NYE 2014

More girls = VIP access, amiright?

Right? Happy New Year's Eve! My best friend and boyfriend are heading down to San Diego in a quick minute for the Hard Rock Hotel event downtown. Woo! It's going to be the first time I've ever done something big for New Year's, and I'm super stoked. Not sure if I'm more excited for the event or for the fact that we don't have to get a cab or drive back to our hotel after... buuttt my boyfriend might have to help carry me if my feet are dead after dancing! Hope everyone has a SAFE and fun night!

Christmas Cookbook

So for Christmas I got a few things for my boyfriend: new shoes, funky socks, a mug that looks like a camera lens... and I also made him a little cookbook! He plans on moving out on his own for the first time in a couple months, and he doesn't know the first thing about cooking. So I gave him some basic tips on how to prepare foods, clean his kitchen, and some easy little recipes. He loved it, especially cause I did all the drawings myself! :)

It was only like 20 pages but I worked for a good month on it. I put it together and printed it with Blurb, which was very simple and professional and I highly recommend it. They even let others see a preview of the book! Here it is in case you are interested: http://www.blurb.com/books/4944088-cooking-basics 

Here are some of the little drawings I did to go along with the book:

Intro: This is a Kitchen

Sweets

Starches (Breads, pasta, rice, and potatoes)

Spices, Herbs, Wet and Dry Goods

I gave him lists of alll the basics, from flour to dill weed (we're Polish and use that on everything)

Cookware and cleaning supplies

Polish Center Logo

Working on a new website for the Polish Center in LA. Updated the logo from something I made years ago (cringe) when I had no Illustrator experience to something a bit more modern. The graphic design thing isn't really what I think I am good at, but I need to work on it more to integrate it into my motion graphics work. 

New Business Cards

I never posted these! I designed these about a month ago to print and pass out in time for the CTN Animation Expo this year. I like the way they turned out, and think the rounded edges add a nice professional look. My cards match my business card holder that my best friends got specially made for me for my birthday last year. I feel all legit and stuff now. My last business cards were glossy and cheap-looking, with 12 pt font haha. I made them 3 or 4 years ago when I didn't know what I was doing. Hope you like them!

Bury My Heart

Type doodle inspired by one of my favorite Mumford and Sons songs, called "Ghosts That We Knew" :) The line goes "Hold me still / Bury my heart on the cold / Hold me still / Bury my heart next to yours" I find it very sweet and touching. Felt the need to make one of those trendy text things, except I'm not one for typography haha. Still turned out decently enough I think.

Hat Sick

I'm sick. Got some kind of cold. Wore a hat all day even though I live in Los Angeles and the temperature was pretty warm considering its December. Time to take some Dimetapp and head to bed.

Go Sailors!

Happy belated Thanksgiving! So thankful this year for so many things: family, friends, boyfriend, food... and the time to doodle. Got to finish up some quick coloring of this doodle I did of my little sister for her first day of school back in August. It's not perfect but at least I'm getting some practice in :) Now to head to Fresno for a wedding.

Retiring my old tablet

I am finally retiring my old Wacom tablet. I got this back sometime in 2004 or 2005, when I found out tablets existed and asked for one for my birthday. I was so happy and grateful to get it from my family (it was an expensive gift for a teenager!) and it took my digital artwork to a whole new level. Sadly it started getting wonky the past year or so, and the pen has seen better days. So this past weekend I took advantage of the deals over at the CTN Expo and bought myself an Intuos Pro. :) Hoping to get as much if not more wear out of it as I did my old tablet. It also came with a Sketchbook Express program, which is simple but fun to play around in. Warmed up my tablet with a little sketch of a kid and his grandma at the zoo.

First drawing with new tablet

Old Tablet - graphire something or other haha

New tablet!

CTN sketches 2013

Some sketches I did today at the CTN animation expo. So glad i got a chance to draw! Hopefully more to come this weekend.

Hockey sketches

Boyfriend played his third hockey game of the season last night, and I took the opportunity to try and draw some of the speedy guys on the ice. So. Difficult. They kept moving so fast! I wish I had gotten some more cool shapes out of it, but what I got was a start. There are many more games to come before the end of his season, so I'll get more chances to practice :) here are some of the better ones.

CTN sketches 2013 2

Excited to have spent another day at the CTN animation expo! I met up with some old friends met some new ones, and took in some new ideas on animating, directing, and creating animated features, and won myself some nickelodeon tshirts in a raffle! I also bought myself a new tablet, an intuos pro, because my old one from like 2004 is finally crapping out on me after a long productive life. Lastly, I bought a book called Ideas for the Animated Short, which was cowritten by my professor and has some images from his personal short film in it, including frames from a scene that I worked on and am credited for! Super stoked. So much overwhelming awesomeness in one day, and another day tomorrow. Here is a sketch from today's model session. 

