Some Summer Assignments

Hello! Sorry it's been about a month. I would have posted, but I didn't have anything scanned in to show you! One of the frustrations of being away from school and all it's conveniences-- you have to go to Office Max and pay for scans. Anywho, this is what I've been up to:


"GK Chesterton" Gouache, 2010.

I made this piece pretty quickly after getting home from New York. I was feeling really inspired and wanted to add some more hand-lettering to my portfolio. It's something that I have been so interested in lately, but never really had a chance to explore much. Thanks to my wonderful friend Shelley, I actually got to take this piece and my little portfolio booklet to ad agency GSD&M here in Austin. Shelley's aunt Liz works there as a hand-letterer, and she gave us a tour of the office. It seems to be a really fun place to work, and the interior of the building is indicative of that! I ended up leaving behind a few booklets and postcards. The staff there really seemed to like my work. If I want to juggle an in-house job like that while working on my freelance career, I just need to make more pieces that are applicable to advertising. So that's why I switched from Humorous Illustration to Advertising Illustration for the fall! I'll also be taking Introduction to Psychology and Intermediate Lithography.
Speaking of printmaking, here's a lino relief with chine-colle I did for our New York Harper's Magazine assignment. My previously-published article was called "Life on Broadway." There was a specific portion of the article describing bees, but more appropriately, the article begins with a quote comparing the city to a beehive. That's where I drew inspiration for this piece. Unfortunately, when the very nice Office Max man scanned this in for me, he cropped off a portion of the left-hand side. If I get a better one, I'll post it. What's missing is a bee or two, and some buildings like the right side. The work was pretty symmetrical. Ironically, when printing this at the wonderful and amazing Slugfest Studio in Austin (where I plan on having a membership after school! It's just lovely-- they even have cats) I went to brush something off my leg, and low-and-behold- it was a bee, which proceeded to inject it's entire rear end into my thumb. Two days later it's still pregnant with poison. I found it pretty amusing that the subject of my own illustration ended up hurting me!


"Life on Broadway" II. 1/3 Relief Print with Chine-Colle, 2010.

Here it is without the chine colle:


"Life on Broadway" I. 1/4 Relief Print, 2010.

And last, but not least, is my final New York assignment: an additional portfolio piece that takes the constructive feedback from one of the people we visited. I decided to use this as an opportunity to make another children's book example, and made a point to have my character in action, creating more of a narrative. This was based off some advice given to us by Claire Counihan, Holiday House's Director of Art and Design. I had a lot of fun making this, and I think I'm getting into a bit of a good groove here.


"A Very Large Cookie Jar" Gouache and Collage, 2010.

More art on the way! I am currently working on a travel-poster-ish image for Austin, Texas (because I just love this place!) and hopefully I'll get it scanned in soon. Also, keep an eye out for a post about my new little screen print business. If you love cats, you'll love this stuff!
Until next time!
adios,
caitlin