Monday, December 31, 2012

A year in posters

It's the last day of 2012, so I figured it was time for the sentimental end-of-the-year post. Here we go. January: The poster that started everything, for Ms. Liana. Right now she's trying to fund her new album via kickstarter, you should support her because she's awesome.
February: Payton's Bug Jar show! What a wonderful year for Payton's band as well, such an evolution. They are now known as Paxtor.
March: My freaking favorite band in Rochester! This show was so much fun.
April: A celebration of the joy included in my yoga practice. AH!
May: A celebration of bikes. Also, I rode my first century this month.
June: Working toward an internship at the legendary Hatch Show Print. I didn't get the internship, but I did get this sweet poster! You can't win them all!
July: My very first show at the Owl House, and one of my favorite posters to date. The little diver is also tattooed on my right arm now.
August: My first trip to Portland for Pickathon; a bluegrass music festival on a farm. What happened after was this illustration for Brady Dillsworth.
September: My first month working for the Babes. You can purchase this tee shirt here.
October: Ani and Ruthie's Florida tour. Posters available here.
November: A celebration of autonomy. Tee shirt available here.
December: A poster definitely inspired by Pickathon as well. Big thanks to all the iterations of the Windsor Folk Family.
Here's to another year of posters! Cheers!

Monday, December 10, 2012

About a year from now, I say goodnight.

For the holidays, I have switched gears a little bit and started work on some portrait commissions. I felt a little rusty, so I did a lot of portrait studies and worked extra hard. I took a break from the linoleum and the window paintings as well, because sometimes you just need to switch up media. Below, a Jakob Dylan sketch:
The commissioned portrait! If you know the kids in this picture, SHHHH IT'S A SURPRISE PRESENT FOR MOM!!!!
I finished up my poster for the Windsor Folk Family! Below is layer one:
And the finished poster:
Finally, I got to be a part of my first calendar! The Genesee Center for the Arts puts out a letterpress calendar every year, and I am proud to say I am November 2013! It was really fun to get back into letter pressing, and to eat at Dogtown because it's right next door :)

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Maybe they're bored.

Happy post-Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope you've all overcome your turkey or tofurkey hangovers, along with the pie, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and other goodness that family brings to the table. I'm glad to back at it in the studio, I've been wanting to do a nice bluegrass poster for the Windsor Folk Family since I got back from Pickathon. Here's the progress on the lino:
I finished the front cover for Liana Gabel's CD! Next up is the back cover, then we're going to print! Yay!
Thanksgiving, for me, means a lot of car travel to see family, and a lot of time to draw. I present to you: more anatomy and breakfast drawings! Wahoo!

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Today was supposed to be just another day.

Here's a good sketchbook dump for y'all. I've been working on a series I call "anatomy and breakfast". These guys are the newest ones in the growing series. Eventually, I'd love to publish an artist book of this series. It started with me revisiting my old anatomy books to keep myself sharp by constantly drawing the figure, bones, muscles. It also helps me in my yoga practice, with a greater understanding of the muscles that I'm using. I have to insert type into everything, and I love breakfast. My favorite thing to do is treat myself at the diner around the corner from my house on a weekday. Behold:
This is my finished lumberjack illustration for Brady Dillsworth.
Type for the front cover of Miss Liana Gabel's album <3
You can now purchase this limited-edition screenprinted poster on Righteous Babe's website! They only have a few left, so when they're gone, THEY'RE GONE!

Sunday, November 4, 2012

You're what happens when two substances collide, and by all accounts you really should have died.

