Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Personal Piece #18

Emilie-Claire Barlow! My favorite modern jazz singer ever! She does her own arrangements of the American songbook and she has a voice that is the perfect combination of adorable and sultry sexy! :D If you type her name into Google images, this piece actually comes up! No joke! See for yourself: 

It's late . . . perfect for a blog entry

Good evening all!

You know that fatigue you get from a busy, but enjoyable day? Yeah. Totally there now. But I have a few more projects to add to our favorite blog. :)

Newspaper articles are a b*tch. XD There is certainly a challenge in organizing a specific amount of content on quite a bit of allotted space. This one needs some revising, but when I learned that certain bodies of text could be separated into sidebars and other columns, it instantly made my life easier! Revisions on the way, soon I hope!

Next piece is a HES promotion for a 5-week trip to Yellowstone. The design came instantly. Concept, not so much. It's difficult to find that perfect harmony, especially for a subject matter I can barely relate to. But I'm relatively pleased with the end result.

One last thing! I have some fun stuff to add just because I can! I have my first two woodcut prints from Printmaking I and some hand-knit hand warmers I made for Ashlee and myself. I'm proud with my productivity lately, to say the least! lol

Sorry to keep the verbosity to a minimum by friends, but I really need sleep. :3

Cheers!

Happiness  Newspaper article 
Happiness Newspaper article revised 






Yellowstone poster 

iPad versions
"Huck on the  Farm"

"Huck on the Farm" --revisited XD
Ashlee's hand warmers 
My hand warmers 

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Personal Piece #17

First of the new year! Yaaaay!


Miguel and Tulio! This was, I believe my very first drawing using Prismacolors! I love this movie so! :3

Catching Up

Hello my avid readers whom I have not seen since before Christmas break! It feels great to see you again! Perhaps (or perhaps not) you are asking yourselves why did I not correspond over the holidays. The truth is, I was well and done with school as soon as my last final exam ended on Friday, December 16th. I wanted nothing to do with the previous semester or anything that would remind me of said semester. This, of course, involved blogging. This is a terrible inconvenience because I love blogging and shouldn't shun it simply because I had a stressful semester. But here I am, once again . . . I feel that that is a song . . . and I couldn't be happier. Last semester was trying, yes, but this semester, so far has been so much more enjoyable and doable! I mean, with a schedule like this, what is not to love? Honestly?

Vis Com II--So much easier than Illustration . . . so far. In fact, I'm sure Illustration gave me the stamina to take Vis Com II on with full force. And dude . . . we have a budget each project and have to keep track of our time/work. How spiffy is that! :D

Survey II (Art History)--Subject is getting much more exciting. Love the class! It's also incredibly short! I mean, what's an hour compared to so many studio courses?

Perspectives in Jazz--I'm learning musical theory and the history of American music. Simply put, I'm having a blast! It's also a shorter class and it's nice to have just a lecture course that relates to nothing in my major, with a subject matter I love. I also want to steal and snuggle my professor. XD

Printmaking--Outlet for stress! Ahhhhhh, it feels so good to carve and do manuel printing labor when you're feeling down! Also goes by quickly because I'm constantly busy. Hard on the back, though. I must remember that I have a stool. XD

Public Speaking--Love the people, professor seems compassionate . . . not so keen on the online work and the actual speeches. But hey, tis unavoidable. :)

Plus work at the office. And a fervor for knitting that has been rekindled. I know how to make handwarmers, ladies and gentlemen! Knit, purl, knit, purl . . .

So, I'm not nearly as stressed as I once was, I am loving school like I did when I was in junior high, and I actually have material to show on this blog! Life is GOOD!

I should probably get to the descriptions of said pieces, but before I do . . . any last thoughts?

-This Christmas was the best of my life so far
-Saawariya, Kama Sutra, The Adventures of TinTin, Burlesque, Freedom Writers, Winnie the Pooh, and Mr. Holland's Opus are the best movies ever. :)
-I finally understand the pain of The Corrs' Heaven Knows and Jason Mraz's I Won't Give Up gives me the will and hope. That is all. :3

Now, enough of my personal life. On to the art!

Soooooooo, I got's a wacom tablet for Christmas!  . . . I KNOW, RIGHT?! :D I am far too excited to express myself properly. SO, the vast majority of the artwork I did over the break was playing and figuring out how to use said tablet. I took an old pencil drawing of Dr. Facilier I drew last year and incorporated it into Photoshop. I wasn't going to show this until it was finished, but I'm getting antsy. I'm proud! Please don't judge. Tis but a WIP.

Now, we have work form Vis Com II to add to the Illustration artwork here on ye old blog (which underwent a bit of a makeover, don't cha know?). One of these days, I WILL have Freshman year art work and Vis Com I work on her too, but that will take a bit of time . . . that I'll have to find, somehow. But yes. Vis Com II:

First assignment was a poster/web banner project. Redesigning an MAE recruiting poster. Two photos to use, not such fun type. I know a good designer needs to invest in more than what interests them but can we say mundane? Not to offend anyone, but I was shocked to see that everyone's (mine included) kinda . . . well, sucked. But on the next assignment, everyone rocked! :D It was interesting . . . almost like no one COULD design a good MAE poster. It was damned to bad design for life. LOL

But as I said, the next poster was fun and really good for everyone! Advertising a favorite typeface. Typography poster. Now, I'm not that great with typography, but I certainly appreciate it and all who do it well. I chose Didot . . . I don't know, I just really have a warm attraction to that font. And Just My Type didn't scathe Didot, so I figured, why not?

Now, the grand finale (you ready for this?) is my favorite! A Jazz Combo series poster! AHHHHHH! :D And I'm in Jazz Apprish! Talk about inspiration! First thing, dove straight to Google Images for design ideas. If I had a dollar for every black silhouette, trumpet, sax, piano, microphone, and Ella Fitzgerald-look-alike singer that appeared, I'd be rich. I wanted to be true to the theme, but come up with something a bit more obscure and original, ya know? So, thanks to my Jazz class, I looked up famous quotes by Duke Ellington. I fell for this one:

"By and large, jazz has always been like the man you wouldn't want your daughter to associate with."

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a concept! Oh SNAP. The image of vintage flapper came to my head instantly at those words. It was perfect! Listen to jazz, and soon you'll be drinking illegal booze and acting like a floozie just like all the other flappers! It was elegant, it was sexy, it was jazz! I am so delighted by the end result!

Aaaaaaaaaand . . . that's it so far. LOL Wow. I already wrote a novella. Good thing. So, without further ado, I will present the art! Thank you so much for baring with me, all, and suffering through this gigantic monster of a blog post! You'll be seeing me for regularly very soon!


Cheers! <3
WIP of Photoshop/wacom tablet Dr. Facilier! 
My first handwarmers! Kat made me the pattern, and I altered it accordingly to my other Kat's hands. :D 


MAE web banner 

MAE poster #2 

MAE poster #1 
Draft two of homage to Didot 
Draft one of homage to Didot

Version one of Jazz Combo series poster 
Version two of Jazz combo series poster