My Graphic Design Student Portfolio from 1983

 I found my portfolio from my time as a student at the University of Georgia. I graduated in 1983 with a degree in graphic design. This was before computers, so everything is completed by hand, stat camera or photography. The theme for my portfolio is that Kennedy Space Center has been turned into a museum. These are the graphic marketing pieces of a campaign to promote the new museum. 

Here are three flyers about the different launch pads you could visit: Mercury, Apollo and Space shuttle. These are painted by hand with gouache paint on bristol board. 

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Here are the logos for the various launch sites. 

The signage for each site is based off the obelisk in the film 2001 a Space Odyssey. 

I felt the best way to tour the site would be by hydrofoil. Here is the museum logo applied to the hydrofoil. As you can tell, I loved the blue print machine and the blue print concept. 

Below is a marker comp for a brochure cover for the Space Shuttle launch site. 

Below are a variety of illustrations of the space shuttle in marker and ink. 

Below is a logo for the University of Georgia, updating from the logo they were using at the time. 

Below is a campaign for a fraternity, logo, poster and charity photo shoot. 

Avarieryt of marker illustrations: antique car, M1911 Colt 45 pistol, and James Bond. 

Marker comp for a brochure for an art exhibition featuring Winslow Homer's paintings. 

Pencil illustration of a variety of meat cuts and a Pen and ink magazine cover illustration. 

 

Best Fishing Trip Ever! by Wil Bosbyshell

Best Fishing Trip Ever

by Wil Bosbyshell

I dropped my baited hook into the water of the Cook Inlet, Alaska. I had only caught one small halibut that morning and was hoping to catch a much larger halibut now. We were in deep water, as my hook sank to the bottom, I felt something strange. My ears popped. The air seemed to swell and fill up in a way I had never felt before. I looked up just in time to see the volcano erupt.

Now, let me back up a bit. This story begins a little before the volcano erupted. You can relax, I lived.

I am a native Floridian and fished as a boy. But let me tell you, the fishing in Alaska is a lot different from fishing in Florida. In Alaska, many times after you CATCH the fish you must SHOOT the fish before you bring it onto the boat. (Of course, you try not to shoot the boat in the process.) Now that's what I call fishing! Halibut are like flounders, but as big as barn doors. If you bring them onto the boat alive, they can flip and break your leg.

I was living in Alaska and had gone fishing several times for salmon and white fish. My buddy, Dave Hall, and I wanted to go halibut fishing. Because it was the early 80s, Dave was referred to as Monty Hall of Lets Make Deal fame. We planned this trip on a chartered fishing boat out of Homer.

We set off early in the morning in broad day light and drove from Fairbanks to Homer on a Friday. The drive took 12 hours. We arrived around 7:00 PM in broad daylight, sun still high in the sky. When you arrive in Homer you have to pay homage to the “Eagle Lady”.

Once a month, much to the delight (or horror) of her neighbors, the eagle lady takes one of her cows down to the front of her property close to the road and shoots it. Sorry about all the shooting in this story, but its Alaska. The cow falls over dead in her front yard. Fortunately for her neighbors her front yard was quite large. Then over the next month, Eagles would come from all over the area and eat the dead cow.

Strange you say. In North Carolina or Florida this would definitely be against several city ordinances; however in Homer this was a major tourist attraction. On our visit that day there were over 80 bald Eagles sitting in her front yard. Some eating the dead cow, others just a basking in the endless summer sun.

After visiting the eagle lady we went down to the dock where our Charter Boat Captain explained to us that the other four people on the charter had not shown up yet. Dave and I had a drink at the bar on the jetty. We pitched our tent and camped out for the night, in board daylight, on the jetty.

Bright and early the next morning we arrived at the boat. The four Japanese businessmen who were sharing our charter had canceled at the last minute. They had paid in full, so we had beer and food for six people with only two people fishing in addition to the captain and the first mate. A great start if I say so myself.

Back to the volcanic eruption. I had never seen a volcano erupt in person before, but I know one when I saw it!

I looked in awe as black smoke billowed high into the sky out of an island in the distance.

“Shit,” I said.

My buddy Dave came up beside me, “Fuck,” he said.

A blast of warm air hit us. The first mate ran up, “Holy fucking shit.”

Not to let the string of expletives run down, I added, “Fuck shit fuck shit piss.” I’ll have you know that I learned to cuss from my father, the Episcopal priest.

The Captain rushed over. I thought he would join and extend our string of expletives. However, instead he bolted for the bridge yelling, “Pull up the anchor”, to the 1st mate. The Captain fired up the engines and did something I was not expecting he turned toward the volcano.

I looked at the first mate and said, “We're going toward the volcano?” He did not look back at me but said two words that were quite chilling, “title wave.” Fortunately, we were far enough away that we were not killed in the initial blast.

