On hold

This blog is going to have less activity than usual.  I'm busy finishing up the summer semester, packing for a short family trip to New England, and--most excitingly-- preparing to move to Australia in August.

So bear with me, and look forward to fun photos and new artwork inspired by the land Down Under!

Something new...

After filling several sketchbook pages and playing around on Photoshop, I've decided to finally put my graphic design skills to use on Etsy.  I am now offering wedding save the dates, invitations, and thank yous.  These are customized digital files that can be printed via an online company (such as MOO or Vistaprint) or at home.  Only one design is available now, but I have several others that will be ready this week (they just need a bit more finessing before they're ready).

 Postcard save the date

A special thanks to photographer Alex Siebenthal, for allowing me to use her images for the samples!

Social Connectivity Domination

I've added a new social networking site to my online presence (as if it isn't large enough already): Pinterest!

My sister told me about the site weeks ago, but I've just gotten around to signing up today.  It's a cool way to organize my online finds, and a great way to find inspiration.  Definitely check it out, and follow me if you like!

New Etsy Items

I've finally been able to create and list some new Etsy items.  Along with some more magazine bowls, I've also added some new postage stamp cards:

PRIDE

LOVE

 HOI!

G'DAY

See America First

The spring semester is wrapping up.  Here's what I've been working on for the past week or so:

 Yosemite

 Yellowstone

The assignment was to create a single poster, but I conceived my project as a series.  Each poster focuses on a specific National Park within the system, but advertises all parks through the slogan "See America First."  Yosemite is what I've turned in, and Yellowstone is just for fun.

Unfortunately I had to use images found online, due to a lack of personal source material.  However, my boyfriend and I are planning a cross-country road trip next summer, and I hope to visit a few parks on the way.  Once I have my own images to work with, I plan to create a couple more posters as portfolio pieces.

I'm also finishing up a small Flash portfolio for my ActionScript class.  I plan on posting that as well, provided I can get all the coding to work correctly!

This is what it sounds like when the doves cry

My website work has taken a backseat to class assignments.  Thankfully the semester is almost over and I'll be back on track soon.  In the meantime, here's what I've been working on this week:

The class assignment was to create a CD package.  Usually these assignments come quickly, but this time I just wasn't into it.  It took me a week to finally decide which artist/band I wanted to design for, and a day of scrapped concepts before inspiration struck.

My biggest problem was over-thinking it.  I originally sketched a collage-style cover with portraits, doves, and that nifty symbol Prince used to go by.  It didn't work.  So after much frustration I did the only thing I could: listen to The Very Best of Prince on a loop.  That worked.

All-in-all I'm pretty happy with how these pieces turned out.  They have a gritty/epic/mysterious feel that invokes Prince's music without using an image of the artist himself.  The overall technique was borrowed from an online Photoshop tutorial I found months ago, with a few tweaks to suit my needs.  It's a cool effect that I can definitely use again.

It's business time

Received my Moo mini-cards last week!  Cannot wait to include them with my Etsy items.  :)

Website Design, Take 2

Just when I thought I had my new design hammered down, I had a fresh burst of creativity.  My original design is being set aside in favor of a cleaner concept.

This was my original design.  I liked the idea of using a large photo as the background.  I chose Lomography shots I'd taken, and planned to use a different shot on each sub-page.

Homepage with witty introduction (I'm still refining the copy.)

Concept for Bio sub-page

While I do like this design, I think it would work better for a photography portfolio.  I may still create this site as a web portfolio piece.  I really love the concept, and would love to use the images I chose in some context.  If anyone out there loves this, please send me an e-mail-- this could be your new site!

My latest design is a lot cleaner, simpler, and more representative of my work.  I'm still playing with proportions, but this is what I've come up with so far:

(The light pink vertical rectangles are guides, not part of the design.)

Eventually I will create a Flash enabled version of this site to showcase those skills.  ActionScript is beginning to make some sense, but I'm still waiting for it to really click.  

Meanwhile, I've started going through my work to chose which images to include in the portfolio section.  There were obvious noes, and a good handful of yeses.  The maybes are where I'm having trouble.  I'm trying very hard to be objective about my choices.  Just because I like them it doesn't mean they're a good portfolio piece.  I've also been extra creative lately, so there are pieces in the works that may make the final cut.  This is a happy problem, though.  There are some pieces on my website now that I'm not 100% proud of, but included anyway.  A big mistake I won't be making this time around!

Designing All Day

My website is long overdue for a redesign.  I built it years ago before I knew anything about creating a web page from scratch.  iWeb was the only program I had at my disposal, and while it's very user friendly (gotta love Mac software), it's far from perfect.  Throw in my disregard for file naming conventions, ignorance of SEO, and underdeveloped design style, and you've got yourself a real mess.  OK, maybe not a mess per se, but certainly not a site I'm proud of today.  Now that I have an arsenal of software and online resources, I'm ready to create a proper online portfolio.

My newest favorite is imgr, an online image color tool.  Simply upload an image, pick how many colors you want to generate, and voila!  imgr creates a customized color swatch based on your original pic.  I've used it a couple times already, and love it.  It's a great way to supplement color schemes I've already chosen, or to pick out colors within a photo that I didn't catch.

Above is a swatch I created for my website redesign.  Just a little too autumnal for my tastes, but adding a contrasting blue or purple might fix that.

Did I mention...

...I made my first Etsy sale this month?  Well, I did!


I know it's only one sale, but it's still exciting.  It's nice to know my hard work is paying off (no matter how slowly).  This, Treasury mentions, and hearts from fellow Etsy users are a wonderful little pick-me-up when I'm feeling down.  They also inspire me to keep creating.


So THANK YOU to my online support system!  :)