And Then We All Bought Yachts

Moderation

2010-04-22T21:18:00.002-04:00

nothing really new. my comments have become a hotbed for chinese fortunes. yay?

A Long Few Weeks

2010-02-24T18:03:00.001-05:00

oh johnnie walker. scotchy scotch scotch, here it goes, down into my tummy.

also, a sketch to use as a facebook picture. i still draw?

Speed Designing

2010-02-17T17:10:00.003-05:00

I havn't designed something for the sake of designing in a while. So while feeling crappy and being home from work, I sat down to flesh out an idea I had for redesigning girl scout cookie boxes!

'Tis the season, and with two boxes on my own pantry shelf, the designer in me couldn't help but wince at its design. Iconic, yes..everyone knows what color corresponds with their favorite cookie (thin mints for me please!). But the stock photography on the sides says nothing about the modern girls that make up the Girl Scouts these days. These are girls with facebooks, myspaces and cellphones.

So, I thought it made a lot of sense to have the new packaging be more about these girls. Light on the photography, but on the back, every box has a space for the Scout selling you said cookies to sign her name. That way, every time you grab the box and snack away, checking out the packaging while you standing chewing in the doorway, you're reminded that this box actually DID something. There was a girl behind it that you've supported, which is what the whole point of the cookies are.

Also, lets be honest: what's more fun than coming up with iconic visuals of the cookies. Worked for maybe 4 hours on it..it's nice to flex these muscles and just do something you want to do every now and again! And to finish something! That's a feeling I havn't felt in a while.

Feedback appreciated! Especially from real people, as opposed to all the weird chinese messages I usually get (thanks blogger).

A Running Start

2010-01-03T15:37:00.004-05:00

happy new years everyone!

i have some big plans for 2010; i'll let you know as i check them off my list! to start with, i've started drawing up some initial plans to make a silkscreening table for our apartment.

of course, living in a new york apartment, this isn't going to be easy. The main goal is to make something that can be easily dis-assembled and stored behind, say, a bookcase, until needed, when it can be set up in our spacious kitchen!

included also is a sort of makeshift drying rack, underneath, so most of the prints can be left to dry there, as opposed to all over the apartment.

the only thing really holding me back right now is the fact that i cannot, for the life of me, find my screens!! how do you lose two silkscreens, i ask you ?

either way, on a day warmer than 7°, i will haul myself down to home depot. guess i need to get my dremel back from home too...

next up: figuring out how to powerwash them when we're done without a powerwasher. thoughts anyone??

Over and Done

2009-12-17T19:19:00.000-05:00

happy holidays everybody.

Let There Be Light

2009-12-15T13:32:00.003-05:00

another project down!

we have this sick hallway that one of my roommates' and i have our rooms off of. when we first took the place, we thought it would be cool to hang these huge paper lanterns all the way down it, and when we did our many (..many) ikea trips right after moving in, bought all the hardware to do it.

of course, our ceilings are incredibly high, so we needed to borrow a ladder to do this..a task which took until last week to accomplish. i'm on a staycation from work now (from the 8th 'till the 4th -- w00t!), so i figured since im not super busy, i mays well just finish it up.

we've got it on a dimmer, so above is the highest setting. i just ran the cords down the wall seam, so you don't even really see them!

all-in-all, i'd say pretty successful! next up -- curtains for above the cabinets in the kitchen!

The Last Time

2009-12-11T15:51:00.002-05:00

just a little illustration i did for a friend's birthday. it's been a while since ive done anything but color over my sketchlines, i've gotta stop being so lazy..

life's so complicated sometimes !

Things In Motion

2009-12-01T14:39:00.002-05:00

i have this idea in my head, to start a flash comic with my characters. the flash wouldn't be intense, just things like characters blinking, small movements in the background, whathave you. maybe some sounds. i'm not sure.

of course, to do this i need to get the real storyline fleshed out, storyboarded. i need to be able to draw all my characters. some of them are just so..dumb. they reek of 15 year old angst, which makes sense, since thats the last time my brain did any real thinking about them.

so here is an attempt at Thorn Wallis, one of the four main charcacters i have. she gets half a body, because thats about as much as i can muster out of myself. strep throat, ughh. anatomy, ughhh.

Things That Make Me Go 'Mmm'

2009-11-10T10:45:00.002-05:00

a couple more drawings, while watching titan AE. i didnt realize that was whats-his-face's last movie in a while....i guess rotoscoping is on its way out, eh?

seels have become a big part of my life. i can't really explain it without sounding like a crazy person?

usually i cant draw boys i like. exception! also: i am dumb looking oh no.

in other fabuloso news: me and my roommate might be having a show early next year, which would be baller. i really want to do stuff with woodcuts, maybe tantagrams, maybe a couple of characters...not sure. but the cool thing is, i havn't taken any vacation at all this year (because i am poor!), so i get to take basically all of december off. which means: time to work on a portfolio, time to work on show stuff, and time to start playing world of warcraft again!

hmm that last one might be a bad idea.

And The World Turns

2009-10-28T23:35:00.005-04:00

i can't design anymore. i'm not sure what happened, what i've lost, or where to find it. but i do know that it makes me grumpy and unhappy, like a teapot with no spout, no way to let off steam. theres been a lot of sleep going on, to avoid the hassle of being awake.

so, trying to draw, and at least make some leeway in that department. my visual language is neanderthal at best, so i've been doing a lot of studies of my art books, trying to find a way to see the world again.

a study of emma frost, from one of my new xmen books, and my roomates hand from life, doing what we do best.

some hellboy studies. i'm incredibly interested to find out his formula for what gets to be black, and what gets to be everything else. i thought it would be as simple as doing a few drawings from my comics, but the mystery remains.

and, a cute boy i know! xo

i have so many projects i get scared, and dont work on any of them. this should change!

we look good side by side

2009-10-17T03:45:00.003-04:00

all it is is putting the piecces together!

Sneak Peek

2009-09-07T23:26:00.002-04:00

so i can't really show too much, but i spent the afternoon figuring out how to format a newsletter in such a way that email clients can format them to look pretty! sort of a pain in the ass, but a good learning experience. i think i'm finally starting to sync with css!

the sites themselves still have some progress to be made, but its not really fun stuff, so i've been putting it off. once i get the full deck, i might post it here for people's opinions, if anyone would be interested in giving some feedback?

happy post-labor day weekend!

Surrounded

2009-08-28T13:03:00.002-04:00

i got bored and did some feather vectors. i know i was going to try to do a "one vector a day" sort of thing, but there just don't seem to be enough hours in a day!

in other news....its taking me forever to get stuff together, but hopefully i'll have some iflt/ifht.com stuff to show you! and a new portfolio site in the future...

Oh, the internet

2009-08-24T16:13:00.001-04:00

No exciting new work (yet), but check out this link my friend sent me:

http://www.h2trickortreat.com/index.php?id=s2408301972

...yes, that is the shirt i designed for our annual 'funday' party in DC; how odd!

Torn Up Underneath

2009-08-11T01:36:00.003-04:00

a little random-energy project: i had this nice hue of woodgrain contact paper i was going to put on my secondary storage doors, but they're covered in this primer the adhesive couldn't stick to. so its been sitting in a corner gathering dust, when i decided to try and cover my alcove in it. took about two hours, and it looks pretty sweet if you ask me! i feel like an asian mobster or something...i think the posters need to come down just a little, but otherwise pretty ballin! you also can't tell, but i did some serious cord-control under the desk too.

finally, the ability to clean up the huge holes that stupid shelf left in my wall!

otherwise, no big news. work and life keep me so busy -- i love new york! theres always so much to do, im starting to finally get acclimated to a lifestyle of go. whoopie!

What Happened

2009-07-22T19:18:00.002-04:00

so im trying to draw all of my characters out again, because i need more things to do thank just draw busts of sage in meetings. i need an anatomy class SO BADLY. did one of sage too, but havn't scanned it yet. its funny, looking back at character design decisions i made, some of them were so stupid. i should really flex my writing skills again and try doing some short stories that set up their backstories or something. hrumph.

I Fucking...

2009-05-20T23:44:00.002-04:00

progress has been made on ifuckinglovethis.com and ifuckinghatethis.com ! ive decided, for now at least, its going to be invite-only. it may always stay like that, like a fffound or a yay hooray, even if it manages to capture a following. i can't say i didnt try.

i think, though, the only way for it to 'take off' is if its INCREDIBLY easy to use on the fly. but to get it to that point...will cost some money. sooooo we will see how this nets out :) im hoping to get it out of the design phase very soon though!

web projects are so much fun!!

Breaking Down Walls

2009-05-17T21:16:00.003-04:00

i have been in the biggest art block of my life. i'm not sure what it is, but the swirling thoughts of ideas in my head just aren't coming out right. the most frustrating part of this would be my inability to draw anything exciting. im so tired of drawing characters just standing there; no sense of time, place, story, emotion. its like, whats the point!

this isn't horrible, but its not great either. im pretty proud of the torso area though, thats usually my achilles heel. theres something off with it though, im not sure what. i know her one horn looks super big but what can you do.

i like how zhadra comes out as some weird hippie. im sure even medieval times has their fair share, amirite?

as soon as i get into the city (june 15th!) i'm going to figure class once a week. nothing beats seeing the real thing. especially when your brain/hand has lost the ability to fake it.

