The Art and Life of Janna Morton

One and Two

2012-01-05T16:50:00.000-08:00

Happy 2012! I've got lots to show you but where to start, where to start? Hmm? I guess I'll start with these two:

1. Here's a little something I did for Ten Paces and Draw's December mixtape. The song I was asked to interpret was the Gossip's "Standing in the Way of Control." It's all about being who you are and sticking with your friends despite the forces trying to keep you down. Growing up I went to a Catholic school with a very strict dress code and was often getting into trouble for coming into school with nail polish on, or brightly colored shoelaces, or (once) wearing a shiny black patent leather headband with one inch metal spikes sticking out of it. Imagine what would have happened if I'd showed up with a flowerpot sticking out of my head?

2. This one was done for SCBWI's Tomie dePaola award contest. The prompt was to illustrate a few lines from Chicken Licken. I didn't win but whatevs, I had fun.

The White Lady

2011-10-31T04:49:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-10-16T14:23:00.000-07:00

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

Ten Paces Prints on Society 6

2011-10-13T20:47:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-04T20:34:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-11T16:19:00.000-07:00

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

Ten Paces and Celine's Gift

2011-07-30T19:39:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-27T15:52:00.000-07:00

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

For more Brokeass recipes, check out Brokeass Gourmet!

Potted Plants

2011-07-22T18:41:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-16T12:37:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-02T20:07:00.000-07:00

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...

2011-06-19T14:03:00.000-07:00

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

Guess What?

2011-05-26T18:55:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2011-05-14T10:54:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-05T01:16:00.001-07:00

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

2011-05-01T01:20:00.001-07:00

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

2011-04-27T21:30:00.001-07:00

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

2011-04-17T21:24:00.000-07:00

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

Check it out!

The Map Sap

2011-04-13T09:29:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! A little while ago I started this pretty sweet (if I do say so myself!) maps blog, and it just occured to me that I should pimp it here! The Map Sap is a tumblr blog dedicated to maps and map-like things, particularly those of a more illustrative style. When you start looking maps are everywhere! Here are a few things I posted on there recently:

by Harry McNaught.

By Ilustrista.

By Lotta Nieminen

So check it out!

MD Chicken Facts!

2011-04-03T01:27:00.000-07:00

For a state-themed infographic assignment in Maps!

So Many Shoes

2011-02-27T23:30:00.000-08:00

I used my shoe illustrations to make my first repeating pattern! It's a pretty simple one, but it works!

Janna and the World of Wonderful Shoes

2011-02-21T11:19:00.000-08:00

My second Maps assignment was to make an entry to submit to Adam Hayes Make Maps blog. For the project artists have to respond to the task of making a map of somewhere that they feel they belong. Here is the description I submitted along with my piece:

It is hard for me to be sure at this time in my life where I belong geographically and/or emotionally, but one thing I can be certain of is the fact that I belong in wonderful shoes! With an 11 wide shoe size, thick calves, a tiny budget, and a penchant for the bright and unusually obnoxious, I have a lot of difficulty finding agreeable footwear. Everything is either too tight or too loose or too boring or too sporty! In my dreams, however, I walk in forests of De Stijl flats, breakfast-themed high tops, and kitten heels (adorned with actual kittens!) and every shoe fits me better than Cinderella’s glass slipper.

[All of the shoes included in this piece are based on real shoes from various designers who are not me. You can see the real ones here, in a collection I’ve compiled on the fashion site Polyvore]

Hopefully Adam will like my piece enough to put it up on the blog! I suppose I should hear back in a few days. At any rate, it was a fun project and I'm happy with the way it turned out!

Getting Where You're Going

2011-02-18T04:16:00.000-08:00

A couple of sketchbook assignments for my Maps class!

A compass rose:

And some hand lettering/hierarchy of type practice!

SHOES...Let's Get Some SHOES

2011-02-16T22:49:00.000-08:00

These shoes are going to be a part of a piece I'm doing for my Maps class this week. All the drawings are based on real footwear I have found on Polyvore (AKA my favorite site EVER). For more information on the shoes and/or to see more of my favorites, go here!

"Let's get some shoes!"

SEEMYSTUFFBUYMYSTUFF

2011-02-10T12:58:00.000-08:00

Hey guys! I just found out that the reception for "Out into the World" - an exhibition I'm a part of - is TOMORROW night! So if you can make it you should definitely stop by! A selection of my Italy work will be on view.

There will probably be snacks!

ALSO, I made 25 new Bird Barrettes for the Raw Art Sale this weekend, in an array of new, Spring-y colors and patterns. Here I am modeling a few of them!

Bird Barrettes are great for those who fear their look is lacking a certain edge.

Buy a barrette and you too may look super tough while chillin' with your homies!

Purchase your own ticket to cool THIS WEEKEND at:

MICA's Raw Art Sale

In the BBOX
Sunday, February 13th
12pm-4pm
OR
Monday, February 14th
10am-4pm

Alright, all plugging done for now! Have a great weekend!

Aminal Peoples

2011-01-24T11:50:00.000-08:00

Yay! I just bought acrylic gouache! It's so much fun! To celebrate I made some little creatures to put in my Maps sketchbook.

Also, Julianna wanted me to post some silly portraits I did of her and Kathleen. I think I really captured their essence.

Bird Barrettes

2011-01-16T04:52:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's already time for me to go back to school! Classes start Tuesday and I can't exactly say I'm looking forward to it. Don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to seeing friends again and starting some new classes and even - gulp! - starting a new thesis. The problem is that I know that as soon as the semester starts it's going to be one crazy, obstacle-ridden, downhill race to the end. And when I get to the end where will I be?

In need of a job! And out of school, most likely forever!

These are scary prospects.
Ah well. At least I'm not the only one...right? Right??
Right.

Sadly, I haven't been incredibly productive this break. I've had many distractions, some for which I'm sure you'd pardon me, others for which I'm sure you would not. One thing I have managed to work on, though, is producing more Bird Barrettes, a product I quickly put together for MICA's annual Art Market this past December. Since it was around finals time I only got around to making six, but all six sold! Here's a photo of them in my studio:

Thanks so much to the people who bought them!

When I made these first six I also made little placards to hold each bird along with some ridiculous commentary. They looked like this:

Making the placards was fun and I think I might do something similar for the batch of 25 birds I'm working on now. However, when I do the next ones I'll probably come up with maybe 5 designs and then print them in multiples rather than design a new card for every bird.

At the Art Market I also sold large prints of my first Secret Garden piece (big thanks to those of you who purchased them!!!). I didn't have the means to get business cards printed before the event so I put together some handmade ones to go with each print. I think they turned out kind of cute so I thought I'd share them, too!

