Lady Liberty

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!

So how are all you Americans celebrating our independence from the British? So far I've celebrated by sleeping in 'til 2:30 in the afternoon (the British would never let me do that!) and later I have my DVR set to record a plethora of television programs on the founding fathers, including a number of History Channel programs and the movie 1776, which never ceases to entertain (all the singing and dancing bickering is the stuff that dreams are made of!).
But I'm also celebrating by showing you this:


I'd love to pretend that I made this recently, just for my beloved blog-watchers but in truth this is a two-year-old piece! But I don't really feel bad about dragging it out now because it is holiday appropriate and I don't think many people have seen it, which is a shame because I spent a long time on it back in the day and made a lot of little breakthroughs in my technique. In case you can't tell, it is a vector piece, done entirely in Illustrator. In high school I took Multimedia(digital art) classes all four years and worked very often in Photoshop and Illustrator. Since then I haven't done much purely digital work, but this I completed during the summer in between high school and college just to keep the juices flowing. Normally when I created vector portraits I would simply place shapes of solid color next to each to build up an overall shape but here I experimented with changing the opacity of shapes and layering them over and over to create more volume and color variation. I also learned how to vary line width in a way that feels somewhat organic. Here are some details:


So aside from sleeping in and watching movies I've been....well, actually, that's pretty much all I've been doing. And going to work 3 days a week, and going to physical therapy once or twice a week and using the computer for hours and hours on end....
One of my current reasons for being on the computer for hours on end is Polyvore! For those who don't know, Polyvore is "a free, easy-to-use web-based application for mixing and matching images from anywhere on the web. It is also a vibrant community of creative and stylish people."
Most of the images are of clothing, which suits me just fine. Polyvore nurtures my tendency to see pretty things and somehow make them my own in a way that is free and wastes nothing but my precious time. It's like ultimate window shopping! First you collect items from all over the site into your own little items library, then you can arrange these items into into sets or outfits to share with others. So far I've only made these 6 sets.

Squirrely" src="http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-set/BQcDAAAAAwoDanBnAAAABC5vdXQKFmdrU19qejluM2hHRk9JZlhCanlOZHcAAAACaWQKAWUAAAAEc2l6ZQ.jpg" title="Squirrely" width="400" border="0" height="400">
Squirrely by greenwhimsy featuring Pixie

An Eye for an Eye by greenwhimsy featuring Tarina Tarantino jewelry

Gothy, Gothy Sun" src="http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-set/BQcDAAAAAwoDanBnAAAABC5vdXQKFmxwdkltVXhuM2hHbkFEWmFKTGhsQncAAAACaWQKAWUAAAAEc2l6ZQ.jpg" title="Fun in the Gothy, Gothy Sun" width="400" border="0" height="400">
Fun in the Gothy, Gothy Sun by greenwhimsy on Polyvore.com

This doesn't really have anything to do with dinosaurs by greenwhimsy on Polyvore.com

Blackbird by greenwhimsy on Polyvore.com

Bling" src="http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-set/BQcDAAAAAwoDanBnAAAABC5vdXQKFm12SF9PVU5vM2hHTUZLOHg3SjBXZEEAAAACaWQKAWUAAAAEc2l6ZQ.jpg" title="Bling" width="400" border="0" height="400">
Bling by greenwhimsy featuring Kenneth Jay Lane jewelry

Don't worry, I won't be bothering you guys with these every time I make one but I've embedded a widget on the right side of this blog that will show all my latest creations. You can also check out my Polyvore profile and add me as a contact if you have an account, too!

Alright, I'm out. Have a great holiday everyone and I'll see you next time with some new stuff!