Batista Vista

Website Redesign

2012-02-01T19:50:00.005-05:00

Presently, I'm in the process of redesigning my website. I've been unable to update my personal website since leaving college, and therefore losing my ability to access the Ringling servers. I decided to upload this page from my sketchbook to show the thought process I generally go through when thinking up a website.

The general plan that I have is to make the illustration body of my work my index page. The navigation bar will be on the right and have 6 icons that always appear. There will be 3 galleries (illustration, graphic design, and visual storytelling) and each gallery will have a series of thumbnails for each piece on the right (below the navigation bar.) Instead of clicking on an icon and opening up a lightbox viewer to see an image, the user will need to only roll their cursor over the icon and an image will appear automatically on the right of the screen, thereby reducing loading time.

My Current Graphic Design Work

2011-08-04T20:56:00.005-04:00

Photo Reference Night Poster
Adobe Indesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop
24 x 36 inches

This is honestly a redesign for an old poster I made when organizing and announcing a Photo Reference Night at Ringling College of Art and Design during the second half of 2010 so that Seniors could get a chance to take reference for their thesis and other students were allowed to come, work, and contribute as well.

Persona Designs Inc. Brochure
Adobe Indesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop
9 x 7.5 inches, 3 x 7.5 inches per panel

This was honestly a bit of an exercise in creating a basic presentation for a company's image. Persona Designs Inc. is a fake company I made up that creates company images as a business venture, as well as helping those companies plan their marketing strategies while also doing a bit of marketing on their own.

Big G's Sweets and Gourmet Newsletter
Adobe Indesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop
8.5 x 11 inches per page

Anyone who attends or has attended Ringling College of Art and Design should recognize this place. This was honestly just something I did a long time ago when considering how to help market a certain local cafe's image. Sadly, the cost of printing would just be too much, and it would require more money to deliver such newsletters.

The Akita: A dog of loyalty Magazine Spread
Adobe Indesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop
14 x 10 inches, 7 x 10 inches per page

This is a 2 page spread I made while observing the more basic layouts of a National Geographic magazine. I enjoyed doing a digital painting of Argyle, I ought to do more honestly.

Illustration Portfolio

2010-06-24T19:56:00.014-04:00

All artwork is © Christopher Ross Batista 2012

Thesis currently

2010-04-21T08:45:00.033-04:00

For the rest of book one, buy the official volume!

Senior Thesis update - Process Display of Page 1 of 29

2010-03-30T08:54:00.002-04:00

Alien Encounter Storyboard

2010-01-28T23:33:00.002-05:00

Here's a storyboard I made in Storyboarding class.

(Note, the human is using an inhaler whenever you read a *pfft* sound effect and the image in the telescope is a smoggy planet with UFOs hovering around it.)

I'll be making changes to this over the week after receiving class input.

Corrected Thesis Progress

2010-01-11T02:46:00.007-05:00

After having a good friend give me a peer review, I went back and redid some of the panels in the pages as they indicated. Most of it resulted in me indicating where I needed more reference, adding more details, or fixing minor continuity errors.

Part 1

Part 2

Senior Thesis Breakdowns, Part 2, Complete!

2010-01-04T22:32:00.007-05:00

Here are the breakdowns for part 2, pages 14-26. Please keep in mind the notes I have. I'm well aware that I need a lot of reference of backgrounds and settings, but, for now, I'm mainly concerned about composition and flow.

I also plan on making some script changes in part 1 (pages 1-13) because there is a "new" element or plot device in this part that I didn't think to include in the last one, mainly the whole ghost saying "Benidictus." I think I could introduce that earlier in the first part.

For the font, I mainly went with a font size 9. I've been using a generic comicbook font up until this point, but I think I'll start using the "Joe Kubert" font, as it is thin enough to get plenty of letters in while still being legible.

The amount of text in the last panel of this page worries me, but if I break it up into smaller bubbles, it may work.

Just a quick note, I plan on having a sketchy style in the "flashback" panels, to imply that they were from an earlier time in the story.
Another note, I'll need to find out the exact prayer a priest might say before someone's death or their own. Right now, the "Oh Lord" is mostly a placeholder, and I may add speech-bubbles to the last panel of this page.

150 silhouettes

2009-12-18T19:54:00.002-05:00

Senior Thesis Breakdowns, Part 1, Complete!