Thanks for reading! If you're interested in purchasing one (or a dozen!) of my Bird Barrettes please come to:

MICA's Raw Art Sale
In the BBOX
Sunday, February 13th
12pm-4pm
OR
Monday, February 14th
10am-4pm

Remember, a Bird Barrette makes an excellent Valentine's Day gift!

All Together Now

2011-01-16T04:06:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the first blog entry of the new year! Happy 2011, everybody!

I just thought it would be nice to show you how my Secret Garden work looked on the wall during my final thesis critique.

Like I said in my The Animal Charmer post, I'd like to add a cover to the series before Commencement, and maybe another spot. But as it is, I think it looks good!

The Animal Charmer

2010-12-27T06:01:00.000-08:00

Behold, my final large piece for my senior thesis, illustrating Francis Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden! Here we see Mary's new friend Dickon in his natural state, entertaining two rabbits, a cock pheasant, and a squirrel while resting in his beloved moor on a late winter's day.

My thesis has been a lot of fun but it has also been very challenging. This medium can be tricky and very time-consuming, and as a result this past semester has been one of my hardest at MICA. Still, I believe that I've learned a lot from this process and next time I start a similar project I will be smarter. In the future I hope to experiment with loosening up my technique and maybe incorporating some painting and drawing to add even more texture and to hopefully make things move a little faster. For now, though, I'm very proud of the work I've done and I look forward to showing it at commencement in May. I plan on making a book jacket for this project over this break and maybe adding in a few more spot-type things in my spare time to round out the series. It's actually quite nice to carry a bit of sewing around with you when you don't feel like your life's blood is on the line.

Meatball Head

2010-12-27T05:18:00.000-08:00

For my Narrative Color final we had to choose a hero's journey to illustrate. For my hero I chose 1990s anime superhero sensation, Sailor Moon, and her journey is the show's first episode. Each piece is keyed to a different color. It was a fairly open-ended assignment so I decided to use it as an excuse to practice hand-lettering.

Oh, Darien!

The Dead Man in Indian Creek

2010-12-27T05:03:00.000-08:00

Hi, everyone! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and/or alternative winter holiday of your choosing! The semester finally ended about a week ago and I've only just recovered! Here's a piece from a little while back, a book cover design for my Narrative Color class.

The Dead Man in India Creek was one of my favorite books as a kid. It involves two tween-age boys finding a dead body and attempting to unravel the mystery, uncovering a drug trafficking ring along the way.

Good times!

MICA T-Shirt Contest Entry - PLEASE VOTE!

2010-12-01T17:41:00.000-08:00

I designed a submission for the MICA T-shirt contest! If you are one of my fellow MICAns I would love it if you would PLEASE VOTE for my design at the ballot box IN THE MEYERHOFF by 5:00PM THIS FRIDAY, Dec 3rd.

Thanks!

Are You a Ghost?

2010-11-24T15:15:00.000-08:00

3rd piece for my Secret Garden thesis! This is for the chapter "I Am Colin" In which Mary finds out that all this time she's been living in the same house with a mysterious cousin she never knew she had.

Practical Accidents

2010-11-24T14:49:00.000-08:00

Here are two pieces for my Narrative Color class. The first one is for a primary color scheme assignment with the prompt "Practical Jokes."

The second is for a warm & cool assignment with the prompt "Accident Waiting to Happen"

The idea being that for some people thinking is an accident waiting to happen.

The outfit on the girl in the middle is Marc Jacobs and the girl on the bottom left is in an Anna Sui dress. The rest is of my own invention.

I know lightbulbs are a cliché but I figured at least some of these are energy efficient.

Young Playwrights

2010-10-26T07:50:00.000-07:00

This is a sketch done a few weeks back for a contest to design this year's Young Playwrights Festival poster for Baltimore's Centerstage Theater. It didn't win (congrats, Becca!) but I like it a lot so I'd like to try turning it into something I could add to my portfolio. Any ideas?

Portraits

2010-10-22T08:51:00.001-07:00

Here is my second piece for thesis, a spot illustration for one of the chapters in the book. This is from the part when Mary explores Misselthwaite on a rainy day and discovers a lot of dusty old portraits spanning the house's past, including one of a parrot and a little girl who reminds Mary of herself.

Finished!

2010-10-22T07:56:00.000-07:00

Here, finally, is the first finished garden piece, which I just found out has been accepted into MICA's juried undergraduate show! If you're in the area come see it on view from October 28th-through the beginning of November (I'll get the closing date up soon. They don't have it on the website).

Progress Shot

2010-10-19T20:34:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been so bad about documenting my thesis! Here's a photo of the first piece about 1/3 of the way through, taken a few weeks back.

Oh, how simple things were back then!

I actually just finished this piece today (finally! omg...) and scanned it but I want to try photographing it too before I post it online.

Italy Art Part 2

2010-10-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

I also have sketchbook pages I'd like to post from this trip but I haven't even started formatting those so I'm not sure when I'll get those up. Hopefully this weekend.

Finally! Italy Art Part 1

2010-10-16T20:26:00.001-07:00

Some of the bigger pieces have annoying lines down one side because the scanner I was using had a glitch. I'll try to rescan those soon but I figured I'd better just put them up now since it's taken so long already.

These are basically in chronological order. You can see how I loosened up as times went on.

Header

2010-10-15T02:23:00.000-07:00

The blog has a new header! So if you're viewing this in Google Reader you should check it out and look up!

Also, it's Fall Break and one of my goals is to finally get all my Italy work up so look for that this weekend!

Turn that frown upside-down!

"A-A-GA-THA, THIS IS MAGNUS...."

2010-10-09T19:03:00.000-07:00

Hey all! We finally started using color in my Narrative Color class! Here is a movie poster-type-thing for one of my favorite movies growing up, 1996's Matilda.

We were limited to a "ketchup and mustard" pallet of cadmium red, yellow ochre, black, and white. Here are all the basic colors and shades you can get with only these four pigments.

Pretty cool, huh? (It looks like Thanksgiving!)

For fun, though, I did a version of the background a little bit more blue, just to get the real old-fashioned chalkboard color feel into it.

In the Garden

2010-09-15T11:37:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who came to my Sorrento class show! It was great to see you there! I haven't forgotten that I promised I'd put the work up here for those of you who couldn't make it: I've just been pretty busy with back-to-school stuff and THESIS. Ugh, so much to do...I feel like I'm behind already!

Anyway, I want to be better about updating the blog as things are developing, especially with thesis, so here's the sketch for my first piece!

Back From Italy!!!

2010-08-26T15:44:00.000-07:00

Guess What?

I'm back from Italy!

Actually, I've been back for almost a month now. Oops....

I had hoped to update the blog long ago but I was determined that I wouldn't do so until I uploaded all 1200 of my travel photos which, using my ancient desktop, took me about three weeks.

