Total Body Source

A few months ago, I created a logo for an online health products website called Total Body Source. I just saw that it has gone live! I worked with the site designer. He had a really clear vision for the site and gave really great art direction. Isn't his final product top notch? I was happy to incorporate some of my handwritten text in the logo... lends itself nicely to the organic/natural theme.

I just dropped my mom off at LAX after many days of tromping around the city. Back to the grindstone today.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Oh the Weather Outside...

I have slacked on the blogging because My Biggest Fan had a birthday this week. My free time was spent showering him with love, attention, and PRESENTS. One gift was a t-shirt that I designed with a movie quote from Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

If you haven't seen the flick, you are probably thinking, "Wow, she butchered that Christmas song," and/or "Why is she illustrating Christmas songs in June?" To give you some context, the character who utters these ridiculous words is played by the hilarious (and easy-on-the-eyes) Paul Rudd. He's a free spirited surf instructor who may have burnt out a brain cell or ten. The weather outside, well, it's just weather!

Now go see the movie. Go! Now! Put it in your queue! Get it from a RedBox! Go to Blockbuster! Wait, do they still have Blockbuster?

The shirt is available from Zazzle. Anyone know of another site I could submit the design to?

Also, what do we think of my new little link buttons on the side? I'm undecided. I like the idea but might try something else. Would love some feedback!

Be on the lookout for the new beer painting to be posted this week!

aloha

St. James Court Art Show Poster

Every fall, there is a huge, beautiful art festival in Old Louisville called the Saint James Court Art Show. Every spring, there is a competition for the poster for the event, and every year, I think, "I should enter." But I never do - not living in Louisville, I tend to forget about things like that. Earlier this week, while finishing an illustration for Louisville Magazine (coming soon to a newstand near you!), the poster contest popped in my head and I hopped over to google to check it out.

The due date was 3 days away. I took it as a sign.

I have been diligently plugging away at it ever since I sent off the final illo to LouMag. I ran into some technical difficulties though: How could I scan or photograph original artwork for a 24"x30" poster (I always work bigger than the final printed piece)? And if I were so lucky as to win, how would I get such a large piece to Louisville?

So I decided to tackle this project in Illustrator. I've been digging Jessica Hische's work lately, so my piece was very heavily influence by her, as well as various Victorian/Art Nouveau artwork I found online.

Doing the handwritten text was the best part. First I sketched it out with pencil:

Then I filled it in with ink:

Then I scanned it and used the AutoTrace feature in Illustrator to make it a vector shape. I hate doing that part because it never looks quite right to me. It lost a lot of character when it was forced into vectors.

Overall, I really like the way the poster turned out. I included the famous statue that is in the heart of Saint James Court and some of the beautiful Victorian homes that line the court, and embellished the design with the ever popular Fleur-de-lis.

This piece was a challenge for me stylistically, and it is a risky entry.. most of the past winners have been pretty paintings of the statue with some super kerned out text. Let's hope the gang at St. James Court likes my approach!

Sailboats

Sometimes when I go to the beach, there are clusters of white sailboats off on the horizon. Possibly a sailing class going originating from Marina del Rey. I love the contrast of all of the white sails against the blue sky and ocean - so cool and calming.

I tried something different with this piece - I did an ink drawing, scanned it, converted it to vector, and then colorized in Illustrator. I like this way of working because it combines by fondness of ink drawings with the flexibility of computers (not to mention there's no clean-up!)

mmm.... wine

I did a lovely vector illustration tonight for my college friend Annie. She is making t-shirts made for a bachelorette party (she is the maid of honor) - they are going wine tasting and then gambling (they always go together). I had some fun with this... Illustrator is a fabulous program. I probably could have spent hours on this tweaking the shapes making them all beautiful, but there are other things on my to-do list to check off.

(can you believe it? 3 new posts and a new bonus sketch in one night!)