Bacon and magical girls

So bacon happens to be my favorite breakfast meat. I enjoy turkey and beef bacon too. Luckily my mom bought bacon today which I will have tomorrow with eggs in some fashion (I like eggs more than bacon).

Awhile ago I made a joke on facebook saying "If i were a magical girl my attack would involve bacon bits" which resulted in this:

So now you know what I look like at least. Check my bacon rose whip.

12 Dancing Princesses: Rooster, Dog, Pig

Ironically, these are my least favorite animals of the Chinese zodiac, but they are the signs of my dad, mother, and sister. Also ironic because we just finished filling out the paper work for me and my sister's therapy sessions that will start tomorrow. Whoopie~   (Nothing serious)

For the rooster I decided to reference Aztec warrior women, with their beautiful head dresses and bodacious bodies. This sister might have the least clothing but the most accessories, as if she decorates her body like a nest. Overall she has a Afro-Latina appearance.

Dog was really hard. What does a dog woman look like? What is her body type? Someone I managed to think of Princess Diana, so I referenced British Royalty. Then I also considered since dogs are domesticated wolves, why not do a red riding hood theme as well? So basically dog sister is Princess Diana: Were-Wolf Hunter. I have no regrets.

Finally pig. Curvy and juicy, and I wanted to reference pin-ups. This sister is of African decent so the hair styling is that of 1950s African-American women.

Rooster sister silhouettes

Rooster sister hair cocncept

Dog sister silhouettes

Dog sister hair concept

Pig sister silhouette

Pig sister hair concept

So the next step is to either do environment sketches. The ambitious side of me wants to create a chamber per princess, but it seems like they should share a space to reveal the aftermath of their night escapades. However I still want to create their own space for their final illustrations.  So right now Im considering doing the following environments:  The kings throne room, the princess chambers, the underground tunnel, the forest, the battle arena. (necessary) The extra rooms: Library, the tropical bird house, the garden, the bath, hallways.

The other step may be to start with rat and develop some more.

12 Dancing Princesses: Horse, Goat, Monkey

Thus far I've done the first six of the Chinese zodiac, and I must say they were easy to concept, since I had an idea of how to personify their animals. For instance, snake is thin, sexy, with sultry eyes, and skintight revealing clothes. However, she doesn't wear heels, but accents her wrist and ankles with jewelry. Because I had such precise descriptions for the first six, it was hard to break out an innovate interesting silhouettes.

Horse, goat, and monkey are the most probable wayI would approach character design for a client. First you have to find inspiring references (which I do for any design, but these went beyond the initial animal idea)

For horse, all I knew was that the hair would be in a ponytail, which reminding me of a warrior princess. I also thought of the elegance of equestrian life. A few years ago Dior did and equestrian themed runway so I pulled looks and silhouettes from there.

I am pretty sure I'd love to see horse princess in a victorian high-class plaid dress with a fabulous puffed sleeve jacket. However her personality is more of a free spirit "Wild horse" Her name may mean spirit. I don't want her to have a haughtiness. Dragon and snake can handle that area.

Also I must say models are perfect horse reference. They clop down the runway very well.
Lolita fashion has a victorian genre (as well as steampunk-victorian). I actually own the outfit with the cage hoop skirt.

Horse Sister Silhouette

Horse Sister Hair Concept

So next was goat, which is my sign. I'm a metal goat (1991) Goat is one of the sister of African decent and I wanted her to have short wholly hair. That's pretty much it. Her silhouette and costuming is far from anything interesting, and may be done based on what's missing from the other sisters. Goats do remind of gypsies but I really didn't want to go there for inspiration. I tried researching tribal girls, but clothing wise, nothing exciting came up. The purple and cream of her color pallet is based on Disney's Esmeralda (that's as much gypsy as I will go)

Goat Sister Silhouette

Goat Sister Hair Concept

I was initially uninspired to do Monkey, because it is one of my least favorites, until I thought of Goku (DBZ) and Goku (Saiyuki) based on the story Journey to the West. In Journey to the West, Son Goku is the Monkey King with a nyobo. This is an archetype, (there are several goku characters with monkey feature in anime and manga). The nyobo staff they carry and their tendency towards a red to yellow analogous color scheme reminded me of the Air nomads from Avatar, so that silhouette was also inspired in the design concept.

Monkey Sister Silhouette

Monkey Sister Hair Concept

Next will be Rooster, Dog, and Pig (which are correspondingly the signs of my dad, mom, and sister. My brother is an ox)

12 Dancing Princesses: Rabbit, Dragon, Snake

So far for the pan-asian, and African take on the Twelve Dancing Princesses, I've established the following.
Rat- Chinese/Korean aesthetic (pale skin)
Ox- African (no tribe reference yet)
Tiger- Chinese (tan)
Rabbit- Japanese/ African
Dragon- Chinese/Malaysian
Snake- South Indian

The princesses have different mothers. I would like possibly only two mother queens, with six sister being part Asian, and the other six being African. The King's ethnicity won't come into play until the daughters are finished.

Rabbit Sister Silhouette

Rabbit Sister Hair Concept

Dragon Sister Silhouette

Dragon Sister Hair Concept

Snake Sister Silhouette

Snake Sister Hair Concept

Next up are horse, goat (my sign), and monkey.

