Occupy Your Heart

This here is my piece for December's theme "Occupy" It's about the way grief occupies your heart and how it pokes through into daily life even when you think you've locked it away.

Cheers,

Jacquie

December's Theme: Occupy

Hi Folks,

December's Theme comes courtesy of Kat Verwhoeven and it is "Occupy".

Good luck and get crackin'

Cheers,

Jacquie

Freak Show :Final

For this months theme I decided to focus on bullying and being a "freak" in high school. I was certainly considered that way. The base image is a school picture of me from high school grade 9 or 10. I did receive all of those insults and more during my stint in the public school system. That ugly bitch is a person too, treat them with the respect they deserve. If you're going through that, promise high school WILL end and things will get better, hang in there.

Cheers,

Jacquie

Game Over

My super late illustration for "Childhood Memories" (ballpoint pen)...

Irva

November Theme: Freak Show

Hi All,

This month's theme is "freak Show" and whatever that means to you. Is it that goofy kid with big ears you used to pick on? Were you that freak show? Tattooed lady anyone? Happy sketching :)

Cheers,

Jacquie

Sea Witch

A bit late for October, sorry about that! Cheers, have a sea witch!

You're DEAD to Me

 

'Day of the Dead' cover illustration. You can't really do 'Day of the Dead' without using decorative sugar skulls. I did a couple bound by rope (just like marriage in a way). The wife in this scenario is the "boss" holding a knife. 

Happy Halloween everyone! 

Mictecacihuatl - Final

Happy Halloween folks!

Cheers,

Jacquie

Mictecacihuatl - Sketch

This is my sketch for October, she is the Aztec Goddess of Death. Her role is to keep watch over the bones of the dead. This was really fun to sketch. She's a bit tight in that narrow composition, so I might scale her down.

Cheers,

Jacquie

October Theme: Gods, Ghouls, Ghosts and Demons

Hi all!

Well last month was a bit dead, but here we are with an exciting October theme.

Gods, Ghouls, Ghosts and Demons

Run, go make something creepy!

Childhood Memories: Friends are for suckers

I wore some pretty bad-ass stuff in the 90s. Sorry it's a bit late, this has been the most insane month.

Cheers,

Jacquie

Summer Reading II

Summer Reading II (18x24, acrylic on board)

Hello everyone!

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to scan my work so pardon the awful photograph... But this is my contribution to the "Sweat" show running until this Thursday, August 4th. Come by this Thursday for the closing reception if you can! See www.ozstudios.ca and the Facebook invite for more information.

This illustration was painted in acrylic. I wanted to do something that celebrated the beauty of outdoor reading, summertime and the combination of both. I've been playing with the idea of rendering flat patterns in a three-dimensional setting, and then finding a balance between the two. I think it's something I'll be doing for awhile.

Cheers,

Chelsea

August Topic

Hi all!

So the topic I decided on for this month is Childhood Memories.

Hope you have fun with it!

Night Sweats

This was one of my contributions to the Sweat show. It's about those cold sweats you get at night when you have nightmares or a fever. Hope you all are having a great summer! Be sure to come down to see the show which is on until the 4th of August at Oz Studios.

Cheers,

Jacquie

Sweat from your Brow

This is my contribution to the SWEAT show, which is still on for another week. I really wanted to get into the idea of sweat as the product of hard work. I've also been thinking about money, and money coming from hard work lately, so the idea came very naturally this time. The other piece I did for the show is more of an Atlas character, whose money is a burden. You have both of the sweaty sides of money here...

1.Twins, 2. Honeymoon

Twins | 16x20"| Acrylic on Wood

Honeymoon | 4x6" | Acrylic Ink & Digital

Hello guys!!!

I'm really glad to take a part in this illustration project, and I'm so happy that i can share some works/ideas with you guys even in here, Seoul! YAY!

These two illustrations are very straight forward- SUMMER TIME!
(well, floral patterned clothing and bananas are some of my favorite subjects that I'm really into these days)

Hope you enjoy it!

Sweatstache

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer! My submission for July is Sweatstache. With frequent heat waves hitting Toronto, sweatstaches are looking more and more attractive don't you think? Especially on people like this ;)

Stay cool,

Sam

Naughtical

So here it is, topic for July/Sweat show piece. I just wanted to do a fun, sexy, summer piece. There's nothing more awesome then bombshell sailor girls with nice butts. I ended up going for more of a vintage postcard feel to the piece. Enjoy!

