hearts and needles

meditation mobiles

I wanted to share a project i recently finished. One of my closest friend's sister(who I know, too) was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) in December. It's a really scary & aggressive cancer, and require some pretty aggressive chemo, etc..  I talk with my friend a lot, but she lives about 8 hours away, and I've been wanting to send something to her and her sister to let them know I'm always thinking about them.

 I made these paper mobile things(i'm thinking of them as meditation mobiles) - hand painted paper, folded and strung to hang somewhere to know that I'm putting out my positive healing prayers and thoughts.  I've sent one to my friend, one to her sister, and one to a mutual friend of ours who lives in Portland.  

It's hard to live away from people you care about when they are in need of support. Just being able to take them a meal or hang with my friend and see a movie to alleviate some stress would be awesome.  But, you do what you can.  

And I do believe in the power of positive, connecting, healing thoughts.

Yes, I do.

What things have you done to help faraway friends in need?  I'd love some more ideas.

illustration friday: stripes!

 

 

The theme for Illustration Friday this week is "stripes".  I did a quick painted paper collage. i didn't plan it out or draw anything - just free cutting.  very fun! I love that Illustration Friday gives me a little goal every week - no pressure, just a tiny motivational kick.

I worked on a pretty neat project in September and October and will be able to share the finished product soon - can't wait to talk about it here.

I've got lots to share here, but since I haven't posted in so long, I'll keep it short today.  Coming up, though: projects, holiday inspiration, art-o-mat, and my new website. And probably lots more, but I won't push it.

 

I'm feeling totally inspired by mary ann moss. I love her writing, her art, and her perspective. And I'm completely envious of her travels!  And I love how often she updates her blog - I need that sort of inspiration!

 

light on the glue, heavy on the professionalism

 

By a pretty sweet stroke of luck, i got a very cool illustration job this spring.  I’d been wanting to start doing illustration work with my cut paper collage style, so this was a perfect opportunity.  And a big job - i did 13 illustrations and several painted papers for backgrounds.  I am so grateful for having this opportunity  and I thought I’d share the work process here - it was fun and not as intimidating as i thought it’d be.

It started with some email communication with the art director of a marketing firm.  They were making an annual report/storybook thing for a non-profit client of theirs.  He told me what the job was, approximately how many illustrations, and a general timeline.  After they had the info firmed up on their end, i went to the office for a meeting/brainstorm session with the art director.  He gave me lots more info about the job. My role was to illustrate the story book, which is the story of a woman who bettered her and her daughter’s life with the help of the non-profit family organization.  We went through each page of the story and the art director told me his illustration ideas and specific stuff he wanted to see in the illustrations.  He also asked for input and kept a lot of stuff open to my interpretation.  After we had a good idea of each illustration, I went home and sketched out rough drawings of each page.  The sketches were to show the configuration and general feeling of the future collages. At this point in the process, I felt a little weird because the collages and the sketches have such a different feeling.  My sketches seemed blah, but they really were just rough ideas.  I scanned all the sketches and sent them to the art director.  He looked at them and gave me feedback.  In general, he was really pleased.  There were a few tweaks and issues here and there.  It made me understand the importance of doing the sketches - so much easier to change course/add or subtract when the pictures are in this stage.  

After all the roughs were completely approved, I began making the collages.  I stayed very close to the approved sketches as far as the configuration of everything.  But I got to make all the choices about color and paper texture, which was super fun. 
I have a large selection of patterned papers and hand painted papers on hand.  I had to paint a few pieces of paper for the skin tone of the characters.  They are mostly African-American and I didn’t have the right color of brown.  Everything I had did not actually look like it could be a natural color of skin.  So that’s about all I had to paint in prep for making the collages.  I painted two pieces of 12”x12” scrapbook paper, and that was more than enough.  After that paper was dry, I was ready to go!  I worked from the beginning of the book to the end.  I skipped around just a bit when I wasn’t feeling it on a certain illustration.  I went through a bunch of exacto blades and glue sticks and made a nice dent in my paper stash.  As I completed illustrations, I scanned and sent them instead of saving them all up until the end.  I think it helps the person you are working for to know where you are in the process and frees up communication.
I had a week (5 days) to complete all of the collages (13), so it was pretty crazy.  Even though my style is simple, it isn’t a speedy process.  I worked really hard, but in general just tried to work during business hours.  I was thinking about it all the time, though.....
After the collages were complete, there were a few more corrections/tweaks.   Corrections had the potential to be troublesome, because I work in collage and I don’t manipulate it digitally.  I made sure that used a light touch with my glue, and anything that I had to remove or replace was easy to do.  Glad I did that or I’d have had big problems.
 
(art director wanted the building this simple, not like the above rough which shows them with a bit of dimension)

I learned a lot doing this job.  Art-wise, I did so much work that I had a chance to develop an effective work method.  When I do personal work, the timeline just isn’t there, so it’s invaluable to get a chance to learn how long something *really* takes, and be able to figure out if you’re going to get it all done.  My actual collage technique got more efficient.  The collages I did were very straightforward and normal.  I like to work a little weirder at times, but the job didn’t call for that.  

