Art & Design

Typewalk Poster

Typography lovers gather. #typewalk


Have you heard of the AIGA? It's the Associated Institute of Graphic Arts. I joined the Reno/Tahoe chapter in 2011 and have tried my best to attend as many of the meetings as my schedule allows. We also have a student group which I recently became president of. A crazy move on my normally super shy selfs part! But hey, I need to step up and be a little more outgoing. I also think that it will force me into networking within the local design scene, which will be immensely beneficial as I am about to graduate and enter the field of my chosen profession.
This past June the Reno/Tahoe AIGA group held their second annual type walk. Unfortunately I missed out on the first one, but I had heard from fellow group members how fun it was, so I made sure to make time for this one. Designers love our typography, and the typewalk sends us into our little city in search of all the unique typography we see and often take for granted. The first year it was held in downtown Reno. This past one was in Reno's Midtown district.
We paired off and were given a map to confine our journeys to a certain area. And we were off! We walked around in search of fabulous examples of typography. You could try and get the entire alphabet if you wanted. I was in search of an awesome K, for Kristine of course. But I also thought unique letters like X and Q would be fun finds.
Everyone then submits their photos and from them one of each letter is chosen to create the annual Typewalk poster! Here are my submissions...

a_kt


c_kt


e_kt


f_kt


g_kt


h_kt


k_kt


q_kt


t_kt


w_kt


x_kt


And here is the final poster. My F and G made the cut!

Click image if you wish to purchase.

Until next time. XO. K.

 

Rockwell Type Specimen

Today I would like to share a PDF of my first project in electronic layout and typography. The project was to design a typography specimen for a typeface. My typeface was Rockwell. We were to use images from the time period the typeface was designed as well as include all the letters, upper and lowercase, all the numbers and a 500 word essay. The front cover could only showcase one image and the name of typeface, the back cover had to have an image of the creator and an additional image as well as two paragraphs about the creator. Mr. Pierpont has no images of himself! It was also a very difficult typeface to establish a creator, because most of my research showed that Rockwell was "created at the Monotype Foundry under the direction of Frank Pierpont".
The Rockettes were formed around the same time this typeface was created, so I decided to use that imagery. I feel it also helps to support Rockwell's "showy" nature, since it is a typeface well suited to large type, like headlines and titles.
Please click the link below to view the PDF... and as always, I'd love to here what you think!
XO. -K

Rockwell Type Specimen

 

The Finished Product

It's only taken me all semester to have a moment to post this. I have never been able to post all projects from school up here, but I really think I've got some neat stuff, so I need to work on getting it on the blog when I have a chance.
So the first project in my commercial printing processes class was to design a business card for ourselves. I used my typography self portrait from a couple semesters ago. Overall, I am pretty proud of how they turned out. I even went all over achiever and did a two sided design, which was not a requirement, but I like two sided designs better. I'd love to here what you think!
business_front
business_back

 

Photograms

One of the very first things we did in my black and white film photography course was make photograms. We would place an object on a piece of photo paper, expose and develop. Here are my photograms...

photogram_1

photogram_2

photogram_3

photogram_4

photogram_5

 

 Preliminary

*this post started February 7th... 
Just wanted to stop in for a minute to share my preliminary work for my business card design. I need to get used to my new school schedule. I'm juggling it, but I feel very disorganized and I am severely lacking sleep.
This first design is a style I'm a fan of. It got mixed reviews. It basically breaks all the design "rules" so my classmates were not very fond of it. There's no hierarchy, margin or leading. Oh no! But I like it. And my instructor liked it. If I went into my portfolio class with this business card newer designers might like that I chose to pursue this concept, he said. But old school designers may not be a fan of it. So I tested it on my old school instructor. He said it looked like a junky magazine cover!
*this post finished March 29th
Yikes! What a gap. I started writing this post to share my preliminary work, but I ran into problems uploading with Flikr, so off to the back burner it went. My business cards are done and printed, and I would have a picture of the finished product, but my camera died. I have been so into my film camera, that my digital has been in it's bag since December! Today I at least have my preliminary designs. I decided to print the second design.

