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!