The Sunday Set no. 2

Can you guess what this Sunday Set's theme is? I love the color grey (much more so than gray!) and I've been drawn to pieces featuring the color very strongly lately. All I want to do is draw in graphite pencils and play with the chalkboard at home. In this set I wanted to find great grey to white or black pieces. The pencil case is killing me! Severe want!

1.) Diamond Slice Bracelet - LexLuxe
2.) Chalkboard Thank You Card - LilyandVal
3.) Leather & Wool Felt iPad sleeve - Charbonize
4.) Wool Felt Pouch - ArtsWool
5.) White Earrings Chavillon - asmeparis

Orlando Flora and Fauna

Aka photos to play with. I experimented with some filters and focus with these. I'm trying to make nice photos, I suppose? I'm terrible at photography but I did my best to salvage these images. I feel so amazingly unqualified to make any kind of judgement on them. I like them, so here we go.

You can't really tell from the photo but everything from the base of the neck down is submerged under water. I had no idea these guys could swim like that. S/he'd disappear under water for a respectable length of time and resubmerge. Absolutely fascination to watch. I photographed him or her working its way around the bank.

Same bird a bit later drying out.

I just loved the texture and colors these plants were giving. Gorgeous. I want to draw them later.

And a huge blue heron stalking around the front pond. I squealed when I saw he was out of the water and near the car as we drove out of the parking lot for dinner.

I Made an Ugly Blog

I know this blog looks like a hot mess right now. I'm still sorting out exactly how I want this thing to look as well as how best to present the ideas and information I'm trying to get across. What will be reoccurring posts? Do I want to have specific features or try to leave it all open to allow for more pieces to be covered.

I know the most important thing to me is process. What do I use and how do I use what I do to get my end result. How do others achieve their end result? To me this means a lot of inspiration posts, work in progress posts, tutorials and finished product features.

So not only do I need to work on how I'm presenting my information, I need to tighten up exactly what it is that I'm presenting.

And though this blog right now is a hot mess, I love it. The main reason is that it gives me an excuse to make. I quit my job in August '12 after what was probably something like a panic attack mixed with some sort of break down. It makes me really question my decisions to be a graphic designer. I finally feel like with this blog I don't have to impress anyone. I can make it (what ever 'it' is) and put it out there. There's this monsterous weight off my shoulders to impress anyone else. I don't have to bend over backwards for someone who wants a logo in papyrus. Or someone who doesn't know what they want- but knows they will 'know it when they see it'. Yet they get progressively more hostile when each revision is not exactly what they want.

I would say I've spent the past three years not making anything for myself or that I love. And I don't want to do that anymore. At least, not here in a personal space.

Now that I've got that little thought out of the way, here's some upcoming posts:

1. Cute Drawings
2. Photos from my Orlando Trip
3. Some of the Process for my Photo Editing
4. Photos I've taken in attempts to get out of my comfort zone.

What have you Drawn for me lately?

So I did promise to share some drawings from my sketchbook. I've been posting a little sporatically lately as I've been getting ready to come to Orlando with my boyfriend for the ICFA 34. I grabbed a few sketchbooks and flung them into my bag and didn't check to make sure I'd actually drawn in them! To fix this I grab a late lunch at sit in the little cafe to bang out a few sketches.

Breakfast / Lunch

Left: Lady anxiously looking over papers at the car rental desk.

Right: Woman with the most intense set of dreadlocks and cutest shirt combo.
Also I really liked both her bags. She darted off before I could draw her a bit more.

Now for some random animal doodles.

This one is a wee bit old, but apparently I have drawn something in this sketchbook!

I didn't realize at first that while I was drawing these, Neil Gaiman was ordering from the cafe. He caught me doing a double take.. oops! I do have a book for him to sign, I think he is doing that Friday and Saturday though. How exciting, eh?

Off Topic - Book Club!

So the fine ladies of Grits and Moxie and Grimmricksen are hosting a monthly book club. A monthly feminist book club! Who is excited, please raise your hand?! (Please note I have both hands raised). I've been reading a few books lately that deal with the topic of feminism and I'm super excited to have found a little online book club rather accidentally. I think it will be a lot of fun.

The book of the Month:

The Awakening by Kate Chopin (wikipedia article)

I've found a free copy that can be read online or downloaded to your e-reader here. The site, http://www.gutenberg.org/ aka Project Gutenberg offers literally thousands of free ebooks. Always worth checking out if you're looking for a new book to read!

I know this is off topic for my blog, but it was something I found really neat and thought some others might as well. Either way, happy reading!

Mail Time!

So I received a FANTASTIC mail package the other day from a good friend of mine. It was sort of a Christmas + Birthday + Emerald City Comicon gift party mish mash. If you love comics or finding new artists you'll love these guys and gals.

Sunday Set

For me March reminds me of the fall. Or maybe I try to pretend it is fall so I can stave off the heat (at least mentally). Here are some of my favorite things this week on Etsy that give me that cool fall feeling with a twing of freshness. Makes me want to make some quasi-spring watercolor paintings! It's just something changes in the air that just feels cold and open, fresh I suppose. Which is weird because we're already seeing pollen on the cars. And I'm incredibly allergic. Hope you're having a good sunday!

1. Ursa Major Constellation Necklace - asweetreverie
2. Hand Painted Vintage Cup - RoomforEmptiness
3. Forest Wrist Warmers - ameskeria
4. Pollywogs Pillow Cover - witandwhistle
5. Organic Soap - mirasolfarm

Credits:
Paint Texture - Spoon Graphics