Illustration & Graphic Design

Costume Design | Collage & Sculpture | Animation | Photography

Northwestern GSRC (Gender and Sexuality Resource Center) Mural

This project was a joy for me to complete in celebrating the LGBTQ+ community on the Northwestern campus. Working with the center director, Matthew Abtahi, I was able to create a sketch of the mural and incorporate several ideas. These included the incorporation of the original Gilbert-Baker Pride Flag, connection to existing artistic elements of the space (five colored stripes along the walls), and the inclusion of a variety of identities. Ultimately, combining these elements I created a winding ribbon connecting to the existing elements in the space. I created one figure for each stripe on the Gilbert-Baker Pride Flag, each of these figures was painted in correlation to the colors of a specific group's pride flag. In this project, I was able to not only represent my community but also to develop my distinct graphic and colorful art style.

This watercolor collection focuses on physically representing the 4D relationships of all human connectivity, think the six degrees of separation. Every relationship takes up an amount of non-physical space that connects us all in perpetuity. The piece "Social Macro" is the idea of the larger, chaotic, endless intertangling of us all. The piece "Social Bubbles" is a sample section of this idea, exploring the overlapping relationships that formulate a smaller network, each bubble a person and each colors a relationship. "Social Bubble" zooms further to the colors, or relationships, which constitute an individual. The idea is that my relationship to myself is a single bubble, while mine and yours are two bubbles connected, however, that conjoined bubble exists in the same space as mine and your individual relationships with our respective selves. This idea expands exponentially to all social groups and relationships throughout time and space.

Social Bubbles
Watercolor

Social Macro
Watercolor

Social Bubble
Watercolor

Below you'll find two of my comics, the first "All Gays Go to Hell" is a satirical comic about what happens when someone gay dies.

The second, "Stealtholopod" is a children's style comic which explores storytelling with minimal dialogue.

All Gays Go to Hell
Alcohol Markers, Ink, Clip Studio

Stealtholopod
Procreate

These illustrations/designs are pulled from my ttrpg: Thanostos. Combining the Underworld of Greek mythology, Mörk Borg death-metal style table-top games, and a dash of my approach to the afterlife with comedy and satire drizzled in. These creations are a grand and exciting undertaking that allow me to explore my skills in layout-design, illustration, and overall storytelling. They also gave me crucial experience in design for book-layout, margin awareness, and color correction for print. All images were created in Photoshop and InDesign.

Thanostos Cover Image
Photoshop

The following images are from a simple study I conducted in black ink. I drew the same object (a leather hole-punch) in a variety of styles, techniques, and orientations. Through this exercise I was able to hone my skills on drawing an object in various perspectives, altering style, utilizing contrast, and practicing simplicity to communicate an image. Many of these skills later became influential in my work in comics, as well as my general artistic style.

The repetition and exploration of my own forms of image processing was something that also solidified my trust in my own self-judgement. I found my own relationship with curves and lines that has arisen in my work repeatedly since then. For example, in my collection of mixed-media collage titled "Modern Reality", I saw a resurgence in these natural curves and patterns that are ingrained within my own hand.

"Punch Me" (Leather Hole Punch Study)
Ink

The following images are a collection of my other illustrative works.

The first group, "Ocean View", is a study of different sea creature's unique eye anatomy. I wanted to explore realism in a manner that wasn't as universally defined or perceived, while also injecting them with my own artistic style.

The second image, "Stanley", was an illustration created of objects relating to my high-school theatre director. Each object related to her person, such as a strict adherence to jelly bean portion sizes, and characterized her in an essence.

"Down the Rabbit Hole" is a series of carved paper images layered to create an image with creative depth. It is an homage to Alice in Wonderland and allowed me to fully commit to my obsession with fine detail. The back is vellum to allow for multiple lighting options to highlight the layers of the piece.

Following this are an assortment of graphic design works for digital media advertising and print on merchandise like sweaters or stickers. Additionally, I've included a few self portraits coded in p5.js.