Sometime last month I mentioned this canvas art experimentation project I was working on.
Well, it's all finished finally and here's the result! I made palmistry inspired canvas art using my paper mache method.

Usually for paper mache projects, I like using a blender to get my scrap paper to a pulp-like consistency. I'm unfortunately not living with a blender at the moment, so I had to figure out another way to make it work. So I soaked my shredded paper scraps in a container of water overnight.
After I molded the hands using the soaked shredded paper and a towel to soak up the excess water, I let them sit on a dry towel to dry for a few days. When they were all dry, I used dry paper scraps to decoupage and smooth out the hands.

After experimenting with both methods with the soaked paper, I think I prefer the blender process better because the pulp stays together, as the process I tried this time around didn't work as successfully. But I made it work.

I got inspired from this pattern I made a few months ago and wanted to build something off of it. I took some of those elements and placed them on the hands along with other elements I researched.

I painted a base coat for two out of the three hands, and painted the elements by hand. I had a couple of variations drawn on paper and once I found a design that worked, I followed the design when painting everything.

To finish it off, I poked two holes at the top and molded wire to make them ready to hang.

It seems like a complicated process, but it's pretty easy. Just time consuming. It is pretty easy to lose patience around some parts of the process though, which is why I take so long to finish these sometimes, but the end result is always exciting.

All three are up for sale on my Storenvy shop. As I always say, I may make more if these sell. They're fun to make, and they're completely made up of recycled items, as is all my canvas art up for sale.

I think I've shown my love for bookbinding enough so far, right? Being a self taught binder, I gave in and took a book binding class my last semester of college. It was the best decision I've made in a while.
I learned quite a number of different binding methods and the right way of binding. My self taught binding was a little rough and I fudged things to make them things work, in which they did some of the time. But those fudged ways can only get me so far.

We were taught Japanese stab bindings.

Plus paperback sort of bindings. I love the envelope one.

And hardcovers as well. These are a bit more tricky but I LOVE the end results. The middle one is my favorite.

For our final project we had to create a book (obviously) and fill it with content that is personal to us. I had taken a book illustration class the same year; my friend and I wrote the story together and I created the illustrations for the main project. I decided to carry that into book binding and take my drawings and turn the book into a coloring book.
I had brought my drawings into Photoshop to trace over and thicken up the lines, and then figured out how to print the pages. Was a little tough to get that part down, but I eventually figured out how to print them.
Yea it may be a little unconventional to make a hardcover coloring book, but I think it's fun.

I have a few projects in mind in which I will be using this newly learned knowledge of book binding. I really can't wait to get them rolling!

The past few weeks I've been scrambling to sew and construct as much as possible to be super prepared for Kawaiiland, which finally came around! The event was yesterday, and it was so fun.

I wasn't able to finish everything I wanted to for the event, but whatever was all done was good enough. I was ecstatic to bring what I was done with, which some of them were sold!

Now that the event is over, I feel little to no stress and it makes me feel wonderful that there are no deadlines in the meantime. I can't wait to sit and create things that I feel no pressured to finish asap. Expect a Kawaiiland update tomorrow.

I've been hardcore focusing on putting things together for Kawaiiland. I've been scrambling; one more week until the event!

Aside from clothing and accessories that will be for sale, I wanted to created something extra. My coworker had given me the idea to screen print posters.

Diving into screenprinting, I had to rely on memory from the one class I took, and Youtube. I took a trip to my local Blick and bought screenprinting supplies I didn't have. I don't really have facilities for screenprinting, so I had to make do by turning my basement bathroom into a darkroom.

While the emulsion was drying on my screens, I created my image on acetate.
Following the usual step by step instructions, I managed to successfully burn my images into my screen.

After the screens were all prepared and dried, I started printing. I bought a pack of 50 sheets of speckletone paper from French Paper.
I went crazy printing and printing.

49/50 were printed successfully. I'd say that's good for the first time printing in years. After letting them dry, I painted pink into the cherry blossoms with acrylic paint.