2009-12-16T05:31:00.011-05:00

All content is © Christopher Batista 2009

Silhouette and Portrait doodles

2009-10-23T08:39:00.002-04:00

Silhouette Doodles
Pencil on Printer Paper
8.5 x 11 inches

Portrait Doodles
Pencil on Printer Paper
8.5 x 11 inches

Doodles

2009-10-20T12:43:00.003-04:00

Red Riding Hood Thumbnails

Pen & Marker

Galaxy Express 999 Thumbnails
Pen & Marker

Galaxy Express 999, Tower Tarot, and Peter and the Wolf Thumbnails
Pen & Marker

Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End Thumbnails
Pen & Marker

Character Poses
Pen & Maker

Portfolio Stuff

2009-10-17T23:26:00.006-04:00

Letterhead & Business Cards

Mock Up Portfolio Page

Envelope Layout

Portfolio Spine Design

A Doodle for Daily Coyote :)

2009-09-14T10:51:00.002-04:00

I looove www.dailycoyote.net for a source of my five minutes of happy a day. Following Charlie, the coyote, while growing up in the care of Vespa Vagabond (the maintainer of the blog and another blog with the same name.) I especially like Chloe and her antics, despite how young she is compared to the handsome coyote. Each of the characters, or rather individuals, in this blog have such unique and lovable personalities... and Vespa Vagabond's skill with photography helps to bring it out for all to see. :)

Assignment Updates

2009-09-10T23:14:00.002-04:00

Monster Car Project (Thiel) - "It Came from Beyond the Junkyard!"
Adobe Photoshop
11 x 14 inches
Graphic Novel - The Death of Captain Waskow
Pencil on Sketch Paper
8.5 x 11 inches

Collaborative Comic Creation club project - "LICH KING" doodles

Marker, Pen & Ink, Pencil
8.5 x 11 inches

Monster Car Project (Thiel) - "It Came from Beyond the Junkyard!"

2009-09-10T00:00:00.003-04:00

Pen and Ink

11 x 17 inches

Doodle comics, Scary Cars, and Death!

2009-09-07T00:04:00.003-04:00

Sorry for the late update, labor-day weekend and the time surrounding it has been a tornado of sorts, but I'm back on schedule again!

Smiling at the Bored
Pen & Ink on Sketchpaper
3.5 x 5.5 inches

Monster Car Project (Thiel) - "It Came from Beyond the Junkyard!"
Pencil on Tracing Paper
11 x 14 inches
Dr. Google Assignment Thumbnails (Thiel) - "Computer Virus"
Pen & Ink and Marker on Sketch Paper
About 1 x 1 inches per thumbnail

More of the Monster Car!

2009-09-02T22:51:00.003-04:00

Here's my tight sketch so far of the monster car project. It's subject to change still.

Monster Car Project (Thiel) - "It Came from Beyond the Junkyard!"
Pencil on Tracing Paper
11x14 inches
Useless (Drawn on the Street)
Pen & Ink on Sketch Paper
3.5x5.5 inches

School Update, Tuesday Edition

2009-09-01T23:40:00.004-04:00

Leering
Pen and Ink on Sketch Paper
3.5 x 5.5

The African Queen Breakdown 1 - Pages 1-8
Colored Pencil and Pen & Ink on Sketch Paper
8.5 x 11 inches per page

Quotes of Wisdom Poured from her

2009-08-31T01:57:00.001-04:00

Marker on Sketch Paper
3.5 x 5.5 inches

School Update - Friday Edition

2009-08-28T18:27:00.008-04:00

Well, I showed my "Monster Car" thumbnails to Thiel, and he liked the first one on the page... It was my personal favorite as well. My next step is to do a tight-sketch with plenty of reference to make sure the car ends up looking like a car. I decided to do some rough digital color-composition possibilities first though.

Monster Car Project "It Came from Beyond the Junkyard!"
Pen & Ink and Marker on Sketch paper (digitally altered color thumbnails)
1 x .75 inches (per thumbnail)

Also, Pratt made us have to do a breakdown of a script from the African Queen.

The first half of this scan is the panel compositions/placements/breakdowns, which I do to create an easy flow amongst the pages. As you can see, I made several different versions of some pages, while I knew what I immediately wanted from a couple. Still, these aren't the final say on things. They are different from the final results. The page done in marker is a test-page, which I did to see how long it would take me to make a page.

(Left) The African Queen: Scene 2 breakdown, (right) The African Queen - Test page
Pen & Marker on printer paper
11 x 17 inches (8.5 x 11 inches seperated)

While he suggested angles that weren't straight on, I did a few for the reason of allowing certain calm moments or to clearly show body-language. I feel that a comic that is always dynamic in every frame doesn't allow for an emphasis of calm moments. On the flip side, if a comic is always showing straight-on perspective, it gets visually boring. If anyone reading has any suggestions, feel free to make them, These pages were done in roughly 10 minutes a piece at most, so I don't mind redoing a few.

