My digital sketch book.
How adorable, right?!
The idea behind this design: a “design your own playhouse” for kids! It was to be an interactive site with a section dedicated to building the houses and then a just-for-fun games section.
This was one concept of two that I had for a certain project and the other one won out. I came across this concept design the other day and forgot how delightful it is. Makes me want to finish the interactive game I started to make for it…
Posted in digital art, web design.
– January 6, 2010
I was looking on Etsy, loving all of the creative and beautiful works of art and became inspired by this color combination and well, it just made me smile. And then I created some art. Quick, simple. Life is sweet.
Oh and it started out with wanting to create a pretty geometric form. Here it is.
Posted in digital art, print design.
– January 4, 2010
Recently I visited my best friend in upstate WI. She is a cook for a campus of 30 students and she likes to make homemade goodness for them. While I was there, she taught me how to make bread, and we fantasized about opening our own bread shop someday.
That is where the inspiration for this design comes. There is no content, but the design was created in an hour. I wanted it to look earthy and have a homemade but modern feel. The white and futura font bring out the modern and the burlap background with a pic of some fresh bread give the earthy feel.
Posted in web design.
– November 16, 2009
Art is therapeutic for a lot of people. It was one of the graduate paths I might have taken, but alas, God did not intend me for me to be an Art Therapist. But, for some reason, God has stirred a passion for art inside of me. I love creating. Its as simple as that. Although, I think I enjoy the process more than anything. Especially with Fine Art.
For example, I have no idea what I just created, and it has no real purpose, but while I was creating it, I caught myself smiling. That is what makes it worth it. I mean, there is no real meaning to others, but it means something (somehow) to me.
The text in the background are all lyrics from very memorable songs from different chapters in my life. Music brings back vivid memories and perhaps the creation of the grey blob says something about those memories…or maybe it doesn’t. Perhaps an art therapist would be able to tell me.
Design is supposed to have meaning to an audience, so I won’t call this design, I will call it art. It was truly created for only me.
Posted in digital art.
– October 6, 2009
This painting by Van Gogh has always inspired me. Probably because I love sunflowers. I decided to take inspiration from it and see what I could come up with. There are a lot of “paint by number” Van Goghs out there and this is my version of a “paint by number” digital remix.
The flowers came out really well. The vase could use some work, but all in all, it was fun and that was my goal.
Things like this also help me work on a different design style or simply just improve upon my own style. For example, how I created the sunflowers in the remix. I downloaded free clip art of a sunflower outline, then downloaded some free textures from the Stock Exchange. In Photoshop using a clipping mask, I combined the outline and colorful texture. Then with the paint tool did some blocky painting behind the outline to fill in the gaps with a lighter color. The end result is very organic…reminds me of a magazine collage look. Now that I have this style in my back pocket, who knows when or where it will come in handy, but it might and that’s the cool part!
Posted in digital art.
– September 26, 2009
Definitely the coolest thing I have seen in a while. It would be really awesome if a flash designer/programmer took these videos, allowed the user to choose a few and then created dynamic art based upon the music. It would be different every time! And totally user generated. Well, at least I think it would be pretty sweet 
Maybe I’ll try something similar sometime. Here is the link to check out these videos and create your own mix: http://inbflat.net/
Posted in misc.
– September 25, 2009
This was my interactive flash project that I created for my thesis. I’ll hopefully get the swf up soon so that you will be able to actually interact with it instead of simply viewing the images! There are some minor changes that I have to make before posting it…but in the mean time…feast your eyes on screen shots!
If you so choose, you can download and read my Thesis Paper describing the project.
Posted in digital art.
– September 11, 2009
Since helping my sister out in designing and printing her wedding invitations I have accumulated many floral brushes. None of which that I have made personally but I downloaded most of them from various people on deviant art. There are an abundance of really well done free photoshop brushes there.
So, I decided to create a colorful collage. I love organic shapes like these and…I love collages. If you would like some more collage inspiration, I highly suggest Curly Girl Design, which is the site of a highly talented collage artist.
Posted in digital art.
– September 8, 2009
I made some Palm Pre wallpapers today. Now if only I had a Palm Pre…
But let me tell you a story.
Once upon a time, about two months ago, I owned a Palm Pre for a day. True story. One bitter sweet day. Sweet because the device is truly glorious, bitter because I almost threw this glorious device across the room because of Sprint. Don’t worry (I know you were) I would never had hurt my Palm Pre but one day after I had purchased it, I had to march right back to the Sprint kiosk in my local mall and tell them I needed to cancel my contract bc the service was sooo bad. They even tried giving me Nextel service which apparently does well in the Rochester area, and I said “great! and I can keep my Palm Pre?!” To which they said…no. How rediculous.
It was quite sad, and it felt like a death march…walking back into the mall to return that device when I had waited so long to get it. Ah well. I am anxiously awaiting Verizon to start selling the Palm Pre around Christmas time. OH Verizon, don’t let me down!!
Posted in digital art.
– August 24, 2009
I have had this big blank wall in my apartment for a while…and have been dutifully ignoring it for a while as well. During a week of vacation, I decided to put an end to it!
Already, I have lots of art papers laying around, left over from handmade book projects so I decide to put them to good use. My living room (which has the big blank wall) is very neutral looking with deep red accents. I chose some deep shades…of grey, blue, green, and then put them together with some fun brighter patterns. Also, I decided not to get too fancey with this project and so stuck with simple shapes…flowers. After gathering some ideas from allposters dot com, I set to work, cutting and pasting.
I finished this project in about 6 hours. And all you need are the basic tools, elmers glue, ruler, xacto knife, scissors, toothe pick (for glueing small parts), a cutting board, wax paper (so you don’t glue anything to the dining table that you might be working on), and that is about it.
My process was simple: pick the papers that you want to be the background, I chose one pattern to two plain colors for each collage I did and then used another pattern for the flower silhouettes in the foreground.
You’ll want to lay all the paper out first and when you know your work in finished, then start gluing everything down, starting with the papers in the back and working your way to the front.
Oh, don’t forget to gather some nice artsy paper from your local art shop if you want to mimic this project. You won’t find this paper at Michaels or JoAnnes, but google will tell you if there is a nice small art shop near you (they are bound to have a good supply). If you are a Rochesterian like me, you can find these papers at the Fine Art Store downtown. I will warn you, these papers are on the expensive side…anywhere from 3-6 dollars for a 3×2 foot sheet. If you don’t want to break the bank buying your supplies, gather some old newspapers, magazines, and brown paper bags for an eco-friendy project.
For my project, I glued my collages onto a white piece of Bristol board the size of the frame I wanted to place the art in.
Here are the three pieces I made, ready and waiting to be hung! Its not the work of a master or anything, but it was my creative fix of the week and now my big blank wall won’t be so blank!
Posted in crafty projects.
– August 20, 2009
