots of drawing to do for a real-life assignment, that’s taken priority and kind of pushed my blog to the back-burner. But I won’t give this up! It’s been too good for me!!!)
This is sort of a combo deadline finisher - it works for my pikaland assignment #2 (combining what I know with what I love) and my maurice sendak illustration. I wanted to depict someone reading Where the Wild Things Are, and being cozy and happy and content. (Well, really my first idea was a girl crying and reading and eating the book, but I thought that is only borderline appropriate.) I also wanted lots of detail, as that’s been my goal for a while, and added patterns as much as I could. I’m fairly happy with the outcome - good not great. Some texture would be nice. As would a few shadows. Ooh, and a pattern on the chair. Whoo!
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deadline #36 - editorial - maurice sendak
Category: Editorial
Topic: Maurice Sendak and childhood - we ate it up, and we loved it
Start Date: 5/9/12
Deadline: 5/13/12
A quote from Maurice Sendak, as seen in many news articles and facebook feeds since Sendak passed away yesterday:
“Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters — sometimes very hastily — but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, “Dear Jim: I loved your card.” Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, “Jim loved your card so much he ate it.” That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.”
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deadline #32 - editorial - robo-readers grading essays - finished!
I didn’t know it until I started this illustration, but it’s always been a dream of mine to illustrate a robot grading papers. I even kept track of my process on this one!
First, I sketched my robot. I wanted him to be reading, I wanted the desk to be messy, and for there to be at least a few silly details. So, glasses sitting on the table for when he faces eye strain.
Next, I laid in the colors. I wanted the background to be subdued, and ended up liking the grays and going with it. The robot is now a C3PO copper.
I tightened up all the coloring and added details, like shadows, shininess on the robot, and the glasses.
I added some texture, just little bits because my coloring job has been in a water color-ish mood lately, which adds a lot of texture. I got rid of the little pencil I had had in the sketch because it wasn’t really doing much, and sticks out unless I add lots more little details. Done and done! What do you think?
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deadline #32 - editorial - robo-readers grading essays
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deadline #28 - editorial - suspending a campaign - Finished!
Something a bit more simple.
As I’ve been trying to do more lately, the whole piece happened in Photoshop, from the sketch to the finished work. I also tried to limit the palette a bit, and simplify shapes. I’m hoping some of the Santorum likeness came through, even with the erasure marks.
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deadline #28 - editorial - suspending a campaign
Category: Editorial
Topic: With Santorum out, what ‘suspending’ a campaign means
Start Date: 4/10/12
Deadline: 4/14/12
From msnbc, the big campaign news of the day.
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deadline #24 - editorial - the weird world of sports - FINISHED!
Success! This illustration took most of my Friday, which is not a bad way to spend a day if you ask me. Here are some close-ups of the super detailed piece:
I worked on the camera and mug first, since they were by far easier than the mini-scenes I needed to create. I’m very pleased that they look blocky but organic…if I’d tried to do this in Illustrator, they’d just be blocky. I like that waviness in the outlines, and how easy it is in Photoshop to add deatils.
The surfing dog is my favorite mini-scene. I wasn’t quite sure how I’d illustrate waves/water, but it turned out ok. And I can’t complain about a finished illo with a pink surfboard!
It is surprisingly easy to find pictures of underwater hockey players online, which is strange since I didn’t know the sport even existed until reading the article.
I’m really happy with how this new-ish technique (working start to finish in Photoshop) worked out. Is this the start of finding my own style? Could it be? Have I struck illustrative gold here? Also, is illustrative a word?
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deadline #24 - editorial - the weird world of sports
Category: Editorial
Topic: Sports - Sol Neelman’s Quest for Oddball Sports (nyt)
Start Date: 3/28/12
Deadline: 4/1/12
All the online newspapers I looked at had an article about the new overtime rules in football that were apparently just approved. This article looks way more exciting! And it will mean another chance to try out some of the new stuff I’ve been playing around with in Photoshop.
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deadline #20 - editorial - the real iPad inventor? - finished
Man, I need some new textures. I am getting sick of the ones I always seem to use. Whoops!
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deadline #20 - editorial - the real iPad inventor?
Category: Editorial
Topic: For tablet computer visionary Roger Fidler, a lot of what-ifs
Start Date: 3/12/12
Deadline: 3/16/12
Illustration #20! Very exciting. I mainly picked this one because it reminds me of the very first illustration I made for this blog, my Steve Jobs portrait.
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