It was not like we were hiking near Mount Saint Helens and caught in the actual explosion. We were in pretty deep water, so the tidal wave was only about 3 feet high and not cresting. The boat lifted gently with the rolling swell. I breathed a sigh of relief. The captain yelled down from the bridge, “We're going in.” Dave said, “I need a beer.” He was, after all, a lieutenant in the US Army.

The sky turned black. Ash rained down on the boat. Not too bad, I thought. We were alive, we had beer, a little ash won’t hurt us. A flake of ash landed on my bare arm. Surprised, I screamed like a little girl. Wow, that hurt! I brushed it off quickly and we ran for the cabin. I would learn later that when volcanic ash mixes with water it turns to hydrochloric acid. My arm was wet, because we were on a fishing boat in the middle of the ocean, the boat was wet, and we were in big trouble. We got rain slickers on as the paint melted off the boat.

We made it into Homer. The dock had been damaged by the tidal wave, it was much larger by the time it hit Homer. The bar on the jetty was spared. With the dock mostly gone, the boat pulled up to the jetty and we just jumped out. We thanked the captain for a very exciting trip! Fortunately, my car was far enough up at the jetty that the tidal wave did not reach it, however the ash did take a great deal of paint off the roof and hood.

Dave and I looked at each other, “Best fishing trip ever!” we said in unison.

Commissioned Portrait Step 1

Commissioning a portrait is great fun. This is a portrait of a young lady that I also completed a portrait of her when she was a baby. First determine the full design of the portaint. I initially thought of a large pair of butterfly wings. I thought this distracted from the face, so I tried several smaller butterflies. This is better. 

After that, I did a few sketches of how I wanted the butterflies to look. I wanted a botanical back ground as well. 

Here is a drawing of the entire composition full size. 

Here is my desk with the reference photographs, sketches, and color pencils. 

Next I did a sketch of the face to make sure I liked the coloring of the skin correct. 

Below is the final portrait with one layer of color on the face and hair. 

Here is a second layer. 

Here is a third layer on the figure. Then I started the shirt and background. The 1st layer of the background of watercolor paint. 

More to come! 

Figure Sketch book - Cross Legged Poses

Figure drawings in my figure sketch books. I use a moleskine book with bristol pages and a Scarlett Lake red colored pencil. 

 

I Am Woman Exhibit Reception March 13, 2021 • 12 - 2 pm

I Am Woman Exhibit at Southern Arts Society in Kings Mountain, NC

features two Weight Series drawings by Wil Bosbyshell

Exhibit Runs March 3 - April 16, 2021

Public Reception March 13, 2021 • 12 - 2 pm

Awards announced online & presented to artists in person • 11 am

Southern Arts Society has sponsored their annual I Am Woman art exhibit and competition since 2004. Artists from around the region have entered over sixty works of art dedicated to the feminine or the essence of being a woman. Artists have created works in oil, acrylic, watercolor, photography, sculpture, textiles and mixed media to interpret their view of I Am Woman. Artwork in this exhibit will be judged with prizes awarded for first, second and third place prizes along with three merit awards.

Many pieces in year's show are figurative, showing women in a variety of poses. There are women serenely embracing motherhood and another literally bearing the weight of the world on her shoulders. Some portraits are very straight forward with gazes growing more confident within themselves, showing a combined strength and serenity. Not all the artwork is serious with some light-hearted paintings showing women enjoying life to the fullest. And yet there is some art that makes us question how we judge women, for their “beauty” or their unseen accomplishments. There are works in all media representing women across the spectrum from goddesses to living embodiments of the natural world.

The public is invited to attend a reception for I Am Woman on Saturday March 13 from Noon until 2 pm. Presentation of awards to the artists will be at 11 am to limit the number of visitors in keeping with current restrictions for Covid-19. This is a free event and dress is casual. All visitors are required to wear a mask or face covering. I Am Woman exhibit will be on view in the galleries of Southern Arts Society (SASi) March 3 through April 16, 2021. Photos of the exhibit and a list of the winners will be posted on our social media and on the exhibit page on SASi's website.

Body Positive Exhibit Opening Friday March 12th

The Body Positive Exhibition opening will be LIVE, IN PERSON on Friday March 12th. The Charlotte Art League will be socially distanced and safe! I will have several figures in the exhibit. I hope to see you there. 

 

The Ladder Incident! A short and hopefully funny story

The Ladder Incident

by Wil Bosbyshell

I would like to preface this story by stating that as s native Floridian, I had not seen a lot of snow. But I had seen some snow. As a boy, I once spent Christmas in Philadelphia where I saw snow and got to experience sledding. As a freshman at the University of Georgia in the winter of 1980 we had a pretty good snowfall in which I played and built snowmen. However, in the winter of 1981 the snow and ice storm that I experienced in Athens, Georgia was the most snow and the most ice I had ever seen in my life. 