No exaggerating.

This past week has been pretty busy what with my job and my thesis proposal and getting ready for classes and two art shows next week and having my Aunt Mar and Aunt Rita in town (very nice to see them!)...but now here I am! The following photos are just a bit of a teaser. You can peruse the whole 1200 of them here at my Flickr account. I don't really expect anyone to look through them all but if you do I've gone through and added titles and comments to almost all of them, with the occasional anecdote thrown in. It should be a fun time. Also, I had to pay 20 bucks to get a Pro Flickr account so that I could use (much) more than the 100 megabytes allotted per month for free users so...yeah, I'd appreciate it if you took a gander if only for my peace of mind.

Alright. Here are some photos!

As you can see I had a really amazing time in Italy! It was definitely a life-altering experience. I'm planning on posting all of my artwork here on the blog very soon but if you would like to see it in person please come see it at MICA on the 2nd floor of the Fox Building between August 30 and Sept 7. The reception is Thursday Sept 2nd from 5-7 PM. Please come!

Abigail and Viktor

2010-05-21T23:21:00.000-07:00

Final Illustrated Book project! Meet Abigail Strudel!

In class we were given three words to create a character around. I was given "conniving," "ruffles," and "circus."
Abigail is the daughter of circus folk in a grand vintage-style circus that constantly tours the US. Unlike the many people who dream of running away to the circus, however, Abigail is always dreaming up schemes to get herself out and hopes to one day have a "real job" as a lawyer or a senator and work her way up the political ladder to become president and then hopefully take over the world.

A next part of the assignment was to show our character interacting with a character designed by one of our classmates. This is Viktor, designed by my friend and super-talented classmate, Cailin. You can see her version here. I made him into a kind of gorrilla/bear thing to suit my cicus-y purposes.

Here are Abigail and Viktor outside the circus!

(Photo from public domain, found in New York Library Digital Gallery, which is AMAZING)

These pieces were collaged using both handed-painted (in gouache) and found papers. To me the natural progression from the flat works I've been doing lately is to experiment with collage. It's fun!

Slaughterhouse 5

2010-05-21T23:03:00.000-07:00

Another Illustrated Book assignment. We had to take a classic book title and illustrate it without including any of the plot from the actual book. My Slaughterhouse 5 is a group of kids who decide to start a band but have no where to practice but in the slaughterhouse, and as a result pioneer the use of meatstruments in modern pop rock music.

This was my first major gouache painting. I like this piece a lot but I'm not sure if I want to go this flat all the time or as cartoon-y stylistically. Still, it's fun to play around with.

Outrageously Alice

2010-05-21T01:07:00.000-07:00

My Concepts II class was assigned to re-do any illustration we weren't too happy with. I've never been very happy with the covers of Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Alice series, so I decided to go with this one in which Alice gets all "outrageous" and covers her normally strawberry blonde locks in green hair gel, much to her father's chagrin.

Here are some of the other covers around (though for some reason Google Image search can't find a picture of the copy I based this on):

I discovered the Alice books in fourth or fifth grade and followed them through the first years of high school. I put them down for a while but when I came to college I rediscovered them and introduced them to my roommate and best friend, Meghan. We ended up having Alice reading parties! These books are so much fun! The main appeal is the protagonist, Alice's hilariously awkward questions about life and growing up, but there's also something incredibly endearing and lifelike about all of the characters and Alice and friends' tweenage and, later, teenage struggles are a big nostalgia trip.

Get thee to a library and pick these up!

Vice and Virtue

2010-05-21T01:03:00.000-07:00

Last assignment for Lifestyles, a diptych showing the vice avaritas (avarice) and its corresponding virtue, charitas (charity).

A Little Princess

2010-05-21T00:55:00.000-07:00

Three spot illustrations for the book A Little Princess for my Illustrated Book class.

I re-read the book for this assignment. Sadly it wasn't quite as good as I remembered it but the 1994 movie still rocks.

Alice in Wonderland

2010-05-21T00:31:00.000-07:00

Lifestyles illustration in celebration of the new Burton film (without all the weird CGI grunge). Alice's dress is by Marchesa and the Red Queen is in Rodarte. I plan on touching this up sometime soon so if you have any ideas for things I should add or change, please let me know!

More Ice Creamz, Pleaze

2010-05-20T23:59:00.000-07:00

I forgot to include this back when I posted my Ice Cream Social "night out" comic. Just a little test piece to see how I was going to color things.

Back!

2010-05-20T23:57:00.001-07:00

Sigh.

Another semester over and my senior year rests like a sleeping beast on the other side of my summer. I have lots to show you from the last couple of months (I've been so bad at updating, lately!) but first I have some great news:

I'm Going to Italy!!!

I got a full scholarship for a month long summer class with MICA in Sorrento, Italy! It's pretty amazing...I never could have afforded it without so much help. I applied for the trip and the scholarship kind of on a lark just in case some miracle would occur but I never really thought it would happen!
I leave in the end of June along with my instructors and 16 other students, including my good friend and temporary roommate, Jimmy. I'm going to get to see Sorrento, Naples, Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius and probably/hopefully Rome. The program is mostly independent study so I'll get to spend lots of time exploring the area and documenting what I see. I'm really, really, excited! However, I'm also a tiny bit nervous; I've never left the continent before or ridden in an airplane or been so far away from my family for so long in a country who's language I don't speak. I've been working a little bit on that last one, learning common terms from a CD with PDF guide that one of my roommates just happened to have lying around. However, if any of you guys have advice on any of the other stuff please share! I've been asking around ever since I found out about this (a few weeks ago) and so far most of the responses are along these lines:

Hide my money/split money up into several places/be careful around ATMs/avoid carrying valuable items if possible, especially passport/avoid gypsies
Eat pizza
Check out Italian thrift stores (I'm super psyched about this one!)
Beware that skeezy men will be hitting on me like I won't believe.
Try to go to festivals if any are going on (also an exciting prospect!)
Never leave anything important at a hostel.

All sounds pretty practical to me! Though again, if any of you have more advise please pass it on, particularly if you have any specific tips about the area or spots you consider "must sees." I will have a little bit of time for day-trips each week, keeping in mind distance and a college student's budget, and there are three days off during the month that I plan on using to see Rome, though it would be possible to change my mind.

Alright, all that aside, artwork posting starts NOW!

Sticka

2010-04-13T19:18:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been so bad about updating lately! Here's a little something I did for MICA's annual sticker design contest.

If you're one of my fellow MICAns I would really appreciate it if you would consider voting for my design! The ballot box is located in the lobby of the Meyerhoff building and should be up through friday along with printouts of all the possible designs (note that the prints made everything dark and yucky. Hopefully the sticker printing people wont be using an office ink jet).