Kazam!

2009-05-02T20:12:00.002-04:00

so after two days of drinking, wearing the same clothes and not showing, i came home and for whatever reason decided it was high time to finish up this calvin and hobbes painting. once i move into the city i am going to lose the ability to spread out, so these projects need to be done before that.

a sad realization is that, that empty bar in the very middle of the canvas, is supposed to be the foreground ground color.....and thats going to be impossible to remix, i remember having such a hard time getting that pink for some reason?! i have to mix a goldenrod for the moons too, then everything thats white will be filled in with an almost-black black. et voila!

after this, ive just got to finish coating up my deer, and i think my outstanding non-digital projects are completed :) whoopie!

New Internets!

2009-04-30T17:37:00.002-04:00

so i am the proud owner of ifuckinglovethis.com and ifuckinghatethis.com! it will eventually roll into a (popular!) blog, where me and cohorts will post things we love, and things we hate, from a range of different topics. i used today (a slow day at work) to set up the nameservers, so hopefully my brain will consider the ball rolling and i will churn out some designs somewhat soon.

i'm hoping to have my new portfolio site (read: not really new, so much as revamped and scrapping the overused 'lightbox' script, which wasn't overused when i used it thank-you-very-much!) coded in the next few weeks as well, so between these two projects i should start having a pretty sick web presence!

at the moment, love has not yet populated, but do check back! i will, of course, post deets as they happen!

WOAH!FUNDAY'09

2009-04-12T12:42:00.005-04:00

ahh, last minute lex strikes again! i was asked to do a tshirt for a party my highschool friends down in DC are throwing, based on a shirt my friend sarah got one fateful day at a VNA sale...

for whatever reason the phrase has stuck within our group of friends, and theyre now basing their party around it (haha). so my task was to do a shirt 'in the same vein' as the original, only...cooler.

ive been pretty busy the last few weeks, so sitting down to do something fun was actually more difficult then i would have thought. i'm pretty decent at drawing, but for the life of me i could not come up with a stylized horse illo. the first design i came up with last night (they wanted the design by today, so we could get them printed by next saturday) was really hard to look at, i don't even want to share it; my original thought was i wanted it to be really organic and hand-done, but of course under pressure i defaulted to iconography and text-bubbles, my design stand-bys, lol.

i'm not sure if itll greatly increase the cost to print on both sides, but i think it would be sweet if we print the design on the back, and then an empty bubble on the front for you to write something in..there's going to be a lot of people there from a lot of different places, so you could always just do your name, or a drawing, or just leave it blank, whatever. it'd be a pretty cool little thing though :).

this party is going to be amazing! the icons in the bubbles represent the different things that will be making an appearance at the party (shotski, discoball, music, friends, etc), plus a throwback to the original with the horse/horseshoe. i hate lassos. seriously, who can vector a decently looking lasso, i ask you?? im pretty pumped to be wearin this, and see everyone else there wearin'em too..we got the shirts wholesale from American Apparel (sweet!), so they're gonna be pretty long-lasting too. hooray for a foray into shirts! maybe once we move out, if we can get a silkscreening area set up, me/joe/julian can start a t-shirt biz.....

Stark Baster

2009-04-02T19:09:00.003-04:00

it is done! project two of three: complete.

okay, thats sort of a lie....it still needs its final paintjob. the picture makes it look much smoother than it is, but after trying spraypaint unsuccessfully, im going to just need to do a couple more coats of primer...but i wanted this sucker on the wall. holy balls its so epic, im so happy with how it came out! it was such a crazy process, but i have to say, i love learning new processes. he has a couple more details to add, but the piece name is 'by the skin of your teeth'. im going to try to get an SVA student to expose a screen for me soon, i might get that on there too and screen it to the back in blackletter or something. maybe ill freehand it. who knows! also, that is my mom in the picture: hi gayle!

and let me just say: bondo is a piece of shit, and never use it for anything!

i think his name might be baster, pronounced 'b-a-ster'. im not sure how i feel about that, but it is a personal rule that i name everything the first thing that comes into my head. which is how i ended up with a rabbit named sandwich and an external harddrive named pascal.

in other exciting news, my projected move-out date is June 1st! A couple of friends from work are also interested in moving out/moving, so we're going to try to all find a place together! i hope they won't mind, im going to end up bringing a lot of shit to hang on the walls, between this, my teacher's piece, calvin and hobbes and other various paintings, plus about a zillion posters. i'm just so excited to be so close to the next leg of this adventure we call life! the last year has been pretty crazy, but im glad i did everything i did, because i feel like im in a better place for it :>.

cross your fingers! also, ill upload some cut&paste pics soon too...sadly, not taken with my nikon, so theyre all pretty crappy :<.

I Love Illustrator

2009-03-27T00:34:00.002-04:00

My designs for Cut&Paste! Sadly, I got out the first round (booooo!), but it was an incredible experience! Of course, work ramps up again, but once i get my pictures downloaded off my camera I'll upload some pics :).

Also..my bondo experience with my deer head did not go as smoothly as i anticipated, so now i need to invest in a dremmel...sigh!

Bambi's Father (needs a name)

2009-03-20T13:24:00.002-04:00

geeze this has taken a while to move forward on! so after much internet research, i decided that my skills were not going to be anywhere close to elite enough to assemble this on my own. there's so much about taxidermy i never even thought about! so much of it is about knowing how to work with a ton of different materials. so i found this guy about a half hour away that said he would be more than happy to help me attach my antlers to my form correctly; this was about a month ago, and then work got super busy, and he's only open 9-12 on saturdays.

today i took the day off to prepare for cut & paste tomorrow (everyone should check out the live stream online sometime tomorrow, 630-11pm est!), so i thought 'this is going to be the only time for another few weeks ill have to try to get this done'. so i called him, he said come on in, i drove over at 1030, and he worked his magic! he even gave me some free earliners, and didn't charge me for anything!

so here i sit with the 'most 'roided out deer ever' (according to his assistant); i need to get some bondo between the faux-skull cap and the form to really solidify it, then i have to paper mache the head in place, then smear on some spackle to really smooth out some of the form's dents. then, a white coat, a couple of touches i want to add, and voila!

i think i'm going to try to hang it as it is though..its just easier to have your over halfway-done works on the wall than just sitting around..sort of reminds you what you still have to do. he also needs a name, but i can't do that until hes finished!

other, more personal news, is i am, after 4 years, completely debt free as of last night! this means finally most of my paychecks can go towards saving to move out! of course, this also means that i need to seriously finish up some projects, because NYC is not known for having lots of excess space :\. namely this, and my calvin and hobbes piece. drats, i was planning on putting that above the TV, but i definitely think the deer head needs to live there. maybe the c&h piece can go above the couch....hmmm....gosh i hope i have a flexible roommate!

Sketchdump

2009-02-22T11:25:00.003-05:00

ive had these pile of sketches sitting on my desk forever, im fighting off something horrible and have no energy, but scanning doesn't take much work so :).

mostly from work/meetings, mostly of sage/zhadra. though theres a couple mr.darcy references because..cmon, mr.darcy plz.

being home with not much to do makes me think i need a new project. i have one in mind, but the amount of work its going to take is a little daunting :x i'll post some progress as i decide if its worth it haha.

also, how many people comment on other's blogs? i admit im bad with it, usually i just look at the post and exit out, but feedback is always appreciated :D

A Sideways Glance

2009-02-16T15:09:00.003-05:00

EDIT: updated with better, hanging pictures! stopped by the hardware store today (days off during the week are so useful! gg prez day!) so i could just keep going with my forward momentum and get this doonnnee! i'm so happy, this is the first time in a while i've finished a project and gotten to enjoy it (calvin and hobbes currently lives in our upstairs hallway, and most of my other work is in a poster tube since mom doesn't appreciate wallpapering the walls with my posters). i still think itll be cool to put in a common room though, maybe behind a coffee table or something. gosh that hair ticks me off though, gonna have to fix that sometime soon haha.

it is done! or, as done as its going to be for the moment :).

b/g is b/w, because the only open wall we had is a really distracting orange color. of course, the picture doesnt really do the colors justice, but what can you do!

i'm also not 100% with her hair..its too orange, too bright, but i need a break from it for now. now, all i can think is that i hope my future roommate won't mind it in the common space; all done, it is a little weird, like shes watching you or something. not sure how weird its going to be to sleep with it on my wall! lol

its always nice to finish something up. my next project is finishing my deer head, and after that, my calvin and hobbes mastercopy that i have been so neglectful of :(. gotta get these arts ready for my apt, whenever i manage to make that happen! huhu

Outlines Be Mine

2009-02-14T17:46:00.002-05:00

a little valentines day progress! my original plan was to do all the outlines all in black everywhere, but i started thinking what it would look like if i just made the outlines a darker color of the base. i never really ink pictures like this ever, mostly because i dunno the quick and dirty way to do it, so it takes forever. this really is no difference, but im liking how its coming out! i think i might do another acrylic wash over the lighter jacket lines, so you still see them as lighter but not as light.

still not sure how im going to hang it..being only 3/4" thick, and of course i can only go at most 1/2" to make sure it doesnt poke out the front.

HMM HMM HMM.