July Topic

Hello everyone!

It's July so it's time for this month's topic.
For those who don't know, the illustrators of the Project and other very talented artists will be part of "Sweat," a summer art show opening next Friday, the 15th at 6PM.
So I thought that amidst all the chaos of organizing and preparing for the show, why not pick a topic that would allow us to showcase our work from the show?

So here it is folks, SWEAT will be the topic this month.
The following entries will be sneak peeks to the show. If you want to see them in person, come by Oz Studio. For details, visit the NEWS section of the blog.
It's going to be so good.

Cheers,

Chelsea

Freedom

Hello! I'm a new contributor to Illustration Project. I'm very happy to be taking part, I've been admiring everyone's work from afar for a while now. Forgive me as I catch up to speed! I didn't realize that sketches are part of the process. I'll make sure to include them next time. In the meanwhile, here is my 'Freedom is out of Fashion'. In this case, I think it's a good illustration of a piece that ran away from me a bit...

My idea centered around our freedom to vote, and how the polls seem more and more desolate with each passing election. More of an American feel in this than I had originally intended to portray...

Freedom is out of Fashion

This is my submission for June's topic "freedom is out of fashion." Sorry I skipped the sketch but in a way this image was very much a straight to final from brain (mostly because this month has also been nuts, not because that's good form). My thought was of "ornamental animals" like fish in a pond or birds in a cage that are kept more for decoration then companionship. This also occurs with exotic pets, when having a certain animal is "all the rage." I'd love to hear what you think. This is not the only colour combination but I haven't gotten around to printing the other set.

Cheers,

Jacquie

Sketch of "Twitter birds"

So here are some sketches for this month's topic, "Freedom is out of fashion."
It's about how we choose to be chained to our social media devices because it's the fashion to constantly update our Twitter, Facebook, and so on.

I kind of like the second sketch better because it exaggerates the amount of tweeting, and even with one eye, he is still engrossed in updating his tweets on his phone. And if you're wondering what the graphic is on his shirt, it's a silhouette of binoculars. It's a birdwatching shirt. I thought it would be a funny addition to the illustration. Fellow bloggers, what do you think?

Cheers,

Chelsea

Put Your Best Face Forward

This piece is for May's topic 'Face Forward'.

I found an article about online dating and how the profile pictures people choose to post tend to misrepresent them (in regards to either appearance or personality). So on that note, I decided to illustrate a pigeon that's trying to be fancy by attaching a peacock tail to himself. I thought this was pretty funny, hopefully you do as well :)

Oh my god, it's JUNE already!!!

If you aren't busy going out and soaking up some sun, then I guess you have no excuse but to work on some new art...

This month's theme is "Freedom is out of Fashion".

Have fun! Try not to be a procrastinator like myself, I haven't been posting up any work...lol

No Hard Feelings

Hey guys! Here it is, my final piece. I have to admit this was a hard piece to do. So many men to sculpt, dress, paint and add hair too. Even the shooting processes was tricky, I had to position all the men so that the ties all show up, since they're the main concern in this concept (ties represent penis's) - it is a metaphorical piece of course. I just wanted to create a pattern type piece with a little comedy. The colour palette is different from what I normally use. The skin on these guys is in fact grey and not desaturated on photoshop. All the colors are as you see them in the image. Hope you guys like it.

Kira

Facing Forward

Sorry I've been so slow to update this month. I really wasn't sure what to do with this piece. I couldn't decide which version I liked more. Let me know what you think!

Cheers,

Jacquie

May Sketch

I had wanted to do this piece for a while and figured I could do it under the May topic, it works. It's about ED or erectile dysfunction, using the ties metaphorically as each man's penis. It's more or less a visual pattern piece, I'm going to try a different color combination than my usual for this one, hoping it works out. It'll be a limited color palette since there's so many people in this piece. Let me know if you have any thoughts, already started sculpting the faces.

Kira

Topic For May

Hey everyone!

It's really great to see your work from lasts month's theme! Never have there been so many sloths sleuthing.

This month's theme is "Facing Forwards" and whatever that means to you. Go nuts! Don't get stuck on a literal depiction.

Cheers,

Jacquie

Super slow, super serious

It was down to the wire but I made it on time!

I used this months topic to pay tribute to the amazing pulp cover style.

The sketch is mixed media and it was finished up with digital colour.

