Clearly, I'm not good at blogging

So since my last post... I got myself a new boyfriend, I moved back home, I started working 40 hrs a week, and I am still enrolled in school.  Life has been fairly busy, which "fairly" is no excuse for not posting and falling off the face of the earth, because I do a "fairly" good amount of time wasting after work (I forgot how life sucking a full-time job was).

My one and only class this semester is Professional Practices.  I'm not really working on anything creative.  It's mostly self branding type stuff, then slapping it on the ole resume and cover letter.  It's super thrilling.  I'm positive that you're not interested in those types of things.  Therefore, I'm not posting them.  I have, however, managed to create one cute illustration over the past few months.  As you can see, I redesigned the cover of Goodnight Moon.  I hope you like.  :)

Time Flies By, Never To Return...

Alas!  It's summer break.  First task is to clean my room!  It hasn't been cleaned since my last post!  YIKES, for sure.  So after that daunting task, I'm going to redo my final project for Payne.  Then I plan to get the ball rolling and post more of my work.  So prepare yourself!  Happy summer!!  :D

"And this is where the magic happens..." -MTV's Cribs

Sooo... I woke up an hour & a half before my alarm went off.  That's usually a good thing, but I haven't accomplished anything other than making some oatmeal & coffee and taking pictures of my desk/room.  The quality sucks, but it's better than nothing I suppose.

I love my desk!!!  It's from Ikea, and it's amazing!

It has a book shelf and a massive desk top.  I highly recommend!

Luckily it's been a slow week.  

So my room didn't get too messy over the course of 3 days, like usual.  

This is where the other magic happens.... as in SLEEP.  Glorious sleep.

Killed it.

For months in Styles & Concepts, my professor, C.F. Payne, has been harping about reference (and trace paper but that's another story).  He was especially lecture-y about reference for our most recent project to redesign a book cover.  Granted, this guy is one of the best illustrators in the country, and he uses about 20 reference photos, at the very least, for one illustration.  But I intended to do something very vector oriented with minimal detail.  So after he made me take several reference photos of a trees, I drew a magnificent tree and realized that my illustration would no longer be graphic.  I painted up my drawing in Corel Painter.  Here's the outcome:

Not too bad, I think.  Then with my wicked design skills and love for Illustrator, I came up with this book cover design.

Needless to say, Payne loved the tree (and the cover)!  He was slightly disappointed about the lack of detail on the bird (and font choice)... but no surprise there, haha.  I managed to throw in a vector skyline and moon, which made me happy.  All-in-all I think it was successful and like the outcome.  I'll probably start using this style more often.

Fall 2010

Here are some things I created last semester.  I admit, I really enjoy how illustration can cross over into design.  This should be no surprise with my background.


Advertising/ Graphic Design with Bode:

Book cover redesign of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (Illustrator)

How-to poster (Illustrator & Photoshop)

Target gift card design (Photoshop)

Ad series for US Green Build Council: LEED for Homes (Illustrator)

Design for Illustration with Tam Peterson:

Dog Illustration: focused on detail, adornment and texture (Illustrator)

Mario Illustration (Illustrator)

Rip Van Winkle Illustration for a pop-up card (watercolor & Photoshop)

Electronic Illustration with Stewart McKissick:

Children's spot illustration (Illustrator & Photoshop)

Label redesign for Pattycake Vegan Bakery (Illustrator)

Advertisement for Pattycake Label redesign (Photoshop)

Illustration Styles and Concepts with Chris Payne:

Egg Study (acrylic)

Master's head studies (acrylic): Tara McPherson & Gary Kelley

Postage stamp design of the state where I was born (acrylic)

Illustration focused on communication (photoshop)

I was a fool and did two pieces for the communication project.  I only turned in the one above.

This one was done in Illustrator (no I did not use Live Trace).

I will be posting more from these classes because these classes are a year long... which makes absolutely no sense to me & is so so SO frustrating... I mean, why not just have (2) 3 credit hour classes each semester, instead of (4) 1.5 credit hour classes???  Then students would only have less project to worry about each week.  Therefore students would create better, more focused pieces, get more sleep AND not kill themselves trying to schedule their classes.  I'm only venting about this because I have (7) 1.5 credit hours classes that are a year long... fml.

First year work at CCAD... don't judge...

I entered CCAD as a junior.  Unfortunately, at CCAD, being a junior doesn't always mean being allowed to take junior level classes.  So last year I was pretty much a freshmen fumbling back and forth through 1st year and 2nd year.  Here is some of the work I created last year.  Last year was mainly about technique... so most of this stuff is pretty boring.

My favorite work came from an Illustrator class with Mr. Botts (another awesome teacher).  Gradient meshes are pretty fun when you get the hang of them!

I had a love/ hate relationship with Illustration Methods with Leah Wong.  I'd like to say I learned a lot, but I tend to block that class out of my memory (sorry Leah...).  

And here are some oil paintings.  I was going to post some figure drawing, but I'm not sure if nudes are appropriate for posting online...

Hello, at long last!

Hello hello!  Welcome to my blog.  I'm starting this because my awesome (I don't use that term lightly) teacher, Thom, has requested that his students have a blog.  It's already 11 weeks into the semester, and I'm finally making my first post.  This is proof that I am one of the worst bloggers ever.  But for the sake of my grade, I will make an effort to have regular updates.  Here's hoping that I catch the bug and don't stop blogging after May.

Incase you didn't know, I'm an Illustration major at Columbus College of Art and Design.  I'm throwing away a career in Interior Design to pursue my passion (... sorry Mom & Dad).  Even though I was born to be an artist, ART was always a scary word for me when I was growing up.  Supposedly, artists don't make money.  But that's not completely true... FINE artists don't make money, but commercial artists do!  Unfortunately I found this out after I graduated from Ohio University and had a couple of self-loathing interior design jobs.  So here I am attending art school full-time and being a poor college student, again.  But this time, I'm in business casual clothes.  Luckily my clothes are starting to wear, and I look like I'm 18... so I don't stand out too much.  I digress.  Don't worry, though, my first degree was not a complete waste.  I still work for my old employer as a part-time designer.  I gotta pay those bills somehow (if you want interior design advice, check out my other site)!

I might regret this later... but... I've decided to post the little illustration I made for my apartment when I was living in Atlanta, being all project manager-like.  It is what influenced me to come back to school.  It is completely embarrassing now.  And I'm still wondering how I earned a scholarship...