Art & LOTR

2009-02-02T18:22:00.004-05:00

just a little more progress! only a first pass on the ribbed material, and the hair hasnt been touched yet, but that jacket was going to be tough so i'm glad it started! i like whats going on with the lines on the jacket; my original plan is to add a black outline around the whole thing, but i might leave the jacket like that till the end and just see how it looks.

2 v 1

2009-02-02T10:29:00.006-05:00

well, two pieces of fun news amid some not so fun times.

i had the chance to finally start painting my sage cut-out; it's lookin pretty slick; i have to finish up the hair (its still the wrong color) and the jacket, and then the black outlines everywhere. i'm thinking of not using 100% black, maybe more like 80% or 90%, if i can manage to mix that. my final hurdle is figuring out how im going to hang it on the wall..the board is only 3/4" thick, so im afraid screwing things in may be a no-go :\ it may not be able to get enough purchase to hold its weight up. thoughts, anyone?

in other news, i was accepted as a participant of Cut & Paste! this is the piece i did for the test rounds;

what you do is you get a word or phrase, and then 15 minutes to make something. they give you the word a few days ahead of time, so you can be thinking about it/plan out what you want to do (cause honestly, 15 minutes isn't enough time to think AND execute). our word was 'bliss', and after another ridiculous week, i couldn't think of anything more blissful than a saturday you get to choose what you want to do, untouched by the rest of the crap. they really liked my portfolio and my piece, which is awesome, because it may pose an opportunity to find some cool jobs somewhere in these troubled times.

soon

2009-01-16T02:04:00.000-05:00

cross your fingers!

Lifesize

2009-01-11T20:04:00.002-05:00

starting off my resolutions well, i hit my sunday deadline for cutting out my woodcut! it went SURPRISINGLY well...i've had to cut out a woodcut before, and it took me about as long to cut it (about the size of her head) as it did this one. hand jigsaws for the win!

so its maybe half a foot shorter than me, and still has some anatomy tweaks that ive noticed, but in general im pretty pumped! now, im trying to figure out if i have to also prime the edges and the back..id prefer not to, especially since the edges are just going to be black; any opinions?

Blanco

2009-01-04T18:18:00.003-05:00

today seemed like a good day for painting things white :). i got a taxidermy white-tailed deer form for christmas, with the intent on getting a set of antlers, mashing it together and painting it all white. i love taxidermy, but i wouldn't want something i didnt kill myself, and thats never going to happen soooo this seems a happy medium. very crate-and-barrel, if i do say so myself!

i also did another coat of primer on my board, and then decided now was the time to get that sucker transferred. its 5'x3', with an inch border around the edge (since im cutting it out with a jigsaw, i wanted some elbow room for when the blade inevitably goes off-track) im going to paint black. its going to just be flat color, with the form defined with black lines. who knows how its going to end up; just putting it on the board and standing back, i feel like the legs are MUCH too small (even though in that vector it looks okay?), so ive got some more work ahead of me. my goal is to have it completely cut out a week from today! then the fun part, movies + painting :)

i hope everyone had a great christmas! we went to mexico for a week for a sort of 'family reunion' which was excellent..i got my first serious tan ever, which im considering art because of how carefully planned my 'in the sun time' had to be, haha.

resolutions? have my portfolio updated with new work by march to send out to companies, start setting personal deadlines and MEETING them (big problem for me, and a reason why i can't more seriously do freelance..), and not being a boring stick in the mud!

5-foot Cut Out!

2008-12-14T21:19:00.002-05:00

a couple of anatomy changes. i wasn't completely satisfied with the previous stab, so i edited some things, and also added a tail. first coat of primer has gone down on my board! its all happening!

also, im hoping to really finish up the calvin&hobbes piece sometime soon :x

Lizzogos

2008-12-08T23:14:00.002-05:00

just a quick logo i'm working on for my uncle/cousin. he has this company that does enrichment for kids, and have a super-specific feel they're going for. i havn't done very much freelance in my day, but i know that right now, i have very little drive to keep at it. i honestly havn't put very much time into this, but i attribute this mostly to when i get home, the last thing i want to do is sit on a computer. i'm going to have to get more serious, though, if i want to move out anytime soon!

i also got my wood for the woodcut; i'm not sure if i'm going to layer it anymore (the wood is like, 3/4 an inch thick, ill have to go back down to asses the situation), but i havn't had time to re-visit those god damn legs yet. tomorrow i think im going to start priming it at least, so it'll be ready whenever i get off my buttttt.

Bigger, Better, Faster, Stronger

2008-11-30T17:21:00.007-05:00

a little project im going to start on next week..i love doing things with real media, it has so much more of a presence that way. time to take over the basement! this is just a little color study; the actual drawing im working off of i left at work over the holiday weekend, so hopefully by next week ill get it cleaned up and my materials set up. w00t!

update: so i was messing around a little and came up with a pose that is a bit more visually interesting (if i do recall) than my original; im having super issues with below-the-waist though...it just doesn't look...right? i really need her to be holding weight on that leg, and i guess it just doesnt feel like that yet/doesnt look physically correct.

would anyone mind lending an opinion? or a redline? :3 the black outline will be painted in with it, its a safety against my noobishness with using a jigsaw haha. color? b/w? opinions? the one on the far right is the body under the clothes.

im hoping to finish up my calvin and hobbes master copy too; i'm also going to have to re-stretch that bitch which sucks, its so loose :(.

heres a little logo exploration for my uncle's son's company 'Gol' (i think like 'goal' but they spelt it wrong?); i'm working with children's silhouettes (harder than i would have thought), and thought this looked cool, though they didnt like it.

expect some project updates this week! im so excited! ive gotta find a place with a projector, hopefully the highschool will have someone willing to let me use theirs..? HMMM.

Anatomy Plz

2008-10-26T01:18:00.004-04:00

so ive resolved to do one drawing a day (at least) to try to get back into the swing..also, these drawings need to include feet and hands, something i usually manage to completely ignore. this my interpretation of amanda payne's character, charisma.

i have a bunch more to scan in the next coupla days :> !

Virtual Reality

2008-10-11T20:39:00.002-04:00

ive gotten back into world of warcraft - for better or worse - and it has become my artistic muse. thats my hunter's pet coma, chasing some undead rogues for my amusement.

I'm trying to get back into the swing of drawing again! i have a really hard time with faces (as in, making them not my typical generic face), the shoulder/ribcage area and pelvic area (making them look correctly attached) with people and animals, so hopefully just a lot of practice will clear that up.

When In Doubt

2008-10-08T23:58:00.003-04:00

quick poster done for illest of ill 08! im a little late handing it off, but work has me by the nads! if any of you are in the sarasota area, be sure to check it out for its great work, and bring some cash cause theyre sellin posters!

sorry theres been no real art updates; its been taking way longer than i thought it would to get acclimated to the working world™. but things are going well, lots of work to do means people trust you, so thats always a good thing! ive met some really great people here too, new yorkers are such characters.

im going to be working on my portfolio a bit again, so check back as updates should be coming in a tad more frequently (or at least more frequently than once every 3 months!).

Redecorum

2008-06-10T19:41:00.003-04:00

i figure this counts as art, right? i dont consider myself a professional by any stretch, but my mom is (as a hobby), and i do know what i like. im living at home, probably for about a year, in the attempt to actually save some money. i seem to be in a unique position, as i love my family, and the idea of living in their house not only sounds fun to me, but to them as well! anyways, since i dont have rent to pay, i told myself i would blow my first few paychecks on some cool stuff! i used my security deposit from my last place to buy all the furniture (walmart and ikea!), and me and my mom built the computer desk (legs from ikea), and we painted the walls that blue (my room used to have super small wicker furniture ive had since ive had my own room, and the walls were green stripes of two varying hues). im COMPLETELY thrilled, because its basically the perfect layout for a studio apartment (which is what i want to move into, possibly in hoboken as opposed to in NYC), and i have alreayd gone through all the ridiculous work of finding shit, ordering it, picking paint colors and crap. i can just kind of up and go in a uhaul!

anyways, im really excited, i am a complete girl in that i have to nest incessently, so its been nice to really turn this room into a place to call my own :). i guess its always been mine, but im a pretty different person coming back now than i was when i left, thats for sure!

i havnt done ANY personal art, and im not allowed to show people stuff from work so, for a while this might be pretty quiet..im completely exhausted from moving and redecorating and starting work, and i think im just starting to begin a recovery, which requires a little hiatus from sitting down and opening up illustrator as soon as i sit down! lol

Guess Who's Back

2008-06-08T22:26:00.002-04:00

wow life!

i graduated, am currently working at wunderman in NYC, have moved back home into my old room (free rents?!) and am commuting in! i also enjoy going to bed at 9-10pm on weekdays and generally being a bore :).

i guess the most artistic thing ive done has been to redo my room? maybe ill take some pictures, that counts as art riiiiiight?

End of Days

2008-04-27T12:41:00.002-04:00

Well, Friday we had our graphic design senior show, yesterday was the computer animation senior show, and today...i slept until noon and woke up in a panic until i realized i have nothing to do. nothing to do. it's a weird feeling, sitting here in my room, preparing to clean the weeks of pileup, pack things into boxes, clean out my car, prepare for my parents to come on wednesday, and then probably out of florida about four or so days after friday (graduation).

I graduate from college in less than a week! surreal!

