Moon Goddess Spicy Hot Chocolate

This was a creative project for my Nonwestern Art History class to modernize a nonwestern art technique, and what can be more modern than taking ancient mythology and reinterpreting it for a product logo.  The Moon Goddess is from Mayan Mythology who can always be found with her rabbit sidekick discussing secrets in the sky, and I choose them to represent spicy hot chocolate because its a popular Mayan drink.  This was also meant to be a bit of a parady on Starbucks, hence the slight mimic of their design.

and the process of making it.  Drawn by hand, tweaked in Photoshop then finished in Illustrator.

Climate Change

a bas relief assignment to illustrate climate change.  I thought the best metaphor for today's and the future climate would be a lot like children performing a play.... chaotic, unpredictable and will only get worse with the performance.
I think its always much more fun to take a serious issue and turn it slightly more lighthearted.

Final piece, I choose to construct out of cardstock on wood, I thought paper would seem more whimsical and fun like flat props on a stage.

plus the rest of my preliminary sketches to help work out the final idea

Mary had a little....Lamb?

a project in my Illustrating Literature class to illustrate a sequential piece.  I decided to play with the "Mary had a little lamb" nursery rhyme.

 initial character sketches

at first I wanted Mary to be a little girl obsessed with sheep who dresses her dog like one.

then Lamb turned into a wolf wearing one of Mary's stuffed sheep toys to convince her to play with him

I really liked playing with borders in this one, alternating the movement of the characters in and out of the scenes

I also wanted the piece to work well as whole image and not just as individual scenes

and fin! it all became stitched and buttoned together

Baker's Helper

an illustration for the short story "Baker's Helper" by Cynthia Anderson

8"x11" watercolors

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

some of my process, I pretty much work all digitally until the final

value studies

color studies

I really wanted a tree pattern for the background...but it didn't go with the design very well, instead I went with shadowed trees from the bakery window.

The Locavore's Dilemma

"Fresh and Direct From the Garden an Ocean Away"
An editorial illustration meant to go along with an article about the problem a true locavore (a person who only eats local foods) might face, the dilemma= because of globalization and trade since Columbus plants no longer grow only where they originate.

So even though eating out of your own garden may seem local the plants most likely are from somewhere else.


done in pen and ink

FiFi Storyboarding

Another commissioned work for The FiFi Chronicles.  Here I did a series of storyboards depicting scenes from the first screenplay to be used in a kickstarter campaign to promote the trilogy.

Happy Holidays

A holiday card design I recently made that is another piece in my animals and beverages series.  A series that I am still strangely obsessed with making art for whenever I have the extra time.....I <3 Coffee & Tea!

Little Bunny Cocoa

I also wanted to show some of my process that goes into one of these designs

I draw the sketch out on tracing paper (easier to move around and work in layers)

next I figure out the pattern background (which might be my favorite part of these paintings) I sketch out by hand what I kinda want, then scan in the drawing and work out the rest of the design in Photoshop making sure everything is even and works as a pattern.

it took a bit on this one to get the right snowflakes and after playing in Photoshop for a while I settled on these,  I tried to keep the bunny theme in as much of the details....even if a bit subtly.

Then I lined em' all up, refined the pattern more and printed out the design.

I line the drawing and snowflake pattern up and begin the transfer process onto the final watercolor paper ready for painting

 For fun I also made a little mini gift tag with the bunny pattern

Happy Holidays Everybody!