Mike G. Illustration

PSA

2010-11-18T14:35:00.000-08:00

Topic: Hispanic Parental Engagement
Sponsor: Hispanic Scholarship Fund

1. The main target of the campaign would be Hispanic parents. The language barrier could be an issue.

2. They need to understand the role and influence they play in their child's decision regarding college. Hispanics who have gone to college rank their parents as being most influential in their decision to continue their schooling. However, recent studies have shown that more than 65% of Hispanic parents do not have the knowledge to guide their children as they seek to apply and enroll in college.

3. The call to action is to get Hispanic parents better involved not just in their child's education, but to also get them to understand how important attending college is. There also needs to be a better understanding of how to apply to college and apply for financial aid and scholarships for parents.

4. The issue is important because it's not just a way to get more Hispanic kids in college, but to better help Hispanic parents understand the process of going to college. 65% of parents do not currently understand this process.

Bruce Mau

2010-11-11T14:25:00.000-08:00

Q: What advice would you give a cynical designer?
A: Get out of the way.

That's probably what I really appreciated and took away from Bruce Mau's lecture. According to Mau there is no room in design for cynicism. Mau is one of those people who's a genuine optomist. But not in an annoying "things will get better" kind of way. It's more of a "things will get better, because I will make them better". While blinding optimism can be a bit much, Bruce Mau energized the crowd and reminded us all how powerful design can be.

Sample

2010-10-25T09:47:00.001-07:00

For the opening title sequence I wanted to do an animated piece. I wanted to play with old detective/noir conventions but also add some humor as well. Since the main character has Tourette's and rearranges words in his head, each credit will be spelled incorrectly and then rearrange itself into the correct name.

Inspiration

2010-10-24T14:37:00.000-07:00

Title Sequence assignment

2010-10-24T12:01:00.001-07:00

This is one of the best books I've read recently. This is because it combines a lot of genres that I love. It's a half-satirical cross between a literary novel and a hard-boiled crime story that is narrated by an amatuer detective named Lionel Essrog, who has Tourette's syndrome.

Plot:

Lionel Essrog is an orphan who has Tourette's syndrome (the often uncontrollable urge to shout nonsense, touch every surface in reach, and rearrange objects). In the 1970s he and a small group of other boys were "borrowed" from St. Vincent's Home in Brooklyn by Frank Minna, a local small-time crime boss and fixer, for odd jobs.

Now, some years later, they're the "Minna Men," who work out of their mentor's "detective agency/limo service" but mostly receive stolen goods, smash up things when ordered to, and occasionally serve as weak guards. But one terrible night Frank Minna is fatally stabbed and thrown into a dumpster, and Lionel must become a real detective.

His search for Frank's killer leads through Frank's bitter wife Julia, who leaves town fast; the strange storefront Zen Buddhist temple that was Frank's last stop before he died; and ultimately to a small town on the coast of Maine where powerful Japanese business interests have revived the local fishing industry due to their willingness to pay big money for urchin eggs. And through it all, Lionel must try to control his Tourette's.

Characters:

Lionel Essrog
Frank Minna
The Minna Men (Tony, Gilbert, Danny)
Matricardi & Rockaforte
Roshi
Polish Giant
Kimmery
Julia (Frank's wife)

Locations:

Brooklyn
Upper West Side
Maine

Text Animation

2010-10-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

Typeface and storyboard

2010-10-07T14:25:00.000-07:00

For this project I chose the typeface Les Bains. I liked the simplicity of the typeface and I thought it gave me some options to play around with. As for what sound, I feel like it has a light, airy sound. But also, kind of futuristic and droning. But nothing too annoying or heavy.

Ummi Logo v2

2010-09-29T14:28:00.000-07:00

Song quote

2010-09-09T14:48:00.000-07:00

Assignment 1

2010-09-09T14:38:00.000-07:00

Assignment 1 from Mike Grau on Vimeo.

