Cafeteria Logos

Here is a look at a project I've been working on lately. I'm working with someone who promotes nutrition and fitness in schools and he has developed a project to create signs to hang in cafeterias for different food lines. For example, some schools offer Mexican Food, Chinese Food, Italian Food, and a Salad Bar. So the kids can pick what they want for lunch that day. It's kind of in the spirit of having a food court with lots of options instead of a cafeteria with only one option. So essentially, I will be creating logos for each "restaurant" the cafeteria has. So they will have a bunch of logos to pick from, but if they want something custom, for example, something with their mascot incorporated in the design, I can do that too.

It might sound kind of complicated or weird, and you're probably right, but I'm excited to see how it all works out! This is going to be a long term project so you'll probably see more of these designs in the months to come. But for now, here are a few that I thought turned out well. These are custom designs for a school, so it didn't have as much say in the design, but I like the way they turned out. I'm starting out with rough sketches to get the idea worked out. Then I take the final sketch and recreate it in with vector art. If there was any way I could make these with traditional art, I would, but these are going to be rather large signs, so blowing them up will not look good. With vector art, you can resize it to any size and it won't effect the quality of the image. This project will definitely give me good practice with making vector art! That's for sure!

14th Orange Open Juried Exhibition

This last week one of my drawings has been showing at the 14th Orange open Juried Exhibition at the Guggenheim Gallery at Chapman University. Unfortunately, due to my busyness and forgetfulness, I missed the opening award ceremony! So I went to see the show today, so I could at least see and enjoy the other art that had been selected. To my pleasant surprise, I discovered I had won 1st Place in the Drawing/Illustration category!! I apologize for not announcing this show very well, and I wish I had been to the opening, so I could invite people to go! Next time I wont be so forgetful! If you have time and want to go see the show, it will remain open until August 21st. Just a few more days!

Anniversary Graphite Drawing

I was recently commissioned to do a drawing based on a photo of two of my friends, who are dating, for their one year anniversary. It was good practicing drawing more realistically for a change.

SCBWI Conference!

As many of you already know, last weekend I went to the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Summer Conference. Oh my goodness!...I'm still recovering and processing everything I learned!! It was my first time going and I can't wait until next year!

Some highlights and lessons learned from the Conference:

1. Meeting Loren Long!! He is one of my favorite illustrators and a big influence on my art and inspiration to me. I bought his illustrated version of The Little Engine That Could and he signed it for me! He was also a Keynote Speaker and I also went to one of his break-out sessions. It was great seeing part of his process.(Loren Long and some of the OC Illustrators)

2. Spending time with the OC Illustrators ladies! I was so glad to spend some time with them and get to know them better. We spent a lot of time stalking people we wanted to meet and then not knowing what to say to them. It was great. (Some of the OC Illustrators!)

3. Hearing many, many times: Don't follow trends, follow your heart. Draw what YOU love to draw, because that comes from deep in your heart, and when it comes from deep inside of you, it will be genuine and real, and that's when you will make your best work.

4. Learned some tips on writing, which I am not as interested in pursuing at the moment, but eventually I would like to have a book published that I wrote AND illustrated. Rhythm and prose is important in picture books, pay attention to page turns and payoffs, and don't tell the story with text, tell it with image, and let the text "complete" the narrative.

5. For portfolios include sequential pieces, classic tales in your own style, show your strengths and range of ability, and make sure your weakest image is still strong because your portfolio is only as good as your weakest image.

Of course there is SO much more, but those were the biggest things for me. Now I have a lot of work to do, a whole list of books to look up, following up on contacts that I made, submit my work to publishers and agents, and start on some new art pieces to make my portfolio better and more refined. There's LOTS to do before next years Conference, so I'd better get to work!!

...But first, a few more pictures!

(E.B. Lewis in the middle and Ashley Bryan on the far left. Some awesome illustrators/writers)(Arthur Levine at the Heart and Soul party on Saturday night, so fun!)

Until next year....