This summer I have picked up face painting which is a lot of fun. My painting skills have definitely improved because of this. The photos below are only the tip of the ice berg. 

This is an inside look at some of the spreads of The Fisherman

the Fisherman

Last semester I took a picture book class that gave me the opportunity to create my very own picture book. This process started with us writing and reading our manuscripts to the class as if it were story time. Next, we did concept art and a story board for how we envisioned the book to pan out. Following, we created tight sketches of each page that we eventually made into finished art work. My book is 8.5" x 11" and was done in watercolor. My story is about a fisherman who never catches a fish but was too stubborn to give up. I finished my book and now I'm in the process of trying to get it published. My hope is that this project could could get my foot in the door of the illustrating industry. Until then, anybody can purchase their own copy of The Fisherman on Lulu. Here is the link: http://www.lulu.com/shop/brigid-malloy/the-fisherman/paperback/product-23219446.html  

First Stage Children's Theater

Before Christmas break, my class was given a project to produce three illustrations for three plays that each of us were assigned. Selected illustrations would be printed in a brochure for First Stage Children's Theater. One of the plays I was given was the Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. It is about a china doll rabbit that gets lost by his original owner. He then gets recycled by several owners, giving him different perspectives on life. The book is originally written by Kate DiCamillo and I highly recommend anyone to read it.

For this project I went with the watercolors again. I took the major motifs from the story and put them together in one cohesive composition. This way bits and pieces of the story are shown to the viewer giving them an idea of Edward's journey.

My illustration will be printed for this play's brochure.

Synergy

On March 10th I was able to display my work at an AIGA-UWM Gallery called Synergy. This was a student-run art show hosted at Kenilworth Square in Milwaukee. This was an interesting experience for I was given a 5'x10' wall space which I had to fill up with as much artwork I could muster. After deciding what to display, I had to make sure everything was presentable by matting and framing the pieces. This event was for one night only which meant I had to uninstall my space right after the show. It was fun to speak to people who were curious of what I do and receive their feedback. This shows me that many people are enjoying my work and it encourages me to continue.

Yesterday, I finished a wood burning for Aquinas Academy's school auction. 

Penfield Poster

My last project was to illustrate a poster for Penfield Children's Center's charity event. This event is a croquet ball with an auction which donors will bid on three posters selected from my class. The main subject of the piece was entirely up to the illustrator but we had to integrate given text, croquet equipment and keep in mind of the children as the target audience. For the process we had to come up with ten concepts, select two of our strongest ideas from these concepts and create tight sketches. From there we presented our tight sketches to Cramer-Krasselt which is an advertising agency that promotes the event. Cramer-Krasselt chose the strongest concept of the two tight sketches which we proceeded to finalize.

This poster was a new challenge for me. One of the reasons was that the final dimensions of the piece were 26" x 40". I was not sure how I was going to create this piece in terms of medium. I was thinking of scaling down my design and printing it on watercolor paper. Then I would scan in the final with a high resolution so I would be able to blow it up to the required dimensions with out the image getting pixelated. However, if I created this in the traditional medium it would restrict me from making any changes after critique. After talking to some classmates, I learned about digital brushed that mimic watercolor brushes. This saved my concept for I was able to make adjustments while keeping my style.

Overall I am happy with the final design and I cannot wait to see my poster printed in large scale.

Over Christmas break I wanted to make a watercolor piece that would help "beef up" my portfolio. I was doodling in my sketchbook trying to come up with a scene that would be fun to illustrate. Eventually I came up with the idea of illustrating something that could be real and odd at the same time, hoping to create a sense of fantasy. The idea of accordions came to mind for they are bizarre and charming instruments. At first I wanted to illustrate one player but thought it would be more ridiculous for there to be three. This piece is 8"x 10" on watercolor paper.