12 Dancing Princesses

New side project: Taking a fairytale and re-imagining it under a different theme. One of my favorite tales was the twelve dancing princesses. 12 beautiful girls means twelve fabulous outfits, a magical secret forest, and of course the last but not least aspect, where the prince takes on the task to solve a mystery although many have failed before him.

The theme I am using is the Chinese zodiac, so each sister corresponds to one of the twelve animals. I haven't settled on a definite ethnic visual language, but I'm considering a blend between African and pan-asian. What I have so far are silhouettes of the first three sisters. Rat, Ox and Tiger.

Rat sister silhouettes

Rat sister hair concept

Ox sister silhouettes

Ox sister hair concept

Tiger sister silhouettes

Tiger sister hair concept

Next up will be Rabbit, Dragon, and Snake.

SCAD Career Fair

So it's been a while.

My last post occurred before one of the most important weekends of my quarter (SCAD Career Fair) which lead into finals, which for me began two weeks before the end of the quarter. Of course Spring break kept me occupied. But now I am back!

So I'll give a littler insider to what Career Fair for the Savannah College of Art and Design is like for participants in general along with what to expect and its benefits. I'll also talk about the employers I met.

WHAT IS CAREER FAIR?
Basically this fair is designed so that employers can meet with students, including graduates and alumni the need to fill  potential job and internship positions. It is a great way to network with potential clients, dream companies, and peers.
The fair also has forums and panels about study abroad, or graduate studies, or how "to make it in the industry".
The special thing about career fair is when it comes to the Sequential department, we get a little more extra. This year the fair was during the weekend of Comics Art Forum, and students who signed up for portfolio reviews are able to participate in individual and group critiques.  This year's visiting artist were Bernard Chang, Jonathan Luna, Skottie Young, Mark Shultz, Charlie "Spike" Trotman, Robert Hughes, and Ben Caldwell

Map of Employer's booths. There is a second sheet with a number assigned to each company.

MY CAREER FAIR EXPERIENCE

I had a great time this year. As freshman I went and was to scared to get in line. I had no idea it would be so professional. I had no portfolio or resume. Luckily, that I'm not a jeans and sneakers girl, so my sensible heel and black skirt apparel helped me to blend. With that first time, I was able to prepare for my junior year.

For the most part the employers were very nice, attentive, and even when some said "You're not what we're looking for" or "You don't have the experience where looking for", they were positive and encouraging following with "please continue to take more courses and see us next year" or "Please take this pamphlet and read about what we want in a employee". 

The companies I ended up interviewing with were BCBG Maxazria, Hallmark Inc., Reebok, Victoria's Secret, KidKraft, Walt Disney Imagineering, and Turner Broadcasting System Inc.  Seeing 6 employers isn's bad especially since TBS and Hallmark had the longest waits to the point they needed 3-4 lines to accommodate job seekers.

I think the most important thing to to take from career fair is even if I don't end up getting an internship (I won't hear back from most of them until April), a relationship is being built. Maybe they'll remember me next year.

I'll wrap up for now. Off to my first class of the quarter! 

My Visual Biography

For the most part blog posts are relevant to the date they are post but I want post some of my past work from what I call my visual biography.


I began matriculation at SCAD in Fall, 2009, and took my first Sequential class in Spring with Brian Ralph (author of the award winning graphic novel Daybreak.)  And quite honestly my work sucked. I always enjoy comics (particularly manga) but I never actually drew any until that class.

 However, there was one piece that I loved and still felt proud of after critique.

The odd couple assignment: Tells the tale of a princess who simply wants her

favorite stuffed animal to come to life.

I find my life unfolding daily the longer I stay in Savannah. It's a very beautiful city and the architecture is amazing.

My past two years at SCAD have been dedicated to Sequential, but then I started to fall in love with Industrial Design after seeing the coolest speakers and a process book from a company called Parrot.

My mom owns the black. The sound is clear and can go far higher than other speakers our family purchased.

That's when I thought about how cool it was to design the world we live in from chairs, mp3 players, stapler, cars, bed post. And then I thought, "If I can design for the world I can incorporate that skill into my comics to create a universe!"

So I enrolled into the Industrial Design program.  So far I'm 7-8 weeks in to my second class. But here is my first project from Intro to Industrial Design.

I must say... it makes me feel legit. 

I will end this post (for what I consider short) but do not fret! I will be back later on today to talk about my day at the SCAD Career Fair. Ready to network!

NEXT POST: SCAD Career Fair

        

Hello and Welcome to my Universe.

Welcome to this blog. Just an overview of what to expect from this blog, my name is Jordan Mathis and I am a sequential artist and industrial designer. Now most people say to me  "Wow, that's different."*you crazy woman* under their breath,  or "How do those fields go together?"

Well,this is how I see it. Essentially,  sequential art and industrial design both call upon the ability to be creative and to communicate a concept whether it is through character, environment, or product design.

When looking at industrial design through a sequential eye, the products in our lives tell a story. They are designed with purpose, and the fact that they can hold sentimental value for us, illustrates that products have meaning and a place in the story of our lives. On the reverse side, when we look at sequential art, the writers and artist must ask themselves, who is this character and what makes them who they are. Where the character lives, what car they drive, what weapons they use are factors that the industrial design mind can determine through hypothetical contextual research. In understanding the character, one can design the products surrounding them to visually communicate who the character is.

Jordan Mathis Said is the phrase to explain that I am giving my ideas and point of view to create a product for people to enjoy, whether its artwork, a story or a tangible object.

NEXT POST:  My Visual Biography (to date)