Here's another Americana illustration that I'm working on for Brady Dillsworth.
Orange Glory Cafe's second location opens next week in the Times Square Building in Rochester. A painting for the new cafe :)
The Tweed Ride that I started organizing many moons ago turned three years old. Eighty six people came! What an honor. Thanks to everyone, especially to our official photographer, Joe Philipson, who took this great group photo.
This was my first time drawing the Righteous Babe logo. What an honor! This image is for the back of tee shirts and perhaps sweatshirts!
Another tee shirt design for Righteous Babe, from Ani's song "Splinter". Remember, as these months get colder, you can STILL always go outside! I'm so excited for the snow to fly and to be able to get on my cross country skis, I haven't talked about much else the past few days.
On the subject of winter and snow, I finished one of the illustrations for my friend Liana Gabel's album this week too!

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Rubberband

What I've been up to: Entering a logo design contest for the Two Man Gentlemen Band.
Tee shirt design for Righteous Babe :)
Drawing crazy amounts of anatomical studies to keep myself sharp!
Oh! Then I have an opening tomorrow night at Roc Brewing Co, I'm part of a great group Halloween show at 1975 this Saturday and my Third Annual Tweed Ride is Sunday! Yay!

Thursday, October 11, 2012

When I look down, I just miss all the good stuff, and when I look up, I just trip over things.

From the sketchbook: drawing some mice for a project that may turn into a different project. I've been listening to Ani's "As Is" so much lately, and yes, she infiltrated my non-Ani sketches too.
Finished commissioned painting for the owner of The Barn Owl to put in her new store, opening later this month! You may remember a poster I did for them recently, or, if not, you can keep on scrolling and find it in an older post.
My first Ani tee shirt design! My assignment was to work with the quote "I don't need anyone to hold me, I can hold my own". This quote totally hit home as a single and fabulous lady who supports herself happily. I really embrace my independence (most of the time), and I wanted to illustrate the joy of self-legislation. After some research, I learned that many cute animals are solitary in their adult lives, including Polar and Grizzly Bears. I had a really fun time explaining this illustration to a girl in my yoga class who had a tattoo of balloons on her back. How many times do you get an over-exuberant girl coming up to you telling you that they drew a bear holding balloons earlier this week? I'm very excited to see this tee shirt in print!
My little brother got married last weekend, and it couldn't have been more perfect. I had such a fun time with new and old friends, and family. The wedding was located in the Hudson River Valley, and I got to take a trip down memory lane seeing many places that I used to explore with my grandparents. In this photo, taken behind the church, the river is directly behind us!

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Maybe I was an outlaw, or the law itself.

I completed my first poster for Righteous Babe Records this weekend! Yay! The assignment was to create a poster for Ani Difranco's October tour. About a week prior to starting this assignment, I had a great yoga class where the theme was animals. We discussed how many yoga poses are named after animals, and how sometimes during your practice it is essential to ignore your frontal lobe and go with more basic feeling. For example, when you see a dog or cat get up from a nap, they don't just shuffle to the bathroom, they get up and stretch, yawn, they listen to their bodies. In our constant reasoning we forget to listen to our bodies. I digress.. when I recieved the assignment I went to work listening to Ani interviews and live performances for days. Ideas bounced around, as they do, until I sat down and thought, "What kind of animal would Ani be?" She's strong, fierce, independent, beautiful but "not a pretty girl", outspoken, and amazing. I felt a lioness would fit her perfectly. I also wanted to give you guys a peek into my process. The first thing I do with my lino is a detailed full size (11X17) drawing of the poster, including type. I then put tracing paper over and trace everything. Below, you see the traced picture.
From there, I flip the tracing paper and transfer the backwards image onto the linoleum to cut it. Below, you see the linoleum all cut out and inked for printing!
After printing three colors, I scan them into photoshop and layer them there. I could cut more out of the linoleum, but I really like to keep the integrity of my block, I feel that it in itself is an art form. I have trouble letting go. As for the color scheme, you may have noticed the change of season. As an Upstate New York girl who loves autumn, I decided to embrace the colors of the season. Voila!
I also got time this week to visit a group show that I'm a part of, Rochester Art Supply's Invitational Show at the High Falls Gallery. I fell in love with a silver brick wall behind Mr. Yorke.
And... some sketchbook pages.