Business card 2

Business card front

Business card 1-back

 

Black and White Photography

Another class I am taking this semester is a black and white film photography class. I have always wanted to learn how to develop my own film and work in a darkroom. I think this fascination may stem from a southern California afternoon when my step mom pulled some boxes out from under her bed and showed me all her film and photos from her days hanging with bands like Led Zepplin and taking some kick ass pictures.
My life is nowhere near as interesting and adventurous, so I mostly snap pictures around my house and my city, Reno. Here are a few of my favorites that I've hung in the hall ways of my college. I am also considering entering one or two in the upcoming student art show. I'd love to hear what you think!
My first and second successful prints! #nofilter #blackandwhite #35mm #filmisnotdead #film
Shots from my new #nikon #f2 #35mm #film #dog
#thelastframe is my favorite #35mm #film #nikon
What I printed today... #cat #catsofinstagram #35mm #film #filmisnotdead

 

Baby Devin's First Photoshoot (and mine too)

My first baby photo shoot. Actually my first photo shoot in general. I am a habitual picture taker. I've loved taking pictures since childhood. Although the thought of taking pictures professionally has crossed my mind, I feel way too intimidated by it. It's a hard field to break into, with so many talented people out there. Nevertheless, I still love taking my own pictures.
So when my boyfriends sister said she loved my pictures and asked if I would take some of her new baby I jumped at the offer.
I've always wanted the experience, and that's how you learn. And boy did I learn. Newborn photography isn't easy. I even read some pointers online before our session, but still, baby Devin just didn't like it. At all.
It was super fun to raid my house for cute baby props, my favorite is the vintage suitcase in the first picture. And the pictures made a lovely (and cheap) Christmas present for the family.
So here are my favorites, tell me what you think!

First Baby Photo Shoot




First Baby Photo Shoot


First Baby Photo Shoot


First Baby Photo Shoot


First Baby Photo Shoot

 

Supermodel vs. Zombie

This is my first project from my Photoshop course this semester. We took a photo of ourself and then totally glammed it up (aka supermodel) then we made ourselves totally gross (zombie!).
Here are my pictures....
Model
model

Original
original

Zombie

Obviously for the super model one I didn't have to do much. Just kidding! I took away all my blemishes, freckles and moles. I took out my nose stud. I fixed my teeth and whitened them. I lightened my eye color and darkened my eye shadow and lips. I changed my hair color, gave my skin a glow and fixed the background.
For the Zombie I used a watermelon rind to give my skin texture via layers and blendmodes. I altered my cheekbones and jaw line. Added a maggot infested open wound to my chest, changed my eyes to green and darkened the image overall.

 

Lemonade Party

So, this year we have decided to have a lemonade party for Celeste's birthday. Earlier in the summer my little entrepreneur decided she wanted to have a lemonade stand. She wanted to sell glasses of lemonade for $5. Silly little girl. So, a couple weeks later I thought we could build a lemonade stand for her birthday. When I told her about it, her response was "but, who are we going to sell it to?". The people at your party of course! Daved just knew she would say that too. Oh well, I think it will be cute, and I think the kids will have a lot of fun with it.
It is also going to be her first ever slumber party. I cannot believe my little bug is going to be seven in a little more than a week! Eep. I feel kind of old. My life, my pace, right? Too bad my pace has been more like molasses lately. I am totally blaming the heat. No really. I have been suffering horrible headaches on nearly a daily basis, so I really haven't been my normal self this past month. Usually I have Celeste's birthday party planned to the T a month in advance. Not so this year. I am taking a crash course in procrastination 101 with this party. Hope I pull it off. Let the list making begin!
Lemonade Party Invites

Lemonade Party Invites

Lemonade Party Invites


For the invitations, I made a "cup" of lemonade by gluing to pieces of scrapbook paper back to back, with a slit cut at the top for the "lemonade" invite to slip in and out of. Simply pull up on the straw to reveal your invitation!

Sources- DCWV, Basic Grey, Colorbok, Studio G, Sharpie

 

Digital Portfolio

So here it is, my final assignment for my Print Media course. Since this was an assignment, every assignment and exercise we completed in the course was required to be in this PDF. So there are a couple things in here that are, well, meh. If I had my way, I would have only included my awesome work, but I had to include the cheeseball "wedding collage" and "melonhead". Please keep in mind these were exercises to teach us how to use tools in Photoshop, they are not a true reflection of my fabulous skills elsewhere.
Norma, my cute little waitress on the front cover and the fifties style signs on the index page, were created in Adobe Illustrator specifically for this PDF. All other works were part of assignments. Hope you enjoy! By the way, while my instructor did say it was beautiful, I was critized for the abundance of hyphenated text in my justified text boxes and my extreme leading on some pages. If I had the program to fix it, I would have, but school's out so it is what it is.
Portfolio Kt

I used some free fonts in some assignments and part of the liscensing restrictions is the inability to be embedded into a PDF. So here are the way those are supposed to look:

And here's a better picture of Norma for you, the PDF appears pretty pixelated.

