Valentines Cards

Valentines Day is coming up. One of my favorite hobbies is making greeting cards. I think it's more personal and a lot less stressful than shopping for something that says what you want to say, exactly the way you want it. I actually screen printed my Valentines a few months ago so I don't have anything new of my own work to show you. However, if you're not so crafty yourself check out these cards from Felix Populi (Brini Maxwell/Ben Sander). I think the design concept of "Don't let Love get away" is really cute and there is also a T-shirt available in that design.

In other news this semester I'm taking a drawing class. I definitely don't have a strength in drawing, or at least I'm not confident in it. I don't ever show people my sketch books. Actually, I never keep them. I fill them up and throw them away. I've been forcing myself to sit down and draw more often the past year but I know I need to be pushed more. When I met my drawing instructor I knew right away I was going to hate her in a really good way. She's a short, systematic, strict Asian lady. She makes us do specific drawing exercises every class period for 30 minutes. This is part of a participation grade. We spend the next 3 hours on an in-class assignment. Then she assigns homework to be turned in at the beginning of the next class.
The first in-class assignment was a still life of white styrofoam geometric shapes. Big surprise. I've been given this assignment so many times I can't count. Well I'm very self conscious in school so I like to camp out in the back and not interact with the other students. I don't like to feel discouraged or intimidated at school and art majors tend to be so arrogant. Once the instructor makes her way to me she just stands behind me, watching me work for a few minutes. Finally she says, "How do you feel?" WTF I'm thinking, well I felt ok until you asked me that. What am I doing wrong?? She starts talking about shading all the objects at once instead of working from piece to piece and how to blur things gradually the further they are in the background. Well, duh. I know this but I'm just not that great ok lady? First assignment, give me a break!
Then she surprises me, "I'm telling you this because you are obviously at a different skill level than the rest of the class and I see I'm going to need to challenge you."
Um, what? She left me slightly confused. I get up to get a drink of water and walk the hallway for a few minutes and finally get a glimpse at my classmates work. I don't think it's that different than mine, but when I walk back in the classroom, get a second look and finally get in front of my work I am quite surprised. I am actually at a different skill level than the rest of these students. That is not to say I'm great, just better than I thought. I know that I can definitely improve this semester and I need to get more comfortable with my work SO I've decided to post everything I do in drawing class. This is a big step for me guys so be kind :-)

promises promises:actions speak louder than words

I haven't been posting much at all. However, I resolved to stay away from facebook and myspace for an entire school semester in hopes to be more productive. It's been two days and I think realistically all I'm going to do is spend that time on other websites and continue to search for substitutes. Dare I create a twitter account? Let's hope I don't stoop to that low.
I started an art wishlist for the holidays and never finished it. oops.
In other news I went to the nation's capital for Obama's inauguration, a once in a lifetime experience. I'm glad it happened in my lifetime.
I also went to NYC the so called hub of the art world.... well I'm pretty sure San Fran is where it's at, but only pretty sure as I've never been there. You tell me. I saw a lot of art in NYC though. Some of it pretty lame but a lot of it was quite awesome. I discovered James Jean and took many photo's of his Kindling show at the Jonathan Levine Gallery.
I also bought a print (18/50 AP) of Jeff Soto's "Turtle God" (see this blog's first ever post). I am quite fond of Jeff Soto and it holds sentimental value for me. I stumbled across his artwork in Juxtapoz the first time I ever picked the magazine up. He is the reason why I continued to buy that magazine, why I started following the type of art I do and how I developed taste. "Turtle God" was the first of his I ever saw so it seems fitting for it to be the first piece of art I ever invest in. No it's not an original but come on, I don't have that kind of money ;-)

Me=Fail. Wiley=?

5-color, green film, fail. One of my worst days in serigraphy class, 2^nd to last class time, a nazi lab tech, I got really frustrated and scraped that design. But it’s all good because it was actually my plan B. I went to Plan A and did a 5-color (photo technique) for Usugrow’s lotus design with “Namaste” printed underneath. I haven’t taken a picture yet but I’ll get to that. I’ve only made one print (on a black tank top for myself) but I have a bag of shirts I was going to use with this one. Still waiting for my instructor to give me a time I can come to campus and finish it up.

In the mean time, I give you Kehinde Wiley. His works can be found in Harlem, Brooklyn, Chicago, Sheboygan, Columbus, D.C., and Minneapolis, to name a few. I don’t have time to write out my review but I’d like to hear what you have to say. Do you think it works?

I am the stone that the builder refused

I did not finish my 5-color serigraph yet, but it has to be turned in on Thursday। Surely I'll have it posted by Friday. In the mean time, here is another assignment in Illustrator. I had to create a comic book/coloring book cover. I spent 3 weeks on it, my lines got crazy messy, I trashed it the night before it was due and started over. I slept about 4 hours, woke up and worked all the way up until class. An hour before I needed to leave my house, I had no background, hence the lazy gradient mesh. Needless to say, this was not my original concept but it certainly got the job done. *If you click the picture, you get a larger view but keep in mind this was created for print in CMYK (in other words the computer makes the colors not to be viewed on the monitor but instead for the printer to spit it out, so the appearence isn't exactly the same).

You've got to come Original

I have a lot of down time at my day job and pass the time sitting behind my laptop, browsing websites, watching YouTube videos, looking up other artists, entering all the freebie drawings at Apartment Therapy. I have tried several times to stop this mindless, pointless, direction-less web surfing at work. I need to try harder. Although I spend a good time enriching myself with artistic stimulation, and it's always good for artists & designers to spring board, I'd have to say it's much more fulfilling to complete something for which all brain storming was done entirely in your mind.
Last night my ridiculously old home desktop overheated when I was getting ready to start my last serigraphy design of the semester. It forced me to work through my head and through my sketch book and my own hands. After drawing, I spent a good 2 hours cutting film. The result is a mere 5 inches, but will be a 5 color print and my key to an A. I'm very excited about this design. It's actually a gift for Rima (my close friend/ex-sorority sister/future sister-in-law/boss). I'll post pics as soon as I'm done, but what are you looking at my crap for? Go create something on your own! :-D

Illustrator class work

The following designs are not in my particular taste, but I suppose class work won't be the only time I'm assigned to do something I don't like.

For my Illustrator class I had to create 5 black and white logos using my initials. Honestly, I'd never use any of the logos I created for class because I don't think any of them are really me. For graphic design I'd use my sofisiphunk logo, which I just realized I've never posted (I'll get to that later). These were really just a means to play with different styles.

Next I had to choose one of the logos and do it in color . I chose the one with the bumble bee despite how cheesy and lame it really is.

Finally I had to do a business system with that logo. For all you planning on stalking me, sorry to disappoint but that is not my correct information. Business Card

LetterheadEnvelope

Note cards & another T-shirt

The semester is coming to an end so I've been working almost non-stop. There should be a lot to look at here over the next few weeks. When I've been working so much sometimes I can't stop my mind or my hand... from drawing on everything :-)

Self portrait on bathroom mirror with a dry-erase marker

Usugrow's lotus design, hand cut red film. My ink was too thin so this is the ONLY one that came out clean. Om. very clean lines & perfect registration. I pat myself on the back.