Her Ladyship

A little peak at my work in progress. It will be sent out as a promotional mailer, so let me know if you'd like one too!

Food Poisoning

The latest post for Hannah B. Gregus's and my blog, Notes to Self. I got food poisoning the night before my first job interview in Seattle. Needless to say I did not get the job. 

Eleanore's

This is the beginning of a little project I've been working on. The food and tea/coffee menus are finished and I chose Mesa White from Neenah's Environment collection for the paper. I'm making a muffin box and a gift bag with the tulip petal pattern. I'll post more photos when those two are printed and assembled. 

Notes to Self

Notes to Self

Hannah B. Gregus and I have started a collaborative blog called "Notes to Self". Our goal is to explore typography in poster form, using helpful little reminders to ourselves. We hope you find these notes helpful and insightful and that you like our typography!

Buds

This is one of my favorite color schemes. It's based on a sketch I used for my first practice repeat pattern you saw in an earlier post.

Tea for the Missionaries

My Mom told me that when she was little, people would save their used tea bags to donate to the missionaries. As a missionary kid I never received such donations, but thought it was so funny I had to illustrate it. Though, I guess I can relate a little; being a recent college grad, I do reuse my tea bags two or three times to get my moneys worth. 

Portrait

This is a painting I did over the weekend of my friend Michelle and her grandmother. Watercolor on Arches paper. 

Repeat Pattern

I made my first repeat pattern! It's not a very exciting illustration, I admit, but I'm really excited! There will be lots more to come.

Fleurs de Provence

Fini! I'm considering making more and selling them on Etsy. Thoughts?

Fleurs de Provence

White Gaura

Butterfly Bush

Here's a sneak peek at the project I've been working on. It's a series of illustrations for a seed starter kit. Inside is a terra-cotta pot, peat pellets and various seeds for each box. I began the project in my production design class and recently began making alterations and adding more boxes. 

Give Literature

This is the final. I hope it helps!

Rwanda Library Project

        

Over the past few years my mom and a few of her students have been raising money for a girls' school in Rwanda. This summer they had the chance to visit and saw the need for a library. Since their return they have been collecting books and writing grant proposals to try to raise funds for a library. I offered to make a poster to hang over a book collection box along with T-shirt designs and anything else they could use to sell and make money for the library. This is the beginning of the poster and tomorrow I will post the finished piece.

Graduation

It has been an incredibly busy weekend. Friday the SCAD Illustration Club had a show for graduating seniors and it was a big turnout. I sold three pieces and was really encouraged by the positive feedback. Saturday I was at the Civic Center from 7:30 until 6:30 or 7 that evening. Whoopi Goldberg spoke in the morning and was great. She talked about her struggle with dyslexia and not getting the college experience, but remaining true to who she was even if it was more difficult than going with the crowd. Paula Wallice awarded her an Honorary Doctorate and she seemed truly moved. When she received the degree she shared that her mother had recently passed away and would have been so proud of her. Then I graduated! I have to admit that I slept through a good part of both the 1pm and 4pm commencements. There were almost 800 graduates and each ceremony lasted about 2 1/2 hours... I only sort of feel guilty.

15 Steps to Freelance Illustration

Just downloaded "15 Steps to Freelance Illustration" on Escape from Illustration Island. Will let you know how it is!

15 Steps to Freelance Illustration

Anita Kunz

Lately I've been listening to podcasts on Escape from Illustration Island (I'm taking a break from Car Talk) and just finished an interview with Anita Kunz. It was great, and I love her work. Really worth listening to!

Escape from Illustration Island- Anita Kunz

Anita Kunz

Group Mailer

This is the final piece for the group mailer that I've been working on. 

Sketches for Group Mailer

One thing I took home from the SCBWI conference was the importance of showing my process. It's going to be a challenge for me since I only like to show work that I feel deserves to leave my studio. These are some beginning sketches for a group mailer I'm doing for my self promotion class. I'm not big on thumbnails until I have an idea of what I want to do. So get out some ideas and then start thinking about placement. 

Mood Board

My latest assignment is to take an existing state and populate it with likeminded people. For example, Michigan would be were all the mathematicians would go, Maryland would be the state of physicians, and so on. I chose New Jersey since it's a beautiful state and I wanted to clean it up. It will henceforth be known as the "Organic Garden State." Unoriginal? Perhaps, but Snookie and her cohort The Situation will no longer be the face of New Jersey.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born.”

-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Ralph Nader

I was looking through my hard drive for some work and found Ralph Nader. It was for my caricature class last year. He still has my vote.