The White Lady

Happy Halloween, everybody! Here's something spooky for you! 

White Ladies (AKA Women in White, and many other names) are a type of female spirit talked about in various cultures worldwide. White Ladies often haunt dark, lonely highways and try to hitch rides with single men. Some cultures say that they are the ghosts of women betrayed by their husbands, while others say that they are the ghosts of women whose children were murdered, or who murdered their children themselves. The loss of lover and/or children is what keeps her tied to our world, and every night she searches for these lost loved ones. 

Hello There, Autumn!

This is how I amuse myself while waiting outside my metro stop.

Ten Paces Prints on Society 6

Howdy-do? I've been meaning to blog about these pieces I did for Ten Paces and Draw for a while. In reverse chronological order:

A portrait of classical composer Antonio Vivaldi for the "musician portraits" theme (based on a sketch by Francesca Buchko)....

...The Roots lyrics for the "hand letters" theme 

(based on a sketch by Rachel Dougherty)....

...And a ghost story for the "summer camp" theme (based on a sketch by Jimmy Malone).

ALSO, Ten Paces now has an online shop at Society 6! There's lot's of great stuff on there, including two illustrations I'm affiliated with: the piece below and the piece my pal Nick did based on my escaped zoo animal sketch. 

Check it out!

The Nets, CMYK, and a Blog Feature

Agh! So much to tell/show you guys!

First off, some new work!

I was commissioned by MICA's Career Development office to do a series of six posters promoting their new MICAnetwork.net website. Each poster is in a vintage flash card style and features a word ending in "net" with a corresponding illustration. The first four posters were posted around campus anonymously over the first couple of weeks of school, then the last two went up with all of the site's information.

I was over at MICA the other day and ran into one of the final posters. I love how they've presented it! 

Big thanks to Marsha and Megan at MICA! 

ALSO, I should mention that CMYK Magazine picked me to be in their Top New Creatives #51 issue, which should be on newsstands around the middle of this month! Super exciting! I'll let you know when I get a copy. 

ALSO, my work was featured on the blog ImagineThat with a nice write-up!

Okay, I still have a bunch more stuff to show you but it's going to have to wait. Until next time....

Steak Salad

Another "BrokeAss Gourmet" piece, this time printed in glorious FULL COLOR!

Ten Paces and Celine's Gift

I am super excited to have a piece this week on Ten Paces and Draw, an excellent collaborative illustration blog. Each week collaborators make a sketch based on a theme, then the sketches are switched up and everyone ends up taking someone else's piece to completion. I created the piece below based on a sketch by the amazingly talented Alyssa Nassner, who co-created Ten Paces with the also amazing Rachel Dougherty. Please visit the blog to see Alyssa's original sketch!

I had so much fun with this piece! I'd been feeling like my recent work was getting a little too muted so I forced myself to use opera pink on full blast and I'm happy with the result!

Also, make sure to check out my superstar school chum Nick Iluzada's interpretation of my zoo animal getaway car sketch, below. It's so weird seeing someone else make work based on my ideas, but it's fun! I love how he added "peace sign out suckus" and has the lion flippin' the bird!

PS: I had a birthday back in June and the supremely skilled Celine Loup made an awesome painting of me for the occasion. I am seriously honored to have been rendered by her masterful hands (and seriously sorry for not sharing this with you guys sooner)!

I look so classy! I'd really love to wear a dress like that. Big thanks to Celine!!!

Cilantro Margarita

Another Brokeass Gourmet illustration for City Paper! This time a cilantro-honey margarita.

For more Brokeass recipes, check out Brokeass Gourmet!

Potted Plants

A little painting I did on a card for my dad, whose birthday was yesterday (in addition to westerns, he's really into gardening). I scanned this before adding "Happy Birthday" because I was afraid that the lettering would be rushed and not my best. It turned out okay but I still prefer it this way.

Coconut Ice Cream Noms

I did another illustration for the Broke Ass Gourmet column in City Paper! Pick up a copy around Baltimore THIS WEEK! For more of Gabi Moskowitz's Broke Ass recipes go here.

Broke Ass Gourmet

I'm on page 22 of this week's City Paper! I was asked to do a recipe illustration for a cheap but tasty prosciutto, peach, and mozzarella salad.