Falling Together

2008-04-22T22:41:00.006-04:00

im so excited about these! theres something about doing something that (after four years of practice) really looks professional that sends a shiver up my spine! these are my takeaway portfolios to send to companies as my job search continues; the front part is my portfolio (just a shrunk down version of my big 13"x19" one), and the back part is a sketchbook for use by whoever ends up with it. i like the idea of making things for use, things people would have anyway that i can touch in my own way before it gets to them. a .pdf doesnt say much, but getting one of these suckers in the mail means business! i also engineered a system of recessing the CD into the front cover, so its completely flush. i am such a sucker for that shit, even if it means two solid days of work to get all 10-15 done.

we graduate a week from this friday! i am in a complete stupor..im done with school?? possibly forever?!?

Labor Indeed

2008-04-21T22:06:00.003-04:00

excuse the shittiness of the above picture but..im done!! my independant study work is OVER. there is another poster of this, with just me and an '!' in a bubble, but it was the last i did and thus is still drying. PHEW. thats a two to three week labor of love right there! i cant wait to give them to friends friends friends! each little icon up there represents each person in some way, be it an inside joke or just an aspect of them; itll be interesting how many of them read for them!

in other news, our senior show is THIS FRIDAY..and i still have about a zillion things to do before it!!! oh my!!! thats okay though, cause from here-on-out its just fun stuff, posters to sell at the show, takeaway portfolios, buttons..but still, it means more to do! yikes!

if you're in the sarasota area, feel free to stop by ringling's campus for the illustration and graphic design shows!

Final Best Of

2008-04-08T23:50:00.001-04:00

well we found out today if we got pieces into best of ringling, and sadly i didnt :<. it was kind of a weird wake up call, that this was the last one to submit to, and ive NEVER gotten a piece in (lesigh), and now thats it! its almost like we're graduating or something..haha.

Sketchbook

2008-04-02T21:25:00.011-04:00

ReelFX wanted to see some drawings, so i spent the afternoon going through my sketchbooks/figure drawings and so far have come up with the above (+5 more pages)! not super exciting, but i figure ive got a decent range of work in it. im at a standstill with the figure stuff, cause im not sure how to edit out the backgrounds, but im sure something will come to me. ive still got to find my storyboards to send them as well; it stinks because i want to do this, but its just one more thing on my list - so far today all ive done is pick up my car from venice, and this!!! argghh, there are not enough hours in the day!

Joanie Posters

2008-04-01T21:22:00.002-04:00

a quick upload of a poster im doing for bleitz; i had forgotten until, well, 10 minutes before walking into class, but he forgot to send us the info, so i suppose we're both at fault. either way i cranked this out in a couple of hours; wanted to leave a spot to edit in the time/date possibly, but that might get changed.

i love cmyk for when i dont feel like thinking :).

Web Notes

2008-03-31T02:23:00.003-04:00

another quick post, i just changed my blog layout to match with my new website design a little better. on that note, i forgot i didnt link up my portfolio site, freshly completed about 24 hours ago!

www.lexevans.com

i have a tiny link to this blog off of there, since my small popup window of 'friends' was opening the links in a new tab (never good when you window is by default 100x250 px), and i have all those people linked on here anyways so -- why not!

hopefully after we graduate, people will start using their blogs more, so we can all see what everyone's up to!

okay, bedtime, big day tomorrow (cross your fingers reelfx wants to talk to me! haha)!

Silkscreening

2008-03-31T01:45:00.003-04:00

im finally getting somewhere with my silkscreening projects. its been a long, painful road (for what reason i dont know), but ive finally gotten my concept nailed down, and visuals poppin' out!

i wanted to graduate with something to give to my best friends at home, so im doing a series of posters. each will be 12"x18" (18"x24" ripped in half, eheheh im so economical), and each one depicts one of my friends surrounded by icons of inside jokes surrounding that person that we still reference. they each get a speech bubble, and when put together they read "It seemed brilliant at the time", words we've always lived by. each one will have three colors, two colors + black.

itll be nice to know im spending a ton of time doing this in the print labs, but that in the end ill have a sick series that i can grad gift to everyone (seeing as i am 'the art kid' in the group, haha). hooray for getting class credit for making presents!

in other news: the next two and a half weeks are going to SUCK. but then, its clean and clear and under control :).

A Brief Stop In

2008-03-23T22:32:00.003-04:00

lonnnnng time no update, and i really dont have time now but i just finalized my business card design, so i thought i would throw it up here :). my other accent is woodgrain, but i dont have that in the b.card -- everyone better come to our senior show april 25th to see all our work finalized!

so much more to do, but ill take pictures of all my final promo materials when theyre all done, and maybe a few more pieces ive been working on if i can muster up the time!

A Small Tribute

2008-02-17T22:39:00.003-05:00

When It Rains

2008-02-16T00:09:00.002-05:00

well thursday i got so much off my plate; my first graphic design project done, my most recent portfolio printed and handed in for feedback, another one printed and put into my case and submitted to cia all in one day! and then today i woke up for the presentation, and got an interview! exciting!

tomorrow i hit the new projects running!

And Then There Was

2008-02-12T23:20:00.003-05:00

well, after a critique, i got some feedback about showing more dimension in my logo, namely in the 'intricate' areas. i also decided to add 'the latin quarter' (though that might get changed to 'the spanish quarter') to that banner, and made lots of minor sizing changes. hopefully this can mean im done!

Events Plz

2008-02-11T23:19:00.000-05:00

yeah! 50 posts and 1000 views!

some progress (expect a lot in the next few days, thursday is deadline day!) on my ybor poster. im kind of at a stalemate -- i spent some time vectoring/designing that wrought-iron gate up top and want to use it, but i feel like it might be too much? or is it bad to not necessarily treat the poster like a mall directory? i just dont know; opinions?

and heres the final logo;

Ybor City Rebrand

2008-02-11T01:00:00.000-05:00

logo progress for my rebranding of ybor. the concept is the one on the right is the 'logo', and the one on the left would be at the top of a post, and the color would be a fabric 'flag' which would get changed out with another color every month (to add a touch of unity throughout all of ybor). i tried to add a few modern elements (patterns) along with the wrought-iron feel of the old spanish quarter. i also added the cigars in the middle as the kind of 'seal', since ybor is a big cigar center, and the whole design was inspired by a cigar wrapper.

now, i have to do a 'sticker' for windows, a newsletter, and a poster. im thinking if i can, however, to supplement out the newsletter because, well, newsletters aint much fun.

Hero of Our Time

2008-02-10T16:51:00.000-05:00

silly random doodle of link from legend of zelda. i recently picked back up twilight princess for about 15 minutes to finish up the 'city in the sky' temple, but i dont think ill have time to do any more until school ends :|.

in other news, i am in an incredible rut, and am tired of looking at all my old work. blech.

And Again..

2008-01-28T22:29:00.003-05:00

yeah! some more progress! i wish i had been this dedicated to my painting class, haha..i really just cant wait to get it done, off my floor, and onto the wall -- GIC is frustrating, in that you never really have anything to show. well, except posters, and we all know how people feel about those :|...

still need to work on that super-orange bute, and the small purple one could be a shade lighter, but ive already messed with purples so much i think my brain might explode so, time to know when to call it!

In The Name Of Progress

2008-01-26T22:02:00.000-05:00

i have been painting today! granted when i paint, it usually means 'systematically laying down solid color', but who cares. heres where im stopping for the night:

excuse that its upside down (the edges are drying), but there we have it! the bute on the bottom right is wayyy too saturated, but i had done that a week or so ago; tonight i did the other two colors. it was arduous (i think ive been working since..maybe four? or five? and its 10!), but im glad to be done -- everything i have left is WAY more interesting than that big solid block. my back sure is killing me though!

hooray for working on projects for yourself!

Any Takers?

2008-01-23T20:47:00.000-05:00

well! lexsited is almost 100%; i need to finish up its splash pages, and put up a dummy page for people to click through, then open for business! if theres anyone out there reading this that would be interested in utilizing the capable design abilities of a fourth-year graphic design major to design/code their portfolio page with a working gallery, blog integration, and easy-as-pie updating abilities....shoot me an email at lexasaur@gmail.com!

also, i think that tomorrow i am going to head to the woodshop after class and try to cut out another one of my deer heads. my intention was to give them out to a couple of friends (i dunno, i really like deer!), though i would like to silkscreen something on the back, but i never cut them all out save one..

i have another 3 partially cut, and then 11 more still 100% on their block of wood...hurrah, more personal projects! oog.

im currently in the process of putting together my portfolio, and im not going to lie, i feel a little dissapointed in myself. theres so many projects i had such high expectations for, but through the learning experience of figuring out time management, they all seemed to only come 60-70% (at least, as far as my expectations for how 'well i can do'). then, i fooled myself into saying, 'god who cares, i just never want to look at this again'....and now, here i am, looking at it again and cringing a-new.

ive learned a lot about the field and myself during my time at ringling, but i do wish i had grown up a bit faster. a fat lot of good this realization does my final semester but, im excited about looking forward. most of the things im doing now i am incredibly proud of, so that will just have to do!

ill upload my poster in a later post, when i have a web-safe version saved. time to dive back into portfolio, eehg.

