Paint Me A Picture

Gorgeous images by London based photographer Iain Crawford. Check out his website for more truly awesome shots.

PHX Layers Round 1

I competed in another round of PHX Layers yesterday and unfortunately, it didn't go quite as planned. For those of you who don't know, PHX Layers is a design contest where designers volley an image back and forth for six 30-minute rounds (3 turns each) manipulating, adding, and subtracting to each image. My qualifying round went pretty well, and I was able to use my skills as an illustrator to my advantage because it was pretty unique in a competition with designers who were mostly layering a lot of outside materials and throwing in filters and effects. However, yesterday my incredible slowness caught up with me, and I felt the major pressure of the 30-minute time limit. In my second round (image 4) I just ran out of time and threw a few things together and I didn't feel particularly proud of the work I put up. I was able to rally back in the final round, but I don't know if it will be enough to carry me into the next round. Check out my head-to-head with Jon Ashcroft at PHX Layers and vote for your favorite!

Below is a small preview of our 3 rounds (mine are on the right side):

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

I Want It

My dream pet. Can't it just live in my backyard? I have a pool!

SeeSaw's Big Reveal

It was a very exciting day at work today - SeeSaw officially posted their 2010 letterpress calendars online and, as one commenter noted, they're taking over the blogosphere! The girls have put many months of hard work into these calendars and it's really wonderful to be a part of such a beautiful (and hopefully outrageously successful) project. And if you think they look fantastic in pictures, let me tell you these don't even compare to how amazing they are in person. So, as any letterpress admirer will know, the best way to appreciate handmade work is to get your hands on it - which you can do by visiting SeeSaw's shoppe and purchasing one for yourself!

PS... Please don't be afraid to gush to me (or the girls) about how much you love their work!

Mosaic Masterpieces

Morrine Maltzman, a very good family friend, just recently updated her website where she displays her absolutely gorgeous mosaic work. I've selected a few samples of her work, but you should really check it all out at M & M Mosaics!

Red Rocks

Spiral Table Top

Address Welcome

Comerica Park (aka Tiger Stadium)

Floral Mural

PS... She's available for commissions! Keep up the great work Morrine!

I Want These

I just couldn't resist... I want both this baby and this dog... and I kind of want to be both of them, too. Look at those punims!

New Work, Old Work

This has been a whirlwind of a week since returning from vacation! I got right back into the swing of things with three new projects on my plate: a redesign of my brother's business logo (he owns his own computer service company) and new business cards, business cards for a client, and business cards for my best friend who is an amazing photographer!

Here are some of my early ideas for my brother's logo:

Quiesco means "I rest" in Latin, which is what my brother wishes he could do all the time. I think breaking the word into two ("qui" and "esco") makes it makes it a bit easier to understand the pronunciation, and I like that "qui" and "esco" are also words in Italian, translating to "here" (as in location) and "I go" (as in exit/leave).

I also got my volunteer assignment for Free Arts of Arizona this week. For those of you who don't know, Free Arts is an incredible nonprofit organization that "sparks the creative spirit of abused, homeless, and at-risk children." I've returned to Free Arts after a 5+ year hiatus (because I was away at school) and I will once again be a volunteer mentor, something I have been looking forward to since I returned home. Once a week, for 14 weeks, I will be visiting a location and doing an art project with kids. I've been assigned to a group home with emotionally disturbed teenage girls, and I'm really excited about getting started! Last time I worked with Free Arts I was volunteering at Crisis Nursery, where most of the kids were under 5 years old, so the types of projects we could do were pretty limited. I'm excited to bring some challenges to these older girls and try to get them to enjoy the creative process as much as I do!

Speaking of the creative process, a few months ago I was working on a freelance project that I had found on craigslist. The project ended up falling through, which is part of the reason I don't trust anything on craigslist, but I thought I'd share the sketches I was working on. The client told me to draw a cow in a Superman pose, with Hamburger Helper hands and tennis shoes. I drew this:

The guy rejected it and told me that he was looking for something a cow with a bit more of a Superman physique (I thought mine was funnier, but whatever). So I sketched up this buff, rugged, militant cow:

And the guy said this was on the right track but still not what he was looking for. He told me he'd send me some samples of what he wanted (if he had samples, why did he need me in the first place?) and I never heard from him again! Oh well, I guess that's why I didn't produce any final art quality work for him. And I guess it wasn't a complete waste of time, because I have these funny cows to show for it!