Pixel Porch Studio
Illustration, Design, and Visual Craft by Taylor Smothers
Rooster
Digital Painting (Photoshop)
Painted in Adobe Photoshop, this piece explores texture, atmosphere, and form through layered brushwork and color blending. Custom brushes were used to simulate the feeling of traditional gouache and dry-brush techniques, creating a soft, stylized representation grounded in natural light.
Solemn
Charcoal on paper (Framed Original), 2019
An early portrait study exploring emotion, cultural tone, and light through traditional media. This piece was created using charcoal and graphite with a focus on value, form, and texture. Photographed from the original, now part of a private collection.
Waterfall Study
Watercolor on paper
A traditional media piece focused on capturing atmosphere and motion through layered watercolor washes. This study emphasizes soft transitions, depth, and the natural flow of water within a serene landscape. Created as part of an exploration in environmental storytelling using limited palettes.
INZO Poster 1 – Electric Geometry
Student Work – Adobe Illustrator
Using layered shades of blue and violet with a bold yellow diamond overlay, this fictional concert poster emphasizes symmetry and geometric rhythm. Created to reflect the energy of INZO’s sound, the piece uses angled composition and typographic hierarchy to guide the eye through the event details. This project was completed as a classroom exercise and is not affiliated with INZO.
INZO Poster 2 – Tinted Pulse
Student Work – Adobe Illustrator
This poster uses a rich green color palette and circular framing to evoke the atmospheric, grounded feel of a live music experience. The layout explores weight, balance, and verticality through bold alignment and tonal variation. Created for a student project and not affiliated with INZO.
Rack Card – Front
Student Work – Adobe InDesign
The front side of this tourism rack card was designed to draw attention quickly through bold imagery, hierarchy, and an engaging call to action. Emphasis was placed on readability, high-contrast text, and spatial balance to ensure clarity in a high-traffic display setting. Created as part of a classroom assignment for a fictional promotional piece using stock imagery. This piece is not affiliated with the Stanley Hotel.
Rack Card – Back
Student Work – Adobe InDesign
The back side presents supporting information in a clean, structured format, balancing visual consistency with functional layout. Icons, paragraph styling, and alignment grids were used to guide the viewer through amenities and details. This piece was created as a student project using stock photography and is not affiliated with the Stanley Hotel.
Bowling Ball Lighting & Rendering Study
Student Work – Autodesk Maya & Adobe Premiere Pro
This short animation was created as part of a 3D course to explore lighting and rendering fundamentals in Autodesk Maya. The scene uses an HDRI environment map and a three-point lighting setup to create realistic shadows, reflections, and material response. The rendered sequence was imported into Adobe Premiere Pro for light editing and timing adjustments, then exported via Adobe Media Encoder as a final MP4. The project focuses on conveying believable weight, motion, and surface interaction in a simplified scene.
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