Did you know?

Every U.S. Bill costs 14 cents to make, regardless of denomination.



This, and the cigarettes posted two posts down (g'head, scroll) are for a book about American statistics - a collaborative project with half of my advanced production class. Our team of eight is creating a book with an edition of 20, and ours is called "The United Statistics of America." Did you know that every day, four New Yorkers will be bitten by a fellow human? Did you know that Americans owe more on student loans than credit cards? Well, all of these and more can be found for our book, which unfortunately will not be available to anyone outside our class. Unless Uncle Pennybags happens to be one of my three readers and wants to boost our budget?

Signed Sealed and Printed

Now in the Artisans Gallery:

Color for the Cure, a coloring book for breast cancer awareness. All of the artist's (moi) share of the proceeds will go to the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation, an organization that takes breast cancer research to all facets: from prevention to treatment, education to advocacy. Dr. Love was one of the first female physicians to bring breast cancer to the public forum. Her book, "Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book" is often called the Bible of breast-Care.

This is just one of the many "did you knows?" you can find in my book. Where it lacks in medical and academic information (for good reason), it makes up for in things you can COLOR PRETTY COLORS! And for a good cause! In CARDSTOCK! IN NATURAL WHITE CARDSTOCK! (and i'm so excited about this, I have to type in ALL CAPS!!)

So, please, please come to the Artisan Gallery, located at 1215 Cornwall Avenue in Bellingham Washington. It will be there until future notice, and at least through the holidays. But why wait? Help an organization that aims to help millions of women.

Every 24 hours in America

This many people die from smoking related causes:

That's 1213.69 people. Statistics found at The National Cancer Institute.

Get your crayons out

Because it's coloring book time! Sharpen your pencils, bust out your gel pens, wet your watercolors, because this time it'll be coming to you live on cardstock! I won't tell you too much about it right now, because I have four (!) projects (big 'uns) going on in my design production class, and thinking about the other three classes makes my eyes roll back in my head. But here's a sneak peak:

I have been so blessed and inspired by many amazing women in my life. Stay tuned, I'll keep mini-previews coming, and it will be available for sale November 4th!

First Illustration Project

The assignment was to create a cut-paper book jacket; the one I got was "Musicophilia" by Oliver Sacks. Sacks is a neurologist who "uses fascinating and occasionally bizarre and quirky medical case studies to examine the powerful connection between music and the human brain throughout history." It was really fun to design something almost entirely with my hands. Last year I created three book jackets for a Graphic design class, and all of them, start to finish, were mostly digital. This was a fun prompt, sometimes the limitations in our requirements really stretch us out of our comfort zone and produce much more unique results.

Thanks for reading, hope everyone had a great weekend!

Summer's Over

Senior Year Part Two has commenced, and the times of reading for fun, watching Twin Peaks, and having any sort of social time on weeknights is over.

This was the last book I read for fun, to be replaced by: "Forms, Folds, Sizes," "Pricing & Ethical Guidelines," "Print & Finish," "Pocket Pal: The Handy Book of Graphic Arts Production," and finally "Indie Publishing." I'll say this for my major, we have the prettiest textbooks, maybe someday in the madness I'll find time to draw them. But there are MANY things I'm excited for in the upcoming year.

1. Illustration 352 with Jim Henterly. This is probably not the thing I should be admitting on an illustration blog, but I will. DRAWING TERRIFIES ME. I still do it because it's fun, and I started this blog so I can try to improve. So the goal with this class is to break out my comfort zone of still life and "stuff", and practice practice practice.

2. Senior Design Production. My emphasis within the Graphic Design department is Design Production, or as I like to call it "the nitty gritty nuts and bolts". We are the ones learning the technical side of printing, file management skills, many methods of printing and binding, and how to do it all within budget. Our advisor, Elsi Vassdal Ellis, is an encyclopedia, an artist, and a knowledgeable machine. Stay tuned for updates on this one, it's going to be a fun year.

3. Design Ocean: our student chapter of AIGA. We're a club for our program that brings student speakers to campus, has group critiques, shares inspiration, and hosts an on-campus event called Design Days (go to the Flickr page to see pictures). The first meeting is of the year is tonight, and I'm terribly excited.