These will be extra goodies available at Kawaiiland. I'm excited to add them to my table! I'm the happiest that I was able to make legit screenprinting work at home with no machinery. It's possible, trust me!

Back in April, I posted about bottle top magnets that I made. I mentioned that my brother saves his beer tops and has a whole tin can filled with them? Well, he doesn't use them, and so he gave me permission to take as many as I'd like.
I worked on this idea for quite a while: I'm a big fan of Gwen Stefani and thought it'd be fun to make bottle tops with her and her hair phases.

I painted the backgrounds a nude color. How I decided on that color? I have no idea, I basically just winged it.
I just gathered a bunch of colors and painted the edges different colors. I decided on each set having six, so I painted six different colors.

I drew out six different of my favorite Gwen hair moments. I traced a few out and colored them with marker and colored pencils. I cut them out and glued them onto the bottle tops.

I sprayed my favorite clear glaze over all of them. When they dried I glued the magnets on and let them all dry real well.

I've made five sets of these magnets. I think think they're so fun.
I just posted them in my Storenvy shop. I hope they will be in demand because I would love to make more. I have so many more magnet ideas. I love reusing and recycling!

As I mentioned in the previous post, this project was a two parter.
We basically had to assign a project to ourselves and find a working illustrator to be our 'mentor' through the semester. I knew what I wanted to do, but I admit I may have changed the project, or maybe more like narrowed it down to a specific idea. I had some disagreements with my mentor. I saw it as an issue of 'originality'. Now let me say I do believe there is some originality left out there, but I think most of what everyone does is influenced by other people. It's hard to be original. As much as I would like to think of my work as original, I like basing my work on pop culture references. I'm not trying to be original. I like referencing things I know and love as my expression of what I like; basically paying homages to things that make up what I like.

That being said, the three patterns I made were based on songs I like. After interning at a screenprinting shop, I've been all about making images intended for apparel. I created this graphic that was inspired/based on Rock Lobster by the B-52s. I've been about nautical/deep sea divers for a while, so I of course carried it through to this project.

My mentor didn't really seem to like the direction I was going in with this project and believed in taking another route where I didn't use another piece of work as a reference. We lost touch, so I went ahead with the project. This kind of art and reference is my thing, and as much as I wanted to do something more abstract, I had more fun doing it this way instead.

I created a shirt out of scrap fabric I had, and got it printed at my internship.

My professor and my friends loved it (I printed this image onto shirts for a couple of friends, they loved it so much). So as much as originality would be fun to try and work towards, I didn't want to go in that direction and found this to be successful. And it's more me anyway.

I'm pretty sure I posted this video once before, but I'm going to do it again anyway. Here's the B-52s.

I've been all about patterns last semester. Taking that wallpaper pattern class really changed things for me. I'm still getting the hang of making patterns, but I've been all about mixing illustration and pattern making.
I've spoken about a Mentor class we had to take. Well, the class spanned two semesters, but with different professors and different mentors. The first class was really successful communicating with my mentor. Second time around, not so much. We barely kept in touch and sort of disagreed on some bits of my project, which I'll talk about in my next post. This project sort of separated into two parts for me.

Anyway, I went on with my own thing. I think it's pretty noticeable that I'm influenced by pop culture and a lot of my art shows it. I continued with that for this project. I wanted to make patterns based on songs relating to nautical sort of things which would be intended for apparel use.

The first two images are based on one of my favorite bands, The Raveonettes. The song is Black Satin. I created my image and found a t-shirt template to see what the repeat would look like.

When I sketched out my idea, I drew it in line. I played around a lot in Illustrator and got a lot of textures but wanted to try out a more simple line work too. I ended up liking both so I included them both in my final project.

This pattern was based on The Waves by Tamaryn. Repeated, I liked how it came out like a strange checkerboard pattern.

I was interested in getting them printed onto fabric. A friend told me about the greatness that is Spoonflower. After researching, I went ahead and ordered all three. They came out really cool and I'm currently experimenting with ways of cutting and sewing them into cool shirts and whatnot. Spoonflower is a site I will definitely be ordering more from in the future.

So here's that Raveonettes song I love so much.

