Wedding Sketch

(engagement photo credit to thegoodness.com)

I was recently asked to draw a fun wedding invitation for a friend. They’re both active swing dancers, so I wanted to incorporate that in.

I sent the bride my color sketches last night and while both her and I enjoyed this particular one, her fiance really liked another. Tia’s an awesome girl and since she chose to commission me for the invitations, she’s letting him pick the design I’ll take to final. So since this drawing was cut I thought I’d post it here because it’s still a fun doodle of them. ♥

SRC Products

I wanted to post a final update regarding my last Summer Reading Club commission. The finished products have started going up and it's so exciting! I wanted to share with everyone since my portion is done and the library was kind enough to let me take a few photos.

When everything was said and done I ended up illustrating the characters for each week (including various versions; some with textures, some with flags behind them), hand written text, vectored images for the plastic bags, and drew/designed the folder itself.

Northern Tier Regional Library used the illustrations for their newsletter, pamphlets, book-recording folders, plastic bags, t-shirts, stickers, 2 by 3 foot promotional signs for around the township, and a massive 3 by 8 foot banner for across the entrance to the children's department.

(I should note I was not responsible for any of the design layouts other than the folder. I provided the illustrations and hand-written text, and they had someone else take care of all the various placements for each product.)

Anyway, onto the photos!

Stickers! (My favorite, but only because I've been a sticker collector since I was a kid haha.)

The t-shirt(s).

The 3 by 8 foot banner across the department.

An example of the signs that have been put around the area! (Cars driving by probably thought I was crazy for crouching in the grass taking photos haha.)

And finally, the folders! I designed them so the text appears sideways, but when opened up and displayed vertically it can be a poster. I was told a lot of the kids liked to keep theirs from previous years, so I thought it would be a neat idea to compliment that.


Everything turned out great and I was so happy to see the final prints. In a way, it's wild being able to watch a project from start to finish.

Charlie

A family friend’s Golden was recently diagnosed with cancer, which saddened us all. I was commissioned to paint a quick portrait of Charlie so it can be given as a gift sometime soon.

Summer Time

Summer! (and a new drawing~) I haven’t been to the beach since I was nine but I’ll be going in a few weeks so I’m super excited!

Summer Reading Club 2011

Once a year the libraries of Allegheny County (Pennsylvania) have a Summer Reading Club program to promote reading and education to kids. There's a new theme every year, but this summer's is "One World, Many Stories” where a different country will be focused on each week.

Traditionally Allegheny county hires a graphic designer or illustrator to do the promotional artwork, then allows the individual libraries to buy various products of their choice from them. But Northern Tier Regional, my local library, contacted me to see if I'd be interested in designing new illustrations specifically for them and this year's theme. They thought it would be more unique, fun, and a chance to promote a local illustrator. I was excited!

Since every week focuses on a different country, Northern Tier's children’s librarian wrote a one sentence scenario for each and I worked my illustrations around them using the country’s national animal as the main character. The sentences given to me were:

"If you go to India, DO NOT get eaten by a tiger but DO ride an elephant." (national animal: Bengal Tiger)

"If you go to Australia, DO NOT get in a boxing match with a kangaroo but DO keep walking even if a crocodile smiles at you." (national animal: Kangaroo)

"If you go to Japan, DO NOT challenge a ninja but DO stop to see the cherry blossoms." (national animal: Tanuki)

"If you go to Brazil, DO NOT pick up a poison dart frog but DO check out the rain forests." (national animal: Jaguar)

"If you go to Ireland, DO NOT steal a leprechaun's gold but DO visit the Giant's Causeway." (national animal: Red Deer)

"If you go to France, DO NOT get lost in the underground catacombs but DO take a walk through Monet's garden." (national animal: Gallic Rooster)

"If you go to Russia, DO NOT go en pointe without lots of practice but DO see a show at the Bolshoi Theatre." (national animal: Russian Brown Bear)

I also illustrated, designed, and did the text for the folder that is given to each participating child to record their book titles into. I'm already so excited and can't wait to see everything printed! I'll be sure to share a few photos when the products begin to arrive.

Summer Reading Club sketch

All I have left for my current commission is to layout the folder and hand write the text, so here are some of the final color scribbles sketches I turned in before starting the finals.

Animals, countries and libraries ~ oh my!

Ovechkin

A commission for my awesome hockey-loving pal, Yen_san. ♥

Papercut Magazine Design

A few sketches and a quick color study for a collaboration project Nicole, Meg, Erica, and I are working on.

Erica, Meg and I created designs based on a mood board Nicole sent each of us, then Meg lovingly sewed (from scratch!) all three of the outfits that each of us designed. Afterwards Nicole picked models and scouted a location to photograph everything in. The final product will be featured in Papercut Magazine sometime soon; I can't wait to see the results!