This colored spot appears on the website:

And here's a close up of the ingredients:

Big thanks to Joe at City Paper! If you're in Baltimore and want to see the recipe in print be sure to pick up a copy of City Paper before Wednesday!

Yippee-Ki-Yay...

...Happy Father's Day! I made this card for my dad (he's really into Westerns).

Guess What?

I'm a college graduate!

Yay!

The studio I shared with Julianna this year is all packed up and no more (goodbye, Strutting Leo!)....

...and I'm ready for my future!

I've been so busy this semester and still have so much to show you! For starters, here are two projects from my Maps class:

A map of Harajuku surrounded by examples of popular street fashions....

...And one of Cuba with a close-up of Havana!

I still have some information I would like to add to these but I'm pretty happy with them so far!

Big thanks to everyone who came to my commencement show (especially those of you who came far out of your way!) and to all my well-wishers! I really appreciate your support!

Commencement Show!!!

My commencement show is up!

Come See it today, tomorrow, or Monday, 11:00AM-11:00PM on the third floor of the Fox Building (take a left off of the elevator, then a right and look at the wall across from you. I'm right there!)

The address is:

1301 Mount Royal Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

21217

A lot of the work in the show hasn't been put up on the blog yet, so it will be new to you!

You can also pick up some of my business cards and postcards...

...Look through my portfolio book and the mock-up for "How I Broke My Ankle"....

...And thumb through one of my most recent sketchbooks!

ALSO, my portfolio site is up! It's actually been online for a while but I was waiting until everything was neat and tidy to start advertising it. I still have some things I'd like to mess around with but I think it looks pretty good for now!

www.jannamorton.com!

Maps Sketchbook Stuff

Ugh! Only two day left of my college career!!! Everything's coming together at a crazy rate! Here are a couple of little sketchbook things for my Maps class.

This one's a scale for an imaginary map that would either be of New Orleans or a fancy English garden or something.

And this is a flow chart type thing showing the four degrees that connect me to my teenage crush, Elijah Wood. I was very excited when I was about fourteen and first figured this out!

Interview With Meg Hunt

For my senior illustration seminar class with Allan Comport we had an assignment to interview a working illustrator. I chose the lovely Meg Hunt, who was kind enough to allow me to post the results of our correspondence here on the blog! Say 'hi' to Meg!

Meg Hunt is an Illustrator who grew up in Connecticut, spent a while in Arizona, and recently moved to Portland. Her clients include BUST magazine, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon Magazine, HOW magazine, and Threadless, among many others. I first discovered Meg’s work back when I was in high school. I fell in love with her exuberant line work, fearless color schemes, and ample use of patterning and texture. I have kept up with her work over the years and it just keeps getting better and better! Her recent Alice in Wonderland work is particularly well done. Her vibrant colors and skillful cartooning are truly at their best.

I find Meg especially inspiring because she seems fearless. Not just in her art, but in her life as well. She is always very open in her blog posts. She isn’t afraid to let people know when she is very proud of something, or feeling stuck in a rut, or when she is drawing inspiration from other artists. She is also very proactive: she is the creator of the amazing Picture Book Report project; the curator of Disconnect the Dots (a 2006 collaborative show between 30 artists from around the world); and most recently the co-creator of Art for Japan, an online auction of artworks donated by various artists for Japan relief. We artists are notorious for being somewhat selfish and arrogant but Meg is always willing to share her knowledge with others, and to learn from her peers and from experience. She isn’t some cold, immutable illustration demi-god but a warm and approachable person who loves to give back to the community. Meg has already been interviewed extensively about her work process so I refrained from asking her any questions about that. Instead I read through her blog and some of her past interviews and wrote down whichever questions occurred to me. In the interview Meg tells me all about artist’s reps, keeping up with online outlets, and learning how to ride a bike.

JM: How often do you draw from life? How often do you doodle from imagination? Has drawing “from your head” always come naturally or have you struggled to find your own style separate from reality?

MH: I draw out of my head or looking at reference more often than actually looking at things. Still, I do like drawing people in coffee shops and need to get back into life drawing more often! I think drawing from my head's always been easier as I tend to flatten and abstract things in my head a bit and drawing realistically was never my strong suit.

JM: Did you get any illustration jobs while you were still in school?

MH: I did a spot illustration for BUST magazine while in school as well as some branding for a friend's pursemaking business, but serious work didn't really happen until afterwards. Still it was amazing to show my professor work in print!