 

  Show and Tell

I just wanted to take a moment to share some of my class work from this semester so far. I figure since I haven't been able to add to my Etsy shop, I might as well show what I have  been doing! Needless to say I am learning some fun techniques and I enjoy playing around with the software as well as solving these design "problems".

 First up here is my ducky. This assignment is designed to teach us how to use the pen tool in Illustrator. Using the tool, I drew each shape of the image above. Every color is a different shape. I did cheat and use the circle tool to create the background bubbles though!

 Next up is my Metro Salon Logo. The challenge here was to create a logo for a local business. The second image is my rough marker comp, which I then drew in the same process as the ducky.


 This is my typographic self portrait. The challenge here was to use letterforms to create a self portrait. It is a lot harder than you think! I am pretty happy with the way it turned out, and yes, those are all letters. :)

 

 

When Lovers Meet






Last semester in my printmaking class one of our projects was an artists collaboration. We had a large shape we divided into 12x12 sections. Each artist carved a twelve by twelve piece of linoleum to create a relief print of their chosen image. We then glued all the pieces down to create our shape and a large print was created from that. This large print is actually going on display for the Annual Reno Art Town event. The above painting is a painting created based off that image. I really loved how my print turned out, but since it became part of a larger work, I no longer have the block and cannot make prints. So I decided to create a painting based off the same sketch.  This is now the latest work available in my shop! XO.

 

Just Thinking About it

Just thinking about school resuming on Monday makes me anxious, nervous, and tired. I am so excited to be continuing my journey towards a career I will enjoy, but also nervous about the growing sacrifices I must make in order to realize these dreams of mine. I know in the grand scheme of things it is most definitely worth every bit of effort I am putting forth, so I keep on keepin' on.
I am so proud of myself for opening my Etsy shop, I have wanted to do it for a really long time. But I am a bit nervous at how much I can devote to it with a course load added to my busy life. I am just going to keep adding artwork at what ever pace I can and hope for the best!
On that note here is another item I've added to the shop. I called this one Soak up the Sun. I love her smiling happy face just soaking up the suns rays. It has been unseasonably warm here and it is just such a tease! I can't wait for the warmer weather, as much as I love scarves, mittens, sweaters and wool socks I am eagerly awaiting the days when I do not move so frigidly because I'm freezing!
XO.

 

Hold onto your Heart.

Today I was making cupcakes and a thought for a painting came to mind. A painting of girl holding a large heart, holding onto it with her eyes shut. Then a song came over my Pandora radio with the lyrics "hold on". That's it, I had to paint it! So here she is....

Sweet and innocent, not ready to give her heart up to just anyone. Reminds me of those romantic moments before your life is turned upside down by young love. Those moments when love is just a happy fleeting notion to your mind, an emotion yet to be experienced...
Print is available for purchase here.
And this weeks coupon code is heartmoon. Enter at checkout for 15% off your order.
Stop by tomorrow for Project Monday!
-XO.

 

Project 365- plus what i wore today

 1/365

 2/365


As you may have read, I have decided to do a project 365 this year. I will be taking a photo a day. At first I thought it would be neat to do a self portrait 365, to see the difference a year can make, but yesterday I was so busy painting that I didn't get dressed! So there was no way my first 365 photo would be me, makeup-less in my pj's! So I took a picture of what I was working on instead. And for day two, it is me, in my outfit for my niece Havin's birthday at Build a Bear. I have never been, it was so cute! I may not post my 365 photo's every single day, but I will put them up..... XO!

 

The first five.... coupon code

Holding true to my goal, I have uploaded the first five prints available on my Etsy shop this morning! I am super excited. I know this is not going to be easy, and it will always be a work in progress, but it is also tremendously theraputic for me.  keeping in mind that Etsy is a marketplace, I have only placed the first five prints of my "i heart" series up for sale. I have four more prints ready to go, so check back throughout the month for new work.
This series of paintings was really fun to create. I love so many foods and drinks, so I decided to translate that adoration into a series of paintings. I used really limited colors, mostly bold and bright. I wanted to keep it simple. It's a great experience to step out of my normal realm of portraiture, but fear not, I will be listing portraits also!
Any how, for my blogging friends, you can use coupon code "moongrand10" for 10% off your entire order during my grand opening month. I will be posting more coupon codes as time goes on, so check back with me soon....