This was also a great learning experience in dealing with the professional/communication side of things.  Communication is key, I think.  I didn’t want the art director to worry about the work just because he hadn’t heard from me, so I keep up with scanning/sending and emailing during the course of the project.  I also kept my ego out of any discussion of corrections.  When I started the job, I made a conscious decision not to let my feelings get hurt if there were any discussions/corrections/issues with my work.  I figured they hired me because they liked my style, so anything else was simply business.  And you know what? Making that decision was the best thing I did.  It made me way more professional, inside and out.  It was like any work - do a great job, accept constructive criticism, move on.  

The job is just about wrapped up.  I had a last minute correction on one page, an additional small illustration, and 3 painted backgrounds.  

That’s it for now.  I hope you found this informative if you were wondering how the whole illustration thing works.  I know that the concept of illustration is less intimidating to me now.  It’s never as hard as you think, you know? But sometimes you just have to have the experience to realize it.

Up next: billing!  Since I’m doing this as a freelance person, all on my own, invoicing is a big learning curve for me.  I’ll write about that for my next installment!

In the works...

(judgy)

 

Saturday, oh Saturday! Hurray! It was a busy week. Teaching my first art camp of the season is a huge adjustment, but it was fun and everyone in my class made crazy stuff. Life sized paper mache - wow.

 

I'm teaching a skirt making class this coming week - should be crazy, too!  But, I'll be updating here, too.  I have lots of posts that I'm excited about in advance (still unwritten). I'll be talking about the illustration job I just finished - the process we went through to get from ideas to finished art, I've got a new lady from my 100 or So Ladies sketchbook, and a couple other things....

 

Im feeling productive, people. And loquacious, so watch out!

chicken fight

  

what a lovely monday morning - cloudy and drizzly and perfect.  we don't get a lot of these days in virginia in the summer, so i'm loving it.  also, i can't believe it has been so long since i updated here. no clue why not, as i've had the time. huh.  well, here i am now.

 

i thought i'd post a scan from one of my sketchbooks.  i just finished this spread, and it cracks me up!  the odd lady face is quoting me, and so i think of this a journal entry of sorts.  i love the idea of visual journals, but i haven't ever found my groove with them.  i'm starting to wonder if i have been putting some pressure on myself.  not pressure to *keep* a visual journal, but pressure for it to look a certain way, you know?  well, this is the way my sketchbook/journals look, and i might be a whacko, but there you are!

 

so, one time i was telling phil(husband) about how horrible it was to walk through campus when i was working at a local university.  i was gettin' all worked up about how the freshmen, especially, liked to walk 7 abreast on their way to class, the cafeteria, etc.. and take up the whole dang sidewalk and *not move over* when someone was coming the opposite way, even though it was clear there was nowhere else for someone (me) to walk.  i'd have to stop and let them densely bump around the sidewalk and pass by.  i started getting angry about it. but you know what they say - don't get mad, get even. actually, that might now apply here.  but i did take action.  i thought: i'm obviously older, i'm not afraid of the teens, and they need to learn.  so, i started playing Chicken.  i simply would not stop walking when a large group of students approached. (let me clarify: these were not tours, they were just gaggles of students who had to go everywhere in groups) so.....when you play chicken, you have to be prepared to get into a collision.  but do you ever think i did? that's right: never.  invariably, the youngsters would panic and move.  i believe i increased sidewalk awareness by employing this technique. but it still makes me mad and i don't even work there anymore.

 

anyhow, i was telling phil about it and getting all crazy and yelled out "I WILL get in in a chicken fight!" and it cracked us up hard.  so that's my journal entry.  like i said: whacko.

illustration friday - asleep

a very quick illustration for illustration friday.

i wanted to spend longer on it, but i was hiking and having lunch at the blue mountain brewery with my husband in celebration of our 4th anniversary.  whooo!

 

have a wonderful weekend!

ladies - 100, or so.

So, this is a little project I want to share with y'all.  I was at Michael's a few weeks ago, and they were having a sale in their dollar section.  I found some awesome blank books (they were actually $2.00, but on sale for 40% off) that I had to buy.  Usually, their notebooks have lined paper, but these were blank and the paper was brown kraft paper - my fav.  So, I bought four of them, though I already regret not getting them all.  The covers left a lot to be desired, though.  They came with Victorian fairy themes, but not really cute.  Sort of cheesy.  I decided to re-cover one, and I'm so glad I did!  I love the way it looks.  I used craft paint, scrapbook paper, and some fabric scraps, and some vintage paper and made it more "me". 

I was hoping to use it as a sketchbook thingie that I could paint in.  I really like painting on kraft paper - the texture is great, and it takes paint really well, and I like the non-shiny finish.  I also wanted the painting aspect to be stress free and fun with very little thought or analysis or judgement.  Fun + stress free = the best.

Thus, "100, or so, ladies" was born.  The book has 100 pages, so my goal is to fill it up with paintings of ladies.  That one above is probably my favorite, so far.  But what about this one:

Are you scared?  She remind me a bit of Carol Channing.

