Illustration Workation in New York - Part 2

Welcome back to Illustration Workation. In this second episode we'll have a glimpse of the remaining educational days of our stay and next week I'll make a post about our free time activities and also possibly make a post that will feature advise and interesting tidbits of stories from all the people we met.
So here we go:

Day 4 - Wednesday - Comics day - Ok, fine. The day wasn't all about comics. First, we dropped by Lotta Jansdotter's studio/shop where she talked to us about patterns, textiles, and licensing. It was our fist time taking the subway to Brooklyn.

Look at the neat tile hats decorating some subway stations!

Apparently Brooklyn is very patriotic when it comes to graffiti

Lotta's

Lotta's shop

Lotta's shop

Lotta's shop

Lotta's shop

After meeting a pair of awesome illustrators based in Brooklyn we traveled back to Manhattan to learn a bit about the comic industry at DC comics

In their elevator hallway they have an amazing wall with all their characters. We all took turns posing next to them.

After DC we had a meeting with Archaia comics where we learned about more the indie comics and copyright. And after that my friends and I went to see "Pippin" on Broadway:

Day 5 - Thursday - Back to Brooklyn - We went back to Brooklyn to some very seasoned art directors and children's books illustrators.

Yours truly

After our official activities were done for the day - we walked the Brooklyn Bridge

The closest we ever got to the Statue of Liberty

Day 6 - Friday - Books, Bread and Brisk art. On this last official excursion day we went to Penguin books and then the Society of Illustrators.

Bookshelf at Penguin Books

Best book on that shelf. I haven't read it yet, but I'm certain it's solid gold.

Just arrived at the Society of Illustrators for a luncheon

Norman Rockwell’s 'Dover Coach' at the SOI

SOI library fireplace.

And here's our merry band of misfits on this NY adventure

And again - check out my friend's video-blogs for her takes on some of our experiences on her YouTube Channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/SweetPetitePea/videos

Till next Tuesday!

Illustration Workation in New York - Part 1

Behold, finally the post about my New York trip. Sadly, now that I've gotten around to writing about it... I'm not super enthused to do so since I've been talking about a lot and I guess my storytelling energy has been thusly diminished. But I'll give it a go and probably keep things brief.

Basically what happened was that 9 other illustrator ladies from my university and I all signed up for a trip to New York organized by two of our professors where we would explore the art scene of The Big Apple and meet inspiring illustration industry professionals. We'd get a peek at illustration within the fine art, gallery, editorial, children's book, and textile realms.
And so, everything worked out - all of us made it on the plane, landed safely and spent a week in New York overwhelmed and inspired by amazing stories each day.

Here are a few of my favourite photos for each day of our stay. I apologize in advance for any crappy photos which were partially the result of my incompetent phone camera, and the fast pace of our trip.

Day 1. (Sunday) We took a red-eye flight and arrived in New York around 8am. We didn't do much that day, mostly walked around, napped, and ate food.

That's me at Times Square. We just dropped our luggage off and were in search of breakfast

Times Square

Oh look! One of those unique NY individuals

Night performances in Times Square

Day 2. (Monday) This day we met some amazing illustrators who were all very, very nice.

Guess whose studio that is, cause I won't tell ;)

Decided to to Little Italy for dinner.

On the way back to the hotel we spotted Alan Cumming making a fan appearance after his Macbeth performance

Day 3. (Tuesday) Editorial day. We casually dropped by The New York Times and Harper's magazine...yes, casually. (No, not really. There was security clearance and everything).

We started the day by hitting up some recommended art and book stores

Oh no, our group got separated crossing the street

Had a meeting at an Empire State Building conference room with a young, promising illustrator, who all the ladies really loved to take pictures with afterwards.

Stay tuned for the next episode airing next Tuesday where we went to DC comics, walked the Brooklyn Bridge, and dashed through museums!

And in the mean-time check out my friend's video-blogs for her takes on some of our experiences -- Episode 1 - "On a Plane Again"
YouTube Channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/SweetPetitePea/videos

Letters Can Become Reeds

Happy Wednesday!

I  got back from a trip to New York recently and there's lots to show and tell there. But that will have to wait till later this week, or possibly early next week. Right now I'm swamped with different projects here and there, so bear with me.
In the mean time though - let me share with you a little something I've been working on on my breaks. I'm trying to do more illustrated type and here's the result of a sketchbook doodle I started while the song "Smother" by Daughter was stuck in my head once, especially my favourite bit -

 "Where all my layers can become reeds
All my limbs can become trees"

And, eventually this happened:

This is simple a digital piece - a vector image layered on top of my textile textures. Nothing too fancy, but I like it. :)

And of course, some process steps for you:

sketchbook drawing

vector text/image layer

I decided to just work with the quote.

finished piece

I made the colours a little less saturated and earthy, and layered a leaf textile texture in the background.

I also played around with a darker background, but I think I prefer the light version.

Prints available at my Society6 shop {here}

The Ishirthara Test

Hi! A quick post today, I think.

Lately I've been super preoccupied with a summer science course that I'm taking. It's really interesting but a real black hole for time since there is a lot of reading and writing involved. But...but there's also illustration involved. Not necessary anatomical illustration (thought it could be for anyone interested), but more of any type of illustration you want to do to help make your research papers more interesting. I've been going with a more digital graphics type of concepts with my pieces. They haven't really been my usual style, but I thought it would be good to try new approaches.

Today I'll be sharing one of the pieces I did for my latest paper which was about colour-blindness, or more accurately "Colour Vision Deficiency" (CVD).

I call this illustration diptych "The Ishirthara Test", playing off the Ishihara test that are used to determine whether a person has CVD. It was inspired by a humorous story I heard from a red-green CVD affected individual who has troubles finding the right shirt out of their green and brown wardrobe. To stay faithful to the metaphor, for my colour palettes I picked out swatches from real Ishihara circles.

 

Left = Regular Vision        Right = What red-green CVD may look

This is simulation of vision with a red-green colour deficiency. Brown, tan and green hues can seen as variations of dull, olive green. But this also depends on the individual because CVD is quite a personal condition, with many potential variables.

And here's the sketch I started off with:

Oh yes, the illustrations are done in Illustrator. Pretty fun to do, though filling in all those circles took longer than I expected. But I think it would be interesting to do a bigger, more elaborate piece to bring attention to CVD.

While working on this essay I also came to wonder how good my colour vision is. It seems like it should be good since I'm an artist, right? So I took this Colour Test to find out. To my relief I had a perfect score! My eyes, though a touch near-sighted are fantastic at discerning hues. Yay!

Happy Wednesday! 

Freebie Friday - Diverse Denim Textile Textures

And I'm back with more textile textures resources!

Today I'm sharing some denim samples. There's plenty of denim at my place, so this likely only the first part of what I'll be uploading.

For the full pack in a zip folder, go {here}
Again, feel free to use these resources for personal or professional projects but please:

Do not claim the original resource images as your own,
Do not redistribute commercially. Basically, don't save and sell the resources as your own, but by all means do share the link to this page with others. :)
Do not use these textures as a base to create your own stock art/resources.

And, please share anything you've made with these resources with me. I'd love to have a look! =)