The snow started to come down, we didn’t know what we we're in for, so everyone ran out to play. This was before the weather channel. The gentle snow became a storm, and we ran back to our dorms.  It snowed all night, then the storm turned to ice. The University of Georgia's power lines came down with the crashing trees, the power went out and all our classes were cancelled. I was so sorry about this. Not really. I would like to go on record as saying that in our dorms with the power out we had absolutely no fun what-so-ever. We did our homework by flashlight and did not drink any alcohol or party in any way. 

Basically, I went absolutely bat shit crazy in the snow for three days, but it was great fun. This was when young people in college had grown up playing games outside in their neighborhoods. We knew how to have a snowball fight with 1,000 people. We could organize and play capture the flag in the snow with hundreds or thousands of people. 

The University of Georgia did an amazing job during the ice storm. The power was out, and class was cancelled, yet the dorms were heated, and the cafeterias were open. We had 3 meals a day in Bolton cafeteria. No one panicked, no one went home. The University buried all their power lines the next year for some reason. 

Baxter Street Hill was about a quarter of a mile long with a 100 foot drop in elevation complete with several bars and grandstands for impromptu judging. In the storm the street became a solid sheet of ice…perfect for sledding! I had really never sledded seriously, and I became obsessed with sledding FAST. We began with cafeteria trays. Very unsatisfactory. We progressed to plastic shower curtains. Also unsatisfactory. Bed frames. Fun, goofy, but too slow. I really wanted to go fast. I had sledded before but not on a hill like this!

My friend David and I found an aluminum ladder at our fraternity house. We had just joined the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity that fall. We disassembled the two halves of the aluminum ladder and bent up one of the ends. 

OK. This is where we made the mistake. All stories have a crisis or climax where the antagonists make… “The Mistake.” Well, this was it. And boy, was it a big one. Instead of just using the ladder as it was (aluminum is slick anyway), I sprayed it with silicone fixative. Now the ladder was really slick!

I was an art major, so I had Silicon spray in great abundance. After all, I wanted to make sure that we sled fast. 

Just David and I rode the ladder on the first sled down the Hill on Baxter Street. Wow! What a ride... this was sledding! We wanted more. Each time we sledded down the hill we started farther up the hill and we added a person. After many runs, we were starting at the top of the Hill near Milledge Avenue with 10 men and one woman on the ladder. 

Fortunately, David was steering the ladder on our final run (spoiler alert!). He is a much sturdier than I am. Had I been steering; I would probably be dead…broken in two. We flew past the bars on Baxter Street at incredible speed. My friend Lou, in Papa Joe’s Bar, wondered if that was indeed, her friend Wil, on the ladder that just went past. We earned all 10s from the Olympic style judges on the porch at Pappa Joe’s. 

We were going down the Hill at blazing speed with eleven people on the ladder. I could see the bottom of the hill. We were legends! When, from out of nowhere, an aluminum canoe came out of a side street and slammed into our ladder! It all happened so fast. As we flew towards a brick wall, I was sure I was going to die. The last thought in my very short life was, “Were they using paddles?”  

At this point in the story, when the aluminum canoe comes out of a side street and side swipes our aluminum ladder, there are people who exclaim, “You are making this up!” I tell you it is the truth, it happened. I have corresponded with the people in the canoe on Facebook. People likewise don’t believe they hit an aluminum ladder.

Its hard to escape from physics and interactions of metals. Ask anyone who has rubbed their hands along an aluminum canoe or ladder, aluminum is rough, sharp and sticky. Unless you spray it with silicone. 

When the canoe hit us, my second thought was, “We’re doomed.” Due to the stickiness of the two aluminum objects colliding we became stuck together and veered wildly out of control. We were traveling pretty fast and the steering capability of the ladder was pretty minimal. My buddy, David, had two choices: point us in the direction to fly off a cliff and then slam into a large brick wall, which was the side of Mell Hall. Not the best future for everyone. Or his other option was to hit a telephone pole. He chose the telephone pole.

When I asked David what he remembered about hitting the pole, he said, “All I remember is…Ouch, that hurt.” 

When we hit the pole, it became a scene from a classic three stooge’s movie where we all slammed one-at-a-time in sequence into the pole. For me, everything went black. 

The next thing I remember, I was looking up to see bodies everywhere and sirens wailing in the distance. Then I remember sirens wailing closer and closer.  

The casualties were pretty light that day. David had a sprained back and some of his ribs were bruised. The woman broke her arm, several people had concussions and two men broke their collar bones. It took three ambulances to take us all to the hospital and we made the front cover of the Athens Banner Herald paper the next day. 

I was taken to the hospital with all my friends but was completely uninjured. They had to spend the night in the hospital, and I went on to further adventures. 

At the chapter meeting of our fraternity the next week, I earned the “idiot of the week” award. I deserved it. Snow, I just love it.