Another busy week has gone and passed. Pretty eventful if I may say so.

01. I have a project I'm currently working on involving graphics and patterns for apparel use. For this project I've been bouncing around themes and ideas and went down my usual pop culture reference route. This specific sketch is based after Rock Lobster by B-52s.
02. For that same project I started constructing a blue shirt to print that graphic on. I have a bunch of ideas and things I want to play around with and it makes me super excited.
03. I ended the week with hanging out with some friends at a penthouse in Manhattan. It was crazy to find myself in that kind of environment with models and millionaires, but you gotta take what you can get sometimes, and if it involves models and millionaires in a penthouse, so be it! That was an interesting way to lead into my birthday yesterday.
04. In which here are a little batch of things I had received for my birthday. I first treated myself to the Ex Hex vinyl e.p., the Psych season 7 dvd and cat eye glasses necklace that my family gave me, and pepper spray my brother had gotten for me. A strange batch of gifts, but I couldn't be happier with how my day went.

If you watch USA or know of the show Psych, I'm sure you've heard about the show being officially done. The series finished up with an 8th season and it makes me so sad to see it over. But over the past 8 years, I've been wonderfully entertained and couldn't love a show more than Psych. I hope that we haven't seen the last of the characters, but I guess time will only tell!

The past two weeks have been a bit on the hectic side, scrambling to get projects done. I can finally sit down and actually write a post.

01. I've been working on this one mini handmade canvas that I plan adding to my Storenvy shop. Features a quote from a Runaways song with a badass chick, hah!
02. One project I scrambled finishing this week was this wallpaper pattern piece. Inspired from mid-century modern era and diners. I made a funny burger pattern (my friends think it's very Jetsons-like)! I'll post about at a future date.
03. Currently working on an animal piece for this other assignment. It's my take on the Space Race!
04. I found some time to sit and relax last night. And so therefore, I watched a movie and made pom-poms for a future garland project!

So many projects are in progress, I wish I had some finished ones to post about!

My video of the moment is by Ex Hex, Mary Timony's new band. I almost saw them on Friday, but my friend forgot her ID and the bouncer was a jerk about it. So we walked around the downtown NYC, got ice cream, and ate our feelings.

My schedule has been a bit rough this semester. I find myself with little time to post during the week, starting random projects for myself during the weekend leaving them lingering unfinished, and homework assignments are put on priority... It's just been a bit crazy.
Between school, my internship, and my trip in January, there were a few things I wanted to post about but never got around to. So I figured as I'm finishing up current projects, I'll share what I meant to share much earlier than now.

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Senior year of the BFA for Illustration, there's a required class in which we have to find a 'mentor' - a working illustrator that assigns us a project and is there to see it through to the end. There are a couple of exchanges in communication in which we send them ideas, sketches, work-in progress photos, and a finished piece. Can be either in person or through e-mail.
Through the internet, I found Ola Volo - an illustrator from Vancouver. I loved her details and pattern work in her art, and so I wanted to work with her. She found time in her busy schedule to help me, and we even met in person while she was in NY! She assigned me a portrait series - two portraits to be exact. Didn't have to be anyone specific, and it didn't have to be literal portraits, which I liked.

After a few sketches and exchange in ideas, I came up with a sun and moon portrait idea. Opposites: night and day.
I wanted to work larger than usual, and I wanted wood again. I painted the background in acrylic (yes I used glitter!), and worked on paper with colored pencils and glued it all down.

I only was able to photograph one really well. I still have yet to photograph and edit the second, but I plan on doing so real soon to get it up on my portfolio site with the first.

I was influenced by Helen Marnie from Ladytron. I remember getting e-mail updates about her recording her solo album through kickstarter at the time. If you can see it, the sun portrait somewhat resembles her…hmm.

I got a record player for Christmas and I've become all about collecting records. I've even gone through my parents record collection and "borrowed" quite a number of them. I've noticed that they own a lot of 7" records that have no sleeves. It makes me feel a little uneasy leaving them hanging like that, so I made a record sleeve for the 7" Chicago record I "borrowed".

I wasn't sure of what I wanted to make the sleeve out of, so I went through my recycling bin and found a cereal box (I find super thin cardboard like that is perfect) which fit the dimensions I needed. The other supplies are pretty standard: ruler, scissor, pencil, tape.

I measured everything out and left the length a little bit longer than the width.

Depending on the size cardboard you find, you may have to play around with dimensions. I found that 7 inches wide is of course a tight squeeze for the 7 inch vinyl (oops). To fix that mistake, I cut strips of paper that loosely hugged the edges, and taped around the sides to leave a little extra room for the vinyl to slide in and out comfortably.

I used masking tape, but didn't want that to be visible, so I used fun washi tape to cover up the masking tape.

The graphics on the inside of the cereal box left a fun effect, but I still wanted to make a little label. So I roughly drew the Chicago logo and blocked it in with pen. I drew squiggles with marker, and taped it up with more washi tape.

And so, here's one of my favorite Chicago songs.