More stuff to come!

He Had Warned Her About the Book...

2010-03-23T19:29:00.000-07:00

...Now it was too late!

This piece was made for a Carl Van Allsburg assignment in my Illustrated Book class. My prompt was:

Mr. Linden's Library
He had warned her about the book.
Now it was too late.

I'm thinking of this as a possible cover image for a pretend book and I think it would be nice to try adding some hand lettering but I have not idea what the book should be called. Any ideas?

Catching Up

2010-03-20T19:55:00.000-07:00

Yikes! I haven't updated my blog all semester and it's already the end of spring break! I am really enjoying my classes but they're really keeping me busy. Here's some of the stuff I've been working....

For my Illustrated Book class I had to come up with an alliterative sentence and illustrate it. Can you guess what it is?

It's "Byzantine Burlesque Bandit Bouffant"!

This one is a sequential fashion piece with the prompt "A Night Out." I thought it would be super gosh-golly neat-o to have mine take place in an ice cream parlor!

Below is an illustration for an annual contest called Words on Wheels. Each MICA student is assigned a poem written by a middle school student and is asked to illustrate it. The winning pieces get hung up inside Baltimore City buses. Sadly my piece was not picked but congratulations to the winners!

Modern Day Rapunzel piece for my Illustrated Book class. In my version of the story Rapunzel is a teenage fry cook in a giant hamburger tower.

And here's a little spur-of-the-moment self portrait sketch I did the other day, layered with some marker tests from the ice cream parlor piece from above.

More coming soon!

How I Spent My Winter Vacation

2010-01-16T19:23:00.000-08:00

How did I spend my winter vacation?

Well, I spent a great portion of this week, at least, worrying about my dad. He went into the hospital on Tuesday to have an operation to place stents in a couple of aorta aneurysms he has had for a while. He's had heart trouble before and when they the doctor tried to go in to fix the aneurysms he found my dad's arteries too clogged up to operate on. The hour-and-a-half wait until the doctor came back from the operating room was excruciating enough but it was all made much worse by a really grim anesthesiologist, a whole lot of miscommunication, freezing cold outdoor temperatures, and the fact that my mom could barely walk. The reason for the long wait, we eventually found out, was due to my father's inability to come off of the breathing tube that had been placed in his throat during the surgery. He looked pretty horrible that first night, sedated with big tubes and wires wrapped all around him. Thankfully by the next day the nurses weened him off the machines and he was awake and talking to us, and by late the day after that he was home and he's now pretty much back to normal. Aneurysms grow very slowly so there is a chance that they may never grow large enough to do any real damage in his lifetime.

This drawing was done the second day, early in the morning, while Dad was still in the ICU.

So much of this week was spent worrying about Dad that time has slipped away from me and now I can't believe there are only two days left until the spring semester starts! Unfortunately I haven't been as productive as I had intended to be but it's been a great help just to be able to sleep as long as I like every night and spend time with my parents. However, to make myself feel a little better I have compiled a list of all the things I did manage to do over break, however silly many of them may be.

1. tagged all the untagged items in my Polyvore closet

2. Read three books from start to finish:

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

3. Started working on 3 other books that I have yet to conclude:

The Fairy Stories of Oscar Wilde
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane (which I borrowed from a classmate a long time ago and really need to return)
The Pink Fairy Book edited by Andrew Lang (it has gorgeous illustrations by H. J. ford!)

4. Baked really delicious cookies.

5. Watched - as of this moment - 28 movies.

(Movies I especially recommend are followed by a plus sign, ones I especially dislike are followed by a minus)

Enchanted April
Meet Me In St. Louis
It Happened One Night+
Ernest Saves Christmas (a holiday classic for the ages!)+
Monster-In-Law (viewed only because Michael Vartan is super dreamy. It wasn't too bad.)
Orpheus+
Enter the Dragon+

some Muppet Christmas Movie
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Shadow of a Doubt
Paper Moon
Cookie's Fortune
Garden State-
West Side Story
The Science of Sleep+

Burn After Reading-
He's Just Not That Into You+
The Outlaw Josey Wales+
Anywhere But Here
Baby Mama
From Hell
Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael+
Notorious
Earth Girls Are Easy (The weirdest thing I've seen since Shock Treatment)
Sugar and Spice+
Young Guns
A Knight's Tale
The Royal Tenenbaums

6. Wrote letters to 20 heads of NBC in the hopes that they will keep Conan O' Brien on the air (unfortunately it seems like Team Conan May be losing the battle)

7. Spent time with some high school friends.

8. Spent time with some college friends.

9. started a new sketchbook

10. Got to see my brother for a few days this week (I only get to see him about twice a year anymore)

11. Updated my Tumblr a whole lot.

12. Cleaned my apartment a little.

13. Started freaking out about going back to school!

Despite my trepidation over certain things (like not wanting to leave my parents so soon after my dad leaving the hospital and not having my apartment as organized and in order as I had planned by this point) I am really looking forward to a new beginning: New classes, new habits, and new artwork to show you!

German News

2010-01-09T12:19:00.000-08:00

Guess what, guys?

I've been published!

Katrin Sohns of German News contacted me a couple of months ago about wanting to use my Slumdog Millionaire piece to complement an article on how movies like Slumdog and White Tiger are affecting the way the world views India. You can click on the image below to read the article if you're curious.

I must say it's pretty exciting to see my work getting out there, and especially in such an interesting periodical! German News is produced in India and writes on various topics that have to do with Indo-German relations. I would have posted this sooner but I was waiting until I got my copies in the mail. I guess it can take a long time to send mail so far. I don't think I've ever received anything from so far away. I had almost forgotten about it and was really confused when I saw that my family had received a package from New Dheli!

To read more about this piece and my other 2009 Oscars work click here.

Ghosts of Christmases Past

2009-12-25T20:53:00.000-08:00

Some things I've come across while working around the house for the holiday.

Merry Christmas everyone!

3 Eye Mask

2009-12-22T23:25:00.000-08:00

Here's one of my projects for Stitch this past semester, a mask very loosely inspired by The Grimm Brothers fairy tale, "One Eye, Two Eye, Three Eye."

It didn't end up working very well as a mask but I'm pretty fond of it as an object in general.

ZOMG, GLITTERZZZ O,O !!!!11!!1!1

FLY

2009-12-19T13:00:00.000-08:00

Three pieces on the theme "FLY" for my Concepts I final.

The semester is over and I am so psyched to be home and done with finals! I slept in this morning and woke up to futz around the internet, catch up on episodes of Conan, and watch the snow's progress as it gusts and flurries outside my window. It's so nice not having any school stuff to worry about for a while.

A note for Rebecca

2009-12-18T07:33:00.000-08:00

Hi, Rebecca! I've tagged all of my Concepts I work for (hopefully) easy location. Regular assignments are here and sketchbooks can be seen here.