Woah There

2008-01-19T14:30:00.000-05:00

first post of the new year (i think)!

well, i have some stuff to post up, and some more stuff to post up that i dont even have web-ok yet (so expect another post soon!) -- ive started taking the steps to finally finish some personal projects i started last semester, namely the calvin and hobbes painting, and my 'friendbuttons'.

yesterday i woke up (randomly; i dont have class friday so..) at 7:45am, and around 8:20 was finally like 'okay get up', and spent the next three hours finishing up the buttons (which i dont want to post until theyre done - check back!), then headed to school and projected my .ai file onto my canvas, and about 45 minutes later -- done!

then i headed home to start painting -- unfortionately i think i lost allll my paints from painting class last semester (i have NO clue where they are..im afraid i left them in a class at the end of the semester or something and someone found them and thought 'jackpot' -- theres a rant there, on the integrity of artists, but thats for another time haha), so i didnt have enough white, and the orange came out WAY too saturated. i should have just waited until i got some, but i was so antsy to start i just began anyways. im going to go over it with a lighter, more opaque color, but heres the progress so far:

im going to do the flat color first, then go back in over everything with a not-quite-black charcoal color. exciting! i cant wait to have it on my wall!

as far as the buttons go, i need some serious resizing, and im frustrated at my degraded ability to actually MAKE the damn things with my button maker. hopefully sometime in the next week ill finish them all up and get some pictures of the final packaging.

and i guess my last project is 'lexsited', my concept project for doing portfolio sites for artists. i have gotten how to integrate a blog into a website, and now just have a few more things to deal with before it can go live! exciting!

speaking of that -- are any of you illustrators interested in this service?? a really nice, professional, easy-to-update-and-manage website?? please comment and let me know, id really appreciate it!

and to finish up -- go see cloverfield! best movie ive seen in a while!

The Last Break

2007-12-21T15:53:00.000-05:00

well, i wish i had something to really post up here other than a personal update, but lo, sometimes thats all there is.

taylor came up to visit for a few days, so i had the opportunity to show him good ol NJ (hur hur), have him meet my highschool friends, my little brother, and we even went into the city for a day to see young frankenstein and have some dinner (he has only been once in 8th grade -- so sad!). all in all it was great, and i dropped him off today at 4pm, but! im going down to GA to visit with his family from jan 3rd to the 6th(ish), so that will be exciting as well!

i had resolved to not deal with anything until after he had left, and now he has, so im going to list out my goals for this break:

design all my posters/whatnot for my silkscreening independant study

compile a list of potential employers (that is well researched)

create a 'skeleton' website to use for possible portfolio sites

as far as the last bullet goes, i know a bunch of illustrators have been having issues getting websites built, and ive also had it expressed to me to do a few outside of ringling, so i was going to set up a few bare-bones sites for people to choose from, and from then on, all of the work will be simply creative, and i would only charge 30$ or 40$-dollars per site. im not sure how many people would take me up on it, but it would be nice to simply have the resources there, just in case.

anyways, all of that starts today, as well as my regiment of running -- 3-4 times a week, lifting on the offdays; i need to stop being such a puge!

anyways, check back for updates on progress, and feel free to use the comment box on the side -- its sad to think nobody ever reads this stuff!

Sit Still For Me

2007-12-10T23:26:00.000-05:00

quick break from the grind that is the last two days before the semester is over. i am currently running on 30+ hours with no sleep, and most of that has been spent building things. books, to be precise. my thumb actually hurts to be typing again, thats how out of wack i get when i go more than 3 days spending less than half an hour on the computer haha.

anyways, the painting above was our last painting for my class; we had a figure model in, and that was done in three really long, really lax classes. its definately the most 'lifelike' thing ive ever painted, and the most fun...too bad i cant afford to keep myself in gic supplies, silkscreening supplies AND painting supplies. gotta draw the line somewhere!

Lies

2007-12-05T07:55:00.001-05:00

okay a quick sketch i did while waiting for the sun to come up! a modern day samurai? i never draw anymore geeze i need practice haha.

Fast Break!

2007-12-05T03:36:00.000-05:00

the title says it all...well, we're in the equivalent of finals week at school, and im scrambling to get everything done with some room for error to spare! timelife is finally coming to fruitation; ill just save myself the exporting and post images of the final, i think. then theres our final painting, which is as done as its going to get, and finally a digital video project that im giving myself only two days to complete. heres my schedule so far:

tuesday: get files completely set up to drop off at print services wednesday morning
wednesday: have a couple of people check dummy; drop of files/paper to print services; hit up joanna fabrics and office max; spend the rest of the day cutting blank pages for blank books; binding demo with ashley and felicia; practice practice practice
thursday: continue and finish building all dummy books (for those playing at home, thats 16 hardback books) AND slipcover; if i get my printed pages back cut/bind those as well
friday: if get pages back, cut/bind .. full timelife to be done by end of day friday
saturday: get footage for digital video project; cut/sync/edit the shit out of it
sunday: finish dig.vid project for monday; marinate in the sweat of my labors
monday: class/crit; class; class/crit; get wasted
tuesday: class/crit; get wasted
wednesaday; do we even have class? i have no idea haha

so, just a little taste of what the life of a gic is like during crunch time..i havent gone to sleep before 6am in a long, long time.

also, i have a painting to share, but i sadly left my camera in my friend's car over thanksgiving, so i will not be getting it back until christmas so..no new work until then! oh, ive also taken a break for the last hour or so, and installed a little comments board..nobody really comments on my posts, but its always fun to add new little widgits here and there!

anyways, good luck to everyone who is in the same boat as i -- just one more week!

Hindsight Schmindsight

2007-11-29T02:57:00.000-05:00

just to pause as i grind out chapter 1 of time life, its interesting to think that this semester is almost over. literally, two weeks from today! thats going to fly by, as it already has, as out 'last registration' flew by, thanksgiving break flew by, deadlines flew..well, not by, but up rather quickly.

and i finally can see what all those seniors meant when they said 'i am so ready to be out of here'. sure, a life of academia sounds splendid..from the teaching side. suddenly im not so eager to get my masters; a few years without classes to deal with will be a rest well deserved.

after a brief talk with andrew and hadar this evening about the nature of our 'work', it got me thinking..im starting to get into that 'this is a chore' mindset, which sucks!! art should never be a chore, though like anything when you are asked, over and over again to perform perform perform, its understandable things eventually boil down to that point. but no longer!

so we have a dummy book due in utie's class tomorrow, and i decided to change my idea tonight (hah..), which means i need about 26 spreads lain out, and im up to 20 right now - granted those are imageless, and i have some tweaking to do, but im at least glad to have it all laid out. itll be nice to get some feedback on a tangable thing.

then tomorrow after class...sleep! glorious, glorious sleep 8).

Sooo Cloooose

2007-11-19T18:23:00.000-05:00

TymeLyfe: Round 1

just a quick link to my page spreads so far. im going to introduce some vector elements and patterns throughout it, but if anyone has any feedback (right now it feels soooooo boring :|), let me know!

Clue: The Movie

also, heres a link to my recent digital video adventure; redoing the title sequence for a movie (mine being 'clue'). the footage is kind of shakey, but i was too tired to reshoot it after having already done so a few times. gotta know when to cut your losses!

in other news, im going home for thanksgiving tomorrow morning! i have a packed schedule lined up, but somewhere in the middle of that i hope to get some serious timelife progress done..once i get my added elements figured out, i have to look up some binding techniques and start designing the cover!!! gotta make this thing kick ASS!

Never Again

2007-11-15T18:29:00.000-05:00

image heavy post, because i finally brought my camera reader upstairs. the following two pieces were for my painting class; the rabbit painting had a little more work done to it, but because i have other things that take priority it wasnt really enough, and i got eaten in class. nothing like having a fine artist tell you your work sucks, then moves on to some spackle and red paint smeared all over the canvas. le sigh.

painting that could definately have been better, but eh. yesterday i was feeling a little apprehensive about going into class with shitty work after like three weeks of time to work on it, so i stayed up all ngith reconstructing my concept into roadkill pillows!

since there was supposed to be 4 paintings done for today, i was going to do 4 of these animals, but from about 2am until 11 am i only got these two done. and what kind of feedback did i get, despite the fact that i did these to make up for my shitty paintings? noootthhinnngg. except my lines werent perfect enough and that i wasnt 'respecting the paint'. well, no, i dont, because i hate painting but im stuck in this class unless i want 5 classes next semester!!!! i cant believe the teacher is so lame as to not pick up on that. and ontop of it all, its a friggin fine arts class.

anyways, even though the class gave me lukewarm responses, all the gics i met as i walked to class/in class loved them, so im chalking it up to fine arts retardedness. no offense to friends of mine who are fine artists, but i hate being smushed into your major plz.

and i found this on my camera, i thought it would be cool for people to post their 'workplaces', studio, computer, corner, whatever..its kind of interesting to visualize where the magic happens!

In The End

2007-11-13T12:59:00.000-05:00

well i didnt end up getting an interview, but i think its because of my lack of illustrative work -- oh well! it was creepy actually, watching their presentation and workspaces reminded me a LOT of FIMC, which made my skin crawl a little yeesch.

in other news, i still have a TON to do on my spreads before 330, and ashley has my harddrive and will not wake up; boo :(. looks like its back to the drawingboard with moi!

