Final Semester, BEGIN!

I haven't updated all summer. What a shame. But it's back to school time, and that means the first assignment of my very last semester.

Assignment: Illustrate something "crazy" you have seen this summer.

My response: Being in a fish bubble while snorkeling at Dry Tortuga, 70 miles west of Key West.


It still needs some tweaking. (i.e. angle of camera)... and other little things. But you get the idea.

My cat is part sloth.

Oh, Olive...

To Penna. & Back...

So, it's definitely been awhile. Last week I went home to visit my family and friends in Pennsylvania, and didn't have the time, patience or necessary electronic functions to upload everything I've been wanting to upload.

Basically, here's a recap:

A surprise inflatable squid in my bed--Check.

Gummy Bears from Germany--Check.

Senior Survey

After a grueling first year back to school after a year off, today finally wraps up the end of Senior Semester #1. 14 more weeks, starting in September, I will be well on my way to the introduction of the "real world." I cannot WAIT to have money again, let me tell you. Even my measly $360 a week paycheck from this time last year is looking PRETTY swell right about now.

Anyway, I was putting together my 60inx60in display (plus 7 books) last night.

Olive was being a very naughty cat.

"Oh, Hi! Don't you want my fur all over your $125 of supplies?!"

Lurker

The Display

Self Promo Book #2

The second self-promo mailer/ leave behind book. Similar to the first one, but also still heavily different. I wanted them to be "related."

Love Has an Echo: Colorado Memory Book

In mid-March, for spring break, my boyfriend and I took a snowboarding vacation out west to Colorado. While the vacation was completely amazing, my boyfriend tore his hamstring on the last day, on the last run down the mountain... then we got stuck at Denver airport due to snow, and had to spend 26 hours there... AND the only way for us to get back to NYC was by flying into Houston, Texas.

NOT an enjoyable end to the vacation, but here's a book to remember all the good times.

Accordion book on the left with photos of snowboarding; fan book on the right filled with clear pockets I made containing little mementos from the trip. Also, the purple strings are bits of a Colorado t-shirt I bought. Just as an added little personal touch. :)

ABC Edibles!: Book Photos

Accordion style book for ABC Edibles. There's a previous post explaining the concept of the project, but basically, I made an ABC book of fruits/ vegetables, cut out the letters with an X-acto knife, photographed them, and made them into a book that tells the history and usage of the various edibles. I plan to continue this series in the future.

Cover

Fold Out

Card info text taken from Wikipedia.

Monster Book: REDO

Added in a few things to the monster book.
1) A Bigfoot panel. How did I FORGET Bigfoot?!
2) A black envelope in the back of the book containing monster information cards






Card info text taken from Wikipedia.

Giant Panda Show

Friday night was an extremely entertaining evening.

Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad @ Mercury Lounge, NYC

ABC Edibles!

Book photos coming soon!

Self Promo Book #1

Promo book for my Freelancing & Business class. This is very...me. :)





A similar book for a different class will soon follow...

Mooooore books...

A remake of one of my favorite books ever: "Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die" by Michael Largo.

It sounds morbid, but it's extremely interesting. In the book, they list all the bizarre ways humans have died in the past 200 years or so, including things like vending machines, platform shoes and thrift stores. The original book is about 415 pages of actual reading material, and I read it cover to cover in under 3 days.

Books & Promo Bookmarks

I spent most of the day today finishing up a portfolio style, nature themed book containing pressed and dried orchids my boyfriend surprised me with a few weeks ago. I greatly enjoy the simplicity of this one:

(Inside) Dried orchid cards:

(Inside) All 4 cards.

Promotional/ Contact bookmark "cards" to give out at my final bookmaking class:

VW Truck!

I saw this walking to breakfast this morning. I want one!!

Hmmm.. excess?

Today, when I got home, I took off nearly all the jewelry I wore today. Since I went on a mostly Etsy buying spree last month, I realized today I've been wearing nearly everything at once.

It feels good to be a little shiny and glittery. And today was no exception.

From my nose to my toes:

I love those sandals. Nearly every girl I passed today, I heard secretly whisper to her friend: "I want her shoes!!" :)

Busy, Busy.

I haven't updated in awhile. This weekend was incredibly hectic with my friend Brian's birthday shenanigans in Bronx, which need not be mentioned here. I will say though, I had a FANTASTIC time, and rediscovered a part of myself I haven't had the chance to really experience in a few years. It felt goooood to let loose for once.

Anyway.. homeless cat meets homeless octopus, and wants to be friends.

They have arrived!

FINALLY received my bracelet from Israel (Etsy) that I ordered about a month ago. Global shipping still amazes me.


Also, the business cards have arrived. The dark colors are quite a bit darker than I would have liked, and the lights are a lot lighter than I would have liked. It kind of annoys me. Good thing I only ordered 50. The feel and weight is nice, though.

Feeshez?

I really am too tired. It even surprises me what comes out of my mind sometimes...

The self promotional item collection is almost complete!

After months of slaving away over making promotional items for myself, (not to mention the other 42589345 pieces of artwork I need to worry about) I'm finally starting to wrap up my items for my promotional mailing pieces.

I bought some pre-cut CD template stickers today to make my CD of images, which will be included in the promotional books I'm making (very tediously making...) to hand out to prospective clients/corporations to HIRE ME when I finally get out of school.

Here's a quick markup:

These are going to be awesome when I get a new printer that won't print those most unflattering horizontal LINES!! >:(

Also on my list is a 17-inch mac book PRO... and a large format flatbed scanner.

If you happen to be rich, and want to help out a poor art student living in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, please tell me.

I have PayPal. <3

An extremely weird coincidence

Here's something really odd that happened today:

I went to my job at Poloppo, a Brooklyn based kid's art company, to do some scanning and color correcting this morning. As I was going through the images, there was a drawing by a 6 year old boy that depicted an airplane near the point of impact, showing one of the wings hitting trees or fences with onlookers staring. I told my boss about it, and how I thought it was weird for a 6 year old to depict the image of the recent plane crash that involved the death of the Polish president last week. The EXTREMELY weird part about it was my boss' response: The boy did the drawing the week BEFORE the crash. I swear, the drawing was almost identical from the photos that were on CNN of the wreckage, and the drawing matched nearly verbatim from the quoted eyewitness accounts about how the plane went down.

I found that very, very eerily creepy.

Another beautiful day...

Another beautiful week in Brooklyn. Everything is in bloom. :)

MONSTER BOOK!

A new pet project of mine.

Monster book. Beware. Bahaha.

Gate Binding

A series of intentionally jagged illustrations to go with the monster look and monster type. There's a few different "fake monsters" in there.... all the favorites: bigfoot, el chupacabra, the moth man, the montauk monster, etc.

I really do not care to debate the "fake monster" section again. For the purpose of this project, they are fake. However, should you be a person who strongly believes in the existence of these creatures, and feels the need to argue the existence of Moth Man with me, I will let you rant. Although I personally believe at this point no sufficient evidence has swayed me. But who knows- everyone said the giant squid was "pirate lore" until researches actually filmed a live one in 2006....

...But I am a Monster Quest fiend, in the end. I love this stuff. So rant away.