Map

2009-12-18T06:41:00.000-08:00

Concepts "Map" assignment, a map of a shopping center in my area of town.

The Book of Likes

2009-12-18T06:39:00.000-08:00

I like being silly.

Spooky Stuff!

2009-12-15T11:24:00.001-08:00

An illustration for a review of the movie Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant!

OoooOOooOOoooo!!!

The deliciously ghoulish duo of The White Stripes with sugur skull faces for The Book of Music.

AAaaaaAAAAaaaAAhhh!!!!

And me, dressed for The Day of the Dead a while back on All Hallow's Eve!

Oooogity-boogity!

Children's Books Spots

2009-12-12T22:18:00.000-08:00

Here are four spot illustrations I did to go along with my Writing Children's Books final. They were created to complement four of my own original stories.

"What Is Magic?"

"I'm Lost!"

"The Night Owl"

"The Afternoon Gravediggers"

2009-12-05T13:41:00.000-08:00

I just found this picture while cleaning up some computer files the other day. These are cards I gave to my dear friend Caitlin around this time last year (her birthday is on Christmas so I try to give her a little extra attention). The theme for these cards, as you can see, is me being AS CREEPY AS POSSIBLE. The second card opens up to a huge picture of Elvis but I didn't photograph it because it was just cut out of an old calendar, not hand-painted or anything (she has this peculiar idea that Elvis is following her.)

I really like these, particularly the Christmas one. I think I might play around with adapting the tone and style into a set of holiday cards I could sell, except perhaps with my face replaced by other characters. Obviously I'm not going to get it done before this Christmas but there's always next year and if I cover enough holidays I could sell them year round!

Oh wait! I'm forgetting something!

Hamburgerlar

2009-12-04T11:51:00.000-08:00

Op-Ed illustration for "Eating by the Numbers," an article on Nutrition Facts on fast food.
This week's sketchbook, The Book of Beasts! This is one of my favorite book entries as well as one of my favorite mix CDs. Click on the image to get a better look at the tracklist (sorry, it gets a little hard to read near the bottom).

The Book of Self Portraits

2009-11-25T22:00:00.000-08:00

My Concepts sketchbook drawing for this week. I made another mix CD. I'll edit this entry with the tracklist at a later date (I don't have it on me at the moment)

Oh wow! I just noticed that I forgot to cross the second "T" in "portraits. You can really tell I had been up all night, can't you?

Fashion Illustration

2009-11-25T16:32:00.000-08:00

Hi guys! I'm back with my most recent Concepts work. The assignment was a sort of Secret Santa thing that included Rebecca giving us all a sheet with all our classmates' names on it and us having to come up with an especially tailored assignment for each person. Then Rebecca put them all in seperate bags for each of us and we got to pick two from the bag, then decide on one of them to work on. I chose "fashion illustrations for a teen girls magazine for 3 current trends," an option which was written by my friend Julianna. She had noticed my Polyvore blog post from over the summer and thought it would be good for me. I'm happy she did because I've been wanting to try fashion illustration for a long time. When I was in middle school I used to keep these books of drawings of girls in various outfits. Some of the clothes were based on real items, others I made up. Looking back they're pretty stiff and naive looking but I was really passionate about them at the time. That all stopped when I went to high school, though, and I haven't thought much about them in some time, until now.

I opted not to make the trends for each piece really obvious but I did try to make each girl have her own personality and style. Most of the clothing and accessories are based on real items though I have made some alterations, most notably changing the owl bag in the second piece into a top. I used Polyvore to find the clothing (most of which was already in my Polyvore closet) and figure out which pieces I would put together. Below I've embedded Polyvore sets I've made with my finished illustrations so that you can see the original items and possibly even buy them if you wish!

Hamburgerlar by greenwhimsy featuring KG by Kurt Geiger shoes

Items in this set:
Milanoo.com dress, $90
Elle.com dress
Debenhams.com top, 5.60 GBP
Lovebugclothing.com skirt
KG by Kurt Geiger shoes, 3.95 GBP

Darkly Decadent by greenwhimsy featuring kate spade

Asian Island Punky Schoolgirl by greenwhimsy featuring Michael Kors

Items in this set:
Michael Kors sweater, $695
Lola and James blouse, $120
Chaoticclothing.co.uk skirt, 18 GBP
Sourpussclothing.com clothing, $12
Edgeofurge.com tights, $28

And here's just one more Polyvore set. It doesn't include any of my illustrations but it's certainly seasonally appropriate:

Thanksgiving by greenwhimsy featuring Pade Vavra jewelry

Items in this set:
Clockworkcouture.com top, $23
Wetseal.com hoodie
Itsthenewblack.com.au outerwear, 279 AUD
Journelle.com intimates, $58
Graziamagazine.ru intimates

Happy Thanksgiving, Everybody!

The Spirit World

2009-11-13T07:46:00.000-08:00

This week's sketchbook drawing, this time for "The Spirit World" book. I made another mix CD. You can read the tracklist if you click on the image. I made it hard to read on purpose because I think knowing what songs are on a mix before hearing it kind of ruins the fun but I do want people to have a chance of figuring out what they heard later if they're interested.

The dominant colors are black and gold to match the end papers John put in when he made the book's covers.

It's All Connected

2009-11-04T18:43:00.000-08:00

Yes! I am finally done with this monster project!
For the past three weeks or so all of the Illustration Concepts classes have been working on posters or TV spots for the an outside client, the Baltimore Office of Sustainability. The top five pieces will be printed huge and go up in Batltimore metro stations. I kept the size in mind while I worked on mine so I made it very detailed. The piece was created by making lots of little acrylic paintings and then scanning them into Photoshop and collaging them digitally. This probably wasn't the best technique considering how many layers I had to make and how big the file had to be (it was 4 gigabites before I flattened it!) but I think it all worked out in the end.

I mainly like the final product but it's kind of hard to tell, I've been working it for so long.

Here are some of the contributing paintings that I like well enough to show on their own:
I'm particularly fond of the Oriole. I actually think I saw one today while I was walking around campus. I tried to get closer but of course he flew away.

Ugh Busy Ugh

2009-10-19T18:51:00.000-07:00

Sketch for last weeks sketchbook, The Black and White Book. It was originally a book on shells.

Here it is in the context of the book (and in non-edited colors)

I also did a mix CD and surrounding layout page for this one that I'll post next time.

Making it Brief

2009-10-13T11:15:00.000-07:00

Concept's Sketchbook Sketches!

The Book of Romance

The Book of Dreams

It isn't an assignment or anything that we make mixtapes for our sketchbooks but it's something I've started doing. I think I'll try to keep it up.