 

My 11 for 2011

Eleven little goals to achieve in the new year. Nothing too spectacular, just some things for fun. I'm not really one for resolutions, I can never keep them really. But a simple list of goals is achievable for me. And this list is mostly fun, happy things, little changes for a new year and a different sort of me.
1. Start my Etsy Shop- I will be crossing this off my list tomorrow. I am so excited, and so nervous at the same time. I have really wanted to do this for a while. I think I have been so held up by making sure everything's perfect, but I have finally settled on the fact that your own business is a constant work in progress, and it will never be perfectly ready. Wish me luck!
2. Wear more hair accessories- I love the look of a bow in my hair, or a flower, or a glamorous barrette. I want to accessorize more in the coming year, it is so fun.
3. Dye my hair red- since I finally took the plunge this past year and dyed my hair dark brown after seven years of au natural, I think it would be fun to try a striking color some time in the next year.
4. Wear lipstick- I love the way lipstick looks, but feel a little awkward in it myself. So I am going to try to incorporate it into my everyday makeup routine more often.
5. Decorate my bedroom- I sort of started this year, I bought a lamp, duvet cover and headboard and footboard. But this year I want it complete, with painted walls, art work and an area rug.
6. Buy more handmade- I love shopping handmade and local, so I want to make more of an effort to shop this way during the new year.
7.Thrift often!- It is so much fun to find that thrifted treasure, so I want to make a point of checking out more thrift stores in my area, as well as trips away from my town.
8. Buy a smartphone- I took care of this one today. Now I just need to learn how to use it. I know I'm in the stone age, but I haven't been able to really afford it until now. Even my mom had a smartphone before me!
9. Project 365- I think it will be fun to take a photo everyday. I haven't decided if it will be a self portrait 365 or not. It would be neat to see the daily progression over a years time though, wouldn't it?
10. A painting a week- I want to finish a painting every week, so I have plenty of new material for my Etsy shop.
11. Start block printing at home- I've loved making prints since I first experienced it in high school, and this past semesters print making class reignited my love, block printing can be done easily from home, so I want to gather the supplies and start making some prints!
Happy New Year.... be safe and happy. XO

 

 

What Fills Your Heart? Project Monday

This week's Project Monday photo prompt is "What Fills Your Heart...."
While many things fill my heart, I chose only three photos to fill this heart. This heart is filled with the love of my daughter. My beautiful and precious girl is one of my greatest sources of inspiration and happiness. Daved, my boyfriend, is also in my heart. Without his love, compassion and support I do not think I would be the person I am today. He has helped me through some difficult times, as I have returned the favor, and together we continue to work towards my dreams and goals. He says he doesn't have any, but I will help him too when he figures it all out! Lastly is a picture of myself, and this is representational of my creativity and inspiration in all my artistic endeavors, which fill my heart everyday. My desire to create is my driving force, and it is a part everything I do.
I feel so blessed in so many aspects of my life, my heart is absolutely filled with joy that I am who I am and I am surrounded by loving family and friends who understand and support me. Sometimes it's nice to just stop and think about how many things in your life are truly amazing. It is especially fitting, in this Thanksgiving week, to take note of your blessings and the things you love about your life.
What fills your heart? If you would like to follow along with Project Monday, visit Bubblegum Life for your appointment with Friday, when Carrie and Gloria will give you your photo prompt. They are a good dose of inspiration, so head on over to check it out!

 

Solar Plate Print

I really love how my solar plate print turned out. I posted last week about the plate here. On Friday I cut the plate into pieces and made this lovely print. In addition to intaglio printing of the solar plate, there is also a collagraph print and a technique called chine colle. Chine colle is when you glue down a Japanese paper to your paper and your image is printed on top. You actually put the glue (Nori paste) on your paper and then line your papers up on the plates, then place your paper to be printed on top of that and roll through the press. Voila! You've added a lovely accent to your print. Love how it turns out and I can't wait to experiment more. -XO K.