Little FIsh in a Big Pond

2007-11-12T13:56:00.000-05:00

Lex Evans Fall 2007 Portfolio

heres the portfolio i submitted to American Greetings! sadly i didnt read closely enough and thought the thing was today, so i woke up early enough to print out the edited pages in the labs, AND go to the presentation from 1120-1215, so i had some time to kill..silly me! when i submitted, i was the ONLY GIC who's name was yet on there, amongst about 15-20 illustrators so if i get an interview, ill get to represent basically my entire class hahaha. i wonder why more gics dont submit..oh well, more room to rock it for me!

i wish more people put their serious portfolios up..id like to see what people are submitting for the actual COMPANIES to see (as opposed to just the work), but then again i guess thats just the GIC in me talking lolololol.

in other news: too much to do! updates in the next few weeks!

So It Begins!

2007-11-08T14:33:00.000-05:00

AMERICAN GREETINGS – CLEVELAND, OHIO
Presentation on Tuesday, November 13th for all students in CJ-9 at 11:20. Interested seniors with illustration, graphic design, motion graphics/animators, photography and/or painting plus computer skills may submit portfolios, sketchbooks, process books, resumes, cover letters to Career Services on Monday, November 12th before 3:00 p.m. Interviews Tuesday afternoon.
Cover letters to:
Mr. DanWeiss
American Greetings
One American Road
Cleveland, OH 44144

looks like american greetings is coming to school next monday...i think im going to double check my portfolio, add in a few new things, and hand one in. i dont really think id want to work for them but i mean...gotta jump at all opportunities! plus it would be good practice at giving interviews..i think im going to just submit to everyone that comes, just for that practice. i think in the end im going to want to work somewhere that wont necessarily be coming to school but, you know..never hurts to network!

In The Middle

2007-11-07T14:25:00.000-05:00

~~im not sure why the image below doesnt work, does it work for anyone? just me? im not sure.~~ nevermind i just resaved and reuploaded it. i guess blogger doesnt like to upload things from a url..

anyways, im in the middle of a ton of processes right now, but heres some quick after effects work. we had to take a quote from a movie and animate it in aftereffects; this was done in a couple hours, nothing too exciting, but its my first thing done in the program ever so thats exciting!

V for Vendetta

im also still in the process of learning to silkscreen, which sadly is halted since i cant seem to coordinate a good time with felicia to wrap everything up. i also am in the middle of a write-up for applying for an independant study doing silkscreening to take the place of a more stupid studio elective.

this is my last time signing up for classes! (until i eventually get my masters!)

As I Was Saying..

2007-11-02T22:40:00.000-04:00

yeah! cross-posted from ashley, she took some pictures of our final process books for the Civic Vintage project and they look pretty sweet! each of our's is a different color (her's was green, mine was yellow, felicia's was pink), to represent the three colors we used in our logo/the entire assignment. utie took mine for grading, i hope we do alright since i designed basically the whole thing!

Onwards and Upwards

2007-10-28T22:32:00.000-04:00

i havnt really updated in a bit, apologies! we finished our gic project, but sadly i dont have access to many of the digital files, as my portion was the 'process book', which is not due until tuesday. as soon as its done ill try to post all the pages, as hopefully that will encompass most of the information y'all would be missing!

in other news, i have my cavlin and hobbes canvas gessoed, and im planning on using the projector in the design center to get the imagery drawn on there asap!

also, i have a picture of my halloween costume, which was about an 8 hour production from start to finish on friday (last minute anyone??) its not as exact as i would have liked, but i still felt pretty badass!

Rest in Peace

2007-10-24T23:06:00.000-04:00

a card made for my friend jeff, who's little brother committed suicide last night. after a call i just felt so sad, so i made him this card, since i won't be able to attend the services on this short notice. im going to send it to nicole, and anyone else we can think of who is too far to be back home in a few days, so that he'll have us there in spirit.

Ah Ahhhh

2007-10-22T01:07:00.000-04:00

quick entry with some progress! so tonight me and taylor started modeling out the interior of Big E's for our project, and Brent got really excited and wanted to work on it too! so we've been in full tilt getting stuff done for this for the last few hours, but now its time for a break, since 3-4 hours of modeling isnt exacty the most fun way to pass the time.

the bottom image is a repeating pattern i made to put on one of the walls that i felt like sharing because it took me forEVER to get to line up with no seams. sadly i drew all the bubbles with the brush tool in illustrator so they look shitty up close, so ill prolly fix that up but.

tomorrow ill take a picture of the almost-fully-gessoed canvas for the calvin and hobbes project..i know, its still going, slowly but surely. i wish i had stretched it tighter but im a little SOL now so, oh well!

Be Still My Heart

2007-10-16T14:13:00.000-04:00

a few sketches from a few days ago. the top one started out as a self portrait but kind of spiraled out of control when i got on the computer and then, no longer. im pretty happy with the one of sage, i think its the first picture ive drawn of her ive been fully satisfied with. im thinking about changing her foxiehandgloves™ to white instead of black though. its funny how when you have a character how many different little annotations they go through.

ive really been in the mood to draw, but i woke up at 1pm today!! drats! and the rest of today has to be spent doing our gic project and my digital video project that was actually due yesterday (yikes!). wish me luck!

I Don't Know Why

2007-10-16T02:05:00.000-04:00

quick little business card design -- i have a thing for deer icons, i dont know why. i think i just like horns. take that as you will?

got some work done for my gic project which is due oct 25th. that puts us at 9 days and counting tomorrow, and i definately didnt get enough research done tonight. i did get some iconography going to represent each 'section' of the process book im in charge of. im basically seeing it as the documented explaination of the entire project, and seeing as we done have much...hah. good thing we have his class tomorrow!

Not So Sleepy Panda

2007-10-15T21:29:00.000-04:00

my panda painting! this was done all today in my painting class for our 'free' assignment. im pretty pissed at the angle of the biggest bamboo chute in the right top corner, so im going to repaint it's angle, but otherwise im pretty happy. its also on a canvas that i made, right down to the stretcher! how nutso! i think i might do another one, either still using bears, or another seemingly cute seemingly herbivore. who knows..i need to finish my calvin piece first haha. either way, funny how i manage to get flat color even into my painting class; i was all prepared to defend it as still hitting the points of the assignment, but she thought it really hit a place between being graphic and painterly. sweeeeeeet. i might make it into a sticker for my senior show.

Study Hard

2007-10-10T16:17:00.001-04:00

wow 22 posts! well, i guess blogs are pretty easy to handle so i shouldnt be THAT shocked but still!

so here are some color studies for the calvin and hobbes landscape. the bottom one is the original colors, but i was thinking about messing around a little more and customizing it a bit. i know its coming away a bit from the original design, but this is something im creating a) out of my love for his linequality and b) i want to hang, so the interior designer within me wants it to match where ever i might put it.

any thoughts? suggestions?

Separation is Divine

2007-10-09T19:55:00.000-04:00

okay! so finally some progress on my group gic project. i was skeptical about working in groups, but hilariously enough mine ended up being me, ashley and felicia, so we basically couldnt have started out any better. a brief overview of the project is that we have to either choose a preexisting company or make up a new one, and (re)brand EVERYTHING. for our's, we're making a new company up, and we're targeting our area to be..Big E's. lets face it, big e's has a lot going for it except for the fact that it is GROSS and SLOW. but they have the location, the customer base, the products.

our spin on their concept is turning it into a small coffee house food place (basically what it is now)/refurbished clothing and accessories and furniture/venue. okay, you're probably now going what the fuck, why dont you throw dentist's office and zoo into the mix while you're at it, but i think we've really got something! the concept behind the mix is that most small towns (aka: sarasota), dont really have a 'scene'. you cant go into a closeby city, and everything that is here other than ihop closes way earlier than most of us would like (and by 'us', im including local highschoolers too -- everyone wants somewhere cool to hang out!). so, our concept is to keep the local small-time coffee shop scene, but in the other room we would also have a small clothing shop. this is basically going only be refurbished clothes IE - things you find that are sweet from places like goodwill or salvation army, OR clothes you make yourself! this includes accessories, housewares, whatever, and would go in the new big e'a addition during the day. then, at night, the clothing store closes down and the place goes into full coffee house mode. then, some days on the weekends, there would be shows where local bands or whoever could 'book' a night, and cheap 2 or 3$ tickets would be sold, and everyone would rock out, buy snacks and drinks and listen to cool music. theres so much more room there then you think, and the parking lot offers space for people who have to drive, or people who want to get out of the hot room after everyones been freak-a-leakin to the music.

with all that in mind, we are going to try to design EVERYTHING -- this goes for a new name/logo, which i have my personal attempts of at the top. i know ashley is supporting the top left designs with the leaf or bunnies, though i think the leaf is my personal favorite, because it also represents how we want almost all of what is used in the store in general to be green-conscious (not the color, the movement!), and the little leaf growing out of the kind of asphalt-ish font sort of conjoured up that mental image for me. then of course theres lables, store displays, bags, websites, catalogues (we're doing a sweet photoshoot sometime this week/weekend...expect to see some SWEET pics by ann!), and taylor even said he would be totally cool with modeling out big e's so we could plaster some of our stuff there and export a sweet quicktime movie as part of our presentation.

anyways, you can see why i kept bringing it up in previous posts, but are just now sitting down and explaining it/showing work..its a TON of information! its also due october 25th, so we have got to get a MOVE on! it took us FOREVER to come up with the name, which unfortionatly none of us is extatic about but we really just need to get going so, who knows what will happen in the process! im excited to take this all the way, and make it a serious project. expect to see a lot of process!