Dream Mix Tracklist :

A blind stitch applique study for stitch:

And a sketch for my current Stitch assignment. It's a mask!

Sotto Zero

2009-09-25T10:43:00.000-07:00

Hi all! It's been a pretty crazy week. My Dad had a minor heart attack and was in the hospital for several days. It was pretty scary but the doctors went in to check his heart and there was very little new damage. Everything went really well and I'm really, really happy that Dad's back home and seems pretty much back to normal.

Here's a pretty crappy sketch from the hospital:

He was pretty grumpy that day.

In other news, I just finished a one week assignment for Concepts. We were to illustrate a menu cover for a sort of modern Italian restaurant in London. The idea was to base our illustration around a single item on the menu without using any sort of cliche menu/Italian food imagery and without simply drawing the dish. I chose Sotto Zero, a desert item including lowfat frozen yogurt, fresh strawberries, fruit coulis, and a chocolate straw. I've been wanting an excuse to draw a cute girl in a highly patterned dress for a while so I decided that this was my chance to run with it. I really want to work on infusing more pattern into my work.

This was also my first time using gouache. I'm not sure how I feel about it, yet. It dries reeeaally fast. But I like how colors lay over each other as opaque. Acrylic can require a lot of layering, which can get really ugly really fast.

I also did a sketch for "The Book of Romance" sketchbook this week, but I didn't get a chance to scan it. I'll be sure to get it next time.

They call me Mr. Tibbs!!!

2009-09-18T07:53:00.000-07:00

Second finishes of the new school year! I'm not sure how I feel about them. I tried a new technique using duralar and painting on both sides as well as on paper behind it. I like the layered look but I think my colors are kind of drab. I don't know why I have so much trouble choosing colors from my head - or even with reference. I guess I just over think things.

These were another playing card assignment. This time my theme was movies I watched this summer. I watched 100 movies in 113 days! Unfortunately it was my greatest summer achievement. But anyway...

The first is Sidney Poitier in In the Heat of the Night as the Ace of Spades; the second is the cast of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie as the 8 of diamonds; and the last is Hurd Hatfield in The Picture of Dorian Gray as the Ace of Hearts.

I'm pretty happy with the likenesses overall and I really like certain aspects each one but they aren't exactly the "crème de la crème." Oh well. Onward to the next adventure!

I Figured I Had Paid My Debt to Society, By Paying My Overdue Fines At the Multnomah County Library

2009-09-16T20:38:00.000-07:00

First finished piece of the semester! All hand embroidered for Studio Remix: Stitch.

First Concepts Post!

2009-09-11T10:58:00.000-07:00

Hi, everybody! More sketches. These first three are for my first big Illustration Concepts assignment....

...This is the cover of a little book I embellished for class (before picture coming soon!)....

...And this is totally unrelated, a sketch I did during a folk music concert I went to last night in DC. It was pretty cool but unfortunately i had to come back early.

I'd explain more about these now but I'm not feeling very well. I went to the clinic and they say I don't have the Swine but I'm sick and sniffly and icky all over and it's cold and rainy outside and I long to crawl back into my warm bed....

Back in school!

2009-09-05T12:02:00.000-07:00

School's back in session! No more endless hours of movie watching and Polyvore set making. I just finished my first week and I've already got a lot of assignments in the works. Here's a little sketch for one of the things I'm working on.

Whartscape and Artscape 2009...and some other stuff.

2009-07-20T22:07:00.000-07:00

I have a very crappy and ancient digital camera that I don't use very often but I have recently managed to fill up (it's not very hard - I only have room for about 34 pics). In saving the photos to my computer to free up space it occurred to me that it's been a few weeks since my last blog post so I might as well show them to you! Most of the photos were taken either last week at Whartscape - a local music festival - or Artscape - a huge art festival which conveniently takes place partially on the campus of my school and onward throughout the Station North neighborhood of Baltimore. I didn't really take these photos with the intention of telling a comprehensive story about either event so if you'd like more information I suggest typing "Whartscape 2009" or "Artscape 2009" into your search engine of choice.

Anyway, onward to the Photos!

Um, this first one is just a photo of text I liked from a poster in the Creative Alliance. It's been a few months since I was there but the picture was still on my camera so I thought I'd share.

Aaaand this second one is a 3-tiered, 5-layer carrot cake I made for Father's Day. I was sort of proud of myself.

And now on to Whartscape! I'll admit that I can't remember a lot of the bands names and my schedule is at my other home at the moment, but I do remember that these guys were awesome! Definitely checking them out later.

BEST BAG EVER!!! I definitely should have asked this girl about it.

Liked his hair.
Like her sweater (and she's really working that fanny pack!)

These guys were one of my favorites. Most of their songs were comprised of just humming and sounds with a few words here and there about living in the jungle. Something delightfully different in the middle of the day.

My friend and roommate, Meghan, wearing a skirt I am quite envious of.

Also I LOVE THIS DRESS! I guess I was feeling really shy or something that day, I don't know why I didn't talk to these strangers about what they were wearing...
Also, in this photo this girl is waiting for one of the delicious veggie burritos that were being sold inside the festival for $5 (not bad for something filling and homemade within 20 feet of the stages!). I believe I was enjoying my own when I got this shot.

Now on to Artscape! I'm in love with this necklace I saw at one of the vendors.

Here is my friend and sometimes roommate, Zac, standing in front of the crowd of people converging on the parking lot of Mount Royal Station, which is usually where MICA students go for sculpture and fibers classes. On this day, however, this is where everyone and their mom was going to see Cake play a free concert! Zac and I tried but we got there too late to sit or stand anywhere where we could possibly see the band. We tried sitting on this very steep grassy hill to the side of the building but I'm slightly allergic to grass and there were about 100 bugs per square foot up there so we decided to forget about it.

An amazing papier mache bunny sculpture and uni-bunny, apart of one of the awesome installations on the Charles Street bridge.

That night Zac, Meghan, our friend Kay, and I ended up at a show for a band called Telesma up on North Avenue. They had fire dancers and giant flag-wavers and and lots of people running around in wonderful trash bag and foil costumes we're pretty sure were made by Alzaruba (who has a great installation on the first floor of MICA's Fox building right now, by the way). We also ran into another of our friends, Kat, who was selling CD's for the band. It was a lot of fun!

The next day I took lots of photos of the art cars - one of my favorite parts of Artscape - but not before running into these guys!

These minotaurs and their disgruntled king were there to spread hype for Gründlehämmer, a production due to open this October by The Baltimore Rock Opera Society, an amazing thing I just learned exists. You can go to the website to see about ways of getting involved or for fundraiser info.