JM: I see that you have an artist's representative. Do you think having a rep is worth the money? Do you get most of your jobs through your rep or through old contacts and web outlets?

MH: I like my rep, but reps aren't for everybody. I think young illustrators expect they need one to hit the big time, but it's not just like a door's opened and work floods in. My rep has made it easier for me to focus on what I need to get done and he's been a good support system. Also since he knows so many contacts and how to price things, I get paid more fairly than if I was still on my own. So having him in my corner suits me well, but I know tons of people without reps who are doing way better than me. Everyone's different. I have a few old contacts I work with myself and sometimes when the pay's low he just lets me handle those, but that's more rare. Some jobs come through my rep, but a lot contact me through my site and he handles those accounts.

JM: Speaking of web outlets, you have a very strong web presence! How important do you think the Internet is to being an illustrator?

MH: I think it's pretty important nowadays, but I'm actually trying to meet people in person and make non digital contact with people. I think there's so many people online that it's getting more refreshing to see work in the real world.

JM: There are so many Internet outlets out there (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, etc) and so many blogs to read and so many things to keep updated! How do you juggle it all and still find time to make amazing work and (hopefully) have a life?

MH: I've definitely downsized what I use. I use Twitter a little too much (but I'm trying to get better with that). Facebook's pretty occasional for me, I never really got into it. I used to use Flickr more but I've found I don't miss it much-- so things like that and Facebook I check once or twice a week and move onto other things. As for Tumblr, I use it as my blog and don't follow many people-- I may have to pare it down some. I try to use it more to produce than consume. I don't read blogs very often (at least not art ones) because if I do, I'll get sucked in. So basically I've just learned that limits can be very good for me-- the less I focus on what everyone else is doing, the easier it is to keep on my own path. As for having a life-- I work very hard, but am definitely trying to bring more personal time into the mix so I can continue to be inspired with what I'm making!

JM: In 2010 you learned how to ride a bike! I’m nearly 22 and have yet to learn how to ride myself, but am very interested! How long did it take for you to get the hang of it? Did you have a friend teach you or did you just work on it on your own? Any tips?

MH: I'm still not perfect at the bike (in fact, it's been sitting in our basement since I moved, tempted to whip it out today!) but the day I figured it out I felt elated. I forget exactly how long it took-- I didn't go out every day, but over a week or two things clicked. I learned myself, and read online about tips-- but I think I just had to keep trying and not give up (which was hard at first)-- and to learn not to stare at my feet but in the direction I wanted to go-- that helped a lot. Eventually your body just figures out how to do these balance adjustments to keep you afloat-- it's thrilling. I haven't tried city bicycling though-- it kind of scares me because I don't drive either so my road sensibilities aren't great!

JM: How do you like Portland? I almost resent the place because every time I hear about something cool I find out it’s going on in – of course! – Portland, on the exact opposite side of the country! I would LOVE to visit but I don’t think I could live there because of the rain. Does the moisture ever get to you?

MH: I can understand that but there is so much on the east coast! I grew up in CT, but never got down past Philadelphia-- always regretted that. Portland's been good to me thus far. Today is gorgeously blue, and everything has this wild lushness to it that is really inspiring. There are a ton of creative people here so it's nice, but more competition. The rain is something I'm getting used to after four years in Phoenix-- it's not constant and it's rarely a thunderstorm (which I miss), but there are some days where it's just drizzly all day and pouring for short moments. Those days get me more irritable than sad, but when it's just gray I'm okay with it. It makes sunny days like today feel like a gift, and also it's been pretty mild all winter so I'm grateful not to shovel snow!

All images in this post are © Meg Hunt. Thanks so much to Meg for responding! Be sure to check out her site for more work and to follow her blog for updates!

How I Broke My Ankle

This is the cover to the book I've been working on this semester! It's the true story of how I was flattened by a tombstone outside of a tropical pet store when I was six. It involves a stranger with a car full of balloons, Catholic school uniforms, and a kid with a question mark for a face.

Some spreads from this project will be up soon! I've got only one week of school left (perhaps my last week of school EVER), then I'll be hanging my commencement show. Things are pretty crazy now but it's all starting to come together!

Make Maps

Yay! My World of Wonderful Shoes map was featured on Adam Hayes' Make Maps Blog.

Check it out!