Piotrowski Portrait Study

I'm currently working toward creating a portrait of my husband's grandfather. Here is the initial rough study created in Photoshop this evening. The photo is quite small and difficult to read so I felt the need to run a test drive with the sketch. Establishing a mood for the subject was important as well. A little chiaroscuro never hurt nobody... Not that I'm by any means a master, but a bit of strong contrast is the goal ;)

I'll post a better copy of the original photo that I'm working from once I can get a decent scan. I need to blow up a copy to better grasp the detail of the photograph, especially in the eyes. He has tiny eyes! I think I've already over worked this study, but I still feel its just not sitting right. Hopefully the enlarged photo copy will be a help and I'll revisit the major features of the face (if not, start over). Time spent, approx 3 hrs... I know. I'm very rusty.

The medium for the final portrait will be oil on canvas and approx 18 x 24 inches. Updates to come soon.

A bit of the blue ground work under there. I'm preferring a cropped view at the moment, but the goal is to get the full head working. Its tough.

Another major problem I'm noticing now is that the nose is not wide enough.. I'll get there. I need to revisit this with fresh eyes another day. Tracking the progress will be half the fun.

Silly Goose

Just a mention here to my new company site: Silly Goose Ltd. We are a work in progress, but hopeful in our creative endeavours. Web/mobile applications and user interfaces are our thing along with graphic design, illustration and animation to bring art and technology together under one roof. Silly Goose was started by Mark and I and we working with developers and designer contractors based on project size and scope.

Included here also is a link to the Silly Goose blog where you can read more details about our direction, our creative processes and how we bridge art and technology with innovation.

Character Animation Demo Reel

Adding my 2008 demo reel to the postings to remove it from my header. Not much 3d work has transpired this year due to my work going in a different, but exciting new direction. However, I am currently working on new 3d material and a screenplay for an upcoming short film. I'll keep you posted :)

Character Animation Demo Reel 2008 from Deanna Bishop on Vimeo.

Hardcore Icons

Here are 3 iconic buttons I created for the upcoming site headbanger.ie. More on the site later, but you can guess it has something to do with heavy metal. It is a work in progress website, but I thought it would be fun to spotlight one of my favourite parts of the site... the big shiny grunge buttons. They're simple, but I had a lot of fun working them out.
Cheers

A Free T-Shirt Can't Solve All Your Problems

Just a silly simple t-shirt deisgn I created for people at my current company. The point was to help lift spirits during the big "back-to-school"/platform rivival depression. I don't think they acutially helped people get out of their work funk, but then again who doesn't like a free t-shirt?! The design was inspired by a former classmate and a great slogan.
Cheers.



FRONT


BACK

Ahhhhhh.... Its Helloween!

Digging through some old files I found this little number - A Helloween CD jacket I designed during my school days. I love Halloween AND the band Helloween so this seems fitting for this month's post. Designing this CD cover was a fun and challenging project predominately with the photography, which was done by myself. I remember scavenging the dollar store in search of dusty, dirty old mirrors that, not only would suit it's dark theme, but also that I could smash and not feel guilty over. After destroying many mirrors and luckily not cutting myself, I transitioned through the design stage with ease. Being able to do your own photography has to be a designer's fantasy. When it comes to image use its not often we get just what we want or hoped from a client or can have such freedom of expression. This makes me want to work on my photography skills. Perhaps in a future post I'll showcase some more of my photography within my designs. In the meantime... Long live heavy metal!



TO HAVE A LOOK AT MY FULL GRAPHIC DESIGN PORTFOLIO, PLEASE CLICK HERE

Nobody Likes a Complainer!

The title certainly speaks for itself. I have designed and animated this web banner in Flash, not only for fun, but to practice some simple 2d animation and actionscript basics. Go ahead and try it out. Slap a bunny and give him something to really complain about!

To view in a larger window click > HERE

Geisha

Just doodling today the image of a geisha began to form. In no time I found myself playing with big bold shapes and interesting patterns. With little reference I kind of just went with my instincts on how she should look. This was the final result.