I also had my photo taken as apart of an installation on the windows of Baltimore's Penn Station. I actually didn't get to see my photo up on the window in person - this photo was not taken by me but by one of my classmates, Kyle, who posted it on Facebook. I'm in the second row from the top on the far left in the captain's hat with Meghan. Coincidentally (I guess?) we were arranged right next to Zoe, Kyle, and Samara, our fellow MICAns!

Now on to the art cars!

I've actually seen this one out on the road a few times.

This one is possibly my favorite this year. It's so romantic. Can't you just imagine how cool it would be to go cross country in this thing? The owner actually has a small bed in the back. You could just drive all day, sleep in the back, and weld on something new from every town you visited.

The Aloha car! I actually took a lot of photos of this one last year but the owners added some new things since then. She actually came up to me as I was looking at it and asked if I was interested in making an art car. I explained that, yes, I would very much like to but I have to learn how to drive first, and then buy a car. I asked her a lot about her inspiration and process. She said that she isn't necessarily obsessed with the beach in general, but when she was looking for a theme she thought it would be nice to feel as if one were at the beach everyday. She gets some good reactions from passerby in the city (she once got out of a parking ticket due to the car's shear awesomeness) but people really get into it when she takes it down to the beach. The castle is foam that a friend cut for her and the waves up front are carefully sculpted expanding foam (I know from experience that this is useful stuff but very tricky to handle. And it stays on your clothes forever....). The knick-knacks are just things she picks up in craft stores, dollar stores, and beach shops for really cheap. She's always on the lookout for new additions.

She told me that the fish on the glove compartment, here, came from a mobile she cut up.

And my big question - What adhesive does she use?
Shes says silicone does the trick. She let me pull on one of the shells on the roof and it holds on really well but it moves a little bit, which is important on a car since it expands and contracts in the heat and the cold of the outside. I did notice that some of her glass stones were falling off the edges of her car doors, though. I think maybe liquid nails might work better there on the harder surface. Another art car artist suggested that to me last year. I think it was the guy who did the Hand-y car, above.

The End!
(I don't know that little girl but she was so cute and I got tired of waiting around for people to get out of the picture)

Stay tuned for next time, when I might be posting some new work! Hold on to your socks!

Lady Liberty

2009-07-04T12:06:00.000-07:00

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!

Laserzzz

2009-06-22T23:16:00.000-07:00

I spend way too much time finding AMAZING things on the internetz. Here is one of them:

We Have Lasers!!!!!!

A totally awesome site featuring 1980s and 90s era laser photos. What's a laser photo? something like this:
I love the crazy retro-futuristic backgrounds mixed with all of the wonderful 80s-90s kids fashion and redonkulous hair. Note the HUGE ribbon hair barrette, embroidered teal t-shirt, and strange mullet bangs on the girl above.

These kids are just too cool! How BA is this next little girl?! Wearing white tights and a pink turtleneck/ sea foam green sweater combo in the middle of a lightning storm in the Matrix!?

These two go a step further by adding text and props!

I sure do wish I could go on a "voyage to the stars"! And isn't that second girl adorable? If I had been a teenager in '91 I would so want to be her! I love that dress and she's one of the few people out there who can pull off those kind of glasses without looking like a prat.

Now this one is such a little hipster:

Super cool!

And now for the MOST SPECTACTULARLY AMAZING PHOTO EVER (*drumroll*):

TA-DA!

Buddy Holly glasses? Check.

Fuzzy assymetrical haircut which probably wasn't assymetrical on purpose? Check.

FANSHMASTIC sequin sweater Leslie Hall (and I!) would surely envy? CheckCheckSuperCheck.

GUITAR? Oh hells yes CheckCheckCheck!!11!!!!!!!111!!!!1

All of these elements combine to make the BEST SCHOOL PICTURE EVER!!!

I really wish I could submit my own awesome laser picture to the site but, sadly, I don't have any :(. I actually don't think I have any school photos after about 1st grade. I have some proofs hanging around and I'm in my high school yearbook but I could never get my parents to buy the fancy backgrounds (since we usually didn't buy the photo at all) and in most of my earlier photos I had to wear a uniform (my first nine years of education were spent in Catholic school).

Sigh.

Oh well.

If any of you guys have laser photos you should definitely submit them to We Have Lasers!!!!!!!! and give me a link! I'd love to see you there!

The Oscars 2009

2009-06-18T15:59:00.000-07:00

Here are four more pieces I did for Daniel Krall's Illustration 2 class. Our assignment was to pick from this year's top 6 Oscar winners and illustrate them in a strange 8x3 format, with an extra inch above and below left free for text (which I opted to overlap into). I knew a lot of my classmates would end up creating a scene that looked like a movie still due to the format, and I wanted to avoid that. I also wanted to avoid any kind of cartooning because it isn't exactly my forte at the moment and getting a good likeness was essential.

Slumdog Millionaire - Best Picture

At the time the only 2009 Oscar winner I'd seen was The Dark Knight, which I loved. When I thought on Heath Ledger's performance, specific scenes came to mind, certain expressions and body language and interactions he had with other characters. I decided that the best way for me to capture the feel of his and the other actor's performances would be to screencap all of these scenes and draw directly from them. It's something I would normally avoid, but in this case it just seemed to make sense.

Heath Ledger as The Joker - Best Supporting Actor

This meant that I had to actually see the other top movies, (including Vicky Cristina Barcelona, though I didn't end up drawing for it), taking notes of the scenes I felt were most important, then either finding caps online or making my own. After I collected all the caps I printed them out and made line drawings from them with the aid of my mini light table. This made getting proportions down a lot easier and faster than otherwise but it didn't help much in the areas of likeness and line width which is why some places are kind of wonky. Overall I think I did a pretty good job, though. I did a lot of drawings.

Sean Penn as Harvey Milk - Best Actor

After I did as many drawings for each character as I could, I scanned them all in and aligned them all in Photoshop. This was the fastest part. It took about 16 hours straight through - unfortunately all the night before it was due. The pieces I'm showing you now have been edited somewhat since I had them printed and presented them in class.

Kate Winslet as Hanna Schmitz - Best Actress

All of the drawings were done with "magic" marker, a mixture of crayola, rose-art, random off-brands and some skinny felt tips from the school store. Nothing fancy.

Thanks for looking! I plan on showing you guys some of what I've been working on this summer, soon. Otherwise I've been keeping busy, working 3 days a week in the Student Activities Office at MICA, Going to physical therapy for some neck and upper back problems I've been having 2 days a week, reading a bit in my spare time and watching a loooot of movies and History channel documentaries in an ongoing effort to empty my DVR. I guess I might actually do it some day if I stopped scheduling new recordings...but there's just so much wonderful stuff to watch @.@!