Does anybody else have a little project like this?  One that keeps you motivated to make stuff, but is just for fun, with no "is this good enough" type of judging? I'd love to hear about it.

 

I will post ladies from time to time - if one if particularly funny or interesting.  But if you want to keep up with the ladies, I've created a flickr set of them.

 

tomorrow: illustration friday.  does anyone else participate?  i'm starting now!

Sketchbook Wednesday? Oh, yeah!

Here is my newest sketchbook.  It is completely empty inside, but soon will be, I hope, crazy with color.  On Memorial Day, my friend Peg came over and we spent the afternoon tearing pages, cutting covers, and gluing endpapers.  We each made a book.  Hers looks a little different, but they are the same size, with lots of the same paper (though not all), and the same binding.  Our goal: to trade back and forth as collaborative art journals where we'll experiment with mixed media techniques that we've been wanting to try, etc.  My goal is to have fun, try new techniques, and use it as a dialogue.  We have agreed that we can add to pages the other has started, if we want.  There is no theme, which is good. I am excited to start this, as I already have a running list of things I want to try......  The first assignment is to do a little work in our own books and then we will trade next week!  I think we'll trade back and forth every couple of weeks until they are full.

I love making books.  I have a surge of bookbinding every year.  I have since I was 19, I think!  I learned some basics when I was in college and I got seriously hooked.  I bought Pauline Johnson's awesome book Creative Bookbinding and there was no looking back.  I used to be super uptight about everything being square and plumb and all that and I think making books got a little too precious to me.  But then I started working at a bookstore, and discovered Keith Smith's amazing books.  Uh, wow?  Yeah.  His books totally rule.  Some folks don't like diagrams, but I love how pared down and technical his books are.  He gives so many options because his books are not full of fluffy full color photos (which I also love, but..) Man, you can use his diagrams for infinite variety.  I also kind of love his text - it's sort of odd, but cool.  Anyhow, it isn't that he encourages you to be all uneven and sloppy - quite the contrary! - but he introduced me to the world of non-adhesive binding.  Glue was my sticking point (ha!), and it just irritated me that I had to glue so much to make a book.  But his bindings made it possible for me to make books that had a minimal amount of glue. Which allowed me to make more books... Books that I can put stuff in - which is way more exciting to me than a blank, perfectly precise book.  Ahhh.

 

Next up: a fun project I've been working on. It has to do with ladies.  100, or so, of them.

Bunny-time

I've been so busy this spring, but it's finally letting up.  Still not an excuse for my lack of updating, but there you have it.

 

The little bunny above is a small spot illustration for a big ol' job I was working on for a couple of weeks.  Still doing a few corrections, etc., but man!  It was my first real illustration job and it was: fun, hard, stressful, a lucky break, and a total learning experience - in a good way.  I can only hope for more. 

I'll be posting more from the job in the next few posts.  It was such a cool experience because of the nature of the project - more details on that, too.

I'm in a time of stuff wrapping up, and have lots of pictures and tales.  The large mural painting project I was working on at a local elementary school is almost totally wrapped up, my teaching for the semester is over and I love the projects my students produced! It was a very busy spring, sometimes in a bad way.  I felt, at times, that I was just running around like a crazy person, doing all the weird stuff I have to do as a freelance art teacher.  Mix up the paper mache paste, get plywood cut, buy chicken wire, and on and on....

I'm totally grateful that I get to do all that as my job, and I can honestly say that of all the jobs I have ever had, I have *never* been bored with this one.  Frustrated, tired, frayed, hoarse (yes), covered with paint and paste: yes.  Bored? Never.  Which I can't say for any of my other jobs, ever.  Isn't that sad?  I think about all the years I sat at a desk dreaming of the day I could do what I'm doing.  Thank god for the internet.  Don't judge me, I'm not ashamed.

But even with this illustration job - which had me sitting at my desk a whole lot - I still had fun.  Yay!  Do what you love - it's worth it!

 

The next few weeks before summer art camps start up are pretty free.  I have a few plans, one of which is finally setting up my fancy printer.  I want to sell prints in my etsy shop, so that is a priority.  And I'm working on some fun stuff - I have a bunch of sketchbooks going, which I'll share.  And a friend and I are starting up a collaborative art journal thing where we'll trade off and practice techniques, etc...  We are binding our books on Monday, and the camera will in heavy use(if I can find it?)!

And there is always more......

Sketchbook Wednesday

Getting back to my collage sketchbook.  I'm loving paint right now, but sometimes the simplicity and boldness of collage is just what I need.  Also, I've been neglecting this book, and have lots of loose stuff to paste in before I move on to new compositions.  People need arms and feet and stuff like that!

It has been so long since I've put any new collages in there that I'm excited to see how my style is changing up a bit - maybe a looser and less planned out.  Maybe there will be proof next Wednesday right here on this little old blog.

In other news, I'm hoping to get prints in my etsy shop soon.  Gotta figure out my fancy printer and then there will be no stopping me!  I have lots of ideas - prints, paper dolls, cards......

 

Also: been loving the Parisian travels of awesome book maker and all around art fiend Mary Ann Moss!

Who is inspiring you?