Draconaei’s Blog

Lately I have been silent here – but as always, not for lack of work.  In preparation for graduate school applications, and as a warmup for the incredibly daunting task of redesigning my portfolio, I reworked and graphically refined my final semester construction documents.

Behold!  I present you with thumbnails of each page.  My favorite ones are also links to larger images.

Front Cover

Table of Contents

Occupation/Zones

Egress

Cost

Structure

Plumbing

HVAC

Skin/Enclosure

The end!  =)

My tattoo-desiring friend did indeed get my winged letter design tattooed onto his calf.  Though I was not there for the inking process, he was kind enough to provide me a photograph so I could see the final work of art:

I think it turned out rather nicely, don’t you?  (Will upload a clearer image when I am able!)

Yet again I’ve had the good fortune of a tattoo design request!  How I love the satisfaction that comes from creating something beautiful and sharing it with others.  This story begins with the doodle on the left.

Rotated 90 degrees, this symbol contains the letters J, F, and O, three letters my friend’s name.  Initially used as a form of signature, he discovered that turning the form on its side somewhat resembled a winged stick figure.  He was fascinated with its tattoo potential, but had no luck graphically translating the idea; here my process begins.

I spun the design in two separate directions.  The first, seen on the left: a unique symbol that somewhat resembles an ancient script, the meaning of which would remain cryptic except to my friend.  He began his request with the intention of ending with a personal symbol along these lines.

The second design, seen on the right: a winged creature maintaining the general shape of the doodle, but given a breath of life (and some artistic liberty.)  His original tattoo fascination was sparked by the doodle’s semblance to a winged stick figure, so this direction also seemed appropriate.

After an exchange of emails, he favored the second direction.  The “shaded” style seemed a bit too basic to me, so I made an effort to add detail and speak a graphic language that better matched the dragon’s general form.  After many iterations, I settled on a broken geometry with implied lines to help to bring out the sharp but feather-like quality of the wings and the sharp quality of the tail, and triangular-like cutouts that bring a serpentine belly to mind.  To keep with the initial simplicity of the original doodle, I kept the design to a basic black-and-white format.  See the final chosen design here:

He plans to get inked quite soon, and I look forward to seeing and posting photographs once he does!

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Graphics are a language.  Some ideas can only be conveyed through images, and not at all through words- or clumsily, at best.

(As a side note, if you have never read Rice Boy, the story is a beautiful example of what I’m describing.  Go. Read. Now.)

A single image can use many visual devices that give it more significance than its surface-level appearance.  To give some simple examples: flat images can give the illusion of depth.  Overlapping shapes- or rather, a graphic with a break in continuity, which alludes to one shape overlapping another- appear to be layers in space, where changing color intensity implies nearness or farness.

Still images can hint at movement.  The repetition of similar shapes implies a connection, and as our eyes are drawn across them, we can infer the connection is time.  We even project aspects of reality into images, such as the implication of gravity when looking from up to down.

After already labeling words a clumsy means of explaining the language of graphics, it would seem silly to type much more right now.  Instead, I will share a small graphic I designed as a phone decal for a friend:

So, what is this image?  I have no idea.  I only know the image I saw in my mind as I began, and the graphic evolution that took place as I drew.  Yet this simple, still, 2-D image seems to have depth, to imply motion, to imply some kind of evolution over time, even if only in a whimsical sort of way.

If a simple phone decal can do that - using only a basic graphic vocabulary - what could someone speaking fluently in graphics say?

The first of what I hope to be many images to spread the message of To Write Love On Her Arms.

Tell me what you think when you see this.

Having already posted about the tattooing process, I won’t bore you with more of the same.  Instead I will inform you that my tattoo has now mostly healed, and has given me a delightful surprise: the flame aligns straight up my leg while my foot is flexed, but curves along my foot when my foot is pointed.

I placed the tattoo along the interior curve of my ankle, in order for the shape of the flames to coincide with the contour of my anklebone, and because of the high significance I place on my feet, as a dancer.  The bright colors now hide the subtle shadows of my protruding bone, but more interestingly, the tattoo appears different from different angles.  From the front, it appears as designed, but from the top, bottom or sides, the design is truncated to the tips of the flames, or a single tongue of fire.

I enjoy how the two-dimensional tattoo has become three-dimensional, living art.  It moves as I move, and as I dance… its appearance is tied to my motion and the perspective to my body.

One of my first disorienting stitches: