Capable!!!

According to Illustrationfriday.com the word of the week is capable. In dance, dancers go through many sessions of practise to become capable on stage. The capability they achieve is to remember a dance routine by heart and to be able to nail it on stage or in front of any audience, really.

I came up with a few thumbnails to incorporate this into an image for your viewing pleasure:

These thumbnails are my own ideas and thoughts. Except the girl in the corner with the pigtail braids. That was inspired from my flicker gallery set on the Ojibwe Ottawa tribe. The girl is getting ready to perform on for the Ottawa pow-wow. http://www.flickr.com/photos/stirlingkeira/galleries/72157629099058188/#photo_3637051673

I wish to draw the thumbnail in the top right corner. I recently took my daughter to see a dance recital, hosted by the studio Dance Discovery in Brantford and was inspired to draw little performers on stage. The whole time I watched the recital my daughter would not stop bugging me to dance on stage. She would say "mommy, I need to go on stage, mommy you need to buy me an orange and yellow sparkly outfit." The best dancers throughout time usually start at a young age. Dance is the art of music visually interpreted to us.

I am using adobe photoshop CS5 to complete my art work. I like using the paintbrush. Here is my work in progress.

Practise makes you capable to perform on stage.

Thank you.

Modern Design Illustration: The Top Ten IWD Designs for 2012

Modern Design Illustration: The Top Ten IWD Designs for 2012: Ten Mohawk College faculty members from Graphic Design, Art & Design Foundations and Integrated Animation judged this year's competition. ...

Fluid Dance Moves

According to Illustrationfriday.com, 

Lori Mulligan 

suggested that this week's topic be "Fluid".

“The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice. ” ~ Mark Twain

I will be designing a cd cover for the Famous Shakira. She will be dancing in the water.

Here is a few images of Shakira I could use to start my design template:

I like these images because I love incorporating nature. It's important to remember the environment around us.

After viewing through Leif Peng's flicker set http://www.flickr.com/photos/leifpeng/sets I cam across an Al Parker image I liked. I like the cheerful border he illustrated.

I started working on my cd cover for Shakira and I decided to use adobe photoshop CS5 on my macbook pro. I am using a picture of Shakira but didn't like the water shot she was in because it wasn't as pure looking. So I grabbed another photo of nicer water and put that in her background and added text. There is more to do but here is an update.

I then added a colourful wavy border like Al Parker to add excitement and colour to the cd cover. I placed her name Shakira down the side for aesthetic appeal so you can read her name while viewing her image. I placed a tropical trendy, pink flower behind Shakira's name to add flare, like Al parker did in his above ad. I thought the different water view would be more appealing as it looks fresh. It looks like a good day at the beach, may you listen to her tunes and envision yourself on the sea side at the beach with the sun beaming on you.

Whitney Houston is Popular!

Whitney Houston changed the world one music note at a time and her trends in the eighties resembled the same dresses on your barbies. This weeks theme according to Illustrationfriday.com is 'Popularity'. Throughout the last century there has been a lot of heavy, solid talent to step out in the music and dance industry. So many people we have seen test the waters with song and dance, some have become stars, legends, or one pop song hits. Regardless, there is only few who inspire us world wide and touch our hearts with their amazing vocal notes such as, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion and Mariah Carey. These ladies bring forth a musical front that not just anyone can master while they dance along in their creative music videos. Their lyrics are positive, upbeat, and touching. Most of all the power of their voices are angelic.

Whitney Houston shaking it to "I wanna dance with somebody who loves me". Her dance moves were simple enough to follow for most people, but her voice notes were unreachable. 

The image below was taken from J Lo's video "Hold you down".

Most recently, Whitney Houston passed away. The cause at this time is unknown. Her death will touch a lot of lives. We can still keep her in our thoughts and prayers. Whitney Houston will go down in time as one of the most memorable singers of all time. She was Native American, African American and Italian and she sold 170 million records world wide.  She was born in 1963 and was one of the first African Americans to appear on 'Seventeen' magazine. She also appeared on 'Glamour', 'Cosmopolitan' etc.   I did not follow her social life, or her un perfect habits. I will only remember her positive and uplifting song lyrics and her amazing voice that could melt anyones heart and make me cry for no reason. She truly was touching.

Whitney Houston as the first female African American to be on "Seventeen" magazine.

Whitney Houston started out as a regular person like any of us, except her godmother was Aretha Franklin and she first learnt to sing in a church choir. Being in the lime light and having millions of dollars isn't everything. I am sure it can be very nerve wrecking and stressful, in which probably lead to her drug use. I know she was very nervous to bring out her first cd.
Some of my favourite hits of hers was "I wanna dance with someone who loves me". Her official music video for this is very popular in trend. It shows bright vibrant colours, including pink, a shopping mall dress room and the splash in which J Lo herself used in her "I'm Glad" video, most recently.