Mess With the Bull

2007-10-07T17:22:00.000-04:00

a bit more progress! i was nervous about doing that craterous foreground, so i did that first to get it out of the way and it seems like its come out alright! im now trying to think a little bit more ahead about what my process is going to be after i do this.

i went to home depot and got stuff to make the canvas im going to put this on! quick pic, hold on..

you cant really tell but the stretcher is 48"x32", so its fairly sizeable. romy even showed me how to interlock the crossbars, so it doesnt look so jankaty. then i was thinking, would it be easiest to silkscreen the entire thing onto the canvas? or would it be easier for me to paint out in solid colors each bute, then silkscreen the black lineage over it? or should i paint the solid shapes, then project my translation of the lines and trace them on and paint them? the second idea sounds like it would take a RIDICULOUSLY long time, but keep in mind that to silkscreen i would have to go through that process, which includes constructing a silkscreen thats big enough to cover all the surface area. it is, however, and EXACT science, and i looovveeeee hard crisp edges so. felicia said she would help me out in the labs so, thats exciting! anyone have any ideas for me, or know how prepainted surfaces react to silkscreen overtop?

in other news, i still have nothing for our gic project...i feel like my concepts are on the proverbial tip of my tongue, but i dont have the umph to sit down and draw anything out. later tonight! and digital video..welll....i dont even want to go there.

Line Quality

2007-10-06T18:50:00.000-04:00

well, a little progress so far..i did the man colors quickly, but then sat back and realized that all of bill watterson's artistic grandeur is his freaking awesome line quality. and then i realized i am working in illustrator, and then i stopped working and went out and ignored it for a few days.

but i sat down here today and decided i should start doing something, even if its just to see how things will flesh out (maybe it would look stupid and ill just nip the project in the bud), but i think so far its not as hard as i would have thought. i definately really want to silkscreen this, but i would need to build some fucking HUGE frames, and silkscreening kind of implies the idea of an edition where this is something i want to be unique in production. so who knows! i dont even know how im going to get the right porportions on the canvas, gosh, this is going to be intense!

It's A Wonderful World

2007-10-04T18:25:00.001-04:00

so real quick, im going to be doing a painting of the above image, which is from a calvin and hobbes comic strip. the basic ratio is approx 3"x2", so im going to scale that up into something pretty sizeable, about 4'x2.66'? ill have to doublecheck the math on that, but something around there. im going to vector it now in illustrator so i know what kind of shapes im dealing with, but otherwise im going to try to keep it as close tothe original as possible. i think itll be sweet to have this kind of abstract image from the comic in painting form, plus im just going to stretch my own canvas to whatever size i want it to be, which will be a cool experience too.

we presented our projects for our gic class, but i honestly dont really feel like going into our's yet since i have no visuals to go along with it (thats what this weekend is for!), so check back sometime later this weekend!

i also ended up staying up until 7am this morning, then sleeping until noon and going to class 1230-615 to get those paintings done, and i think they ended up alright. i just need to learn to not blow things up into these huge impossible tasks...its just, a painting, lex. silly me!

I Know You Don't Like Visitors

2007-10-02T11:46:00.000-04:00

i randomly ran into farber yesterday and he gave me a little handful of the final postcard! i know its nothing hugely special design-wise, but its my first project ive been able to see from start to finished piece like this! its definately a cool feeling.

im a little ticked off at my painting teacher; its like beating a dead horse complaining about it, but man, sometimes---!

i also got a haircut! ill post up a picture or two sometime when im showered. big thanks to felicia for my bangs!

Lapin

2007-09-30T17:04:00.000-04:00

quick update with my first painting for the night; i have three to do for tomorrow, one is appropriating an image from a painter pre-1750, then adding a bg (above), then i have two landscapes to do. i think a trip to the woodshop is in order to see if anyone from my class is there, because im a little unsure about what is supposed to be different between the two. the way my painting class works is, we do homework assignments, then do more to them during class -- aka if you dont do your homework, youre SOL for class. since i spent last weekend on the illest site, i never managed to make it to the painting labs to do this rabbit/background painting, so i didnt go to class monday, and then thursday there was no class because we went to a stretcher workshop at the woodshop half the class, then had the other half off. either way, i know NOONE in my class, and am currently pretty in the dark, haha.

after this i have some reading to do, and then some work on our current gic project, which i suppose ill get more into at a later time.

oh! and illest was this weekend, and it was pretty good. its funny to walk through a show finally, and know about 80% of the people on the walls. exciting! im sure willie and adam are happy it's over though.

and on a quick sidenote, someone just came in and announced to me they were looking for things to take, laughing and saying its people's fault for leaving things out. and, i TOTALLY disagree with this train of thought. i mean, we go to a small as shit school, a school where its not unheard of to know basically everyone in your grade, and for goodness sakes we're artists. all that kid was saying to me that i heard was 'i am too cheap to support my own desires, so im going to take advantage of other people who will, and just dont feel like lugging their crap everywhere'. ive already had someone steal my drawing pad from the painting labs, and its just lame. im not necessarily saying leave your car unlocked, your harddrive in the labs and your ipod in an empty room, but geezus, supplies?!? its up to us as the student body to create an envrioment that everyone feels comfortable in. ahh well, i doubt we'll see a change, but it was enough to tick me off.

and now, back to painting!

Above and Beyond

2007-09-26T13:59:00.000-04:00

just a quick picture i did yesterday. i couldnt focus on anything homework related, so i poppd on marie antoinette and then the first 20 minutes of pride and prejudice and sketched away -- this was the only this that really came out though. the image on the left was the original, then after getting some feedback from pate as far as perspective, i edited it a bit to make the head way bigger than the feet. in general its still pretty stylized, and her hips dont really follow the same perspective as her shoulders but what can you do. im thinking about trying to do a painting of this, just flat color but on a big canvas; its a self portrait (woah im ripped sweet 8) )!

in other news, i cant get into my painting class. its just not going at a rate i can relate to, so im having a hard as hell time getting 'into' anything. i need to start drawing more though, ive definately fallen off that bandwagon.

ive gotten some really awesome feedback for the Illest of Ill site too! Im glad that the illustrators approve, since it's their show and i would have felt like a toolbag if nobody thought it 'encapsulated' it very well. Post it in your blogs to get the word around everyone, and if you're in sarasota make sure to stop by!

expect to see some custom halloween costume updates soon!!

(ps - does anyone read this? im trying really hard to constantly have new stuff to look at, but no idea if anyone really reads anything :< )

Check

2007-09-24T12:39:00.000-04:00

i have no idea if im safe to share this with the world, but i dont think theres going to be any sort of ridiculous unveiling (even willie himself told me 'its kind of an afterthought; i mean, its not like right now anyone even knows a website is going to exist'), so who cares. its kind of ruled my life for the last week, because if i wasnt working on it, i was stressing over not working on it so...its just nice to get it done!

im really happy with how it came out. it really has transformed a lot from last weekend, and im glad i kept pushing it because looking back on my original few ideas, they were way too typical. i am so about creating websites that are nontraditional, that breaks the idea that things are coded in tables, things scroll horizontally or vertically, etc. etc. i want things to break that thin wall between being a website, and being something people really get lost interacting with. its what its all about!

Illest of Ill 2007

if you're in the sarasota area, definately check out the show! and lemme know if you find the sekritttt....

Cool and Uncool

2007-09-23T14:53:00.000-04:00

i found this on my desk while i was cleaning up -- its my visual representation of how the universe works as far as culture goes.

also, i just realized that i am presents at at least 5 different internet 'areas', and i post different things to each one...incase you couldnt tell, this is my art/process space. the internet is fabulous!

Oh The Things Out There

2007-09-21T14:25:00.000-04:00

just a few links i wanted to share..

Trek Lime - adorable! if it looked more like a road bike maybe, but i could totally see these cropping up all over germany or whatever.
Lung Jacket - awesome concept! nobody would wear it, but you gotta love all those social commentary pieces.
Suck My Bic - haha hilarious idea! of course it wouldnt work as a pen but, itd be awesome for all of us that cant keep our pencaps out of our mouths
Throwing Cans - holy shit!

i have a couple artists sites i found but i dont have the time to look through them so, perhaps another post!

in less than exciting news, i am required to attend a safety workshop for the woodshop, so that i can attend a stretcher workshop next thursday, so i can build my stretcher and not fail my fine arts class. remind me never to take intro courses as a senior. good lord.

and finally, willie has yet to get me my shit for the illest site so, i apologise if anyone was excited to see it today! hopefully hell get back to me so i can get it done and never look back hurrah!

