LOST & FOUND

IDEA BOOK 2012 - 2013 Qianliu Chen

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Intro 2

Searching back Having fun with traditional techniques 5 Sketchbook Project 6Image Harvest Project 9Workshops and three-workshop reaction piece 10Publishing Project 123D Lettering 14

Moving forward Seeking for directions in digital age 17

Art market Project 18Hand Lettering 22Words On Wheels 24Pattern workshop 26Made & Sold 28Stop Motion Animation 30

And more

Lost & Found Group Show 34Sketch Book Show 35FranknPoetry Show 36Alpha book illustration 37Zine for MOCCA 37Independent Project 38 Lightroom & Archiving 40

Content

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Why am I here? Why did I choose to attend graduate school?

What are my goals? What are my expectations? All these ques-

tions have been asked over and over since I started to apply

to school. As time goes by, all the experiences here at MICA

have made me thinking beyond those initial questions. When

I look back at my earlier digital illustrations, I feel that I could

have done them better. But how can I improve my drawing

technique? How can I get a better understanding of color and

texture? How can I bring a natural feeling to my digital illus-

trations? I’m still searching for the answers. What I’ve done

for my entire first year of graduate study, is to mainly focus on

exploring in traditional technique and blending those discov-

eries into my present digital illustration. I think this process of

looking back and moving forward definitely helped me to spot

my weakness and develop a unique style in illustration field.

Intro

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I still remember that I used to doodle on cheap papers in

class when I was a kid. However, since I got my first digital

tablet in 2005, I found it was liberating convincing digital

image in program like Photoshop and Corel Painter. With all

the shortcut and hotkeys, drawing and making changes be-

came so easy. I can barely remember the last time I drew on

a piece of paper. However, drawing is origin on paper. If we

start to lose the ability of hand drawing, we will get lost the

on the way to improve the aesthetic of digital illustration.

In the following sections, I looked back at my first year pro-

jects. I had a great time trying traditional methods. Though

I got frustrated at the very beginning, as long I practiced

more, I felt more confident about what I was doing. Pencil

sketching, watercolor and crafting, making things in three

dimensions and feeling the brush textures on the products:

the experience is richer than I expected. Fun!

Searching Back

Having fun with traditional techniques

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Sketchbook Project is a collaborat-

ed project we did for the Brooklyn

Art Library. Each sketchbook was

assigned with a theme. We did illus-

trations based on txhe themes and

exchanged sketchbook each week.

This is the project that completely

took me out of my comfort zone.

There was no way to sketch digitally,

so I had to go back to paper and

pencil. It was a little bit frustrating

for me, but it was also a very good

practice for me to experience tradi-

tional hand drawing.

Sketch Book Project

Cover illustration & Details

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Working In Progress

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Image Harvest Project

Image Harvest Project is a project that helps us to looking back at our old illustrations and

then brainstorm ten ideas to bring the old works a new life. Since I came to MICA with a

game-design background, I took my cartoon-building ideas and made new products.

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This project is to utilize what we’ve

learnt from the workshops and to cre-

ate something new using these tech-

niques. There were four interesting

workshops in the 2012 fall semester:

letter pressing, bookbinding, sewing,

paper engineering. These workshops

provided a great opportunity for us

to search beyond what we are used

to doing. For the three-workshop

reaction piece assignment, the skills

of paper folding, bookbinding, and

sewing contributed to my little pop-

up book called Journey.

Workshops andThree-Workshops Reaction Project

Paper Engneering

Sewing

Letter Pressing

Bookbinding

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Sketches for Three-workshps Reaction Project

Pop-up Card

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Pop-up Book: Journey

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I used watercolor for a book Trave-

logue, which illustrates the famous

food and the local architectures

of different places in China, it also

represents the unique culture of

the erea. It was created in a trave-

logue format, with a folded cover

at a size of 5x7’’, and a small book

inside. It was a challenging project,

not only because of lack watercolor

experience, but also because of the

hand-making process. After all the

hardworking, someone bought this

book at MICA Art Market and told

me that he likes my illustration; he

said it reminded him of the days he

was in China. That was the best mo-

ment, and I believed all my efforts

were just worth it.

Publishing Project

Ilustration of TIbet

Travelogue

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Publishing Project Pitch

This 12-page picture book is about traveling. Most of us have a desire of traveling deep in our heart. This

book will show the audience several amazing spots in China, leading them into the ancient country and

enjoy in its beauty.

In this book, it will illustrate the famous food there and the local architectures, which represent the

unique culture. There will be four to five scenes of China, including Phoenix Ancient Town, Wu Zhen, Old

Town of Lijiang, Wuyuan Jiangxi and Tibet. It will be created in a travelogue format, with a folder cover at

a size of 5x7’’, and a small book inside. This would bring this product more nature and interesting.

The audience will be mainly focus on people who are interested in travel experiences and Asian culture.

All the things shown in the book are close to the residences’ daily life. It represents a different life style

to the audience, and also delivers a relaxed emotion in the “trip”. Then, the audience would get more

organized and move back to the daily life.

