Archive for March, 2011

Blair Thornley at the North Park Parking Garage

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

I spotted these illustrations as soon as they went up. Granted, that was a couple of months ago, but I wasn’t feeling well for a couple of months.

The illustrations are by Blair Thornley, one of San Diego’s many talented local artists. Thornley teaches illustration at San Diego’s City College and supports herself otherwise as a fine and commercial artist. Of her commercial endeavors she has done some very endearing animations for a Neiman Marcus Christmas campaign. You can find this commercial and her “Underwear Stories” animation at the animations section of her website. If you have 3 minutes, it’s worth a look. You’d have to hunt hours to find something so delightful on youTube.

I look Thornley’s simple line art approach. It the richness of her imagination and the confidence in her approach that make them work. It is certainly something I aspire to.

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Treasures

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

A friend of mine owns Suzie’s Farm in San Diego. They are the newest kids on the San Diego Community Supported Agriculture scene and they rock.

They recently held their twin daughters’ 4-year-old birthday party down on the farm (doesn’t that sound wholesome?), where the kids got to eat pizzas fresh made from a kiva oven on the farm, run around in the dirt, consume copious amounts of frosting, and go treasure hunting on one of the fields. Apparently the kids – in this directed/mediated age – were asking for some kind of map or list. How would they would know what is a treasure they wanted to know. You’ll know it’s a treasure when you see it, they were told. Where would the treasures be, they wanted to know. That’s the hunting part of the treasure hunt, they were told.

So here’s some of what they unearthed as well as some other recent treasures in my own wanderings.

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The World of Illustration – Magprint

Saturday, March 26th, 2011

As what I want to do most in the world (besides be a great person to the people I love and to human kind in general) is to be an illustrator, I thought I’d start compiling some illustrators that inspire me. I hope it serves as a source of research and a way to categorize and learn. In organizing and bringing this information to light, I also hope it helps me in deciding the style I want to pursue as an illustrator. As with any endeavor they say one of the best ways to learn is to study those who have gone before you. If you want to be a writer, read. If you want to be a photographer, look at photographs. If you want to draw, look at drawings. The name of this blog, after all, is look… see. The process of doing may begin with looking.

That does not excuse, of course, a lack of doing. I see this as a journey. One that will eventually lead to more examples of what I’ve done for other people to look and see.

So here are some beautiful rocks that I look and saw. They remind me of an illustrator who goes by magprint on etsy. This person is obviously inspired by the natural world, but has also done a series inspired by quilts that also have a rock like quality to me. What I enjoy is the pattern and texture and that comes out in the choice as lino cut as a medium.

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Bobro Stafford Wedding

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

I know it’s been a long time since I’ve blogged. Basically, the first trimester of pregnancy stinks. So while I’ve been busy, it’s mostly been with growing the organs of another being and watching a very energetic 21 month old. As far as my energy level, I was getting a headache every time I exerted enough energy to walk to the park which didn’t leave energy for much else.

Which isn’t to say I didn’t do stuff. I did do some stuff, especially if I was pressured into it or had a deadline. Now, as the first trimester woes wane, I’m finding my vitality getting back on track. I have the energy to show what I’ve managed to do and what I’ve been thinking about and hopefully do more stuff in the future.

So I’ll start with one of the bigger projects I undertook: making 80 cupcakes for my friend Anna’s wedding. The majority of the cupcakes were Irish Car Bomb cupcakes (use any excuse you can to make a batch of these. they are as good as they sound). We also made some carrot cake cupcakes since that is the other half’s favorite flavor (and who can blame him for liking cream cheese frosting?). While I was at it I had rubber stamps made of a whale and a bird to go along with their whole fish/birdie theme and then made little flags of the cupcakes from them. I also had whale and bird pins made as wedding favors. And finished up with a couple of signs, a guest book, and an outdoor wedding sign that took entirely too long for the end result (but the bride had requested it and she is so not pushy that I thought I could give her the one thing she had the nerve to ask for). All in all it was tons of fun (although I’m sure it stimulated a few headaches) and made me wish I had been so inspired by design*Sponge before my wedding (or maybe not…. I still appreciate the punk rock approach we ended up taking. it was sooooo not stressful). Still it’s fun to be involved with a DIY wedding. It definitely is a conduit for creative energy and certainly deadline driven.

Come to think of it, the Bobro Stafford wedding was pretty punk rock too. They ended up booking the Polish American hall the weekend before the wedding when they realized a backyard wedding in February was going to be a problem (Ms Bobro said it was oh-so-Deer Hunter

Carrot Cake Cupcake with Bird Flag

). And check out her tiger plate! Sassy.

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