Alice In Wonderland

This (18"x28") collage is part of a two part assignment, Alice In Wonderland mock Neptune Theater poster. The first stage consisted of combining multiple textures and media. Magazine/paper/acrylics and gloss medium.
The concept of this poster is a twist off the classic Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. The frightened older Alice is faced with dark and mysterious adventures.
This Is the first version of the Alice poster i created using elements from the collage. The critique for this particular representation was terrible and was the single most disappointing feedback I've received this year. It was really disappointing because I really liked it and enjoyed the abstract layout, but to everyone else it didn't make sense.

So i took the negative feed back and made it a bit more understanding and better graphic elements. I'm still not happy with it but i do like this one better.

Long Lost

This is a cover i painted for a magazine me and my design associate Karen Mills designed for our third semester of the Applied Communication Arts class. Sadly me and karen have been faced with the crude reality that technology doesn't always have your back. Thinking she was taking extra precautions by buying an expensive portable external hard-drive, Karen saved our InDesign file of our Magazine and free'd up some space on her desktop, I'm sure you can guess what happened next.. It shit the bed. I do still have the PDF version of the project, How ever it is infested with spelling errors and bad layout design! where was the grid!!!? I guess its just a learning curve. Our next one will just have to be amazing right karen:)? oh and we'll save it on both computers.

I live. I design.

Art described by the New Oxford American Dictionary:

1 the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination,typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power: the art of the Renaissance | great art is concerned with moral imperfections | she studied art in Paris.• works produced by such skill and imagination : his collection of modern art | an exhibition of Tibetan art | [as adj. ] an art critic.• creative activity resulting in the production of paintings, drawings, or sculpture : she’s good at art.

Halfway through the first semester of Saint Mary’s University while painting a very inspiring portrait, I was hit in the face with the possibility that i could channel my creative abilities in such a way that i could perhaps … make money.

University – Art + Year x4 – Money x-5 = job+university – 2(-money x 3)=job+money x5= wait.. what?

NSCC + Art – money + year = job+money x5

im back

maybe ill start posting soon.

Graphic Design

For one of my classes at school, we were told to make Celebrity Playing Cards of who ever we wanted. Using The pen tool in Adobe Illustrator, we traced every line/shadow/highlight that was on the characters face and then produced the playing cards in three different style colors.
-Triad
-Complementry
-Analogous



Queen Emily Haines

























King Sufjan Stevens










Jack Connor Oberst

Photography

Back lit Photo. Simply lighting a subject from behind while having a sharp image with a good exposure. Karen and I tried many takes of this shot, and this is my un-edited (raw) photo.

There are many aspects to photography that i find fascinating, but the one that i see to be the most interesting is light painting. this photo was taken at Point Pleasant Park after dark with an exposure of about two minutes.

Concert Venues are one of my Favorite places to be. There is something about capturing the energy of the band and the crowd, the reward is when you can see the connection between the artist and the fans.Portrait/ Head shots for me seem to be the hardest part of being a photographer. Portraits are one of the most important shots one can take, but they need to be perfectly lit, sharp and the composition still needs be be interesting. This shot was taken out side The Black Market downtown Halifax. The store was having a 20th anniversary and these mimes were part of the show.
Music - Red Heart - Hey Rosetta

For this photo we were told to listen to a song repeatedly and take a photo that represented either the lyrics or the way the song made you feel. This is my interpretation of the song.

To view more of my photography visit my Flickr site - http://www.flickr.com/photos/30647445@N08/

For any questions or requests please contact me - Melissarichards.xx@gmail.com