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Sunday, November 27, 2011

The Beginning of Quote of the Day

I'm currently at word 2,214 of a 3,600 word paper about graphic design and I'm going insane. Who has that much to say about one topic? Not me. I'm BSing the crap out of this thing now. But while I've been researching for the paper I found this website that has tons of awesome quotes by or about graphic designers. So I am going to start sharing them as a quote of the day, possibly with an awesome picture, as I see fit. This quote fits perfectly for today.

"Life beats down and crushes the soul, and art reminds you that you have one."
                     -Stella Adler


Enjoy

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The View Makes It Worth It

This view makes driving up huge hills and walking up my almost vertical driveway worth it. 

(I edited out a church steeple that was sticking up in the middle of this first picture because it was ruining it. Yay for the content aware button!)

November 22, 2011




October 1, 2011


July 6, 2011



May 29, 2011



April 25, 2011


Enjoy :)

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Every Newsie Shufflin

This post is gonna be short. I saw this video on facebook today and thought it was hilarious. Enjoy :)

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Everyone Is Getting Married


Oh Barney Stinson, you read my mind! 
Here in Happy Valley this is how it feels ALL THE TIME. I'm only 20 and already most of my friends from high school are married, some even have kids. It's like every other day someone is posting on Facebook how they are engaged. Ridiculous. It's an epidemic.

I personally believe people should do whatever they feel is right for them when it comes to marriage and kids, no matter how other people feel about the situation. They are the ones who are going to have to live with the consequences, be them good or bad.

Because of this belief of mine, I am SERIOUSLY sick of people constantly asking me if I'm dating anyone and telling me I need to get married soon. It's like the second people hear that I'm single they ask me a million questions trying to dissect every little thing to figure out WHY I'm single. They try to fix me. They give me all these suggestions about how I need to change so my knight in shining armor will come galloping in on his horse and save me from my "wretched single life". 

Let me remind you: I am only 20 years old. I think the amount of pressure around here to get married the second you get out of high school is ridiculous. I think a lot of people rush into marriage too young just because they feel like that's what is expected and they should get started making a family as soon as possible. 

I don't think a lot of people give themselves enough time to figure themselves out before they tie themselves to another person. It takes a lot of time to get to know yourself, and I believe it is worth taking that time before making the biggest decision of your life. 

Because my parents are divorced, I am in no rush to marry the first guy who comes along. I may be too cautious when it comes to this, but I have seen how divorce affects people, even without kids, and it is my life goal to never get divorced. To achieve this, I am just going to make sure that I am 100% positive that the guy I marry is "the one" or whatever. 

I'm going to make sure that I don't hope he will change somewhere down the road.
I'm going to make sure that he brings out the best in me and I do the same to him.
I'm going to make sure that I can picture a life with him, without ANY doubts.
I'm going to make sure of a lot of things. 

Making sure of all these things will take time. I'm sure when I meet whoever I'm supposed to marry, I'll know. So I would really appreciate people stopping putting their two cents in about my life and how I'm behind on popping out babies. It's not like I'm 50 and I've never been married. 

I've got time. I'm doing my own thing. I'll get married when God wants me to. So if you really want to know why I'm not married, how about you ask God and leave me alone lol.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Three Little Piggies

So my latest Illustration project was to make a book cover. We had a list to choose from and Animal Farm was on the list. Since I'm currently reading Animal Farm I thought I might as well do it. So here is what I came up with.


It looks a lot better in person. This is a photograph of it so the colors and texture are completely off. But oh well, you get the point. I painted this with acrylic paint on an illustration board and it is 15x18 or something like that. 

I couldn't come up with a good layout for the text so I just left it off. It isn't exactly the idea I had in my head but it works. 

Anyways, I'm about to take a test so enjoy!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

William Blake Says it Best

I'm not gonna lie, the first time I ever saw P.S. I Love You, I bawled my eyes out. Don't worry, it doesn't have that effect on me anymore, and don't even get me started on Hilary Swank. That's a whole other blog post waiting to happen. But one quote in that movie has stuck in my mind even after all these years.


(This picture is from the scene where she said this quote)

"I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create." 
                                   -William Blake

I don't know when or why I developed this problem with authority, but it exists. And I have found that it's mostly with men......there's probably a psychological explanation for that but I don't really care to analyze it too much. 

I like to do my own thing. I don't ask for much, I'm responsible, so I don't like when other people tell me how to live my life or what to do with my time. This might be why I feel so connected to the art world. Artists get to be themselves and express that through their work. Because art is so subjective, there is always someone who will accept what you do. It's not like math where you have to do it a certain way or you're wrong. There is no right or wrong in art. Art give me a complete sense of freedom. 

I know I am going to have to work for clients in the future, even if I just decide to go the freelance route, but I will still get to do what I love and stay true to my own style.

Anyways, I just really love that quote and thought I'd share it.

Enjoy :)

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Homage to Vintage Art

Let's face it, without past artists and all their work we would have pretty much no media today. Imagine a world with no images. Can't do it can ya? Probably because media is an overwhelming part of life nowadays. 

Recently my Illustration teacher, Greg Newbold, showed me some vintage art and I think it's awesome. So here is my homage to retro American art. 

This is the work of Coles Phillips. The way he uses negative space and blocks of color to give the illusion of objects is amazing. As you can see from the images I'm putting up, he did a lot of work for magazines.



I love this black and white one; I think it is genius.


I love the colors on this one.