I used a less finished quality of line work to give the piece a more retro feel. I hope everyone had fun with the topic. The work so far has been fantastic.

Madonna and the Sloth Child

Here's the final piece for this month, done digitally because I just couldn't find the right piece of soft cut to carve it in. Let me know what you think!

Cheers,

Jacquie

Sloth and Kate

 

Kate, this one's for you!

There's no concept really. It's a portrait of our dear Kate and a three-toed sloth.

Fruit, check. Table, check. Sloth, check. Knitted sweater, check. Intense emotion, check... I think.

Does the sloth's mischievous smile count? Or is it the disappointment in Kate's face?

Chelsea

April Sketch

So here's my submission for April, with the requisite randomness, the extreme expression is piety. It's sort of a pun on how we happily, blindly raise very lazy children. Let me know what you think.

Cheers,

Jacquie

Emoticon Love Letter

So here is my final for the previous month. As mentioned before it's a a play on the idea of reducing love letters to simple emoticons.

TOPIC FOR APRIL

What I have planned for us this month is gonna be a little bit of a creative conundrum. The concept and subject of the piece is completely up to you. However, your final piece must include...

One fruit or vegetable

One piece of furniture

One three toed sloth

Some type of fabric must be represented (clothes, drapery whatever)

One intense emotion must be depicted/portrayed

Make sense of the randomness.

Feel free to add or represent anything you want just ensure the final image includes the five things listed above. I can't wait to see what percolates inside those lovely brains of yours.

Have fun ladies!

Kate

EMOTICON

These are meant to be little spot illustrations. I had other ones I wanted to add to the series but I ran out of time and interest. One was "The Birth of Venus" doing this ; D another was "The Scream" doing this : O.

Great topic by Sam. Can't wait to see everyone's work!

Emoticonputer

Yipee all done! It's changed a lot since my sketch, but I think it's working quite nicely! I think a universal new keyboard is a nice step in the right direction, to achieving better email etiquette :D Cheers!

Sam

TEAM SHEEN piece complete!

I really wanted to do a Charlie Sheen piece while he's current and all over the place. I did still relate it to theme for this month "emoticon," which is why he has that expression  ( :P ). It goes with both his character and the theme. I had a blast doing this piece and am totally happy with the outcome. I think this  is one of my best works. Hope you all enjoy :D

You can see my process work on [my blog] as well as the final work on my [site]

I'll have you know I worked hard on this one, but it was a pleasure.

Kira Shaimanova

face-to-face

This is my final piece for the "emoticon" theme. I wanted to show how we are missing the gestures and all the other important communication tools that come from face-to-face interaction.

This was done with a soft lino block of questionable origins, ink and photoshop. The yellow is actually gold ink, which looks much cooler in person.

Cheers,

Jacquie

Emoticon Letter

So what I basically took away from this article is that there is a lot of misinterpretation that goes with communication through writing. Which I sometimes feel is the result of lack of detail in the writing, or replacing an emoticon with what a person wanted to say and assuming the other gets the exact meaning of it.

In any case, my concept has to do with those old Dutch paintings where a wife is reading a letter from the husband who's away (symbolized by the painting on the wall) (remember Frances Brown's class?) Basically I wanted to play on that idea and change the letter from a loved one into a simple emoticon that represents love, yet without the romantic gesture. 

Emoticonputer Sketch

Looking great everyone! Hope my piece is up to par with everyone else :)
Anyone who's had an online conversation with me knows I'm a sucker for emoticons! They are very valuable emotional cues that may seem immature, but can easily send a powerful message and sometimes tip the scale between a friendly message and a nasty one. Like the article says we have a natural tenancy to read emails with a negative tone of voice, so my solution is to create a universal new keyboard fully equipped with all the emoticons and emotional abbreviations you'll ever need so you'll never accidently piss off your boss, spouse, or grandmother ever again :D


This is where I need your expert advice. What do you think about the position, gesture, and scale of the hands? I'm thinking I should crop into the keyboard more so you can clearly read the emoticons. And if you can suggest more emoticons and abbreviations so I may fill up all the keys that would be great!


Cheers,
Sam :) 

Emoticon Portraits

This is a great topic by Sam Singh!