Working In Progess

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3D Lettering

This was a fun project we did to welcome

the visiting artist Tomi Vollauschek. I

made the letter “L” with wood, pushpins

and spray paint. This was something I’ve

never done before, but came up with the

idea and constructed it in three dimen-

sions. It was really exciting.

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I appreciate that I was able to immerse myself in hand draw-

ing and also meet those amazing digital artists as well. The

development of software and equipment provides artists

with various approaches as their style their artworks. Some

of these artists scan their pencil drawings and apply color

digitally, while others make their own textures that could be

used as overlaid layers or preset brushes. After communicat-

ing with them, I started to realize that digital illustration could

also be as organic as hand-drawn illustration.

As for me, the projects in this chapter were more like an ex-

perimental process. I explored with different ways to bring in

hand-drawing elements into my artworks. Instead of starting

with line work, I tried to work on silhouettes first, and then

use textured brushes to render the picture. Beside this I also

applied light sketch lines, which are very subtle and hard to

detect. It helped to break the digital feeling, and I think it

worked. Maybe this was the direction I was searching for.

Moving Forward

Seeking Unique Directions in the Digital Age

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My market project was combined with the Image Harvest Project. The

idea of architecture illustration was applied to my calendar product,

called Travel Around the World! This product has 12 different cartoon

images assigned to each page, at a size of 11x8.5 inches. The target au-

dience was young adults and businesswomen who usually work under

the pressure of tight schedules. Writing a creative brief for the product

also so helped me to develop a better understanding of the market

and identifying unit cost.

Art Market Project

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Binding

Details

Working Digtially

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Illustration: Reykjavik

Illustration: Lake Laurence

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Illustration: Deer Valley

Illustration: Santorini

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In this project each of us was

assigned about ten words to illus-

trate. I was able to experiment in

different ways to approach the final

product. Most of the words were

done digitally, but I started to add

more textures to reduce the digital

feeling. I also tried to use something

new, including light painting, googly

eyes, and tea.

Hand Lettering

Illustration: Delusion

Working In Progess

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We had the chance to participate in 14th annual “Words On Wheels” project, which is supported by

Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) and the Maryland Department of Transportation. We illustrat-

ed posters for the poetry written by students from Baltimore City Public Schools. We also had the

chance to meet our little talented poets at the celebration, and we worked together to put up the

poster on MTA bus. Then we could see our posters displayed on MTA vehicles throughout the year!

Words On Wheels

Poet Yasmine with the poster

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Words On Wheels Poster Design

Sketches

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Every illustrator loves patterns!

Applying our illustration to a pattern

format and to preview it on practical

products: What can be more excit-

ing than that! In this set of patterns,

I designed five pair of patterns carry-

ing a theme of “morning at the lake

house”, which conveys a relaxed life

attitude. But it was tricky to design

the patterns because it required very

careful consideration for the pacing

and color matching. Actually I redid

some of the patterns several times

to get the final result and finally I

chose limited color palettes to get

the best result.

Pattern Workshop

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This was a three-day workshop with

the visiting artist Tomi Vollauschek.

The entire workshop was divided

into three sections; for each section,

we explored new ideas and came

up with something fun. TADO doll

in Tomi’s book Made & Sold inspired

me. I developed my own character

and applied it to buttons and other

artwork format. The print I made

for the third section was a little bit

different than other prints. It’s just an

ordinary print with an unhappy bun-

ny on it, however, but if the audience

looked at it through a light source,

the bunny becomes very happy.

Made & Sold Workshop

Day 1: Sketches

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Day 2: Button Badge

Day 3: Application

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We had a four-day Stop Motion

Workshop with Melinda Beck in

our class. It was fun but also very

intense. We needed to finish all the

production in about three days. I

including the design I illustrated all

the puppets digitally, then print-

ed them out and made the paper

doll. Though I have a animation

background, I have never made any

stop-motion animation before. Each

frame took me about three to five

minutes to place every object to

the right place. So the production

process was really time consuming.

I spent a whole night finishing the

shooting part, then anther couple of

hours to edit the video and match

up the sound track.

Watch it on Vimeo:

https://vimeo.com/64050242

Stop Motion Animation

Workshop with Melinda Beck

Shooting

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Story Board

Dragonframe Workspacae Vedio Edtiting

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What else we have done for this academic year? Exhibitions,

group work, and more! I’m really proud to be in this com-

munity and create new work with my friends. We help each

other and get inspired by each other. I’m sure for next year,

we will come up with something even more spectacular!

And more

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Lost & Found Group Show

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Sketch Book Show

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FranknPoetry Show

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Zine For MOCCA

Alpha Book Illustration

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For this project, I was able to ex-

plore something I’ve never done

before. I decided to make this min-

inature with wood, metal wires and

air dry clay, dipicting a small bunny

hidding in his closet.

Independent Project

Hiding In the Closet

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Working In Progress

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More bunnies!

Lightroom & Archiving

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