Batman

This was done for a Tim Burton Collaboration on deviant art done by http://tavington.deviantart.com/

Illustration Friday

While I have done work for various weeks of Illustration Friday, this will be my first post for it and the first time i'll link it back to the site. This was done in photoshop at about 4x6 photo size. The theme for the week was desert so i choose one of my fave deserts.

quick update

so i have just a quick update.
in a couple days i'm thinking of taking my website down until the new one can be put up...for that to happen i need to finish a few last minute projects, photograph them and then html write everything....
also does anyone have a web server that they just adore...i like mine but for what i use the are a bit pricey.

i'm also going to be separating my illustration life from my total life on facebook so that it will be easier to keep track of everything and one.

i'm also very happy to say i have lots of artwork to post and talk about...

so stay tuned i refuse to dissapoint. ;)

Time for a quick update.

I found out Sunday that 2 visiting artists were coming to the school, and that one was looking at portfolios. Since I found this out last minute, I quickly went through all my computer files and anything that I hadn't yet scanned and came up with 8 good images. Dropped the portfolio off on Monday and today I went and saw their morning presentation. It was a major relief to hear from two established artists that their can be a lot of fear involved in the process of starting out and making a name for yourself.

Tonight I have the lovely task of printing out even more stuff to get ready for an art show at a local place in Old Town Arvada called the D-note. [good food, and depending on who's playing good music.]

Projects that i'm currently working on:
- Carousel, a children's book that I need to tweak the writing on and have started preliminary sketches for layout. I hope to try and get it published by sometime later this year or next.

- Star Wars alphabet. This was inspired by not only my love of Star Wars but my nephews as well...if all go's they way I have it envisioned it might be turned into a quilt, stay tuned for sketchs.

- Website re-build. This will be the third and hopefully last time that i rebuild this sucker for awhile, i'm not happy with the layout in some areas and the factor the depending on who or what is viewing it, it gets all skewed. I also want to make it simpler to navigate and find things. I have everything planned out, and will begin the making and coding process tomorrow.

-I need to finish digitally painting a sculpy model, and then finally update not only my website vy my deviant-art accounts as well.

I do have one question how many people would be interested in this weekly comic i've been working on called 'What Nutz'?

Have to go and buy some ink, write to you all later. [next update with have sketch book pages as soon as my scanner quits acting up i promise.]

-Michelle

Book Review: Breaking into Freelance Illustration by Holly DeWolf

I found this book through amazon.com's recommendations. I had put it on my wish list for a latter buy. But after reading Illustration Islands recommendation I picked it up from a local store, and boy am I glad that I did. While this book did cover topics that were discussed in some of my various classes at RMCAD, it also touched on topics that were not discussed. I think one of the main reasons I like this book is because the author is able to not only tie it into her own experience but also allow others to tie in their own view points. I liked her chapter on creating a home studio. She had different ideas on storage, and on item's that should be present or at least within arms reach. She also had very good points for and against working at home. I think that it was also helpful that she talked about creating a brand identity to go along with all of your promotional items such as postcards and websites. I will admit that some of the topics I felt that I already knew a lot about. But after reading I still found so much input and ideas not only from Holly DeWolf, but Penelope Dullaghan, Andi Butler, Claudine Hellmuth, and Von R. Glitschka just to name a few. I think one of my favorite chapters was "Handling Problems the Creative Way." She touches on burnout and procrastination, as well as the "Unthinkable Events". It was that section that caught my attention the most. I don't think that it crosses to many illustrator minds that something could happen to them. In the authors experience she had been bit by a dog that almost had taken off one of her fingers. Artists don't normally expect stuff like that to happen, and to have our abilities taken away as well as our income can be down right financially dangerous. The silver lining to all of that is to have insurance as well as to have a plan B to fall back on until if and when you can go back to plan A. I truly do think that this is a book that should be kept withing arms reach, at least to reference everything.

check it out today

Today is my 24th birthday, well all right technically it was yesterday. I have update my deviant gallery and the portfolio connected to it with most of the art work that i have done over the past 2 or 3 semesters. On wednesday I will be doing a major job hunting expedition as well as doing final research on art directors so that on either thursday or friday I can send out portfolio's and such. I also have two paintings, at least 3 comic book pages, and editing of a children's book story that i've been working on....very busy week.

da portfolio

deviantart

Graduation and Job Seeking.

I have graduated from Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design or RMCAD. I have also got my website up and running, and it can be found here. I think the design is ok, but I still will be going back a tweaking it a bit before i'm truly happy with it. I want it to be a but more interactive and a little easier to update and read from one browser to the next.

And since I no longer need to be in school I have begun to actively pursue jobs both on monster.com and linkedin.com. So far I have found a couple jobs but I will need to wait and see on them.

In the next coming days I will be updateing not only my deviant gallery, but my online portfolio as well. I'll also be printing out various copies of my portfolio start sending them out, finish the two paintings that I have, take photos of all my ceramic and sculpy artwork, start selling some of my art on ebay. I'm hoping once all of this is done i can work on the website and on the children's book that I have been writing

my goal for this year is to not only find a good job, but to try and get this children's book out to publishers, and update all the sites and such at least once a week.....will see how that goes.

I wish all well and have a creative life