Immediately, I pictured people with emoticon faces. As in the article about email etiquette, we sometimes rely on emoticons to relay a feeling that we cannot impress in words. But is it because emoticons are convenient, and words take too long to edit and arrange? Emoticons are a part of a universal language spoken in the virtual boundaries of email, chat rooms and other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. A single emoticon can communicate more than one meaning. ;p (the winky face) can easily follow: "I think you're a babe, ;p" or "You're too young for me, ;p". These emoticons are multi-functional! But when something is so versatile, it can be generalized and a specific notion is lost. Really, you miss out on sharing something personal like how great your day is when all you post is :). I'm not hating, I'm just pointing it out. I use emoticons, too. :p, like there.

I am going to do a series of portraits of different people (maybe 9 or 12). But instead of capturing the physical features that identify our distinctiveness, faces will be simplified to convey a universal emotion. I'm thinking of doing them in pencil and acrylic...

And lastly, here's an excellent emoticon illustration I found online today.

It's an Emoticon Love Story (by Miss Tal).

http://www.miss-tal.com/show.php?name=heart-story

:S

This is really fast, sorry it looks rushed but I'm about to go to work. What I'm gonna do is a series of little spot illustrations.

My concept is to take famous paintings and portray them through emoticons.

I suppose I could say it's a commentary on modern societies inability to adequately portray emotion. Also that an increase in technological capabilities has led to a decrease in traditional ability within the art community.

Mostly I thought it was funny...

I'll post some refined roughs in a few days.

Emoticon -Sketch

This is my sketch for the emoticon or ":S" theme. I wanted to show how little our text based relations convey. There's so much missing from them, even from phone conversations, but for many of us it is the only contact we have with some of the people in our lives. Increasingly, it's also the favored way of communicating. I remember seeing a guide to using the phone that was released right after it became a popular house hold item. it had sort of schematic and cheesy illustrations. That's what I thinking of when I was drawing this sketch, so some of that may have come through. Let me know what you think. It will be rendered in a print.

Cheers,

Jacquie

Sketch for "emoticon" theme

So I guess I'm the first with my sketch up! This is Charlie Sheen if you haven't guessed with the whole "winning!" banner. His face is supposed to be the "tongue" emoticon expression. Anywho, he used to play baseball in the past and starred in 2 baseball movies also, so baseball is still related to Charlie even if it's not in the current moment. I thought it totally works with his "winning!" phrase - relating it to a game and putting him on his own team "team Sheen". There it is!

- Kira

March Topic

Hey everyone! It's a new month and that means a new topic.
This months topic is the emoticon,

:S 


(colon + capital S)

This week I came across an article about email etiquette and the value of using emotional cues in emails. Check it out here. Go wild with this topic: do you know someone who actually looks like this emoticon? Does the emoticon correctly convey this emotion? What is the emotion? What does it mean? Or is this nothing more than some punctuation on a keyboard? Free range everyone! Have fun with it :) (see what I did there, haha).

 

Hey guys!

It's been a min...but here is my image for our theme "patterns"

"Patterns" (ballpoint pen).

Vacation Deprivation

Here is the final, completed and colorful, patterned sky. I had finished it a while ago, forgot to post it, so here it is. Hope you guys can relate :) I think we all need a vacation

The Invisible Man

Hi everyone, so I know I haven't posted any sketches either, but here's my final. It's basically for the story of the invisible man...or a cover for the novel, I should say. I wanted something very simple, so I set up a little scene where the man would be holding his cane as he sits on a chair. 

(I'm not sure why, but for whatever reason it looks a little washed out when I post it here....)

Lovestruck

Finally up!

This isn't the right way to do it; I should have posted my sketches up first to wait for your comments but I had to finish this in time for NYC. Ladies, next time I'll do it right! Or I owe you all delicious tea.

I've been meaning to create an illustration for Valentine's Day. Integrating the theme of patterns made this project more fun and aesthetically interesting. The idea is straightforward - a shish kabob of lovefools struck by Cupid's arrow. I guess the idea is quite morbid if you think about it literally. I tried to avoid it by using a warm and playful color palette. 

The patterns are mostly worked into the clothing. But the less obvious pattern would be the arrangement of people lined up next to one another.

So yes, folks.

This process is very different for me since I usually work with acrylics. I just felt like creating a lighthearted, and mostly drawn illustration.

Patterns: Completed

My completed image for our theme of "Patterns".

The image is a combination of pen and ink with digital colour.

I had a difficult time deciding on a colour scheme. I went with a neutral selection because I thought it complimented the style of the line work.

Let me know what you think...