Odalisque: Now with Extra Color Boost!

So after taking a look and thinking about "odalisque" for a second, the colors looked really faded to me from the original scan and version. I decided to take it into ye olde Photoshop and tweak it a bit. Here are the fruits of my five minutes of labor.

BEFORE

AFTER

Thoughts?

It has abruptly realized to me that tomorrow is Xmas Eve and Friday's Xmas. Where the hell did December go? Time for family hangin' and presents. Hope everyone has a good holiday, whatever it is you're doing. At least it's a day off or two from work!

Feliz Xmas and a Merry Winter's Solstice!

Remainder of Terminology Illustrations

ODALISQUE

female slave

SEXISM

There you have it. Those are the ones I liked from the project... there's one more but I still need to work on the lineart for it; didn't finish in time for posting for class. With my first semester of grad school behind me, I embrace the month+ break! There will be updates on my comic and the first chapter will be released February 1, 2010, so keep checking back. I promise it won't suck. At least not too much.

I have not forsaken thou!

I am just in the throes of finals. And speaking of which... here are a few of the illustrations that I created for my final project for Crossing Borders. We had to choose terminology and then illustrate/visually depict their meaning. Here are a few of the ones I drew which turned out... okay? Better than expected?

ALTERITY

derived from Latin term "alteritas" meaning "the state of being other or different; diversity; otherness"

in post-colonial theory, alterity is used interchangeably with otherness and difference

__________

FEMINISM

Often concerned with the ways and extent to which representation and language are crucial to identity formation and to the construction of subjectivity

__________

NEGRITUDE

a theory of the distinctiveness of African personality and culture developed by African francophone writers such as Leopold Sedar Senghor and Birago Diop, and West Indian colleagues such as Aime Cesaire in Paris in the period immediately before and after the Second World War

* * *

The negritudinist critics insisted that African cultures and the literatures they produced had aesthetic and critical standards of their own, and needed to be judged in the light of their differences and their specific concerns rather than as a mere offspring of the parental European cultures

* * *

The concept of negritude implied that all people of negro descent shared certain inalienable essential characteristics--both essentialist and nativist

* * *

What made the negritude movement distinct was its attempt to extend perceptions of the negro as possessing a distinctive "personality" into all spheres of life: intellectual, emotional, and physical

All information on terminology is taken from the book "Post Colonial Studies: The Key Concepts" by Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin

More Charcoal! And a Deadline!

Charcoal is still far from being my favorite medium. I just feel like it's so hard to control... not impossible or as hard as other mediums, but I just have a difficult time. I need much bigger charcoal. These hands are way too big for tiny, pointy charcoal.

What is fun about charcoal is the mess. I always look forward to seeing how ridiculous I look after a drawing.



This was only after two drawings. lol And not even those really dark ones (the first in the post). Mah face is dirty....

ALSO..... DEADLINE!!!
I've decided that the deadline for the first chapter of my comic will be February 1, 2010. This gives me my break between semesters to work on it, and that should be enough time. So I'll be posting teasers on here, but all of it won't be available until the physical minicomics are made.

New Comic and Feeling Better!

Last week was a blur of sickness. The flu kicked my ass, as well as the boy's. I finally started feeling better earlier this week and can safely say I am back to about 90%.

Sorry for the lack of updates. I could blame my sickness, but I've been a bit neglectful of you, blog. I won't do it again, I swear.

Here's a lame comic. It was fun to experiment working with a brush.

Prints Now Available!

Well, make that print. As in singular. I ran out of ink today and need to hit up an Office Depot tomorrow.
But check it out; they're cheap! ^_^

Long Time, No Post

Regrettably I have not posted in over a month. :/ And I was doing so well! Alas, school got ahold of me and awesomely enough, I worked with Unbundled on a storyboard project. Them's my excuses.

I will be setting a date for the first issue/release of my comic (the still Untitled one about Catholic school) pretty soon and let you know when that will be.