TO HAVE A LOOK AT MY FULL GRAPHIC DESIGN/ILLUSTRATION PORTFOLIO, PLEASE CLICK HERE

Such a Proud Father...

Here’s a short animation lip sync I’ve recently done. I tried to keep it simple and the acting convincing. Done in 3ds max. Rig by Manuel Sierra.


Such a Proud Father from Deanna Bishop on Vimeo.

Children's Books

The next few images are a small collection of some work I did while at Rubicon Publishing where we designed and created educational children's books. This series is called "The Ten". All cover designs, illustration, layout, typography and photo selection were done by me. I also helped created the template in it's beginnings. The books were very much like a magazine where we had a simple set template that we had to be consistent with. It was a very creative and rewarding job with a great team of designers.

Portraits & Sketches

Here are a few portraits and sketches I created a few years back. The first one is a family portrait completed in approx 6 weeks. Medium is water based oils.



The the next few of paintings were commissioned together with my father, Robert Bishop, who is also a professional artist. He would give me the job specs of each piece and any special requirements. With that information I would then create the painting's composition. Nearing the final stages of painting my father would usually guide me in any finishing touches rarely needing to provide more than a handful of brush strokes. These were done with acrylic paint. I own the foundation of everything I know to my daddy dearest. I began taking lessons from him alongside a weekly art class he would host in his shop/studio at the age of 8.





The next is a portrait I did for a friend as a gift. Medium is acrylic.



And the next few are just quick life drawings done in either charchol, or marker.

20min sketch


30min sketch


5min sketch

Karate Kick!

Here's just a quick kick exercise I found myself getting into. Created in 3ds Max. Rig by Peter Starostin: http://www.3dluvr.com/clisk3d/


Karate Kick! from Deanna Bishop on Vimeo.

Wedding Invitations

So there's just under a couple months till my June 21st wedding back in Toronto. Last month I was busy designing my wedding invitations. It was a big job, but a lot of fun and a great exercise in using my graphic design skills. As a short note, my wedding theme is 1920's/art deco inspired and a big part of the theme is in the use of feathers. In other words, the theme will consistently be carried through by the use of peacock and ostrich feathers. Adding a theme to such a big event gives way for tons of creativity and fun things to work with. My florist is especially going nuts over the idea and has even postponed her holidays to tackle my fun and creative themed day. I've started things off by including the feather and an illustration/graphic of a peacock in my invitations.

A big part of the design process was in the paper selection. One can find this same paper and many many other options at www.envelopments.com . I love their "pocket fold" line, which is what I used as a starting point. I've chosen these paper designs because they are bold and somewhat reminiscent of the era, but at the same time they are modern and fashionable patterns.

The first image here is a small thumbnail of a peacock illustration I quickly drew up that seemed to stick. As messy as it was, I proceeded to trace it out and clean it up in Adobe Illustrator. The results were bold and expressive. I kept the same illustration throughout each piece of the package and only cropped where needed to highlight a certain part of the bird/feathers.

I’ve captured the art deco feel in the use of typography, which needed only to be simple to make a statement. I also came up with a stylized monogram for us and plan to use it throughout the theme. The final touch was added with a few simple iron-on rhinestones for embellishment, a bold double satin black ribbon and a lovely peacock feather to really get the point across. So far my guests are going crazy over my invites. I hope you enjoy them as much as I had making them. To mention, all pre-press production, printing, cutting and assembly were also done by myself.

Hungry for Gnomes Remastered

Planning my fast approaching wedding and travelling around the last few months has left me with little time for creating new artwork. However, to avoid putting it off any further, I have recently re-composited some scenes from my student film. Here is the result.


Hungry for Gnomes from Deanna Bishop on Vimeo.

My Nov "11 Second Club" Entry - Finished Animation

... And here's the final animation (with simple lighting and rendered with Mental Ray Final Gather). I sometimes find myself "overanimating", so for this competition, instead of lots of big, crazy poses and gestures, I tried to narrow things down and use smaller secondary actions to carry the animation along. However, I just couldn't help myself and had to put in something over the top for the ending "whooooa". Enjoy!


Nov 2007 11 Second Club - FINISHED ANIMATION from Deanna Bishop on Vimeo.