Wednesday, December 29, 2010

ACAD Year One: The Awakening

Ahhhh, winter holidays, how I yearned for your warm and gentle touch. And the ability to get a normal amount of sleep. And time, sweet time. What will I do with all this free time? Work of course :)

At long last, I have posted some of my first year work, featured in the portfolio I used to get into VC this year. It had the sweet gimmick of having a comic introduction hosted by a cartoon me who also popped up throughout the portfolio to divide it up and ass some personal flair. Always with the gimmicks.

Hurm... looking at it now, after my first semester in Year 2, I cringe at some of the work already, but some of it holds up I think. A lot of important principles and ideas can be seen taking root in this early work and I'm really getting a chance to explore that now which is very exciting.

My teachers really pushed me to explore graphite rendering and realism because I am stuck to my cartoony style like a Siamese twin but you can see that I have a long way to go. I'm really feeling that in this year as well, probably moreso.

There's alot to say about all the art that follows but I don't have the time to write a full-on essay and I don't like the prospect of boring anyone who reads this to the point of weeping or leaping from buildings from the sheer boredom it would cause. Instead, enjoy. Gasp in horror! Laugh in wonder!

More posts on the way!

And a happy New Year if I don't see you!














































5 comments:

Cognoman said...

Wow.
There...is a lot of stuff in those images that I would never ever have recognized as yours, heh (don't worry - there's a few I definitely would've recognized too, heh). And to think that a lot of this stuff is a year old by now. Goddammit. Lighting, textures, colour theory...that shit's gonna take you places.

Keep going, Nick. This shit is rocking.

FS said...

This is fascinating! Love the botanical garden one- such neat hatching that you could easily bring into your comics for a darker or moodier tone.

Gord said...

That botanical garden is stellar. The lines are beautiful and gentle, nice work Nick!

laura! said...

Your first year work kicks my first year work's butt!
Thanks for the mini-shout out on the end of your comic page <3

MR. NICK said...

Cogs - Thanks so much, man. As hard as it can be to learn all those fundamentals at this stage, I can still see it improving my work.

Fiona - Thanks, yes I should definitely incorporate some nicer hatching. I used to do it like craaazy in my earlier stuff and then I just bailed on it eventually.

Thanks Gordo. It wasn't very good when I first handed it in but my teach gave me sweet feedback and I poured around six more hours of work into it for my portfolio. I usually hate going back into finished work but it really paid off.

Laura - If that's the case, maybe I have an inkling of hope to turn out at least half as good as you when I graduate. You're one of my fave artists for reals.