"I wanna dance with somebody" 1986

J Lo "I'm Glad"

This picture is taken from J Lo's "I'm Glad" video which was clearly influenced from Whitney Houston's "I wanna dance with somebody who loves me" video.

Whitney Houston's competitors were strong singers like Mariah Carey who sung songs like "Hero" and also Celine Dion who sung songs like "My heart will go on".  More singers who make me cry for no reason. I am a very stable person emotionally, but these ladies sure know how to bring it.
Other popular songs of Whitney Houston were "I will always love you" and "Greatest love of all time".
It is rare to hear such positive song lyrics like "Saving all my love for you" another Whitney Houston greatest hit. It would be nice to bring back this positive energy to the media that society misses out on.

Whitney's awards "included two Emmy Awards, six Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, and 22 American Music Awards, among a total of 415 career awards as of 2010" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_Houston


I would like to make a tribute to Whitney Houston, stylizing on a magazine cover spread. 

This is a good way to start. This magazine cover layout is done by a popular Graphic Designer found on http://www.flickr.com/photos/leifpeng/

I am also inspired by spirituality. This image is taken from google and also gives me inspiration.

Here is a template I designed in memory of Whitney Houston:

Thumbnails being processed of popular theme and Whitney Houston for magazine cover.

The Heart is full of Suspense !

Hello all, how are you today? I would like to express with this week's theme, the theme of love according to Valentine's Day. Historically St. Valentine was a real Saint who married soldiers secretly.... the Roman Emperor Claudius II forbid soldiers to get married... the Priest Valentine married them regardless and then was buried on Feb 14th... he was killed and buried for marrying soldiers... the emperor thought he would build a stronger army if soldiers didn't worry about such things as love and marriage..... we use to celebrate more Saints on the calendar but over time the government has taken it out.... St Valentine survived the calendar, because it has become so commercialized. 
According to Illustrationfriday.com the word of the week is suspense and in dance we can all feel full of suspense when waiting to see our favourite number about to perform, or when we are dancing with a special valentine for the first time. 

This image was taken from goggle.

This image was taken from http://cdn.gamingangels.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/beatles_love1.jpg it was from a cd cassette cover about, you got it, love songs! 

Love is in the air!

This image was taken from http://www.gamingangels.com/2009/11/beatles-rock-band-share-your-love-contest-coming-to-a-close/ which was hosting a contest called "Share your Love".

If you check out the link and are an American you can have a chance to win, all you have to do is write a love song.

This week's inspiration comes from Dance magazine, the word suspense, and Valentine's Day. Many dance couples across the nation await the suspense of performing on stage in front of hundreds, thousands, or perhaps millions. You, yourself at home may await the suspense of dancing with a special someone, perhaps for Valentine's Day?

Suspense is in the air!

Here is Keiraz linear concept:

Possible colour scheme:

My cd cover design for Stacie Orrico

I wish to create to you a beautiful, down to earth cd cover featuring Stacie Orrico. This product will feature Stacie Orrico, a new and uprising female artist, everyone wants their hands on what’s new and hot. The cd cover will promote a down to earth, good girl and positive feel to it.

Rough draft visualization:

My vision is a memorable way to meet the needs of the client to appeal your target audience of preteen girls. I used a classy, yet trendy picture of Stacie Orrico. She is set up against what looks like a backyard fence embedded by flowers and trees. This vision relates to young girls growing up outdoors to appeal to Stacie’s down to earth, good girl appeal. I used effects I learnt in photoshop to make the outdoors appear to have a computerized effect because so many young kids can relate to modern technology. This computer effect looks as if the fence was being drawn out adding a artistic touch. The font I used for her name has a lot of effects to it will be appealing to the young preteen girl’s eye. I also used many vibrate colours in it, including pink. The EMI record label logo was then added to help the selling appeal. It is to add a trusted effect that many customers already know and parents already approve on, looking back on such artists as the Beatles and Jessica Simpson. The album name Heart appeals to the young girls heart which is so full of love and ready to learn about love and how it relates to the world they are growing into. 

This cd will sell because every new generation loves to create something new and fresh to appeal to their own identity. The bright vibrate colours will make effective eye attention grabbers. The unique and beautiful cd cover layout is so pretty that customers will be dying to see what new layout you will come out with next. Her songs and the rhythm and feel of the front flow with the trend of songs Stacie produces on her cd that customers will trust you even more than ever. Customers will know that when they pick up a cd they can identify with the cover and what the cd produces so they can make a strong connected decision in their purchase.

Laptop Skin Cover Design

I designed a laptop skin cover over the weekend using photoshop CS5.