Frozen Fury Doodle

Took the boyfriend to the Frozen Fury hockey game last month, to see his favorite team the Rangers play the best team, the LA Kings. Drew this quickly the week before to help gear up, and cause I wanted to draw him :)

HRCloud

Been doing freelance work recently for my friend Jeff at HRCloud, and here is one of the videos I contributed to:

I drew the 2D characters in the scenario sections of the video, starting at about 2:00. It's really great being able to do a little character work after doing motion graphics for so long! Hope the fun little project goes on for a long while :)

Friend-a-day

Decided to start drawing a friend a day for a week, after my two sketches of my sisters prompted an artist friend of mine to request one himself. Here are two more from Wednesday and Thursday, and I finished a colored version of my sister, let's count that for Friday.

Julius

Sarah

Nellie

iDrive

Did a small animation project for a start up company recently. Pretty rushed job but the client was happy with it :)


3 Easy Steps to Get Home - iDrive Transportation from iDrive on Vimeo.

Tripping, Sisters start school

3 Doodles. Descriptions:

1) Tripped on the stairs at work and spilled hot tea all over myself.

2) Littlest sister started high school! All grown up! 

3) Little but not littlest sister started USC! So proud! Go Trojans! (high five for fat pony reference. <3 hark! a vagrant)

Confused about Life

This is how I feel about life right now. Work, art, family, fun, what? I don't really know what's going on. Am I doing this right? I don't think so.

P.S. IRL I wear makeup more often now that I am ADULT but I don't feel like drawing myself with it. Trading orange shirts for pink.

Culver city drawings

Doodles done one day at lunch...

Moved!

I moved! Back to my parents place from my grandmas. Got a new job and my parents place is closer to it :) here is a sketch I did after I moved alllll my things.

Old China Doodles

Here are some doodles I did back in January during my trip to China. I had a great time with my friend Gabby who is currently teaching English in Shenszen (sp). We went to Hong Kong, shanghai, and Chengdu. I'm glad we didn't make plans to go to Beijing (she had already spent a month there) because it had that whole pollution issue at the time. I guess I'll have to go back one day to see the Great Wall and Forbidden City!

Boy and Cat Doodles

Doodles done at work yesterday! BTW I've been working as a motion graphics animator for a couple months now at the same place that does Wellcast. It's a lot of fun, though tedious at times. Though I get to doodle while I render! Woo

Painting at the Aquarium

My friend Sarah recently told me that she mostly updates her blog from her phone, which I realize can be much easier than having to scan everything I do all the time. So here is a little update of a painting I did at the aquarium for the mural for miles project this last weekend. It was really nice painting for a few hours, and I think it turned out well even though I haven't painted in like, a year. Mostly used sponges, cause the canvas is pretty big.
Anyways, hopefully I will post more often from my phone! :)

Illustration for Friend

I realized I never posted this. I was commissioned an illustration for a friend for him to use on his website. Simple pose and likeness, and I like how it turned out. It was fun doing some heavier digital painting after working on quick coloring at work for a long while. I like the shoes the best.

And here is his website: http://www.lorenmullen.com/

2013!

Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a fun time ringing in the next 365!

I am excited about the next year, but also have been thinking back on the past year and how much has changed. This time last year I was a recent college graduate, freaking out about finding a big girl job in my field, preparing for the Spring BFA Art show at my alma mater, babysitting two wonderful little girls, living with my parents and sisters, and working on the odd freelance job. Since then, I've participated in the art show, gotten an internship, moved to my grandmother's house, gotten a full time position at my current company, and helped a few of my friends get jobs along the way (even though a couple of them were only temporary ones...)! 2012 was definitely a more solid year than I thought it was going to be.

I still have my resolution list that I scribbled last January:

I still laugh that I wrote "apply for jobs!" instead of "get a job!" I regrettably only managed to carry out a few of these resolutions this past year, and my current resolution list includes most of the ones I didn't complete. One of my main ones is to draw more! I remember a past co-worker who told me about how tough it is to work full time and continue to draw for oneself on the side. He encouraged me to continue and not give up on personal creativity! I'll admit at the time, I was drawing plenty and did not think I would need to worry about it. But since my work had me start working on after effects animation and especially now with graphic design, I don't seem to have as much energy to draw after work anymore! I definitely plan on having more Mona time and drawing. And hopefully also updating this more often with said drawings!

With that, I am off to draw. :)