My wallpaper class had two projects. The first was based on historical eras of wallpaper, and the second was contemporary.
I went through a weird teeth phase toward the end of the semester. With school finishing up, that meant my dental ain't covered anymore. And I really want braces. I never needed braces growing up but lately I've been obsessing over the wanting to do some straightening/housekeeping. Couldn't get them but I hope to eventually. I basically was focusing on things that weren't important.

So my head being all over teeth fixings, I made my contemporary pattern about teeth and dentist related drawings.

I did some sketches in my sketchbook and scanned them into Photoshop. I drew outlines and kept it really simple with only five colors.
I made a few color variations. I like the lighter ground than the darker, but they're all playful.

Here's an action shot of me presenting the project in class - one of my last presentations in school ever. Photo courtesy of my friend Katherine.

Is it me or can you not get more 'merican than on Memorial Day weekend & Independence Day; I associate those days with burgers & barbecues. I feel like it's the American way.
I took a wallpaper class last semester and did this burger pattern that I felt was appropriate to share considering the holiday.

I had 50s diners in mind when I came up with the idea. The idea basically expressed how burgers are the center of everything, and the toppings revolve around them.

On a big sheet of simple bond paper, I traced my image and formed a half drop repeat. To make somewhat of a textured pattern, I just used magazine scraps to fill in the images. So this was all cut paper & colored pencil in the background. Took a long ass time to color the back, but I liked the effect. So determination helped.

Here's a great Kids In The Hall skit about America. It's all spot on if I may say so. 'merica!

Happy May! It surely is a happy May indeed.
School is coming to an end, the summer is rolling around, I have a full time job waiting for me, and I feel a lot of creative energy and feel inspired. I can't complain right now.

Our student exhibition opened on Tuesday. A lot of great work from different majors. Being a part of it this year and seeing the behind the scenes, there's quite a bit I can complain about with the disorganization and whatnot, but being that everything is done and over with, why bother lingering on it.

I got one piece in. It was my Galileo piece. It looks so nice and crisp in a frame hanging on a wall in a gallery. I have to admit, it's a nice feeling. It makes me want to be a part of gallery exhibitions in the future. I don't think I would turn that down.

My final day of classes forever is Thursday coming. I'm really feeling all the emotions. I don't want to think about it yet.
But I can't wait for the freedom. Real soon!

Before heading to Portland, I finished up this canvas piece in which I sort of based off The Runaways "Cherry Bomb" song.
I really find that I like working in markers sometimes because it helps me learn to be more graphic and bold. And I like that about this piece. I appreciate the chance to experiment.

Just like all of my other finished canvas pieces, I put this up for sale in my Storenvy shop. If you're a fan of The Runaways, I think this would be a nice little piece to own. Just sayin' :)

Speaking of Storenvy, I changed my layout up a bit. I got rid of the header, made a nice little icon for the top left of the page, and threw together a little pattern for the background. I feel like it makes the store look a little cleaner and not so cluttered, although it really isn't too much of a change. But I do like change!

This is a little project I've been meaning to finish when I started it back around...sometime last year. My brother has saved mostly all of his bottle tops. He planned on using them for his own projects, but never seemed to do so. So I took a few with the intention of making fun little magnets.

I painted a few to play around. The only frustrating bit is that you need quite a number of coats of acrylic paint. After many coats, and a few months later, I sketched a few little designs on the tops.

I collected my paints and painted the little designs.

Some of the paint came on a little streaky and lumpy, and I was scared of chipping - so I thought the tops needed a good coating. I used my Krylon clear spray to take care of that.

A few days ago I took a trip to Michaels and bought magnets and E600 glue, which I heard is a good super glue. I needed good super glue.
Before gluing the magnets on, I didn't want the magnets to be level with the edges of the tops, so I glued down a small strip of cardboard to elevate the magnets.

I let the bottle tops sit around for a few hours to let the glue set before playing around with them.
They're so precious and bright. It was a success for sure, I plan on making so much more knowing how it works out in the end. I have so many ideas!
Start saving bottle tops and give it a go!

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.