4. FRIENDS! Many have graduated and moved, many are still in school, and some are in Europe. (Europe? JEALOUS!). And many friends I get to spend hours upon hours with in the good ol' arts building.

5. THE FUTURE. Job searching? Leaving Bellingham? I'm very thankful it's only September, but everything my professors are telling me are to get my butt in gear. Hence part of the motivation for this longer-than-normal blog post.

So thanks for sticking with it, I'll be talking to you soon!

Augoblogmo ends

As said by Robert Byrne, professional chess player.

Torin's keys

I was drawing my keys while enjoying THIS cup of coffee:

When I got my first commissioned work. Sorta. It was my suggestion.

Voila! Torin's keys. P.S.: I'm taking commissions.

Bananaphone

I wish this was still my ringtone.

Moving.

Is the thing to do this summer. Raise your hand if you did. I know I did, my parents did, my sister and her hubbie did, Torin did (twice), and 90% of my Bellinghamster friends. Also, Gadhafi moved. I personally like moving. It's cleansing, in a way. It's also a huge pain in the rear.

Road trip

Last sunday, I headed south to Portland, then to Camas. Then to Portland. And back and forth throughout the week. Camas had: My Parents. Beautiful scenery. A warm bed. And Bentley the bunny. Portland had: Powell's. Other bookstores. Michele's printmaking studio, Flight 64. Last Thursday. The train that brought Torin in. Food carts. And Michele herself.

Larisa and Rose's apartment

Has really cute pillows

and a statue of the Eifle Tower

Getting back in the groove

And oh boy, do I have some lost time to make up for. This weekend I stayed at my friend Larisa's place, cat-sitting my best friend Archer.

And I watched really good movies.

Stay tuned for a flurry of new drawings! And I apologize in advince, some of my hurried scans are out of focus, I'll reupload once I finally move in.

For Michele

Playing Catch Up

I didn't post on August 7th, because it was chuck full of birthday fun. I played:

with my favorite people, and lunch with my two favorite parents. And then my wonderful family got me my first set this last weekend in Coulee Dam! Thanks to everyone!

Amtrak Cascades

I took the train back up to Bellingham on Tuesday.

Poor unfortunate woman. Not only does she have to exit the train in an emergency, but she was rendered quite terribly on a bumpy train, by a person who ran out of lead, and realized how dependent she is on her pencil.

Augoblogmaybe?

I picked a month where I am in-between leases (read: vagabond couch surfer) to try this. That coupled with two vacations makes August a very transient month for me. But never fear, my dear readers. I hereby pledge to have 31 illustrations for 31 days. Just not this day, because I'm going to go play bananagrams with my mom. Thanks for checking in!

More old stuff

But it still applies. This was made when the WTA (Whatcom Transit Authority) had to cancel Sunday routes due to budget problems. They have yet to start them up again.

I'm not in Bellingham but...

I'll post this anyway.

Sorry nothing new, this is from last summer when I was illustrator at my school newspaper: The Western Front. I'm in Eastern Washington, family time trumps Augoblogmo.

Morning Coffee

But I must sip it fast because it's a busy day: I'm driving over to Coulee Dam with my cousin Mary! And speaking of coffee, check out this great comic by Grant snider over at his blog, Incidental Comics.

What time is it?

Time to swap out my trusty watch for my favorite bracelet because it's date night with my trusty and favorite boy!

I really do. In case I need to tell you, I colored this in with gel pens.

It's easy to kill time

While waiting to renew a license

"Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas"

Welcome back my faithful book club members. Or shall I say: "Hey Liv." This is a great read for your morning cup o' coffee. If you enjoy short essays on pop culture by a hilarious writer.

Augoblogmo did not happen because of this craziness:

I can't say much because I have to run to work, but shout-out to all my awesome friends who made it out last night, and to my parents who braved i-5 on their friday night to be here today!!

