Moleskine Sketchjournals (cont'd)

Drawing done while in the Louvre

Inspired by Edward Gorey, of course

Drawing my surroundings in Temple on Rosh Hashana

Th-th-th-that's all folks!

Moleskine Sketchjournals

Hello all! Long time no post! I figured I should show you all what I have been up to in my absence, in the form of some pages from my Moleskines! Enjoy!

A collage I made in art class.

A kid in art class that let me draw him.

The first page of my small Moleskine

A drawing I did of my boyfriend while he was practicing drumming

Left: Some stuff on my boyfriend's kitchen table / Right: We were learning about bullfighting in Spanish class

Left: My boyfriend drew the octopus thing, I gave it the wood pattern / Right: "All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream" -Edgar Allen Poe. Plus some things responding to the thing on the other page.

Left: Sketching my environment in math class / Right: I'm not sure

A chair in my boyfriend's house

Left: Lyrics from Rent / Right: Hands in the rain

Strange woman I invented in France

Sketching a statue in the Musee D'Orsay

Another invented person

Woops... This is really image-heavy! I'll make a few posts.

The Dark I Know Well

I'm not usually a dark person, and my art isn't usually particularly dark but I've been in a crummy mood lately. I actually like this piece a lot. It reminds me of Obey propaganda by Shepard Fairey, an artist who inspires me, although doesn't often influence my work. I would love to see people wearing this on shirts, but then again, I want to see all of my art on t-shirts. I think the saying around the edge reflects something I have learned very well: Self-restraint breeds power. By being able to restrain ourselves from unnecessary waste and spending, we become more powerful. Maybe that could be misconstrued as something dark or fascist or communist or something, but it fit the picture. Don't tell anyone, but I made this completely during a 4-hour shift at work. :P

I don't know if you'll be able to see the above piece very well, but it's one that's newly been added to my college-bound portfolio. It's a 16" x 20" poster with instructions on how to construct the embedded Dante's Inferno möbius strip. It's meant to be viewed in huge detail because it's a vastly huge Photoshop file, but this will have to suffice I guess. Feel free to print and construct the möbius strip for yourself, but by the love of god do not reproduce my artwork for money. I have marked it with my urine and will know if you steal it! D:< Anyway, that's that for dark depressing art lately. 

I hate being angsty. I'm too angsty lately and it's making me feel like every other teenager/Twilight-obsessed teeny-bopper. I want out. I want sunshine and friendship and ice creams and love and bacon-flavored-toothpicks. Myeehhh...

I'll go watch something pointless and humorous to make me smile. :B

Long hiatus is long

Hi guys! I'm so sorry for how long it's been since my last post. I still do exist (really!). I've been doing a lot of college tours and the like so all if any art I have in my computer to post has been sitting here collecting dust. Oh well...


So, an update since last post, I actually got that beautiful tablet I had my eye on and I love it to death. It's really smooth and comes with a plethora of other tips for your stylus which is really nifty. Here's something I made on it:

It was inspired by my recent trip to Paris (What? I haven't mentioned that yet? Oh yeah, that happened). We went to Versailles and also we ate macarons from Ladureé which are pretty incredible. Anyways, this is available as a shirt on RedBubble for those interested. Sadly the colors are all screwed up, but it still looks pretty cool. I'm also trying to offer it on CaféPress, but so far that process has been pretty butt-like.

Here's a video to go along with my drawing. A really cute one by one of my favorite bands of all time, Vampire Weekend. I'm seeing them live in September! :D

What else?... Hmm... I got my license. That sure feels good. I am also pretty sure I decided which college I want to go to (I am so far ahead of myself here... I haven't even applied yet.)

I'm trying to get my art up here and post about the colleges I've seen and the like... It may be another hiatus. :/ Until then, why don't you give yourself some giggles with the wonderful art of Emmy Cicierega?

Tablet Tiem!!!1!!one!!