I thought this one was clever. I like the composition and I want those dishes lol.


I love love love this one. Everything about it. If I had a greenhouse or something I would hang it up in it.


And then we have Coby (Coburn) Whitmore. 
This piece is similar to Coles Phillips' work when it comes to color style


But then he has done stuff like this as well, which I love. I just love his style.


And then we have Richard Hamilton. Ever since I saw this piece of his in my art history class forever ago I loved it. 

It's kinda weird but I like the collage feel of it and how random it is. 


And of course, you can't forget Andy Warhol.

I love bright colors, and what is Andy Warhol but bright colors?


Respect the past, cause without it we wouldn't have a future. 
Anyways, enjoy!

Monday, November 7, 2011

Uphill Both Ways

You know how old people say, "When I was your age, I had to walk to school in the snow, uphill both ways!"
And you know how you would always laugh and say, "Oh silly Grandpa, that's not possible. Go take your meds." 
 Well guess what. It IS possible, and I can prove it. "How?" You may ask. Well it's because I do have to walk to school uphill both ways. I took pictures on my walk from school back to where I have to park out in the boonies to prove it to ya. 

Here is where the walk began.

Today was a chilly, yet gorgeous day. 


This gorgeous view makes waiting at the crosswalk in the freezing cold totally worth it.

After walking across that street, you look to the right and see this:


But instead of getting to walk on the beautiful, flat path I get to hike up Hill #1:
Which is essentially, three flights of stairs. I hate these stairs mainly because they are too short to take them one at a time, yet too wide to take two at a time. So the options are to take lots of little baby steps or fewer really long steps which are basically uphill lunges. Either way, you get a good workout.

Once you get to the top, you get to walk down Hill #2.


I took this once I got to the bottom. But this is how it looks when you are about to go up it on the way to campus. It's not super steep or anything but a hill is a hill. 

Here are some pictures I took walking down the hill.
That is on the left when I walk down.


Ain't it perdy?

On the way to school, I go up this hill and down the stairs. When I go back, it's the other way around (obviously).

So I made my point about the uphill thing, but I took a bunch more pictures on the rest of my way home because today was gorgeous.

This is the view from where I park every day.


Even though I've lived in Utah my whole life I'm still amazed at how gorgeous the mountains are.

I live basically on a mountain. So to get up the mountain, you have to go uphill. Yep, more hills. I took this while driving when I was about halfway up.


Where that huge cloud is is basically my backyard. 

Here's another shot of it. I think it looks awesome:


This is as far up as I go, right before I turn:


And here is the last stretch of road before I get home:


Here is the view from my front porch:
You can't really tell but it was snowing when I took this. 

And here is a pic of my backyard,  when it was also snowing. You can see it better in this pic.


I am lucky to live somewhere so gorgeous. 

This is my favorite time of year so I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I do :)

Friday, November 4, 2011

A Breath of Fresh Air

I love things that are different. I feel inspired by them. Differences are what make this world interesting. 

I love this music video. Selena Gomez is gorgeous and talented, even if she is dating Justin Bieber. I love how creative and different the video is.

Selena Gomez & The Scene
Love You Like a Love Song


I think this music video is hilarious and true. Also it is a fun use of collage.

Toby Keith
American Ride


I'm not ashamed to admit I like America's Next Top Model. It's entertaining and the photographs are usually amazing. Allison Harvard has been my favorite out of all the seasons.

This is one of my favorite photographs she was in.


She's really different but she's amazingly talented. Her huge eyes are what throws most people off when they look at her. 


They are currently doing an All Star season and she is on it. Their latest challenge was to write a song and sing it in a music video. Hers was weirdly cool. She kind of reminds me of a Tim Burton character in this video.

 

Speaking of Tim Burton, I recently saw Coraline for the first time a couple of weeks ago and even though it is weird, I like it. I love the music on it and the animation is so creative. 

 I am also a fan of Project Runway. Deal with it. The latest winner, Anya Ayoung-Chee, is fantastic. She was my favorite and I'm glad she won.

This is her

 
I never thought any woman could look good with half a shaved head but she pulls it off. She is from Trinidad, which I think has definitely influenced her style. 

She is amazing with prints. I loved the dress she wore at Fashion Week.


She also designed this:


And lots of other stuff like that. I'm glad she won. She just barely learned to sew weeks before going on the show and she won. She's inspirational because even though she didn't have the technique the other designers had, she had the creativity and that's what helped her win. I can relate to her in that way, of not having all the technical skills. 

Technique can be taught, creativity can't. 

Anyways, enjoy :)

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

It's A Brand New Day

My sister just showed me this video and I am in love with it, and with his voice. I have been pretty down the past few days so this was just what I needed. 

Joshua Radin - Brand New Day


Click HERE to see J Pop America Fun Time Now from SNL. It isn't on youtube so just click on the link if you want to see it. Trust me, it's worth it. Made me laugh. 

Also something else that has cheered me up: New Mountain Dew flavor!!! It's called Game Fuel: "Dew with a charge of tropical flavor"


The taste is interesting, but I love the cans, even if it is just for Call of Duty. All their cans should be this artistic. 

And finally, the thing that puts a smile on my face no matter what is my adorable little nephew. 


You can't help but smile at that face.

Now I'm going to go sit in front of the television and watch New Girl, Whitney, and/or Happy Endings until I feel like I've had my fix of funny while I eat some delicious 7 layer dip and drink some mtn dew. 

Which I will enjoy :)