I recently reformatted a powerpoint for the AFR303 course about Gendered Cultural Forms.

Here are a couple slides!

I’ve been mainly working on finishing up RUS407 illustrations these past few months!

Here’s my process for U10_4… I reused a background, placed the puppets, and changed the lighting. I roughly painted on boots, umbrellas, and Oleg’s poncho. I then quickly added rain to the scene.

Did some polishing and adjusted the colors a bit after some suggestions from Suloni… Changed the rain from falling diagonal to falling straight down.

I didn’t really like how blue the scene was, so I got rid of the blue tint. I also played with the opacity of the rain a bit and finalized the illustration.

I also took it upon myself to color U10_5. This was a really fun scene to color! I tried to keep it accurate to the reference image and wanted to capture some of the subtle changes in color on the buildings. The buildings are pretty old, so some of the paint has been scraped off and have become discolored, so this was a fun illustration to color.

For U11_3, I had to create a Facebook page for Oleg, which was super fun! I looked up some branding materials from Facebook and downloaded an SVG file of their logo… I then took a screenshot of my Facebook profile page to use as a reference for this. I quickly mocked up this template in Illustrator to get an idea for the overall structure of the page. I will draw in a cover photo and profile picture and will add the required text provided by Heather.

Here’s what the final page looks like! I painted a flowering meadow and drew Oleg’s profile picture. (Apparently hedgehogs are allowed to consume alcohol???)

Similarly, for U11_5, I had to build an online store that sells flower and plant seeds. I was linked to a Russian site and used that as a reference. I copy and pasted as much text as necessary to give this site the context it needs. I roughly mocked this up in Illustrator as well. Looks like we’re looking at it in a browser window!

I then proceeded to draw different fruits, vegetables, and a flower. I used images from the site as a reference. I also reused my flowering meadow painting from the last illustration as a banner for the site.

Something else I worked on was the firebird for Canvas… Here is my final design for the firebird. The teal accent color is a placeholder for the official accent colors for each unit.

After finishing the firebird itself, I had to work on the box and embellishment surrounding it. This is what I came up with! Again, the gold is also a placeholder color.

I then made 7 different color variations based on the hex codes provided!

Other things I’m currently working on (hint: it’s more Russian illustrations):

Lately, I have been busy working on illustrating a Russian Firebird for the RUS 407 project. Here’s a breakdown of my process and progress so far.

The first step was breaking the figure down into basic shapes/parts. The firebird is supposed to be rendered in a flat style, so flat blocks of colors.

Using these roughly blocked out shapes as a guide, I began to fill them in. Each part of the bird has its own individual layer. I chose a more orange red, so it doesn’t end up too dark later when on a dark background… The wings are a lighter orange, so they don’t get lost in the rest of the body of the bird. Also, a lighter color will bring the wings more “forward.” I started adding in some patterns as well.

I placed what I had done so far on a black circle to emulate the finished product… Just to get a feel for how the colors work on such a dark background. I did some color adjustment and started experimenting more with patterns. The box/border encompassing the bird is supposed to be very floral-y. There are many flowers and intricate details, so I thought the bird should emulate that to some extent. I think having a floral motif in the patterns on the bird will help unify the the illustration when everything has been put together!

This is what I have so far, and hopefully I can make more progress this coming week!

The last illustration I finished was the Unit 9 Scene 3 illustration.

Scene Description:

Oleg and Polina are at an apiary. Both are wearing those big hats with nets and watching how a beekeeper opens a hive.

I edited and uploaded a bunch of COLA photo IDs this month!

And… more COLA photo IDs!

I have also been busy working on illustrations for the RUS407 course.

Scene description: Polina is sitting in a chair in the kitchen. Sad face. She’s all bundled up on warm pjs, with a thick scarf wrapped around her neck. Her bare feet are submerged in a basin into which Antonina is pouring very hot water (see steam). Oleg is sitting next to her holding a big jar against his tummy on which is written ‘Мёд’ (honey).

I started out with a very rough layout of the scene.

The scene utilized a lot of previously made assets. The kitchen background is one that has been used many times in the past, so it was really a matter of positioning the character puppets into the scene and roughly painting in a few additional details or props and outfits! I often put characters in with their default poses and paint on top of them if needed. I also enjoy scribbling notes in a layer on top of everything. This helps me get my thoughts together.

Things I had to address:

1. How can I make Polina look cold?
2. How can I make Polina look a little sick? (We’re assuming she’s sick!)
3. How should Antonina be posed?
4. How can I make it clear that there is steam coming from the water?
5. Is the size and color of the basin appropriate?
6. Give Polina’s pajamas a little more character!

Eventually, the illustration evolved into this:

Suloni suggested that I give Polina’s pajamas a print of some sort, so in a clipping mask layer, I painted a simple flower print. I also changed the size, shape, and color of the basin. Because the basin isn’t as tall, you can clearly see that Polina’s pants are rolled up! I made Polina hug herself to make herself look cold and added some redness to her face using a soft round brush with lowered opacity. I also drew in little shaky lines around her to emphasize the fact that she is cold and shivering. I had some difficulty posing Antonina, but I figured it out! And the honey jar Oleg is holding was easy to finalize. I simply wrote honey in Russian right on top with a hard brush!

The steam was created by using a textured brush. I simply painted over Polina’s legs and the basin using white and lowered the opacity. I also smudged it a little using the smudge tool to soften some of the edges just a little.

Some minor adjustments were made after the last progress check. The only real change made is that I made the steam slightly more opaque! Now you can really tell that the water is steaming hot! I also hunched Polina’s shoulders up a little more, and now she looks even colder.