February 2012
29 posts
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deadline #16: editorial - Upstaging the Humans
Category: Editorial Topic: Movies - Play Dead, Act Coy, Roll Over and Upstage the Humans Start Date: 2/26/12 Deadline: 3/1/12
The problem with ‘movies’ coming up as the topic of my deadline on today of all days is that all the articles I’m finding are about the Academy Awards. Which is fine, except I know if I do an article that’s explicitly about the Oscars,...
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deadline #15 - robot cheater quilt - finished!
I am so thrilled with how this turned out! Once I had the idea I put it together fairly quickly, particularly considering how many patterns I created for it from scratch, but it went through several color palettes. I started with blues, greens, and yellows, but it didn’t work at all. Once I found the gray/yellow palette, things were much improved.
I’m going to enter this in a...
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How to Make a Pattern Repeat in Illustrator
1. Make all the little things you want in your pattern - objects, shapes, background, etc. In this case, I made lots of little gears to use as a pattern in my robot cheater quilt. 2. Create a background rectangle in the size you want the repeat to be. This rectangle shouldn’t be any old size - make the length and width easy numbers to work with. A good way to select this size is to make...
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inspiration - more Lizzy House
I just started collecting fabrics for Lizzy House’s Diamond Mountain quilt:
The pattern is available in this book, which in and of itself is gorgeous.
Let me tell you…collecting all this Lizzy House fabric is a dream, and getting to cut a million triangles out of each fabric has afforded me quite a lot of time to admire her work.
For the current deadline, I want to do some...
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deadline #15: surface design - robots!
Category: Surface Design Topic: Robots Start Date: 2/22/12 Deadline: 2/26/12
There’s an upcoming Spoonflower contest for a cheater quilt with a robot theme, so this seemed like a good week to do this topic.
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deadline #14 - prep - finished!
Hmm…I’m looking at the proportions of this book cover and I think they’re a bit off. But that’s fine for now I suppose.
This one is kind of weird - it’s not really my style, completely, but I still like it? It’s kind of a mixture of styles, but I like it? I don’t know. What do you think?
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inspiration - embroidered book covers
You’ve probably seen these amazing embroidered book covers by Jillian Tamaki before. You can read more about the project here.
*Images from Tamaki’s site
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deadline #14: book cover - prep
Category: Book Cover Topic: Prep Start Date: 2/18/12 Deadline: 2/22/12
My goal for this deadline is to continue doing more simple work, and trying to stick with the style I’ve used for the past two illos. But I also need to do more thumbnails, and think more about composition. Whoo!
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deadline #13: Adele - finished
Finished!
I’ve been liking making my illustrations more simple. I do want to spend more time on thumbnails, though, because I think I could have done more with this composition. If I had more time, I’d also do some lettering - maybe her name, or a song lyric? I don’t know. What do you think?
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deadline #13: Adele
Category: Portrait Topic: Adele Start Date: 2/14/12 Deadline: 2/18/12
Have you seen that SNL skit where all these folks are sitting in an office listening to “Someone Like You” and bawling their eyes out? Man. Adele is amazing.
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deadline #12 - editorial - high school swimmer -...
Playing with texture is pretty fun. Also, adding in lines for wrinkles - they are bathing suits after all. I normally add texture like I put on makeup - I put it on, put it on, things are going great, then I go OH NO TOO MUCH and take a little off. Only “a little” usually becomes “all of it.” So I’m happy that this time I left it in, it feels risky. ...
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Inspiration - Maggie Li
Since starting this blog, I’ve been looking more thoughtfully at other artists’ work. I found Maggie Li’s work through another blog last week, and was immediately drawn to her vintage color palettes and all that texture.
*All images from Ms. Li’s portfolio
Check out her work: portfolio blog zombie collective
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deadline #12 - editorial - high school swimmer
Category: Editorial Topic: Sports - Before the Olympic Trials, there’s this big high school meet Start Date: 2/10/12 Deadline: 2/14/12
I read this article yesterday afternoon, so I was glad when my random topic selector guy chose ‘Sports’ as my editorial topic for this deadline. It’s a great article - a high school student who’s considered a shoe-in for the 2012...
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deadline #11: surface design - ditsy - Finished!
True story, you guys. I did all the work for this one today. It doesn’t mean I’m not happy with how it came out…I’m fairly content here. I think with more time, I’d want more little bits and pieces floating around in the background, and maybe some texture, but for the few hours I had for this today, I’m happy. What do you think?
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inspiration - Jessica Swift
I started following Jessica Swift’s work several years ago. I remember this being the first piece that I saw from her:
*Images from Jessica’s site, buy this print here
Those lines, the combination of opaque/transparent pieces, and that repeat in the background!! Over the last few years, Jessica’s style has stayed constant, while her portfolio just expands and expands. I...
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deadline #11: surface design - ditsy
Category: Surface Design Topic: Ditsy Start Date: 2/6/12 Deadline: 2/10/12
I suppose “ditsy” applies more specifically to a fabric design than another kind of surface design. I’m pretty excited about how open ending this will be, though I think I should work on something floral rather than something silly…like little flying schnauzers. Nope, florals it’ll have to...
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deadline #10 - The Amber Spyglass book cover -...
My main dislike with this finished piece is that it’s so similar to one of the published covers for the book, seen here. Other than that, though, I’m pretty happy with this overall. I wanted to show a pretty pivotal scene from the book, but one that also wouldn’t be really obvious and wouldn’t spoil anything down the line. Hopefully if you’ve read the book,...
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Friday Finds
Some of the illustration links I’ve looked at this week…
Create a surreal futuristic find with photoshop
Vintage Travel Posters
Space Travel Posters
Design a Vintage Style Swissair Travel Poster with photoshop
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inspiration - Kathryn MacNaughton
I found Kathryn’s book covers through Nate Williams on Pinterest.
*Images from Kathryn’s portfolio, which is a must-see
Amazing! I love the consistent style, the use of collage + hand drawn silhouettes/details. Her stuff is way different than the work I normally gravitate to - less ‘cute’, more edgy. Love. It’s making me want to spend more time on...
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deadline #10 - The Amber Spyglass book cover
Category: Book Cover Topic: The Amber Spyglass Start Date: 2/2/12 Deadline: 2/6/12
The third book from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series. I have some thoughts…we’ll see what happens!
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deadline #9 - Amy Poehler portrait - finished!
Ok, fine. It’s Leslie Knope, not Amy Poehler. But I’m pretty happy with it - lots more texture and hand-drawn details than yesterday’s version, so that’s great. Whoo!
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