Cone on a goat

I have decided that when I grow up I want to make the opening credits for movies. I saw Juno today and it made me soooo happy. The opening credits for that movie were amazing; also Napoleon Dynamite and Darjeeling Limited. Ok, over break I got into colored pencils so here is my sketchbooks contents (not particularly clean but you lose some of the colored pencil quality with balancing the levels):

bookish

Lately I have been feeling more interested in my new skill set, book making. I also made some photo albums with magnets, but those and one other book had to be sent off to various people before the holiday season and I was too lazy to photograph them in time. One of the books has weird flowery things which I made using ink that I dropped on wet matting paper. So I have a really weird sketch book for myself which is nice. Ok, off to DC and I will probably not be posting until next friday when I get back. I will have new stuff by the time I get back, especially because I will not have book making materials with me.

Possible Barista guild t-shirt design

The barista guild has a t-shirt design contest which is really exciting. Here is the design I have been thinking about for awhile. The type is classic, the goat is from a legend of the discovery of coffee. The goat was eating some berries off a tree, the herder noticed he was giddy, tried the berries, and felt peppy. Ta da, coffee! I thought it would be really classy and super guildy. Anyway, suggestions, or concerns would be great because I want to send this off soon because its due before january 1st.

happy holidays

freezing my ballpoint pen off

The art opening at Octane went wonderfully I am still selling prints which is nice, but when the show is over I am going to feel kinda sad...not to mention the extra money is going to be missed. Crits were fine overall and they are allover which is the most important thing. I have been making a lot of books and I will trying to post some pics of them. I got my thumb stuck in the trunk while JJ was in the house with the key. I freaked out and pulled it out, not smart, the finger is mangled which makes doing stuff a bit harder but I am still able to paint. (ps- Tomer Hanukah is in the new Juxtapose!!! if you dont know who he is check it out. His stuff is what dreams are made of)
So, here is some stuff:







hairy stomached fish
thought he could swim on the floor
sadly, he was wrong


I tripped on a rock
it made me miss you so much
my love for you hurts

attention seeker
the spider with the bad perm
no one noticed his short arm

All work and no play makes charrow a student

Studio week is under way and I am knee deep, so nothing new to show yet. But, this Friday night is the opening for the Octane staff art show. I am showing a whole bunch of old and new stuff and selling almost everything at reasonable prices. Based on what people in the past have tried to sell their art for I think I am underpricing....but really we all need art and so it should be affordable...dont worry if I sell anything I will still be making something. I also do not want to have to deal with moving this stuff when I move.
So for now that is all really. I will most likely post pictures of the event which is exciting because I do not post photographs.
In the mean time, Leonard Baskin is the name of the moment for me. I have been using his etchings for some of my design stuff so if you do not know him check his stuff out he is amazing.
Also check out http://www.ourartsite.com/
cool stuff, some 2 kewl if you know what I mean, but if you like diversity this site has it.

like the wind

I got the ok or something on this little concept so I am going forward so I can work on bigger and better things...such as my book. My huge book of yiddish.....so much yiddish. I ordered my INT's which means I am one step closer to being done with my Kraft stuff. I did not realize that this was the last week of classes....oops....so yeah. Turkey day was good minus a power cord death which is only a problem if you are doing your work on the 10 hour car drive home so you can have your 125 page book printed and ready for sunday class.....oops. It all worked out ok after we took a detour to a crowded mac store where i dropped 80 dollars so i could have 7 more hours of work time..will post some of the successful spreads in a bit. For now enjoy this.

tastes like paste

Newest packaging concept. Much more dynamic, energetic, and not forced.
This is the sample idea. Must check with Stephanie before I move forward.

3rd is a charm.

another bites the gum

More packaging ideas. I keep feeling like what I am doing is old, stale, blah, and just not working. In this case I feel a little better about these. We will see. They are easier to read, the type has movement but not too much, there is pattern for depth and more movement, and colors that pop off of each other without causing seizures.

bird brain

This was something I did a couple of weeks ago but have been too into my design work to get to it. So here is the bird bath.

This is a poster for Jason Atwood's little toys for tots project. People donate toys for the holidays and instead of dropping them off somewhere bike kids come and pick the toys. It a bike race so teams are given points based on how far they have to go and I think also on the size of the toy maybe? Anyway, I have left some room for text so he can make it into a poster or just as a little post card.

This is just something I did because I do not do enough illustrated type. I have a feeling this will be a book cover for a compilation of my work. We had a seminar the other day and the topic was Is illustration dead? My answer of course is yes, if you are blind, (i am sorry if you are blind this is not meant to offend you...although you cannot read this anyway...which I am also sorry about. I have poor taste.)

Ok, I have real projects now that I should get to b/c dead cartoon squirrels are not going to get my 120 page book done.

rocky waters

This was an assignment for Gary. We had to create an image relating to food or drinks and it had to make space flat. I really liked the way this turned out and I would like to do more things like this in the future.


I have been feeling really negative lately about my design skills. I feel like I have a style and want to branch out, but I am not being successful. Anyway, its just one of those weeks where nothing is making sense for me. I know when something looks right and when it looks wrong, but I cannot figure out why most of the time. I wonder how employable I will be as a designer. I just wish things clicked more and right now I know there are things I want to do but I don't know how to do them; I am not there yet. blah.

CHew on this!

I usually post everything I do and this means that I post the first draft which is not always good. I don't expect to be perfect, but I do want to explain myself because I hate the designs I posted for my Wrigley's gum concept. They are soo stale, old, and look like something I would have considered good before school. I only do things half way so I reconsidered my direction and zoomed into my picture and this is what I came up with so far:


I like the first one better. I will have to rework something in the second one. I haven't gotten there yet.

more and more

more packaging ideas. Completely different from the other three. I don't want to box myself in, and maybe going literal imagery is too much. So other options. All relating to out doors and they have a fall flavor which is nice because that is really the best time to be outside...in my opinion....also known as fact.

Wrigleys

Wrigley's packaging idea. The idea is that Wrigley's is a name brand that sells less of Wrigley's gum than any of their other brands. SO we are going for out doors, rustic, and the power of gum to suppress appetite and give you a sugar boost. This is draft one. I am certain things will change and this is only a front view. The back will have mountains and follow the colors from the front. Packaging ideas are floss package, metal cigarette case, matchbox, triangle (like ice breakers packaging, and maybe something like mountain range.

The greatest miniature circus on earth!

I was away for the weekend attempting to catch up with the serious amount of work I have. 5 classes is unacceptable. Anyway, the quality/quantity of my water colors has really taken a nose dive since the the beginning of this quarter. I am going to try and get a lot done over the next break.
Here is a book cover, without type, on "Law in the Lab: a view from two benches". It is not something I would call pleasure reading. Still I like representing the idea of the balancing act.
The color is not right. My scanner decided it was going to turn green yellow. SO I will be scanning it in again at school to see if I can get better results.