 

Reduction Cut Woes

I really loved the sketch I made to create my reduction cut print, but the print itself, I'm not so happy with. While it was really fun to see the print slowly come to life with each layer I added, I also saw so many of my prints see their death with each layer that I added! And now, after printing my final layer, I have two prints of the twenty something I made that in my opinion are Okay.
A reduction cut is a form of printing where you take one block and make several layers with the one block. As you print each layer, you cut away your block to make the next layer, thus destroying your plate in the process of making your print. So the prints you have at the end of the process are all the prints you will ever get from that block.
So where did I go wrong? Well there are a few things I have attributed to my lack of good prints at the end of this process.
1. this is the first time I've done this
2. tearing paper (as is the fashion of printmaking) often leads to less than perfect edges
3. my registration guide didn't work (I don't know why, maybe the less than perfect edges!)
4. I may have chosen too detailed of an image for my first time at this, guess I'm an over achiever
5. I should have done more prints, thus increasing my odds of "a good one"

Here are some crappy cell phone pictures that I have been taking of this process. You can see as those last layers get added, my print just loses all is beauty. But it was a fun process to experience, and I'm not saying I'll never do it again, I'll just be more careful in my image choice and my registration! I will post a better quality, scanned image when the ink dries.
 This is my block on the registration guide.
 This is the first layer printed.
 Second layer.
 Second layer.
 Third layer.
 Final layer.
  Final layer.
  Final layer.
Original sketch.

 

Daved's Birthday and Printmaking








Yesterday was Daved's Birthday. We just had a small get together at our home, which was nice. I made him a chocolate mocha cheesecake, which was a hit. I will post pictures and the recipe tomorrow, for project Monday.  We barbecued Jack Daniel's marinated tri tip and had mashed potatoes and salad along with that. It was really nice, low key, a good time.  In honor of my sweetie, a small list of reasons I absolutely adore him.
- he really  knows me, and appreciates who I am
- he helps so much around the house and with my little girl
- he does sweet things for no reason
- he doesn't yell or get angry
- he knows we're absolutely perfect for each other, and tries not to let me forget it!
I didn't get him anything super cool for his birthday, just some jeans, a sweater and lots of boxers... I am soooo tired of seeing him in Christmas boxers year round, so I made sure he has plenty of non-holiday ones to wear. I did pick up one themed pair, but it has cassette tapes on it, so it's not designated to a particular time of year!

We have also moved on to our final project in my print making course, can you believe this semester is nearing to an end? I am looking forward to having the free time and hopefully accumulating enough artwork to start making and selling prints on Etsy. In fact I started a new series of watercolors today that I hope to sell prints for in my Etsy shop, so keep in touch!
Off on a tangent there... but these pictures are of a solar plate I did in class on Friday. I can't wait to see how these prints come out. I took the sketch above that I did earlier in the semester, shrunk it down on the computer, along with a few photos I've taken, then had them printed onto a transparency and exposed my plate with these images. I will then cut the plate apart so I can print the images individually or in any grouping I choose. I just had to take pictures of the plate though, it is like a gorgeous copper etching! The drawing of the legs is another sketch I've done for a print. The legs are for my reduction cut print. It is definitely an experience, and I will post pictures of those prints when they are completed. I have one more layer of color to print, but I lose prints with every layer due to them not lining up properly, but my goal is to end up with at least three good prints!

 

Sketch Book Project- First Two Completed!

I  just wanted to share the first two sketches that I have completed in my sketch book for the Sketch Book Project.




Unfortunately my main drawing time is on my breaks at work, so I am eating and drawing! And, as you can see, I got something on that poor guys face and the graphite has totally stuck to it... oh well kinda looks like he has a mole, right? I also have some pictures of my completed linoleum cutting, which I will be making some prints from next Friday before it goes away forever. (notice it is the same kissing couple as my second sketch!)




I forgot to mention on my weekly update post that Daved took me to a show. We saw Civil Twilight, Crash Kings and Anberlin. It was an awesome show, Civil Twilight was amazing. I don't think I have ever seen a band perform live that sounds exactly like the album. After their performance they manned their own table selling shirts and Cd's, so I purchased a t-shirt and let them know that I thought their show was amazing! It was like the days of old when I would go to shows all the time and talk to the bands and have them sign my poster. Which I did, I had Civil Twilight sign my poster. I feel like I'm thirteen all over again...

-XO K.

 

Working out the Kinks

Well I spent some spare moments this weekend working on the design for my next print in my print making course. We will be carving this one out of linoleum, so there will be no shadows, just line and if I'm creative, texture.
This is weird for me because I rely heavily on shadow when I draw, I think it helps bring "life" to the imagery, but this is what I got so far:

I plan on repeating the pattern in on the right all the way up the side, and of course more detail with the tree texture.  This line drawing is a far cry from my usual drawings, where I try to avoid line and go with mostly shades, like this (sorry, a bit blurry):

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