Homemade Christmas Card

This is the prototype for my Christmas greeting card collection "Oyster". The card is 3-dimensional and features a pocket that you can place goodies for the recipient. I used fishing wire to attach a hook to the star so that it can hang on your tree! My thinking behind this card was to create something that would allow people to showcase their Christmas cards that wouldn't take up additional space in the house. The card is made entirely out of paper cut outs and can be customized for any occasion.



Oyster

I've been developing cards for a while now and recently decided to move beyond making cards just for family and friends. This is the beginning of my business plan, cut on paper to be assembled! The new company is called Oyster, each of the cards I make can be made into a small box and filled with whatever you desire. I'm currently working on packaging and branding for the greeting cards and I'm so excited for the final product!

The Hunt

More process for my thesis work, this piece is based on the classic novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Basically my process for this piece was to create imagery that depict Heathcliff's struggle dealing with Catherine's changing role within the novel. I wanted to use imagery that suggests a hunt, showing that Heathcliff's emotions are based purely on instinct and therefore he cannot control his urge to overpower Catherine. I wanted to play with the idea of negative shapes using the wolf's face. Some of my initial concepts used the snout as a tree. Usually when I begin a piece I create multiple compositional roughs that help me determine layout. The most important part of these layouts lies in the fact that many of my concepts are dual images, using negative shapes to tell a story beyond the initial imagery. 

Pride and Prejudice

Work in progress poster illustration for Pride and Prejudice. My process for this piece was primarily researching the book in depth. I wanted to show the journey that Mr. Darcy takes throughout the novel and finally releases his pride. The final image will have more detail in the ripples and swam shadow that outline how pride can bring you down and keep you ignorant.

Trauma

This is a narrative I did about concussions in sports. My process for this piece was to create a storyboard of possible frames to illustrate the narrative. At this point I narrowed down the frames to 8, eventually adding the 9th frame as a "hook". The last frame was a suggestion from one of my professors who asked why I had excluded it in the first place, as I did have it in my initial thumbs. I realized that it was important to follow the narrative full circle and show the event followed by the repercussions and eventually the result. I created this piece in photoshop and brought the file into illustrator to add the speech bubbles and type.

The Fall

Finally have some progress for my thesis!!!! This piece was about trying to figure out what I wanted to get out of the collection of work for this year. I wanted to focus on mixing graphic shapes with detailed pieces in order to create a juxtaposition of the different elements. For this piece I began with a portrait and slowly began building up the information in the face. I fooled around with a new photoshop brush I created for the background. I was most interested in the idea of leaving information out as opposed to rendering everything equally like I typically do in my work. I think this really helped me to get the graphic quality without losing all the subtle details and textures that I love.

Old Europe Street - Matte Painting

Matte painting - substituting day for night based on previous plate and matte painting.

Matte Painting

The last few months I've been busy completing my summer internship in Toronto. For this piece I took 3 separate photos and used tools in photoshop to stitch them together into one image. Once the image was stitched together and all the seams were removed I proceeded to paint out all the elements that didn't fit in with the time period of the original architecture. I continued to add elements that would add interest and create a matte painting that was photo real. Lastly I added atmosphere and create the illusion of an overcast day in Germany.

Work In Progress

This is a work in progress of a piece for a group exhibition called Born from Chaos. 24 inches by 30 inches, oil on canvas.

PEN Canada


This is a poster for PEN Canada about freedom of expression through writing. Conceptually I wanted to play with the idea of creating your own freedom and using words as a method to fight oppression. Initially I created a division between the birds using colour, form and shape. I decided that combining graphic elements and forming letters would help to show a more positive message about how freedom goes hand and hand with equality.