Mr. T

2009-06-02T14:22:00.001-07:00

Found this while digging around my basement, today:

Greeting Cards

2009-05-25T22:32:00.000-07:00

Hi guys!
This is the cover of a card I made a few weeks ago for Mother's Day. As the years get on it becomes increasingly difficult to come up with new ways of showing my undying love and appreciation, etc. In the end I decided that the thing my Mom might like best would be to see my brother and I as little kids again! Of course, we are 6 1/2 years apart in age so we never actually looked like this at the same time... We did, however, actually dress like this: my mom handmade sailor suits for my brother and searched out all these fancy old dresses for me in thrift stores. A friend of mine said that we look like something out of a Decemberists song I and I think that was unconsciously what I was going for.
Oh, I used to hate dressing up but now I wish I could wear fancy lace-covered dresses all the time!

For fun and as proof of my mom's somewhat unusual taste in children's attire (for the late 80s and early 90s, anyway), here are some old family photos!

My brother, Patrick, and my grandma in front of the Naval Museum in D.C. (certainly an appropriate outfit for this particular outing):

The Mortons all together for my baptism. I'm the little white paper sack my mom is carrying. I love that expression on her face!

Here I am alone, probably about 3 years old. My hair wasn't long enough to wear in braids yet.

While riffling through old photos in search of the above I uncovered some other cards I've made over the years!

I made this one for my dad to give to my mom on their 17th anniversary. I can't remember which one they're up to now but I think I must have been about 10 or 11:

Unfortunately this one isn't dated but i think it must have been made somewhere around the same time.

This one actually isn't very old at all: it's from Father's Day 08. My Dad likes sitting outside a lot.

Interior (I am the puppet master!):

Thanks for looking! Do you guys still make homemade cards for your family and friends?

Stitch Witchery

2009-05-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

I've been experimenting a bit this past year with incorporating fibers materials and techniques into my illustration work. I love the texture of fabric, the feelings it invokes, and its plethora of patterns. However, there are a few downsides to working this way: the process can be very time consuming, the mixture of textures can be overwhelming, and making alterations can be very difficult. Conveniently for me, the wonderful Caroline Hwang will be teaching an Illustration course, "Studio Remix: Stitch," at MICA this Fall, and I'm currently enrolled! I first saw her illustrations years ago and I'm sure she's been a part of what has inspired me to use alternative materials in my work, so its pretty amazing to know I'll be taking a class with her. Hopefully in class we'll talk about ways to bypass some of the obstacles I've encountered.
Anyway, here's some more of what I've done!

Portrait of J. K. Rowling

Illustration for a six word story: "Foolish Humans: should have escaped Earth!"

Works for a version of Jekyll and Hyde I created, featuring a virginal 14-year-old girl in Santa Fe in the 1890s who transforms into a wicked young man, wishing to gain power over her oppressive uncle (a mission priest).

The Transformation

Nighttime in Santa Fe

Zodiac Kids!

2009-05-16T22:10:00.000-07:00

These are 6 illustrations I did for D. Krall's (hey, he just spiffed up his site!) Illustration 2 class. We had to do five 3x3 spots and one 5x7 illustration of Zodiac signs for a magazine type that we were individually assigned: I was assigned a children's magazine. The technique I used for these came about because I thought it would be amazing if I could do each one in fabric as a hand-sewn quilt panel, but I knew there was no way I would be able to finish five in two weeks. So instead, I scanned in a lot of my scrap fabric and inserted it into vectorized versions of my hand-drawn sketches in Photoshop.

Aries! The first sign in the zodiac. Ruled by mars, symbolized by the ram. Aries are fire-y, outgoing, people who are fiercely independent and incredibly courageous. They have a tendency towards daredevil activities. They also have a tendency towards impatience and anger.

Gemini (my sign)! The third sign in the Zodiac, symbolized by the twins. Geminis are the most communicative and social of the signs. They are childlike, with a thirst for knowledge and are natural storytellers. They can also be flighty and rather damaging and fearsome when their tempers are roused, though they are not quick to anger.

Cancer! The fourth sign in the zodiac, symbolized by the crab. The more familial, sensitized, and protective of the signs, and ruled by the Moon. Cancers be shy homebodies but they also have a more assertive side that draws them to the limelight. Family and relationships are of extreme importance to them and they will do whatever they can to protect the people they love. They can also be rather cranky and dramatic.

Virgo! The 6th sign of the Zodiac, symbolized by the virgin. Virgos are sharp, responsible, logical people who are always willing to lend a helping hand. They are dependable and intellectually sophisticated. Learning is fun for them and they love to share their learning with others. However, they can also be rather fussy and love to be right.

Libra! The 7th sign of the Zodiac, ruled by Venus and symbolized by the scales. The most socially-minded of the signs, Libras like balance and fair play and try their best to make everyone around them comfortable. They are open-minded, artistic, and willing and wanting to listen. They can also be quite indecisive and may bend the truth to avoid being disagreeable.

Aquarius! The Penultimate sign of the Zodiac, ruled by Uranus and symbolized by the water bearer. Aquarians are innovative, opinionated people with an intense thirst for knowledge. They will very fiercely argue for their convictions but are willing to listen to the ideas of others and are always willing to admit when they are wrong. However, their independence and enigmatic personality can make them difficult to get close to.

I had a lot of fun researching the Zodiac while doing this project. I visited a lot of different sites but the most useful was elore. Check it out if you're interested!

Tick-Tacky Lawn Ornamentation

2009-05-16T20:49:00.000-07:00

My Illustration I final. We were to choose a theme and create three pieces off of it. My theme was tacky lawn decor.

I used craft store acrylics on neon posterboard for these. Deanna - my instructor - was a little wary at first, but she ended up liking these when I was done.

It's kind of funny; that sort of thing happens to me a lot.

Monster Pom-pom Head

2009-05-16T19:49:00.000-07:00

This isn't super current but I've been thinking about it lately so I thought I'd share....

This is a monster pom-pom head I made for my Sculptural Forms class, Fall 07 (Yikes! That sounds like so long ago!). Over 1000 pom-poms were used! I didn't really know where I was going with this - I just felt compelled to make it.

I think the ideas I was exploring here - repetition, bright colors, texture, obsession, costume - fed into a lot of what I'm doing now.

The lovely model is my good friend, Jimmy Malone, another MICA kid.

!!!!First Post!!!!

2009-05-15T23:48:00.000-07:00

Hi, there! My name is Janna Morton and I am an Illustration major at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). However, I work in all sorts of disciplines. I'm creating this blog as a way to keep in touch with other artists and friends and as a way to have my recent work represented online until I get my own website running. You should expect lots of art, some doodle-y things, tidbits on my process, and maybe some other fun stuff along the way.

Thanks for visiting! Please feel free to comment with any blogspot tips or tricks. I had one of these about five years ago but I'm afraid I might have forgotten a few things.