Also, I'm going to be switching servers and re-designing my website so once that's up and running, I'll notify here.

Lastly, I'm working on some prints to sell in my Etsy shop. I need to test a few papers, printer settings, etc... but hopefully within the next two weeks I'll have prints up for sale!

In the meantime, enjoy some head/portrait drawings which I drew this week for class. I must say, this Clothed Figure Drawing class at AAU is IMMENSELY helpful. I've learned a lot more about drawing already. At least I feel that way... let's see if I can digest, remember, and pull from everything so that my drawing reflects this... haha, easier said than done.

Sucks to My Assmar

So, as it turns out, I am developing asthma at the pleasant, adult age of near 25. Not 10. Not 11. Not 13. 24, heading to 25. My adulthood is going to be awesome.

(also, you can tell I'm new to the asthma thing.. I realized I completely drew my hand wrong on the inhaler... hello! Need to be pushing it down!)

Visual Passport

One of my assignments. I had to create a visual passport presenting myself to the class. So here it is! I took a slightly different approach to the illustration in the sense that I posed and directly drew from a reference. Shocking, I know! I do like how the drawing turned out though. I'm also liking the overall look and feel behind the finished illustration with the textures and physical elements (scanned hair). Makes me want to do a series of mythological or fairy tale illustrations in a similar style.

Hmmm...... we shall see.

Clothed Figure Drawing

So my first assignment for my Clothed Figure Drawing class online at AAU's grad program is complete! Woo boy that was a long-winded sentence. It was pretty interesting to already learn some new techniques, such as sharpening the charcoal.



Now, this may be obvious to some of you, but Columbia's Fine Art department was hit or miss. I guess I got through not really being told about this phenomenon. For those who are still in the dark, all you do is take an X-acto knife (or any good knife for that matter) and shave it down to a point. It makes a mess, as you can see, so make sure you're more prepared than I was. I really love the patterns the charcoal makes as it's shaved off though. After cutting it down, you're supposed to smooth it with sand paper but since I am lacking that now, I just worked with it as is.



This was the first drawing I did after some warm-up exercises. I'm also holding the charcoal differently now--against my fingers and held with my thumb so that I can gain more movement and flexibility when drawing.



Also what was different this drawing around was that I started with the eyes and related everything to one another as I went, as opposed to roughing the entire form in all at once. I think it came out ok? lol It was definitely a different experience.

All in all, working with charcoal again was lots of fun--especially with new techniques. However... there was one thing I forgot about charcoal.



The photo doesn't do my face justice as to how ridiculous I looked. It was all along the side of my face and on my chin.. haha...

If anyone happens to still be reading too (I know, crazy right? Of course I'm just talking to myself and the internet), due to my renewed love and interest in charcoal and drawing the clothed human figure, if anyone wants a quick drawing of themselves then by all means, let me know!!!

Send me a few photos of yourself.... CLOTHED. And let's keep it somewhat decent.. at least try. I mean ultimately it's up to you but know there's a chance it'll be going up on this here blog so you may want to keep your privates to yourself. E-mail me at melisa.desrosiers@gmail.com, include a photo or two, tell me a little bit about yourself, and I'll get to drawing. Then I'll e-mail the drawing to you as a high-res file just in case you want to print it out or anything. If I decide to post it on my blog, I'll let you know first before doing so.

Alrighty! I shall await your responses.

::crickets chirp::

The Early Years

Here it is! A more finished illustration!

This is the first of a series of illustrations for the comic I'm working on about my days as a little Catholic school girl... not the stripper kind.
I'm thinking that I'll divide the stories up with my progression in beliefs and age.. since they both coincide really. This is the first one, which would be the first chapter header.

Here's the non-colored version:
I'm working on the next one and should have it up in a few days. Once I have all the headers done, then I'll start drawing the actual comics. Still not sure how I want to present them online, really. I'm thinking more of the physical versions first, but also want to have it available to read online for free. It definitely will have to wait for my new site since the design that I'm currently using from Columbia is shite for comics. Ideally, that shouldn't be too long.

Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated. ^^

Random Doodles

I promise something a little more finished/developed within the week, but in the meantime here are some doodles from my last Storyboarding meeting.

Unknown Foot Pain leads to Pot Documentary and Doodling

So my plan today WAS to go downtown and work on more storyboards with Dalila Droege for her new film (being shot next week!) Voice Lessons.... but I woke up this morning with terrible pain in the bottom of my right foot so I decided to postpone and stay home. Made the arduous trek to Dunkin' for cheap coffee, my free donut (I filled out an online poll) and breakfast sandwich, then skimmed the Netflix to find something to watch.

Ended up watching The Union: The Business Behind Getting High, which was a pretty good documentary on marijuana. I've seen a couple, and this one was pretty informative apart from what I've seen. There was a lot of information on Canada, British Columbia in particular, which I didn't know too much about. Of course the same arguments were there about marijuana not being nearly as harmful as tobacco, alcohol, or even caffeine; however, there was insight behind what American Government drug-particularly marijuana-tests actually involved (specifically a test under President Reagan in the 80s which led all people to believe that pot can kill brain cells... turns out they just suffocated the monkeys tested with pot smoke and the brain cell damage came from the suffocation. No scientific connection to the pot; they performed the test in a horrendous way and twisted statistics). Also a lot on the prison system, decriminalization vs. legalization, medicinal marijuana, and tons of politics that make me want to strangle our policy makers, as usual. I also greatly appreciated the editing and use of stock footage. Unfortunately, a lot of times marijuana documentaries look cheap and are kind of too flashy or boring visually; this one was different in that sense.

I watched the documentary instantly on Netflix, so if there are any Netflix users you can watch it there. Apparently it's also on Youtube in parts: here's Part One.

So if you're bored this fine Saturday afternoon, consider a pot documentary! You'll be sure to learn something.

New Sketch... at a Price...

Here's a sketch that I colored and messed around with. I tried experimenting with colors that I don't usually use and think I like what came from it.

UNFORTUNATELY, like an IDIOT, I overwrote the 300 dpi colored version with the web version I saved for the blog. >.< I am literally, mentally, kicking my ass so hard right now. Granted, it was just a sketch but still... I may have wanted to print it. Now I'd have to color it all over again. aaaaaah.....

Alas. But here's the sketch:



I was thinking that developing the concept a little more might make for a good Threadless submission. Any takers? Sound good or more in the realm of, "Who the hell would want to wear this shit?" I appreciate honesty.

And if I do decide to develop it for threadless... at least I won't feel AS BAD for overwriting the high-res file.... T_T

Runny Noses and Dashed Hopes

That was my day yesterday--snot and videogames. I was going to add a delicious yellow for the mucus and on the screen to communicate Boomer bile... but meh.

Today... Snot and the realization that getting loans for grad school isn't going to be as easy as I thought...
Needless to say, the 2+ hours I spent looking for non-certified loans so that I could get my supplies and whatnot was for naught. Thanks, economy. Now I just hope that at least I can still get a certified private loan alright....

But it all hasn't been too bad! The day started out better; I'm working on more storyboards for Dalila Droege's short film Voice Lessons. Once they're finished and the film is shot and out, I'll post them. I think there's some nice boards already.

I also finally got a regular, blank-page sketchbook (I've been using a regular notebook recently which is alright but I could use some nice, clean paper) and have already started sketching. Some will be posted once I digitally add color.

Until then, I bid you adieu.

Oh, my! Nurse...

My second experiment with Painter X! In the form of this hot nurse, a little deranged since she is cutting her own tongue and all. I want to play around more with the brushes and sensitivity in Painter, but at least I feel like I'm starting to get somewhere.

Oh, there's also a panty-less version of this. XD Just thought I'd post the somewhat less R-rated version. Enjoy.

EDIT: I tried defining the pattern in the top of the stockings a bit more, as well as her freckles.