This has been a pretty packed week, moving + preparing for the First Friday Artwalk! If you live in Bellingham and are looking for a good time, come downtown tomorrow starting at 6. The gallery my coloring book is at is 1215 Cornwall, you can pick up a map to all the other participating locations there. Hope to see you there!

Book Club Round-up

It has been awhile since I read The Cheese Monkeys, and as promised this post is much heavier.



The book accounts the life and times of Warren Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints. The church is estimated to have between 8,000 to 10,000 members as of August 2009, and from September 2002 to his arrest in August 2006 Warren Jeffs was known officially as "Prophet, Seer and Revelator."

As a read, I don't know if I would recommend it before I would Under the Banner of Heaven or God's Brothel. It's an in-depth look at one sect of Fundamentalist Mormons, and I highly recommend the other two for a more thorough account of the theory and history.

Yum.

Augoblogmo

August first is suddenly here, and it is time for a new challenge. Every day in August I am going to post an illustration, and here goes day one:

AUGust BLOG MOnth. Stay tuned for more!

Celebrating Washington

In spring of 2010, I started a project. It was to create a coloring book - for big kids. I am 4/5ths of the way through my undergraduate education and I can tell you what I've learned: kids my age still color. And while big, open illustrations of dinosaurs printed on newsprint are good for the occasional crayon , I wanted something that would be more engaging, require concentration and sharp hand-skills. And above all else, I wanted the colorist to learn something. I'm a fiend for facts and a stickler for correct colors, so the final coloring book is the love child of color by numbers, a scavenger hunt, and a trivia treasure trove.

I bring you: Tour Washington

The first edition was screen printed on newsprint for an independent study at school. The second edition was fully digitized, and printed at Applied Digital Imaging, in Bellingham WA. (The staff is wonderfully helpful, it was a four day process of proofs and edits, and I got excited every time I went in). On July 2nd, it had its debut at the Artisan Gallery, found on 1215 Cornwall. If you're familiar with Bellingham, it's in the space where Innate used to be.

So if you'd like to learn more about the great state of Washington, sharpen your colored pencils (or whatever you wish, there are no rules for coloring books!) and stop by the gallery. If you don't live locally, send me an email: giraffe.banana@gmail.com, and I'd be happy to help.

Thanks to everyone involved in the process: Kent Smith, the Stampadoodle gang, friends at ADI, editor extraordinaire Mac, production wizard Leanne, the always supportive Katie and Parisa, Torin the wise, and every other Washingtonian out there. And my parents, who besides being phenomenally encouraging and patient, decided to move us here in the first place. And Liv 'cause she's awesome, and Oz because he's one of the best explorers I know.

Welcome to my portal

This spring, I gave web design the ol' college try in the form of DSGN 356. Actually I had to, but I'm glad I did. One: it was jam-packed with foreign information about the world wide interweb. Two: my classmates are very lively, and fun to be around. Morning noon and night. And sometimes night until morning. At the times when we would be in the junior lab coding (the term for typing <img id="fade" src="mcflyVest_files/trans.png"> and praying for it to work). At any time you could hear steady shouts of "YES! It worked" to "Peter?!" to "Has anyone done their book arts?" If you're wondering, 'Peter' applied to two people who were both very awesome, helpful and smart.

The portal is a way to link to our web design projects. Feel free to play around, and I make the humble plea to use firefox, if you have it.

Movie nights, brought to you by

Parisa, brownies, and Netflix on demand

33 years ago today...

My mom and pop got hitched! Love you guys!

Two years ago today...

Oz and Liv tied the knot! Happy Anniversary!

Dedicated to everyone I go to school with. Especially Peter, who shared his nerds today.

The Cheese Monkeys.

As some of you know, I have the world's best sister. I'm open to discussion for anyone that thinks their sister is cooler than my sister, but I'm pretty biased, so you probably won't get anywhere. She and her husband have a cute and fierce blog. Why cute and fierce? Liv recently posted about puppies, and Oz is a hardcore base jumper. and you should DEFINITELY stop by.

Once again, as I've been doing my whole life, I'm going to copy my older sister.
I now welcome you to Brianna's book club!



The Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd. I was told by my professor that we absolutely should read it if we decided to study art in college. And now I'm telling you that you probably should read it regardless of if you studied art in college. The book is divided into two semesters: Drawing 101, and Intro to Graphic Design, with a brief interlude for winter break. The protagonist in this story goes vaguely nameless, but just like Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club, we give him the name Happy, although his name isn't Happy at all, just as Fight Club's protagonist assumes the name Joe. Happy's experiences at "State University" are mostly comical, mixed with occasional hard-hitting clash.

And lastly, Chip Kidd is a ground-breaking book designer, so you might want to read it for the book itself (sorry kindle users). The wide margins make a quick read even quicker, and as my friend Jackson pointed out, he uses two different fonts for each semester (transitional and modern if anyone was wondering). At the very least, if my recommendation has fallen on deaf ears, find the paperback version the next time you're in the book store. The optical illusion on the edge is sure to astound and amaze.

This is entry number 1. I guarantee you the next entry will be much less light-hearted.

Winter Quarter, brought to you by...

coffee.

Looopy in the Lab

For my design production class, we have to create a color test in Indesign and Illustrator. The idea is that we'd have this file to take to any printer any where in the world to test out a variety of different things, like banding on gradients, built blacks, transparency options on native layout art and photoshop art, and on and on down the list. The above crayon box is something I made for it, to test colors in both Illustrator and Photoshop and see how they compare. Blogging during finals week, who'da thunk it?!

Jewelbot, Round two

Finito! It's actually been done for quite some time, but in that time school and work have been a tidal wave of demand. The design changed quite a bit from the beginning.



These dimensions were too big, both for my room and the amount of jewelery it would organize. So, after trimming down almost every single copper tube (which didn't take that long still) this is what I ended up with:



And this concludes the creation of the jewelbot. Although he still needs a name...

Jewelbot, round one

Hello all! Long time no blog. I've decided to expand my horizons, and start posting more than watercolors. Lately, my life has been a flurry of artistic activity, between being a junior in the Graphic Design depart at Western Washington University, working at a stamp store, and using what little spare time I have to have FUN! Some of those funtivities include calligraphy, making books, and the constant reinvention of my room. Since I'm always learning and making mistakes, I thought I'd take that very next step. Sharing.

The current project is a jewelery stand. Robot. A jewelbot if you will. I got the initial inspiration from Mark Mantano's book, The Big Ass Book of Crafts. The project I adapted was for a candelabra made out of copper pipes and glass bowls, but I just built upward to create a new organizational friend.

The second place I went for inspiratation: Hardware Sales, a locally owned and operated hardware store a stone's throw away from where I work (read: lunch break fun). I could talk about the 30,000 square feet of hardware bliss, shelves stocked with supplies, and a new surprise every corner you turn. But what really makes hardware sales so great is the staff. Every time you enter a new section, you'll probably get asked within seconds if you need help. And I did! Several different people helped me gather all the things I would need to build this little fella'.

Thanks to the fine folks at Hardware Sales! In this post over at an open [sketch]book, they recognize that "excellent work should be noted, valued, and appreciated." I couldn't agree more. When people take a genuine interest in helping, it makes all the difference in what could be a very daunting project. Instead, I just want to go back, armed with pictures of my finished robot and ideas for a new project! And I know if I hit any snags, I have somewhere to turn. Places like Hardware Sales make Bellingham a great place to learn and create.

Production time:

Time to turn all these pieces into a whole robot. So what I learned how to do: cut copper pipes! With a really simple pipe cutter, I fit the piece snuggly against the blade, and twirled it around, tightening with each rotation. It usually only took two or three full turns.

Here's the cut pipe. Easy-peasy. The rest was just connecting the pieces, easier-peasier.

The assembled bot was much bigger than I anticipated, so I'll probably shorten the torso, and possibly the legs. So I'll get to glueing it all with E-6000 soon, but right now I need to get back to designing book covers (Ah, the bane and the bliss of my program). In the meantime, this lil' guy needs a name! I know I've got at least a few readers, he needs a name! And if anyone reads this wants help on a pipe project of their own, I've got a cutter and advice you can borrow.