The African Queen: Scene 2 draft (pages 1-8)
Orange Colored Pencil on Printer Paper
8.5 x 11 inches per page

Thursday post

2009-08-28T02:43:00.003-04:00

Class sketch
Pencil on sketch paper
3.5 x 5.5 inches

Advanced Illustration: Monster Car Thumbnails
Marker on sketch paper
8.5 x 11 inches

School Update, lots of doodles, and RPG talk

2009-08-26T21:10:00.008-04:00

Daily Doodle - Feeling Green

Marker on Sketch paper
3.5 x 5.5 inchesIn Class Doodles - "I have Contacts"
Pencil on Sketch paper
4.5 x 6 inches

This image was doodled up before Pratt's class started, while everyone was starting to gather. I wanted to give myself a bit of a test and see how much of the "typical" comic book look I could get. I don't think I was too good at it, but I think having a unique style over something that looks common is really more important. The text in the speech bubble was something I thought about while in portfolio class. One of our assignments is to contact a professional artist off campus that we admire, thankfully I have met a good few and already have the phone number of at least three of them.

Composition in movie stills - The Last Emperor
Pen and Marker on Sketch Paper
4.5 x 6 inches

These were drawn up as an exercise in Pratt's class. We were copying stills from the movie "The Last Emperor" to see how they were composed. I typically like to do my thumbnails like this, black, white, and either a color or a 50% grey to act as an in-between color. I feel that if you can convey an image in those three values, then you've a strong composition.

Role-Playing Game Project

A friend of mine and I enjoy making traditional RPG games, ones similar to D&D and running them. For a while, I've been DMing (and though I've been trying to learn, I'm still pretty bad at it) and I've wanted to make a very simple "engine" (the rules/statistics that govern the game) so that I could trade DMing and playing the game with my friends freely. I feel I'm finally getting close to a reasonable product. I'm still fairly nervous about pitching it to my pals, but excited as well to see what suggestions they'll make.

While thinking on the game, I created several sketches to help me think up the setting of the game's story. The general idea or inspiration came to me early last year while remembering a project Devin Maupin had done in his sophmore year, but I didn't begin to put things down onto paper until mid-spring. I'll try to explain what was going on in my mind while not giving too much away. At least I'll show how an idea can evolve over time.

Recreational Sketches - RPG project: 1 "Yomi" (Spring 2009)
Marker and Pen on Sketch Paper
4.5 x 6 inches

This first sketch was me trying to think up some of the basics of the setting. It's plight and how airships come into play. It started out as something of a zombie-esque horror world playing on the themes of the undead and hell while working off Japanese mythology. The world, or at least the ground level that had become overrun with undead, became named "Yomi" after the land of the dead in Shinto mythology. The idea gradually changed to something less christian/shinto themed and moreso a play on science-fiction elements. Later included the element of a miasma gradually covering the world, leaving only a few mountainous regions untouched. The growing miasma explained the need for skyships in the setting. Also, I wanted everything to resemble the Boroque period, but technology had advanced to such a level that it resembled magic.

Recreational Sketches - RPG Project: 2 "Joker" (Spring 2009)
Pen and Ink on Sketch Paper
4.5 x 6 inches

This was really just something of a passing character concept. I'm not sure if I want to keep him or not. I really like the idea of this trickster character. And it would be such a shame to throw away his design.

Recreational Sketches - RPG Project: 3 & 4 "Koil" & "Pilot" (Spring 2009)
Pen and Ink on Sketch Paper
9 x 6 inches

More character sketches. You can see me playing with the idea of Izanagi in this image. I wanted to make references to the Shinto gods. That later got switched with gods from different mythos and was eventually thrown out when I decided to blend the ideas of different mythological dieties together to make original ones with their own flaws and differing personalities.

Recreational Sketches - RPG Project: 5 "Oni"
Pen and Ink on Sketch Paper
4.5 x 6 inches

These are my sketches for the "brute" race of beings in the game. I wanted a feral and beastial appearance without making it seem like an anthropomorphized animal. The end result was this creature, dubbed "Oni" for now. They have long ape-like arms and short legs for quadrapedal running, large ears, and a feline-esque muzzle. I was contemplating giving them a tail for a while, but I felt that was too much.

Recreational Sketches - RPG Project: 6 "Jiganshi"
Pen and Ink on Sketch Paper
4.5 x 6 inches

These are the "Jiganshi," based on the Chinese Vampire of the same name (the literal translation is "hopping corpse.") The basic idea of these people is that they're infected by a virus that thrives in the miasma. To prevent them from spreading it, they wear gas-masks, special collars to regulate their breathing, and hats that keep the virus sedated. The idea of the hats was something of a play on the Jiganshi folklore, as a Taoist priest could control a jiganshi with a special paper-seal that was placed on the being's forehead. Eventually, I opted for the outfit to resemble something of an old hazmat costume used by doctors during the outbreak of the bubonic plague to further emphasize the idea of infection.

Female Shape

2009-08-26T01:24:00.002-04:00

Pencil and marker on sketch paper
3.5 x 5.5 inches

Just something I drew without reference... I wanted to focus on the hourglass shape that the female anatomy tends to have. I didn't really intend to draw arms or a head.

Waiting

2009-08-24T21:34:00.001-04:00

Marker and Pen & Ink on sketch paper
3.5 x 5.5 inches