Helveticaaaaa

2007-09-20T20:58:00.001-04:00

well i just saw the movie 'helvetica', which is a compilation piece about the world's most industrious font...helvetica. if you're not an artist, or a designer, you probably dont realize it but helvetica is everywhere..it was basically the lamen's answer to visually pleasing type forms. all i can compare it to is philippe starck's work, how he is trying to create chairs to replace that gross, trailer park white plastic walmart chair (you know..these) with something thats the same price, only WELL DESIGNED. thats really all it would take to change the world.

i also got in a discussion walking with taylor afterwards about type and design in general, and i honestly think that we are coming in in a weird place for graphic design. there are still people alive, alive and young at that, who learned the art of design and creation soley by hand. no computers, no apple/ctrl+z. hell, i still sometimes screw up reading a ruler, and im not too man to admit it. him and i differed views on whether or not we're going to see a revolution during our time the way helvetica helped set the stage for designlife today, and honestly...i dont think we will. or, if we do, we're going to be hella old. i think we're a generation of see and do -- we like what we see, and we absorb it into our stores for later use (or hell maybe even immediate use), and that goes for design, illustration, animation. i think the kids coming up behind us are really defining things for themselves moreso than we are, or, maybe not even moreso so much as earlier -- it feels like the freshmen/sophomores are making some of their design choices the same way we are, as seniors. and i think that is just because of how our world is today, how much earlier people are exposed to the things that later they will want to turn on their heads. did any of that make sense?

i guess all i can say is, every so often i get SO excited to be an artist!! we get to do this shit for the REST OF OUR LIVES!!! in your faces all you bankers and accounting majors hahahaha.

SupreLogo

2007-09-18T14:39:00.000-04:00

nothing like starting and finishing homework two hours before its due! and ill go on record saying this is the first project ive been this late working on, but i knew it wouldnt take very long. this is our 'superlogo' assignment in my gic class, theres 5 more 'simplified' ones, and this is the big kahuna. ill maybe post the others, but i think this one is the most interesting.

just a quick list of all the logos that make this up:

- comedy central
- wonka
- corona
- puma
- livejournal
- target
- biolage
- coors light
- dove
- world of warcraft
- adobe
- starbucks
- bmw
- bp

oh, gic classes!

Of Chairs and Bears

2007-09-17T23:11:00.000-04:00

just a quick wip of a painting i did for my painting class -- its done now, but nothing special enough to merit taking another picture. i liked just the chair (outlined in solid white may i add), but i think thats just the gic in me talking.

illest site and some 'superlogos' from utie's class coming soon! aka the next few days haha.

and in final news, the namesake of this blog minus the bear came out with a new CD recently, and me and felicia just got back from taking a trip to pick it up! i still think highly refined pirates is my favorite cd by them, but its still very good! they're playing in orlando october 14th and we are so going to be there so lemme know if anyone else is!

One Down, a Zillion to Go

2007-09-14T18:57:00.000-04:00

well, the postcard is done, totally to his specs..it's definately not the most interesting thing out there, but its what he wanted so i guess now's as good a time as ever to realize not every job you get is going to be jawesome.

im in the CA labs right now with taylor who is re-learning me in the ways of flash -- i have a tendancy to completely forget everything i learn in flash after the projects are over, and me and the buttons dont really get along. im planning on doing the illest of ill site in flash as a warmup -- im hoping its not too NOT urban for their liking but lets be serious here: who has a show with the EXACT same theme as last year anyways. especially if theres only a select few people that even do art in that style. JUST MY TWO CENTS 8).

anyways, it should come out pretty well, and i think will be a good showcase of my ability to use transitions in flash -- i dont want to post anything until its completely done though, i think itll lose something. stay tuned!

in other news, this weekend im feeling incredibly motivated, so ive written myself out a list of 'things to do so next week you wont want to die':

Friday:
- illest of ill site 1 done
- start utie's superlogos

Saturday:
- do all painting homework (two paintings in total, neither really started at all)
- continue work on utie's superlogos

Sunday:
- shoot footage for oneshot
- finish utie's superlogos

which..basically gives me no time to myself this weekend BUT what can you do! im about 50% sure that willie will approve the site, and i want to give myself time next week to work on a new design if all doesnt go according to plan.

also, ive finally gotten back to my aunt, who needs a logo for a company her stepson just bought called "Fit For Fun", which is some group that goes to schools and sets up almost field-day like things for preschoolers. sounds kind of lame but, his future, not mine! expect process on that as i get started.

phew, so much to do.

Wild Wild West

2007-09-11T12:37:00.000-04:00

its DONE! me and kirk's project for our digital video class, 24 hours of work, finally is done. we had our crit yesterday and everyone really liked it..i wish i had the link to the production reel we made (i snapped a ton of pictures of the process and kirk put it to music and added a few other stop motion things we had done), cause thats even more ridiculous than the movie itsself.

i have my meeting with farber, so i have some changes to make to the postcards below which somehow slipped my mind yesterday eek, but before that i have to make a shitton of phone calls..yikes! theres always so much to do!

in other quick news, today is september 11th, so a moment of silence for the kids in my high school that lost parents, or had to take part in that tragedy at all.

Postcard to Nowhere

2007-09-08T20:53:00.000-04:00

another quick image update; i have a lot on tap for this weekend, which was not helped by going out last night at midnight to a bodypainting party at newcollege, and getting in at 3. the above is progress on a postcard for one of my teachers who, to this day, holds that i should have switched to illustration freshman year. nice for the ego i suppose, but i just loooooovveee type!

he's having a show in pennsylvania, a lot of collage/printing/added elements prints (one of which i get to pick as payment whee!), and said this was the kind of layout he wanted -- simple, not giving anything about his work away, right justified. go figure! none of the back as been figured out yet, as we're only printing color on one side, so ill have to be careful about designing the back in b/w to match the front in color.

im trying hard to keep this updated with process work arrr!

Home Home on the Range

2007-09-08T18:38:00.000-04:00

some background elements of a stop animation project im working on with kirk radish. we're supposed to take an idiom and within 20-30 seconds visually portray it. we kind of went the extra mile (though it feels more like the extra 15 miles) and greenscreened the whole thing, and we're digitally adding in the background. the basic storyline is that taylor and kirk face off in a duel, kirk attacks with a knife which, when thrown, lands at taylor's feet. taylor looks at the knife, looks at kirk, pulls out his gun and the rest is left up to you. the idiom is 'dont bring a knife to a gunfight'.

ill post it when its done! its due monday, and we JUST finished editing out the greenscreen today around 6, and we're smushing it all togehter in aftereffects, but i dont really know the program so im still just making little vector elements. hearts for the brush tool in illustrator.

Taking Time

2007-09-05T18:00:00.000-04:00

well, in an attempt to get some things that have been 'looming' (for lack of a better word), i didnt end up starting my painting homework today until around 5. our assignment is to paint 'the best painting we can' (thats word for word), and then a version of that painting in black and white. it took me forever to choose what to do, and in the end i just went with my flipflop, whats below is about an hours worth of work:

its kind of dark, but what can you do with a camera sometimes blech. i took a picture of my painting from class (first painting evar!) of...an apple! hooray for beginning with fruits!

tonight is my digital video class, where we're supposed to be doing a stop animation pieces based on an idiom (and in groups). me and kirk are doing 'dont bring a knife to a gunfight', and hilariously enough his dad used to be a 'cowboy', and had a ton of stuff, so he went home this weekend and brought it all back. we're going to use brent and taylor i think, and shoot it at some construction site so it looks all dusty. im kind of nervous though, because im not really good with the technical side of these things, and its due monday (and we havnt started). hopefully we'll make some killer progress tonight.

im supposed to meet farber later too to talk about his postcard. i dont think im going to go out this weekend except for work, since me and kirk have to shoot AND put together this movie, and im going to try to get his postcard done, and im shooting to get the illest of ill website done as well.

wish me luck :<.

Encour un fois

2007-09-04T17:38:00.000-04:00

okay i went more abstract with this (and also remembered to put it with the white rectangle, not black), and im pretty happy with how its come out so far. not sure if i like the little nail clippings pattern, but it felt too blank without it.

i have my first painting ever to upload, so all you illustrators who want to feel good about yourselves, stay tuneddd.

ADD

2007-09-04T12:57:00.000-04:00

i'm having an interesting time focusing so far this year. i dont know if its because of the freelance skipping two-steps behind me where ever i go (okay, nevermind, thats probably it), but its exhausting. im thinking about taking a sabbatical from hanging out for two weeks to get myself all caught up. lets see, mental list of what-to-do:

- stop motion piece on 'dont bring a knife to a gunfight'
- 2 paintings
- redesign of the logo (blech)
- logo design #1 (f)
- logo design #2 (f)
- website (f)
- gallery show postcard (f)
- illest of ill site (f)
- attempting to do some things for myself (hah)

miguel's website is up and running at http://whoisglue.com/ so i checked that one off my list. fo sho. tehlex needs a sweet redesign, but im going to try to do something in flash, might take all semester...we'll see.

its a crazy world out there, hobbes.

oh, and im now 21. weirrrd.

What Not to Do

2007-09-01T21:02:00.000-04:00

Okay, well we have this retarded project to make 'the ringling logo our own'; i cant decide if it's just my teacher being totally ridiculous or not, but either way what can you do. so i tried to approach it the way i do my work (flat shapes, solid colors, etc), with bits and pieces of my work, and of course..houndstooth.

im not sure how i feel about it totally yet, but i guess its a good jumping-off point.

i cant believe we paid money for this thing.

Obligatory First Post

2007-09-01T19:55:00.000-04:00

Okay well, I figure I need a place to post process work and get some feedback, however minor. I also think it might be easier for networking, if I manage to assimilate this kind of updating system with my normal website, tehlex.com. This is also the first time I've done any sort of real updating on my laptop, and boy is this keyboard interesting to type on after being on a PC keyboard all my life. I need to pick up a copy of 'The Road'. This is all.