So I tried out my old Wacom tablet yesterday, just to see one more time if I could get it to run right. Sadly, I think my computer's just too new for the software that runs it. Besides, the plastic cover has come off and  dust and crumbs are scumming up under there. Also, it's waayyy too small.


I used a medium Wacom Intuos 4 at the AIB Arts First event and was BLOWN AWAY by how smoothly it worked. It was huge compared to my tablet, tracked really nicely, and was so easy to use. I want it so badly! Sadly, the thing costs somewhere around $345. I guess I'll be saving my money for a while. I just have this feeling I'd have so much fun working digitally if I had a tablet that actually worked. :P


Anyway, wrapping up work for school and pushing on through to summer. I just finished all my driving lessons so I'll have my license soon, hopefully. Also, THURSDAY IS MY BIRTHDAY! I can't believe I'll be 17! Yikes! Next year I'm a legal adult. I still feel 8 years old...


Annnnnnndd I got an 'A' on my 5 page Helvetica paper. Read it and weep, Ms. Tass. That'll teach YOU to doubt me. xD

Illustration Workshop @ AIB

This above image is a mock CD cover I made for Josh Ritter and the Royal City Band, in which my uncle Sam plays keyboard. My inspiration sprung from having seen Josh's concert just a few days previous (That's pretty much what he was wearing for the show), and also his song 'Lantern'. 

I created this piece in an illustration workshop at the Art Institute of Boston (which looks right out at Fenway Park. Looovee my little city!) Arts First event. We were told to create a CD or book cover using thumbnail pencil sketches and Photoshop. If I can find my thumbnail, I'll post it. Anyways, I loved the event. I went with my friend Emily and we made a new friend named Molly. I also got to know to talk another student from my school who I'd never really talked with before which was pretty interesting. I loved my teacher for the workshop too. She was really great.

I used the lasso tool to create geometric shapes which I filled with the paint bucket (a technique I learned here) for most of the image. Sometimes I used the elipse tool and for his mouth, eyebrows, and other detailing I used the paintbrush tool. I decided to blur certain stars in the background to make them appear to recede to give the image more depth. People often comment that my cartoon-y drawings lack depth because I favor a heavy outline. To create the lantern, I found royalty-free stock photography online which I referenced and built with shapes made by the lasso tool. I really liked making the crows. They're so silly!

My cartoon Josh doesn't really look very much like him, but that's alright.

Also, the drummer for the Royal City Band, Liam, who is also a puppeteer, handmade puppets and filmed the music video for Josh's song 'The Curse'. It's absolutely amazing as a music video and an art piece. I love the song too. Check it out!

Gosh I'm sooo busy lately! Hardly any time to draw at all! Finals are coming up, and I'm finishing off my last days of Tortur- *ahem* Junior year. So much to do!

Starry Night, etc.

I was in school in one of the PC labs and I finished a project I was doing for class early. I opened Paint and decided to re-create Van Gogh's Starry Night. I think it came out pretty well! I'm so happy about it. There's stuff missing because I was doing this from memory, but oh well. For Paint, I'm pretty happy.

School's almost over! Woo Hoo!

Helvetica

I love typefaces. Since my dad is an editor at the Boston Globe, we sometimes get into discussions about type faces. I love the idea that the way a word looks can determine the way a reader feels about it. I'm not into graphic design, but type face is fascinating. The image above is a comparison of two very similar typefaces, Arial and Helvetica. You've seen them both a hundred times. Helvetica makes up the CVS logo, the Target logo, the Staples logo, American Apparel, Crate and Barrel (except for the capitol C), American Airlines, the New York City subway system and more. Helvetica was developed in 1957 as a way for businesses to say "Don't worry, everything is okay." It's anonymous, it's unobtrusive, and it gets the message across quickly. It's a beautiful type face that many designers regard as one of the best ever made. There has even been a documentary made about this typeface, which I have seen, and loved thank you very much. In school I am writing a 6 page research paper about the change brought to the advertising world by this modern sans-serif font. 

