sprouts

Today is my mom's birthday, this is a card I made for her.


Quick gouache sketch, I'd like to add some design elements and make it more into a book cover or something.


Ha, another country living sketchbook page. There were cool clocks, I had to. I want to add some stuff to this too, the bottom feels empty.

The one redeeming quality of summer in Florida, is that there is always incentive to stay inside in the AC and catch up on reading. Sometimes it is as rewarding and interesting to read young adult books instead of the usual fiction, usually I can finish them in a day, so it's refreshing, and gives me more of an idea of what kids are into these days. Per my mom's suggestion, I just finished reading City of Ember (and the sequel, People of Sparks) which she says her 6th grade students loved. If I had read them sooner I would have included them in my thesis, since they're both a bit dystopian. The first one is being made into a movie, coming out around Christmas (with Bill Murray, yay), and I wish we'd all graduated earlier, just to have had the chance to do the concept art for this movie. Post apocalyptic underground city that's all decked out with steampunk stuff, and pipeworks and funny light fixtures for all.

Also reading Adrian Shaughnessy's How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul, which you can pretty much replace "graphic designer" with "illustrator" and the advice rings true across disciplines. I think the book should have been required reading for our portfolio class, it's a much better overview of the industry than we ever got. It's a bit of an affirmation that all young designers struggle during that first 6 months after graduation, and goes into the mindset needed to be okay in this world.

So, I hope everyone is well. Make yourself a cucumber sandwich, cool off and take care.