Another lady sketch

Just some more practice. This is from one of those old photos I got at the antique store. I didn't even bother to erase my grid lines. I don't really like this one. I like her hair and cheekbones, but for the life of me I could not get her eyes or nose right. That means it's time to move on.



I did a lot of cartoon sketching this weekend. Although I can't post any of it because it would ruin the surprise. Uh, I've said too much.

I bought a bunch of brochure design books this weekend. I have to design our HR brochure, which is the only thing I can work on here that isn't hospice-y and directed towards old ladies. So I'd like to do something cool, although I don't know how much they'll let me get away with here. They already pretty much told me, "no photos." No budget. That's kind of limiting. I can raid istockphoto and try my best. I also have no timeline, which means I don't really have time to do illustrations. I'm thinking vibrant colors with big, blocky word bubbles filled with employee quotes. I don't know. I'm not used to being creative here!

Logoworks, eat your heart out

The CEO of my company decided to start a charity, so he came to me asking for a logo. Here were the specs. It had to have the name of the foundation and he wanted an image that illustrated "supporting leadership." Oh yeah, and I had about 30 minutes to work on it.

This was my first idea and it took about five minutes to throw together.



He actually went with a variation that I had also given him with a serif font, thinner "bodies", and a burgundy color scheme. But I liked this one better.

I actually came up with my own personal logo (seen here) the same way. It was my first idea and took very little time to execute. I made a million variations for my corp ID class, but the original was the strongest still. And it's probably the only thing I've designed that I still like after 4 years.

Talk about procrastinarting

Okay, okay, I haven't posted in forever. But I swear I have been doing artsy stuff, I just haven't scanned anything. I drew a fun swirlie thing at the Across the Narrows music festival when some crappy band was boring the hell outta me. I pulled out some old sketchbooks and tried sketching some portraits from magazine pictures.

Here's an example:



This one I did last night while I was sitting in bed. Probably not the best conditions for sketching, but I'll take what I can get. It's just a start. I might try to finish it some more later. Or maybe I'll just leave it this way. At least her features look proportionate, which is more than I can say about some of the other ones I've done. I'll just tell everyone they are aliens.

On saturday I went to an antique store and bought all these old photographs from the early 1900's-1950's. I want to try sketching those too. Those pictures are way more interesting than magazine girls.

I enjoy sketching on the gray paper. I wish I could find a journal/sketchbook with paper like this. I have a lot of fun using a white pencil for highlights. Something I got addicted to in figure drawing class. Speaking of figure drawing, my boss just told me that a figure drawing class can count as continuing education if I want to take a course. The Pennsylvania University of Fine Arts is directly between my building and my parking lot, which would be totally convenient. But their classes are about $500 a course. And despite what my boss says, I'd feel guilty.