Sketch 1!

Alright friends, sketch achieved. This is supposed to represent my basic values and color, and solid composition. Any last min crits on the above before I jump into painting? I'm trying oils! *gasp* wish me luck!  

Adventures in Freelancing -- Part I

As I have mentioned before, I have been picking up some freelancing jobs here and there. Some of my contacts are local, but they are mostly people from L.A. because Steve is awesome and throws my name out to anyone who needs design work. One of his friends wanted me to design an identity for his massage therapy business, Modern Massage; this included making a logo, business cards, a letterhead and a website.

This is my immaculately trimmed thumbnail. Oh yeah, and his business card design (these are roughs I printed out on my computer and cut out myself, so the actual cards probably look better). Jade stone massage is one of the specialties at Modern Massage, so I only thought it would be appropriate to reflect that in the business card design.

This is the home page for his website, which you can visit by clicking here. Everything was designed to be simplistic and user-friendly as well as being consistent with the color scheme of the business card and letterhead. My favorite part: on the contact page, I made a facebook link button out of the same texture as the logo. I'm really proud of that for some reason. Don't judge me.

And finally, since my website was pretty janky-looking, I made a little 'Under Contruction' page to replace it. I mean, my website looked like it was made out of construction paper and masking tape, so I didn't want people to think it was a fluke that Modern Massage's came out looking pretty decent. It's not much, but you can click here to see it full size.

I have some other freelance projects I'm working on, but my main goal is to get my full website up and functioning withing the next few weeks. I'll let you know how that goes.

a penguin, a yeti and an eskimo...

Okay, so here's the deal.  I'm opening an Etsy shop!  My launch date is set for March 8th and my life has been basically "eat, sleep, work" trying to get things up and running.  I plan on selling prints of my illustrations and fine art as well as notecards, handmade journals/sketchbooks (with my artwork on the cover or as endpapers), and needle felted characters from my illustrations.  I purchased a high quality epson printer to make my prints and have been feverishly whipping up several new sets of illustrations.  I'm working on an "animal alphabet" meant for children's rooms (a is for armadillo, b is for beluga whale, c is for cuckoo bird, d is for dormouse, e is for echidna, etc.).  I'm also working on a series of four illustrations centering around the adventures of Polo the penguin and Teddy the yeti who's 3-D needle felted wool counterparts are pictured below.  Polo wears blue and green striped socks and Teddy wears a red hat.  

Teddy the yeti has toes!

I've also been working on new pieces for my illustration portfolio.  I've decided to focus my attention on book covers and children's books and am updating my portfolio with that in mind.  I've also updated my my process.  I'm still going for the same style/"look", but am doing more digitally, which speeds things up and makes my work cleaner and easier to manipulate.  I do all my ink work by hand, then scan it in and color the image by digitally collaging watercolor fields and patterns that I have painted and scanned separately.  Below is a piece that I completed recently (though I still have to go in and tweak a few things) that I like to call "Tangled Eskimo".  

I am super excited about all these new plans and projects!  I feel more motivated than I have since we graduated and the feeling hasn't gone away yet, even after about a month of non-stop work.  Hopefully it keeps up!

As always, I appreciate your thoughts and opinions.  I also want to apologize for being out of touch and not checking Facebook or this blog regularly... I'm afraid I've been a little single-minded of late, focusing on the things mentioned above to the exclusion of most everything else.  I was completely unaware of the newer blog posts until Chad informed me that I was missing things and should get my butt in gear!

An Owl, a Hamster, a Fish, and the World's Cutest Vacuum

Yesterday when I was cleaning my room, I came across my Game Boy cartridge for Kirby's Dreamland 2. While looking at it and recalling the hours I spent playing it over the years, I couldn't help but think that the Kirby series has a very children's book-y aesthetic in terms of tone and characters. Naturally, my next thought was, "Hey, why don't I make a children's book-styled Kirby piece?!", so I made some rough sketches...

I would being doing the final in watercolor because I realized I haven't touched any medium aside from ink and markers since graduating. I don't have a particular favorite of the three, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Part of me thinks that they are each different enough that I could make them into a series...if I find the time. I am still working on some commission work, so these would just be a side-project for now.

Update on the Secret 7"/Florence + the Machine project: I am 99% sure I am not a part of the finalists. Since it is supposed to be a "secret", the winners are e-mailed individually as opposed to be announced on their website, and I haven't received an e-mail. I'm not bummed out at all; once I make the last few finishing touches, my entry will make a pretty rad portfolio piece. Oh, hey there silver lining.