another experiment...

In the past, I've drawn my ambigrams freehand and then traced them freehand on the computer (on those rare occasions when I have computerized my ambigrams). This time, I decided to use a different approach--while I designed my ambigram freehand as usual (during Church on Sunday, also as usual) after scanning it into the computer I used pieces of a "real" font--Lucida Gothic--to piece together this ambigram. I think in some ways it is more successful--more consistent and recognizable style--and in other ways less so--readability in particular. But I think it was a good experiment to do in any case.

I like landscapes pala...

This semester I'm taking the Illustration 4 class, a class where we go out every Friday morning and do en plein aire painting through the afternoon. The first couple weeks were, I admit, very frustrating. I have painted a fair amount in the past, but never really focused on landscapes--figures have almost always been the subject of my paintings in the past. So its not surprising that I struggled. But this last week, I feel like I kind of got over a hump. I'm still far from saying "I'm so good at landscape painting now!" That, I think, is still quite a few humps away. No, this hump was more along the lines of, "Hey, I might eventually be able to become somewhat competent at this!"

Also, I discovered that using palette knives is very fun. Also, they are much easier to clean than brushes are.

Clown Feet

I'm working on alot of projects right now, just none that are done enough that I can post them here. One is kind of a personal project that has been rolling around in the back of my head for awhile.

The idea started back in my Illustration 2 class. For one of the assignments, we could choose to respond to either of two prompts--either "vespa" or "clown". Not really having much of an idea of what "vespa" was supposed to mean, I went for the "clown" one. What is visually interesting about clowns? I thought. I want something I can play around with, something thats kind of fun. It occured to me that they have really big feet, which would be something fun to play around with. I did the assignment and didn't think much about it after that.

Lately, however, I've been trying to think of personal ideas and projects which, for whatever reason, I haven't been able to fully work on or play around with. I remembered the clowns with big feet, and thought it would be a fun to do a series of pictures playing around with that idea.

Then the other day in my Business Practices for Illustrators class there was a presentation about a website called Talespring, which is a website where book applications can be made and then self-published to the apple store. They also said the're holding a competition for all the students in our class and also a class at UVU--whoever can make the best kids book app before November can have it published for free.

Somehow, my brain put those things together--a digital childrens book applications, comptiton, and a series of pictures about clown's big feet. I've decided to make a story to enter in the competiton--wish me luck.

Trying out something Eric-Carle-esque. How'd I do? I'm still getting the hang of this. I made all the textures myself with acrylic paint, but all the shapes were done in illustrator.

One more Creative Writing banner

Banners for a Writing in the Social Sciences course. I was inspired by Al Hirschfeld, but kind of did my own thing with it. As always, open in new window to embiggen :D.

Creative Writing banners

These are my favorite banners from the Creative Writing course. (Open in new window to see big.)

banners for Personal Finance, and new splash for Creative Writing!

New idea for Personal Finance course... its been approved! Forward Momentum!

A Sensational Team

Elizabeth Wein is one of my favorite authors. I couldn't wait for her newest book to come out in the US, so I ordered a copy from the Book Depository. And then, as I tend to do, produced a piece of fanart. I haven't worked a whole lot in photoshop lately, so this was just me kind of trying to figure it out all over again. Characters of course (c) Elizabeth Wein, art (c) me.

This was an idea I had for a splash of a Personal Finance course. Unfortunately, Suzy said that piggy banks have already been done so I'll have to think of something else. I liked the picture though.

Political Heritage Splash Package. There are different sizes for everything in print/internet, so thats why theres two of each. I was kinda going for a greek pottery look, but at the same time less flat.