Buckle your seat belts....

Ok so how long has it been since my last post on here? Way too long! The tornado called life just came in a sucked me up and spit me back out all tattered and torn. The one thing that set it all off was the move, as i mentioned in my last post. What a stressfull time that was. Luckily I have a great support system of family and friends who have helped me through this entire mess and now things are back on the up and up. Yay! My roomies and I have found, and somewhat settled into, a great place. Its new and clean and in a great location. As soon as we get everything squared away, Ill make sure to post some pictures.

Speaking of pictures....Ive gotten way behind on posting pictures to my online photo album. Well Im finally all caught up and everything is posted, including the late night dance party pictures from when Swaney came to Boston. Not sure what everyone has seen so just go to the main page and check em all out!

Grab some popcorn, sit back and get ready for a few laughs! Enjoy!

One down...

So for those of you who know me and follow my sporadically posted blog, you know that sometimes I set a goal for myself and I hit it up full steam ahead until low and behold life sets in and screws it up somehow. Well the last few weeks have been no different.

If you haven't been reading, shame on you!, I set a goal to create an illustration every week for Illustration Friday . My goal was to do this until my 30th birthday in October. Which would give me about 10 weeks of Illustrations. Well needless to say, after week 3 life hit me like a ton of bricks and it has been downhill since then.

I've had a couple going aways, a new project, work was insane and two concerts (of which I will soon be posting photos and video of) one here and one in Florida. Doesn't sound like all that much does it? Your probably thinking ok well even with all that going on, surely you could bust out a couple simple illustrations? Actually, no I couldn't. Why? Well because on top of all of this I received a phone call from my landlord saying that they would like to sell the house and we have 30 days to GET OUT! Man in that instant I felt like Snoopy in the movie Snoopy Come Home when he tries to go to the library and they just keep yelling at him in that deep voice "NO DOGS ALLOWED!". This was also parodied in the Family Guy episode Brian Goes Back to College

But chin up, all hope is not lost! I went online with one of my roommates and came to the realization that there definitely is a good chunk of places available! Whew! Now if only I can scrape up the cash to pay for the move Ill be all set ;) So instead of spending free time creating illos I've been spending it on Craigs List. But I wont sit here and complain about it because my roommate already has and instead of wasting my free time writing about it ill just leave this handy dandy little link for you to check out what he had to say about it right here.

Ok so enough of the whining, back to me! In an attempt to regain control of my goal I'm going to make one small exception. I mean it really is about completing the goal and not necessarily how you complete the goal, or at least in this case it is. So I am posting Illo #4 out of 6. Topic = Play. Its one I did in pastels on newsprint. I was really pleased with the way texture on the guitar came out. Most of you who know me know I'm a digital girl and cant really draw all that well. So when I do its really an accomplishment. Let me know what you think of it. Also...I will be working on this weeks current topic which is run and then hopefully I will work on week #5 whos topic was match. I'm really looking forward to that one because I have a great idea that I cant wait to implement!

So here it is #4 out of 6. Topic: Play

IlloFriday: Capture

Im 3 for 3!

When I first saw capture, I thought of a jungle or flag football. I took both ideas and started to work out some sketches but nothing seemed to feel right, nothing jumped out at me. Then the idea of someone capturing someones heart came to mind and it was perfect. Only problem now is that I had this vision in my head...and when I have such a clear vision I tend to get frustrated when my illo doesnt come out that way. I worked pretty hard on this and am happy with the way it turned out.

IlloFriday: Clean

So Im 2 for 2 with 8 to go! I dont plan on stopping once my birthday hits but I need to give myself a countdown, aside from my birthday that number gives it more substance for me, something to aim for.

So on to the illo....this weeks topic is clean and when I think of clean I think of the smell of oranges, clean laundry/soap, and for some reason white fluffy clouds in a crisp blue sky. So I decided to incorporate all of these elements into one piece. I orginally wanted to have just a couple large reflective soap bubbles over the text but I had a really hard time finding a good tutorial to create the right kind of bubbles. Anyone know of any good ones out there for photoshop? So after all its mant phases, this is the final piece I ended up with. Im suddenly feeling the need to go do some laundry ;)

IlloFriday: Opposites

Welcome back to me! I know its been a great long while since I've last posted and with no really good excuse as to why. What I can say is that this post comes with good intentions. I will be turning 30 in two months. Two months, what a great time frame for me to set some new goals and get some things accomplished. This post is part of my first goal: Post an illo every week. As most of you know I tend to get caught up in the daily rat race and then attempt to have a social life to counter balance the endless hours spent at work. In all of that time, I've never made enough time for my art. This is probably one of the more difficult goals I've chosen to accomplish but will be the most rewarding. I cant guarantee that each piece will be 100% complete but at least I will attempt something every time! Id love for you guys to stop by and let me know what you think...your critiques always encourage me to do more work and make each piece better than the last!

IlloFriday: Tea

So heres my post for this weeks Illustration. Tea. Not sure how I feel about this one. Could definitely use more work. I find it difficult to draw things from scratch in Illustrator. I probably should have sketched it and scanned it in. Oh well its good practice none the less.

Snow, Illo & Pics oh my!!!

So today was officially deemed with blizzard conditions, we got slammed with a foot and a half of snow between 1 am and 7 pm! We spent all day stuck in the house and the only time we went outside was to shovel. I do however, have something to show for my time stuck indoors...aside from eating alot of food and watching south park....

Here are a couple pics so those who live in sunny Florida or California can see the missery I had to deal with today. ChaCha and Jordan, stop laughing, not funny! Mind you these pics are after one of the first dumpings of the day...the piles of snow are much higher now!

Last weekend, thanks to my a good friend of mine, we got an invite to a VIP party at a bar in Boston called the Foggy Goggle. Im not a huge Foggy Goggle fan but this event entitled us to free Bud, Bud Light, and well drinks for a good hour. Good times had by all, as usual.

Foggy Goggle - Boston - February 2006

I also completed my Illo for this week! WooHoo! This weeks topic is Simple. After finding out the topic all I could think of is Simple, the shoe company. I have a friend who had a pair and man he wore those things out!! So I figured Id do a tribute to the nice little shoe companyTM. I think it still needs work but its a first attempt at drawing something in Photoshop...and without my pen tablet!

Yeah Pics!!!

So me and a few friends made our way down to Providence RI for a party at a friends house this past weekend. The party started out as a normal party would...people gathering, socializing, doing things sober people would do at a house party. Then the night progresses and I must say that 9 out of 10 times this ends up being the equation: 1 house/apartment + 1 computer chock full o tunes + this crew + alcohol = all night dance party!! I must say though...Ive yet to not have a good time!

Tony's - RI - January 2006

Pandora...

If you like music and discovering new music, then you should definitely check this site out. A group or musicians and music loving techies got together and compiled thousands of songs into a musical genome. Over the past 5 years these guys have noted all the qualities of over 10,000 songs. Whats the point you might ask? Go to the website and enter either the name of a band/artist or the title of a song. Pandora will put together a radio station made of songs that hold similar qualitites to the one you originally specified. Once you have a station created you can add other artists or song titles to expand the station. Or if you like, just creat another station. II just created a station and so far so good. Enjoy!