War Stories Sketches

So I finally got around to sketching some characters from my next project--which I intend on actually completing, that is--tentatively entitled "War Stories".... there's going to be a definite change, but I'm thinking of incorporating that phrase into the title somehow. The phrase comes from how me and my older sister would describe all the stories we have from growing up in a strict, Catholic grammar school. And that's pretty much what the comic will be about.

So, without further ado....







These are just pencil sketches. I was trying to find my yearbook to reference the teachers, principle, and priests... but couldn't find them. I'll have to do an all-out hunt for them soon since I know they've got to be around here somewhere. Right now, I'm mainly trying to get down style for how I want to draw the adults vs. children, as well as overall drawing style. Next up will definitely be some ink!

Unemployed (recent college graduate)

Here it is, the fruit of my lazy ass getting into gear. Eat it up, for it is juicy.

Sexy Lady...

I hope everyone had a great 4th! Fireworks are still going off in my neighborhood; I'm sure they'll continue at least for another week.

I have a comic concept underworks... soon there will be character sketches and buildings/environments drawn up. So keep an eye out for it, especially anyone who had to go to Catholic school and didn't so much like it.. more to be revealed soon.

In the meantime, here's my first actual illustration using Painter X to color it. Not too experimental with Painter, but I'm still getting my footing and basic understanding of the program down. If anyone has any good brushes or Painter tips in general, I am all ears.

Why I don't want to live to 100...

I entered in this contest by Phil McAndrew in which you had to draw yourself at 100, no excuses since technology has made it possible or what have you. Here was my sketch.



I was going with the "Why the hell did we invent this technology?" feeling. Cause man, I would not want to live that long and age the horrible way I would. Enjoy and hopefully have a laugh at my expense!

Heaven Gallery Work

Hey all,

The two pieces I had in "Let Them Eat Cake" are now up on my site. I made a few more pieces too that weren't in the show and I don't necessarily want to include in my site/portfolio, but thought I would show them here. So, with no further ado, the rejects!

Last sketches from this Sketchbook

So I've finished yet another sketchbook. Although, now I'm going to use a clipboard and typing paper as a makeshift sketchbook, since I can't really afford a new one. I've been a bit obsessed with Etsy lately and have found a few cool sketchbook there like this one and this one especially.

Now on to the last of Sketchbook 08-09's doodles:

this was when I was waiting for Marie Ullrich, the director of Faster! since I was going to do some storyboards and concept art for the film. Was not too cheerful until I had some of that coffee in mah belly.


This is a sketch of Bill from Left 4 Dead. There were a lot more lines but I kind of brightness-and-contrasted them out... were I to color this he would be covered in boomer yuck. I thought of doing all four and went on to sketch Louis but man... he was not looking right. So I abandoned it... haha...

Until I blather again!

Let Them Eat Cake

Yesterday was the gallery exhibition/fashion show "Let Them Eat Cake" at Heaven Gallery.
I had, or was planned, on having four pieces in the show. Really, I only saw two. And when I got there, they were on the floor.


After talking to one of the guys at the door, he kindly pointed out another artist who had to hang up her work, and said I should just ask her for help. So I asked her and she was kind enough to let me borrow her hammer and nails. After some banging and adjusting, my work was up!



I still have no idea where my other two pieces were hanging, unless a) they were somewhere I didn't know about, or b) the woman just didn't want to tell me they weren't put up. In reality, I would have liked to just be told if they weren't put up, but who knows.

Apart from the disappointment when I got there with the state of my work, the show was pretty fun! There was a good amount of people, some interesting work on the walls, and a pretty good fashion show with work by Justin White.




Now I shall be off to pick up my work from the gallery. It was a fun experience, and I'm definitely looking for more gallery opportunities. Really, the show made me want to host/throw an art gallery/apartment deal, but unfortunately I live in a basement on the southside... not really the best place for one. But if I do get an apartment in Chicago, you can bet I'll be gearing it for some arts stuffs.