Final project for a Domestika illustration course taught by Deb JJ Lee. We had to portray a scene from a book, preferably one in the public domain. For my inspiration, I chose a scene from the novel I’m writing. Here, the protagonists discover an ancient ruin/monolith while lost in the mountains. It’s the first time I’m illustrating characters from that story, so it’s exciting to see them here.

I experimented using gradient maps, and although the results were interesting, I didn’t feel they gave the composition the right feel, and the emphasis didn’t seem to fall on the characters the way I wanted. I’ll need to practice more with that technique, because Deb’s use of gradient maps was beautiful. Maybe it just didn’t work with my composition or I didn’t have enough experience with it. I’d love to try creating other illustrations from that story, so I may have another opportunity to try the gradient map technique.

Final project for the Domestika course “Book Cover Design: Illustrate Stories with Evocative Images” taught by Owen Gent. We had to paint a jacket illustration for a book of our choice, then complete the jacket design. I chose the classic narrative poem The Conference of the Birds by Farid ud-Din Attar, with the fictional Erika Mustermann acting as translator for this edition (she’s actually a placeholder character used in samples of German legal documents like driver’s licenses and passports).

Owen Gent’s style is gorgeous; he’s a true master. This is really my first time using watercolour in any meaningful capacity, and only digitally at that. I had a few other designs for other books, which I might return to as an exercise at some point once I’m more comfortable with these techniques. There’s lots of room to grow. I’m still exploring style and technique, but I would love to incorporate some of this painterly style in eventual animation work.

Project for the Domestika course “Visual Storytelling For Compelling Illustrations” taught by R Kikuo Johnson. We had to create an editorial illustration about the theme of a book, article or film. The goal was to capture the conflict within that story, and to portray it in a self-contained narrative illustration. He has a style inspired by comics, which is right up my alley.

I interpreted an old short story of mine about the life and loss on a Martian colony, set in the near future. The illustration here is less a literal portrayal of that story, and more broadly about some dangers of Mars colonization: dust storms, impacts from meteoroids and asteroids, and crushing isolation. Out of frame, an astronaut lies dead after being struck by a micro-meteor that pierced his space suit—causing his spilled blood to boil and evaporate in Mars’ extremely sparse atmosphere. Due to the atmospheric composition, sunrises and sunsets have a bluish tinge there.

Realistically, the colony would be located underground in an ancient lava tube. That would be the only long-term protection from cosmic radiation, for which Mars has no protection; unlike Earth, Mars has no active magnetic field to deflect that radiation. Anyway, for the sake of an “artist’s interpretation” (and more importantly, illustration practice) this works OK.

Final project for the School of Motion course “Illustration for Motion” taught by Sarah Beth Morgan and Anne Saint-Louis.

Within the course, we were imagined to be illustrators in a creative agency. A fictional client handed us a brief and script for a 30-second animated advertisement about a magic-themed camp for adults. The camp had a spooky but fun vibe; it was a place where childhood fantasies could come true as campers engaged in activities like wand construction, dragon riding and potion brewing.

We had the freedom to develop our own story concept from that brief, and from there we had to create style frames that brought our concept to life. These style frames would then, in theory, be passed on to an animation team for production.

My stylistic inspirations were the Ryan Andrews graphic novel This Was Our Pact, and the picture book The Skull by Jon Klassen. Maybe as a result of the latter, I settled on a chatty skull as the narrator of the spot, who would greet the viewer and narrate the script while the protagonists demonstrated the activities of the camp.

This project was featured on School of Motion’s student showcase blog.

Project for the School of Motion course “Illustration For Motion” taught by Sarah Beth Morgan and Anne Saint-Louis. We were provided a brief by a fictional client, who wanted an editorial illustration accompanying an article about digital consumption habits. They shared their initial illustrations, which reflected a more adult and sombre tone. They wanted us new illustrations geared toward a younger audience, which would be viewed on mobile devices. I kept the overall “pool” theme and colour scheme but iterated to add more vibrancy, and added youthful characters in a style that better reflected the target demographic. And rather than reference the remote control from the original illustration—which implied binge-watching on televisions—I wanted to represent what this audience would be more likely to over-consume: short-form viral videos on platforms such as TikTok or Instagram Reels.

This project was feature on the School of Motion student showcase blog.

Project for the School of Motion course “Illustration For Motion” taught by Sarah Beth Morgan and Anne Saint-Louis. Within the course, we were imagined to be illustrators in a creative agency, and we were handed a brief and script from a fictional client who wanted to create a 15-second animated advertisement for their donut café. The spot would feature an African-American woman as the protagonist, and she would engage in some busy activity before seeking a “pick-me-up” from the café and then resuming her day with renewed energy. We had the freedom to develop our own story concept from that brief, and from there we had to create style frames that brought that concept to life. These style frames would then, in theory, be passed on to an animation team.

In an earlier phase of the assignment, we began with a more abstract male character. Later, the fictional client returned with a new budget and timeline, and asked us to iterate the protagonist into a more expressive character.