Motion Design 2 - First Assignment

2010-09-08T16:46:00.001-07:00

So this is the work for my first assignment in Motion Design 2. I originally started to work on a different piece, but I got completely lost. I thought technically it would be fairly easy, as I've used different kinds of masking in the past to make it seem like a line is being drawn or growing. But this time it was much more complex and it became a complete mess.

I made an executive decision and decided to scrap this idea and do something else. There was no way I was going to finish my first design. So I'm not thrilled with the current piece, but it's something to build off of. I have attached both storyboards. One for the failed piece, and the second, easier one.

Creative Block

2009-12-09T09:04:00.000-08:00

As the end of the semester gets closer and the pressure gets larger, a site like this is a great reminder to step back and think. And to just have fun.

http://creativeblock.monomoda.com/

Great Flash Work

2009-12-09T09:03:00.000-08:00

I'm really into this site. It's very simple looking but uses Flash in a really powerful and dynamic way.

http://fl-2.com/2009/index.aspx

Flash Sites

2009-11-04T11:59:00.000-08:00

Here's a couple Flash based sites that I've been checking out.

http://www.shapeshifter.co.nz/

http://www.bigwarmup.com/

Circles, circles, circles

2008-05-20T19:28:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try something new. The first picture is of the regular outline that I do for every painting. The second is a "brilliantly" designed diagram of my why I chose the composition for this piece.

When I was in school (undergrad), one of my teachers told me that one of the rules that you should always try to follow is to never put a circle in the upper right hand corner. It attracts the viewers eye directly to it. The only time you should is if you want the viewers eye to go there. For this piece that's exactly what I wanted (the pie), but I'm always nervous that the rest of the composition will get lost. So to combat this I tried to make the entire middle of the page one giant circle. You can see this in my awesome diagram (yes, these are the same skills I used to get into Pratt's graduate design program).
I also liked that the pie (circle) was resting on the tentacle which was acting as a giant arrow. The color choices that I make will also play a part in making this a whole painting. But that's for another day.

Drop That Pie Henry!

2008-05-18T19:02:00.000-07:00

Here's the sketch for my new painting. It's a page from the book dummy that I'm currently making. In this part of the story Emily is trying to keep Henry from eating all the pies. The sketch is the original thumbnail so there really isn't any detail.I thought about fleshing out the sketch more, but I'm incredibly impatient and wanted to start right away. Normally I would never do this because I hate not knowing exactly what I'm doing before I start. I added a background to give it some context.

I'm Back

2008-05-18T17:56:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since the last post. Sorry about that. I was busy with work and finishing my portfolio and application to grad school. I was accepted a couple weeks ago, and now I can focus on my painting again. Here's a sketch I did last night. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the character. It just makes me laugh. I think it's because he looks like some grizzled veteran.
I'll have photos of the painting I just started up soon.

New Sketch

2008-03-04T13:43:00.000-08:00

I've been looking at a lot of Jack Kirby work recently. So that's the inspiration for this sketch. I still have to add some sort of background.

Getting Kids to Read

2008-02-16T20:58:00.000-08:00

This is an older piece that I had forgotten about, but recently found buried beneath stuff. It's based on an idea that I had back in college. I'm not sure why I never did it then, but it's probably for the best. I'm not sure it would have come out this good if a 21 year old me tried to do it. Anyway, I have some new Gorilla Detective sketches that I'm working on. I'll post those soon.

Gorilla Detective - Done!!

2008-02-07T20:33:00.000-08:00

Ok, I think this is finally finished. For some reason, I encountered a ton of problems with this painting. It felt like every decision I made was the wrong one. Thanks to grad school applications, I got to step away from it for a while, and I think that really helped. Instead of making a lot of big changes while I was frustrated, I made a calm, rational one...I just lightened the sky. It might not seem like a big deal, or even show up in the photo, but this made everything better and now I can sleep at night. So yeah, here's Hank Gorilla: Gorilla Detective. Enjoy.

