Update- latest works

Editorial Portrait, Zooey Deschanel

ink and gouache on illustration board, 10"x8"

Final Semester Project, Intermediate Anatomy

gouache on illustration board, 13"x30"

Narrative Illustration, Little Red Riding Hood

digital, Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Corel Painter X

Its been a while..

Wow well it has been a while, here's some updates!

A couple of portraits:

A sneak peek at what I'm working on, Intermediate Anatomy semester project:

And look out for Little Red Riding Hood coming soon as well!

Statue Study

If this looks like it took a long time, thats because it did... :/

Another one

Another portrait

New technique

Ive tried a new technique with my charcoal renderings for Anatomy class, our instructor video used it and I liked the result so much I had to try it out. I'm proud of myself for trying something new even though I had a deadline :) Using toned paper wasn't a new concept, but drawing primarily in white Conte pencil was. I definitely learned a lot more drawing this way and will probably continue to use this technique in the future.

Here's the step by step:

1. Outline all of the muscle shapes in white Conte pencil, add the contour lines. Also outline the shadow shapes.

2. Block in the shadow side with vine charcoal, I like to blend with my fingers but you could use a chamois or a paper towel too, just smooth out the vine charcoal. Start to crosshatch with the white conte showing the directions of the muscles you drew in, crossing over into the shadow side to soften the edges of the form shadows. Use a charcoal pencil to cross back into the light areas and define the form shadows from the reflected light.

3. Define the subtler shadow areas with the charcoal pencil, continue to blend and finish.

I'll definitely be trying this technique again in the future!

Portraits

First portrait of the year...

Back to School..

Back to school again, head and hands, illustration 1 and intermediate anatomy this time, first assignment done! I'll keep this updated...probably, lol :)

And here's a little illustration I did for my friend's graduation:

ifreelance

I've started a profile at ifreelance.com, I'm not sure how committed I am to it yet, but it seems like a cool option to at least start looking for some jobs :)

original illustration, pen and ink

Playing Pretend

It's been a while since my last post, I've been taking summer classes, one of which is a digital photography class, no photoshop allowed, just focusing on taking nice pictures on their own. It's been kind of fun to play at being a pro photographer and taking my pictures more seriously than just vacation snapshots. So far I took a self portrait and went on photo safari around D.C. Here's some of what I've done ^-^
(Remember its all super amateur, just had fun doing it!)

This is the James McNeill Whistler Peacock Room at the Freer Gallery by the way.

Nit Picking...

Any of you ever feel like you could work on a piece forever?

The semester is finally over and I think 3 weeks of nit picking at this illustration is enough! Haha. I created this using a combination of Corel Painter X and Adobe Photoshop CS2 (I know, I know, I need to upgrade, but its so expensive!!) for all of the painting and Adobe Illustrator was used to create the text and the pattern on the border, I'm not sure how clearly you can see that at this size though. The finished piece was supposed to be 5"x7" but I worked at 15"x21". This was a fun learning experience though for sure, my instructor submitted this along with two other pieces to be considered for entry in the AAU Spring Show, I cant wait to hear back about that, hopefully I make it!

Anyway here is the finished piece finally:

Final Book Cover Illustration, Robin Hood

Detail of Final Book Cover Illustration, Robin Hood

Detail of Final Book Cover Illustration, Robin Hood

Hero's Oasis?

Hey all! I've finally finished my value study for my Robin Hood book cover illustration, the banner at the bottom is a place for the author's name, I've designed my own calligraphy for the title, and I'll be finishing that as well as painting this piece in Corel Painter X over the next two weeks. This final piece is 15"x21" (to scale for a 5"x7" book cover) created in pencil on Strathmore Layout Bond paper.

Final Value Study for Robin Hood Illustration

Detail of the characters

Here are a few examples of work I have painted in Adobe Photoshop CS2 for the same class, Illustrative Digital Imaging:
Mermaid Illustration

Detail of Mermaid Illustration

Postage Stamp Ilustration for the 2010 Olympics

Detail of Postage Stamp Illustration

Circus Illustration

Progress

I've been working on a book cover illustration for class this week, Robin Hood!

I'm working on the grayscale value comp, in pencil on layout bond paper, right now, and really pleased with it so far :)

Here's what I have right now:

Still a ways to go...

In the back is the craziest looking tree I saw at the park last week, I did a study for it because I knew it would come in handy for something :)

Hello ^-^

I guess I'll start with a little about me..

My name is Haley Morrison, I'm currently an Illustration student at the Academy of Art University, I'll be graduating this December, yay!!!

So I've created this blog to share some of my work, share some helpful tips and links for my fellow artists and designers, and maybe even inspire someone. I'll try to keep this pretty up to date with what I'm currently working on and post some things I've done in the past too just for funsies ;)

Hope someone enjoys it :)

Peter Pan, Illustration, Gouache on Illustration board