Rain Rain Rainy.
October 17, 2009
Sara
Comments (4)

I'm having a tough time of it lately. The cold and the rain certainly aren't helping...I'm not mentally prepared for it to be December.

School is just so trying at the moment--we're finishing up with our "normal" assignments (which have seemingly all been themed around Halloween, *gag*) and gearing up for the Ely, which is our thesis project that centers around 4 main pieces. It's only 4 pieces, yes, but these pieces will be prepared for exhibition and judged by a jury, and more importantly, form one third of our portfolio, which will be all we have to show for ourselves in the effort to find jobs. It's big stuff!

So I'm obviously very distraught over everything, and the fact that it's getting to be crunch time has me feeling the pressure. I'm afraid to say that it's affecting my work, as well...I haven't really been happy with anything I've done lately! It's a really tough position to be in, and I hope that things resolve themselves soon. I just feel so defeated and disappointed in myself. Hopefully, some of this can be blamed on the prevalence of Halloween themes, which ultimately leave me feeling pretty cold and uninterested.

Want to see what I'm talking about?

The Halloween card for Bob Byrd's children's book illustration course--I actually love his class! The interior of this card has little illustrations of the shoes that would be stickers, and need to be matched up with the feet on the front. Soooo cheesy, but I like it. :)

This is not a finish, just a sketch/color comp for a "Halloween-themed event" poster. I'll have the finish completed for Tuesday's class.

This was a book cover design that I did a couple of weeks ago. I definitely think that I'll be doing book cover designs for my thesis projects, since I really do enjoy the process. Covers are far more conceptual than most other outlets for illustration...they have to encapsulate an entire book's contents in a quick, effective image that would attract a consumer who has umptillion other books to choose from.

We'll see how things turn out. I have high hopes for myself, and only I can make myself meet them. I'll keep you updated, hopefully with more confident words in the future.

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So I was lucky enough to get a "real job" this past summer, and it all just came to fruition last night.

Here's how it started: fall semester of last year, we were asked to illustrate/design a gig poster in my Design Methods class with Matt Curtius. I chose Andrew Bird, who is one of my very favorite musicians, and the poster ended up looking like this...

When I had completed the design, I put it on gigposters.com, per the encouragement of my teacher. Even though it was a school-assigned design, the show that I did it for truly did take place, so I wasn't breaking any rules or anything. A few months later (quite a few months) in August, I randomly got an email from one of the managers of the band, Ra Ra Riot. Do you know them? They've toured with Death Cab for Cutie and Andrew Bird, so they've really started making a name for themselves, and are currently finishing up their own headlining tour around the US.

Weeelllllllllll, I was asked to design a poster for their October 2nd show in Philly! Of course, I jumped all over it, and spent the next month or so doing sketches, throwing around ideas, and generally stressing out about it until I finally came up with a design that I was happy with. I was also lucky enough to stumble across a silkscreening studio that was really eager to help me out with the printing, so everything really lined up nicely for me. Here's how they turned out:

ra ra!

The sales weren't too great last night (I'm going to blame the rain... :P) but I was able to come away with a little bit of profit. That was enough to satisfy me, really, since I wasn't exactly confident that I'd even be able to recoup costs! But I'm pleased, and the experience itself was just so educational...I definitely hope that this really big job will be a springboard for some future work with show posters. While it's not the most lucrative area of illustration, it's definitely the most open and creative. No art directors! It was just a really great opportunity, and I'm grateful.

My boyfriend and caught some dinner before the show, after dropping off the posters, and since the Trocadero is in Chinatown, of course we did Chinese. Mmmmm...nothing tastes better than Dum Dums after a plate of lo mein.

  

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Work work work...
September 23, 2009
Sara
Comments (2)

Time to share some recent work with you guys!

Between my two studio classes, I've only completed 3 finished assignments thus far, but that's quite a bit for having only been in school since the beginning of the month!  I'm not sure how pleased I am with how things are turning out, however, but I'm still getting used to the new format of senior year, and figuring out how to balance the teacher's suggestions with my own artistic instincts.

I'll start with the summer work, though!  This is all of the frilly, teacher-free stuff that I just had fun with...the first few are from the von Hess trip to England (you'll probably be able to tell which ones those are) and the rest are spot illustrations that were assigned as summer homework:

collection

I think that my favorites might have been the one of astronomer Carl Sagan baking an apple pie, the Martha Stewart beekeeper, and that last one, which depicts the decline of the US Postal Service.  Not all of my summer work was for fun or for school, however, as I received an email from Ra Ra Riot's manager, requesting that I design the poster for their Philly show!  The poster is currently being printed by a silkscreening company down in Delaware, so I'll get to see it soon, and the show is at the Trocadero on October 2nd.  If you like the band, you should come on by and hear them, and maybe even buy one of these suckers from me! :)

ra ra riot

Now for the boring school stuff...  :P

little r wine label

First assignment was packaging design, and I chose to do a little wine label. february

Next up was a calendar design--a little bit more fun, I'd say.

Last but not least, we have an editorial illustration of the ultra-vague topic of "mortality". I probably enjoyed doing this one the most, funnily enough.

Well...that's it for now, and that's probably for the best, because this post was a bit image-heavy. Apologies! I've been a busy girl, apparently. :)

Have a good one, guys!

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The Queen of the Slackers.
September 18, 2009
Sara
Comments (3)

That is me.

But only where this blog is concerned--you see, I'm not a slacker when it comes to school, and let me tell you: senior year in the Illustration Dept. is no joke. I had 3 finishes due this week! So yeah, I'm terribly sorry, but the beginning of this year has not provided me with the best environment for casual blogging... Luckily, I'm hitting my stride, and I don't think that I will have too many problems juggling tasks from here on out. (Don't hold me too strongly to such promises, though!)

As busy as this fall semester is, my summer was perhaps just as busy. Not only did I have a summer class, summer assignments, and work at the museum, but I also did quite a bit of traveling, and even landed a bit of an illustration job! My travels were definitely the highlight of the summer, as I was able to cash in on the Richard C. von Hess Travel Fellowship/Scholarship that I had blogged about in May. It was, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the best vacations that I've ever had the privilege to experience. I was even able to purchase a nice new camera (the Canon Rebel T1i) and bring my boyfriend along for the trip, which took place from the 14th-24th of August. We spent the first couple of days in central London and did touristy things, but the largest portion of the trip was spent in the English countryside, in the Oxfordshire region of the Cotswolds. Never have I felt so relaxed...

As you can see, we had beautiful weather the entire time, and simply could not have enjoyed ourselves more. I could get used to having sheep greet me through my bedroom window every morning. I'll save the images of my recent artwork for the next post...I wouldn't want this to be too much of a visual overload!

Have a great weekend!

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