I'm Back

2008-02-02T14:44:00.001-08:00

Sorry about the lack of posts. I just finished all my applications to Grad School. So, now I can get back to Illustrating. I'm going to finish the gorilla painting this weekend (I hope), and I'll put that up during the week. For now, here's a portrait of Orson Welles I did for someone awesome.
If anyone cares, there's a little inside joke in this painting. On the pipe are the letters TL - which stand for Turkey Leg. We (meaning me and the "client") used to joke about what happened to Orson Welles. He started out as a dashing young director who made the greatest movie ever, then somehow gained 100 pounds, grew an awful beard and was the voice of Unicron in the Transformers movie. What happened was all the turkey legs he ate. That's what did him in.

Is this done?!

2008-01-17T21:02:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure if this painting is done. I want it to be done, but is it done. I'm still not happy with the orange text. But I've tried other colors and none seem right. Should I cut it out all together? Or would that then make the painting feel empty? Plus, if I do get rid of it, I feel like it'd be harder to know what exactly the painting is about. Any feedback would be great.

Gorilla Detective - The Painting Pt.1

2008-01-09T20:44:00.000-08:00

Normally, I would break this up, or post it as I was going along, but the holidays and work have gotten in the way. So, unfortunately this is going to be one long post. We'll start with the outline. For whatever reason, I developed this way of working. I love line work, and this seemed like the best way to preserve the original energy of the sketch. I should also mention that I use a projector to blow up the sketch. Then I put Acrylic medium over the pencils. Then the black outline.

Then I do a quick burnt sienna under-painting, to help me figure out the tones, and what the brightest/darkest object is. When I was in school, for some crazy reason, I never did an under-painting. Then one of my teachers told me how dumb that was. Thanks Fred!

This is just the first couple coats of paint. I like to work dark to light, and really build up the colors. Does anybody work light to dark? Is that even possible?

This last one is where I'm currently at. I can't seem to get the tie right. I wanted it to be bright and tacky, but it really looks crazy. It's like something the Joker would wear. Anybody have any suggestions? Hopefully I'll have some more stuff soon.

Gorilla Detective - The Sketches

2007-12-26T15:12:00.000-08:00

Months ago, I was deep into my nerdiness. I had received the entire run of Homicide: Life on the Streets. Not only did it have every episode, crossover episode, and movie, but it came packaged in a miniature file cabinet. I know...that's amazing. Well, after plowing through three and a half seasons, I decided that I wanted to make a character that really showed my love of Cop Dramas. I was flipping through some old sketch books and came across a small doodle of a gorilla with a tie, sporting a cop badge. Seems I already had this idea four years ago. So, after laughing at myself, I got to work on drawing my Gorilla Detective. I wanted it to be dead serious, and really thought about doing it as a comic. Here is my first "serious" drawing:
After thinking about it for a while, I realized that as much fun as a comic would be, it would make for a really great children's book. The first order of business was changing the look of the character. Bitter, middle-aged, gorilla probably wouldn't fly. So, I had to try and "simplify" him, or at least make it feel like my other children's book work.

No, a child did not draw that. It's pretty embarrassing, but I thought it should be included.

This is where I really started to get a feel for what he should look like. He still was bit too grumpy looking, but I felt good moving on. Around this time I thought that I should make a painting that could be used as a postcard. It was tough at first, because I really didn't have a story to fall back on, and had a hard time finding the right tone. While I always make work that makes me happy, I have to keep in mind the intended audience is children. So, anything too action-packed or slightly violent was tossed out. Eventually, I decided to do a little homage to my favorite superhero Spider-man.

I'm pretty pysched with the sketch, and can't wait to start painting. I'll post the beginnings of that soon.

First Post

2007-12-17T18:47:00.000-08:00

I've never written a blog. I'm not really sure how it's done. What I do know is that I wanted to make a space where I could post some of my sketches, doodles, and finished paintings. I always love when illustrators and artists show sketches, and the step-by-step process they use to make work. This is what I want to do with this blog.

Sometimes, the struggles and mistakes are just as interesting as the finished product. Hopefully that will happen here. There should be some fun stuff up soon.