hannahmcgill

This earned a Daily Deviation on Deviantart today. :D


edit: I had a horrible-looking watermarked version up for some reason. Fixed now. Also added link to the deviation.

Here's the last batch for now. I need to concentrate on other work.


I'm sure several of you have seen this one before, but I felt like putting it in my journal since it wasn't there yet.

I went to Dallas with a bunch of designers and the professors from my college, and one of the professors was Korean. He described his drinking-buddies nickname from Korea as ‘the burning potato’ because his face was potato-shaped and it went really red. I heard ‘bunny-potato.’ I drew it on a piece of paper for him and he lost it…So then he apologized for losing it, and I drew him this one. Apparently he’d been using it as a teaching aide.

Graphite sketch on ATC illustration board.

( Three more under the cut! )

I have a task at work. It is making math word problems more appealing by laying out worksheets as though they are comic book pages. This way, word problems become comic panels, with blank spots for answers. There were some concerns about how much sense my layout was making. That didn't surprise me because organizing is one of my weaknesses that I work on! :D

We handed out the packets of worksheets to a group of seven middle schoolers today.

I felt silly because we hauled these kids in from playing Rock Band and racing games and Wii...to do math problems.

This is a video game lab where kids try out electronics and report what they like or don't like about the games. It's set up as an after-school program that supplies my department with information about what to do with our own games. The kids also get to develop their own video game concepts and show them off.

So. Group of quiet middle-schoolers browsing through these comic book things. I mean, I wasn't expecting anyone to get excited because um, despite the graphical dressup? The worksheets are still worksheets, and they still have math in them. Math is icky.

Important things we found out: It was clear where the middle schoolers were supposed to supply answers, and it was also clear that there were hints hidden in the comic panels for them to find in order to solve the math problems. The most unclear things had to do with the copy, but not the layout or the illustrations. Whew! I had wondered if I meandered into the dreaded zone of overworking, so it was nice to know that I'd gotten somewhere legible.

After the review, and some time for responses from the kids, there was an overall rating of "Meh. I'd rather have these than book problems." As long as the comic worksheets are the lesser of two evils (page filled with rote problems vs. comic book-style word problems), I think we're going in the right direction.

'Meh' equals 'win!' Today, I win*. Hurray!

*It sounded better than 'Today, I meh.'

I love Gunnerkrigg Court, by Tom Siddell. This is a vector illustration made with pen tool, gradient mesh, and layers of varying opacity.

I was part of the Global Game Jam this year. We made an iPhone game that is yes, in the iTunes store. I think that is titanically awesome for only working for 48 hours.

We're working on a second version with a more complete set of art assets, but you can buy a working copy of the game here if you're interested in playing RIGHT NOW.


Here's one of the player-characters, Damien Vile. You must try to kill your siblings by influencing subordinates to do the dirty work for you.

( Gore and murder within this cut )

And I think this is going to be its new logo, but it still needs tweaking to jump out at you from the app store :D

( 3 more cards! )

The first three were for a friend's wedding. They were scanned, which is why their picture quality is much higher than the tiny commission piece for Meej. (I have the wobbliest camera hands :()