EPOS 2009 Lip Dub

EPOS 2009 Lip Dub from epos on Vimeo.

Abby

Illustration by Kimiyo Nishio

Kya

Illustration by Kimiyo Nishio

Catrina

Illustration by Kimiyo Nishio

Keiko

Illustration by Kimiyo Nishio

Leila

Illustration by Kimiyo Nishio

IF: Theory

Illustration by Brandon Fall

IF: Tails and Legends

Illustration by Brandon Fall

IF: Plain

Illustration by Brandon Fall

FREE GIFT FOR BLOG VISITORS!

The Secret Of A Happy Relationship,
Origami Edition

A Gift, A Game, A Way to Connect.




To the first 50 new or returning visitors to this blog, "Design In Bloom," we thought it would be cool to give you a gift! Designed by Gabrielle Raumberger and the EPOS team, The Secret Of A Happy Relationship, Origami Edition, is a fun and enlightening communication tool helping you become aware of your emotions and showing you how to share them in an appropriate way. Play it with your special someone, family member, new myspace buddy, or give it away as a unique gift. Visit www.happyrelationship.com to see all five unique editions!

Click here to send us your name and mailing info and your free Origami Edition will be on its way!

Extra Bonus: Be an early bird! The first ten responses will also receive the very popular, extra special, super cool looking, Contemporary Edition. So get moving!



P.S. Thank you for visiting! ;)

Illustration Friday: Missing

Illustration Friday: Poem

Illustration by Kimiyo Nishio

Process: Phil Who Fell by Brandon Fall

The Start of the Journey:
Writer Rex Wilder approached us to set colorful illustrations to his playful children’s book. The story is set in ryhme and follows a boy named Phil who likes to fall. It’s not that Phil can’t help from falling, he just likes it, much to his parents dismay. In the end, a philosopher realizes the freeing feeling falling has and becomes a follower of Phil. Phil ends up with many other “fall”owers.

Approach:
After a few meetings to determine what Rex was looking for in the illustration style, character sketches were underway. The flow of the book definitely has a playful feeling; playful illustrations would naturally follow.

Early sketches for the character Phil




Concept:
We mutually decided that Phil should be just about the only normal looking one. The other characters Phil would meet along the way would look more abnormal, which would contrast with Phil. I also wanted to have the illustrations packed with other background information, events going on in the background that might tell their own individual story that you, as a reader, might not catch on the first read through. This is where I really had a lot of fun!

Sketches for the character Phil



Individual scans pieced together in Photoshop



Finished double page spread painted in Photoshop


More Than Meets the Eye:
The copy at the start of the book was very short and simple, for example one page reads, “Phil, who fell in football.” More than just illustrating Phil falling while playing football, I wanted to create a whole story within this spread...people yelling on the sidelines, parents getting in arguments, and a teammate surprised with Phil falling before making it to the inzone.

Fully illustrated page and close up background detail





Fully illustrated page and close up background detail





Technique:
The illustrations were drawn on a 18” x 24” sketch tablet. Each sketch was scanned at a high resolution in 3 to 4 pieces and lined up together in Photoshop. The advantage of painting in Photoshop was that it would allow for easy color changes, easy layout changes, or even completely eliminating a character if needed. The skin tones, where I usually started each illustration, were blocked in as a solid color and placed on their own layer. The Photoshop round brush was set with a hard edge at 50% opacity–this created the paint stroke look, as 50% opacity allowed the previous paint strokes to come through. A slightly lighter color was then used for high-lights. As the color was painted, other colors were sampled and blended in. The process was repeated with both lighter and darker colors. It’s just like painting!

Skin tones were added first as a solid color



Highlights and shadows were then added




The Outcome:
Along the way, Rex was shown the sketches and finished illustrations as they were created. He was pleased with the initial direction, so he gave us complete creative freedom for the rest of the illustrations in the book. The result was a book with which we were both happy about.

Illustration Friday: Discovery

Illustration by our newest intern, Hanae

Illustration Friday: Rejection

Illustrations by Kimiyo Nishio (top) & Brandon Fall (bottom)