But Arial and Helvetica look so much alike! How can I tell them apart? That's easy! Look at the capitol 'G' in Helvetica and compare it to the same letter in Arial. Helvetica's 'G' has a tail. Also, look at the ends of the 'C' in either capitol and lower case or the top of the lower case 't' in both fonts. In Arial, these spots are slanted instead of straight. Many letters in Arial end in a slant, whereas in Helvetica they are blunt. Also, the capitol 'A' is wider in Arial than in Helvetica.

Think you have the differences down? Take this quiz and let me know your results!

For more type-face-y fun, look on YouTube for Font Conference by College Humor, one of my all time favorite videos. Wanna talk fonts and type faces with me? I love having these weird, nerdy discussions.

May Sketches/Doodles

Hey all! I know it's been a while since I last posted. I've been experiencing a crazy school schedule lately, not to mention work and other stressors. I've been doodling a little, although nothing is finished. I just ended an 8 week pre-college course at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly that was designed to help my college portfolio so someday I may post some of those pieces.

Here are a few recent doodles I thought were fun.

Also, I recently found this video on another artist's blog and I love it so much! The band re-creates works by the masters and incorporates their instruments. It's so fun.

Lonely Stranger

It's been raining too much lately. I usually love rain, but it's been ruining my mood.

Drawn in pencil, then inked into my small white sketchbook. In the style of Edward Gorey, if you couldn't tell...

Carryin' Da Banner!

To all you Jews out there, Happy Passover!

I did this piece in my small white sketchbook sometime last week. I collaged newspaper right onto the page, then sketched out the newsie. I inked it right onto the paper, used white colored pencil on his shirt and socks, and erased the newsprint out of the drawing so it would stand out more. I'm really pleased with it.

Edward Gorey has been having a heavy influence in the style of my inking lately. I'm using more delicate, intricate patterning and some darker, more victorian themes which you may see more of. He's one of my favorite illustrators.

Also the musical Newsies really affected this piece. Ever since I first saw it, the songs have been stuck in my head. I love the atmosphere around the Newsies.

"Jack Kelly: Extry, extry, read all about it! Ellis Island in flames! 

David Jacobs: Hey, where's that story? 

Jack Kelly: Page nine. Thousands Flee in Panic! 

David Jacobs: "Trash Fire Next To Immigration Building Terrifies Seagulls"? 

Jack Kelly: Terrified Flight from Inferno! "

Nghhuuugghhhhh! (That's Zombie for 'I Love You!')

Ever felt a little hollow inside? Ever felt a little slow? Ever desired more brains? You may be a member of the living dead! For those of us who feel undead, look undead, sympathise with the undead, or hunt the undead, show your pride with my 'Being Undead Really Bites' sticker. Measuring 3 1/8" x 7 1/4", it's the perfect size to stick on a notebook, laptop, instrument case, or Winchester 1887. Buy 1 for $1 or 3  for $2. Email me, comment, or find me on Facebook to order.

New 'Do!

This weekend we went up to Maine and stayed at my grandparents' beautiful house in Kennebunkport for an open house at the Maine College of Art. While we were there, mom cut my hair. I decided to draw myself with my new hair. This one is kind of in the style of Karl Kwasny and other more nautical drawings. I'd like to put some sepia-tone value into this drawing someday. Drawn in pencil in my sketchbook, then inked in brown brush-marker.

MECA is a really cool school. They have all these huge, sprawling departments, and the illustration department really got me juiced. I wanna be there so bad! Sadly, Portland is a little to small for my taste. I wanna be in a slightly busier city.

Sink or Swim

This is a piece I finished last week. I initially drew it in pencil, then inked it with a brush pen, then scanned it and edited it. I plan on turning it into a T-shirt if that becomes a possibility.

The poem around the outside reads 'There is a ship and she sails the sea, She is as deep, as deep as can be. But not as deep as the love I'm in. I know not if I sink or swim.' This is a verse from a welsh nautical poem. There are three verses and I'm not sure yet if I'm going to illustrate all three.

I really adore this image. Please don't steal it for your own use, or I'll throw a tantrum.