Puzzled

This word of the week is puzzled, I thought of so many things to do, which went off the word puzzled as in a game or a puzzle. I went with the emotion of being puzzled. 

My inspiration for this word of the week is an image from an unknown artist.

I really like how there is other things going on in the image, but still the main focus is the woman in the middle.

I was going on the emotions side of puzzled, so in my first thumbnail, it is an image of a girl looking calm but confused, in my other thumbnail, it would just be eyes with the confused eyebrow raise or even being concerned. 

I went with the girl for my final design.

I started off by drawing her face and body, I went through a lot of colour schemes and ideas but I finally decided on pastel colours!

I thought she seemed quite lonely, so I thought some sketched roses on the side would look nice.

This design would look good on a tshirt! 

Thanks!

Sara Stroud

Downtown Hamilton Interview

Interview with David Brace

b contemporary

Fine Art and Custom Picture Framing

We just wanted to know what made you get into the industry?

He explained to us that it was just a natural step to him, as he started out as a fine art student, and being a painter.  He started working with artists directly.

How long have you been doing this for then?

 Since 1990, this gallery is a year old, previous gallery for 10 years, part of the art gallery of hamilton, and bouncing around all over the place.

What age did you get interested into this?

David started to get interested in art when he was about 12 or 13 years of age.  Started pursuing it more seriously by taking courses in highschool at around 14-15 years of age.  Only applied for art schools, he ended up going to Queens, but applied to oca, guelph..etc. 

Why do you have your business in Hamilton?

Lots of reasons: I grew up here, I like thats it's an emerging culture, it has percolated in the last 10 years or so, just the right place at right time... lots of really good artists, lots of good interest now.

Do you get a good amount of Traffic here?

A fair bit, yea … the street is changing a lot, especially on weekends I get more people.

How do u choose your art work/ the art that you put into your gallery?

Artists that go back 20 years that he's known, he calls upon them..

"Andy (Warhol) whom goes  back to late 70's , he's been showing for a long time"… David's been asked to show Andy's work … he's ben sent art through mail, e-mail all over the place .. if he's interested, he pursues,   then he talks to the artist-basically gets to know them and knows if they have a good connection then,  takes the next step by booking shows.  

Your artwork is very interesting, is there a specific genre that you call it?

David: Andy comes off as a pop art background.   He has several 12 yr+ pieces in his gallery. Andy's portraits show Young people in the emerging scene.   He was kind of part of that scene... and the guys from 'Chromosome'  in the 80's.  General Idea, was 3 guys who made art,  put on wacky fashion shows, and were media hounds.  So Andy documented things, 

Came to mac to teach, showed his students, they loved it and he started documenting some of the people he's seen.

He showed us several artworks of Andy's and they are simply amazing... 

It seems like he's implemented a lot of photography into his works?

David: Andy's always worked using photography - he'd make silk screens ..burn silk screen a silk screen from photograph, and then hand paint and then, pull ink through the screen.

He'd take photograph, layer it with whatever graphic he wants... takes his drawings and take transparencies...  

Basically a lot more digital now...photoshop is the next big tool.

How much do these pieces, on average sell for?

David: Depends on the artist...

Andy is a senior artist who is approaching 60 now..  He's nationally known, and established clientele     

He showed us some pieces from Andy and said, "$3000 for One Ops" -originals  $4500."  

If someones interested in buying his works, do they know to come here?

They do whatever they can to get the word out.. Andy is  on some media networks, all you really have to do is some research...

b contemporary

Fine Art and Custom Picture Framing

David Brace

www.bcontemporary.ca

E-mail: davidbrace@bcontemporary.ca

phone: 289 389 3949

Address: 226 James St., N

Hamilton, ON, Canada

L8R 2L3

New Mind Set

New Mind set logo and story board for an online graphic

Emotional Labour

To me, Emotional Labour is putting yourself through something that obviously isn't that enjoyable, but needs to be done. Like someones job, such as a babysitter, a nurse, or even a teacher. They do their job, but there are parts that are just not fun.

  In this Podcast, Seth Godin talks about Emotional Labour and what it means to him. 

There are so many blogs today that have created meaningful connections to us, our inspiration for today, that help us in any sort of way that we need, and most of them don't get paid for it. I follow quite a few blogs, from tumblr to twitter, everyday I learn something new that inspires and helps me for another day. 

On tumblr, there are millions of blogs that you can relate to, you just have to find the right one. Someone created tumblr for us to enjoy, to express ourselves through images and text. It probably wasn't very enjoyable, fixing every little bug in the system, getting this website to run perfectly, but he stuck it through. I follow 373 blogs, and I love everyone of them. They take time out of their own day to post stuff for others to look at and think about, you can reblog that post if you like it so much and want to go to it another day! There are millions of pictures, text posts, and fun little gifs that can brighten your day! No one is paid to post on tumblr, they do it for fun, for other people to enjoy.  

Twitter is also a blog that many people find connections with. A lot of people have twitter, but it's not as popular as facebook. There are many blogs on twitter that have meaningful words to say just like tumblr, you can also add pictures to show people what you're up to! I follow a lot of inspiring twitters that have a lot of good feeling quotes, and I also follow weird facts which is very interesting to learn some new things! 

Follow me ! here

Being a Graphic Designer you go through A LOT of emotional labour. At the beginning of your career, you will have to do a lot of freelance work just to get your name out there, it won't be enjoyable but in the end it's worth it.  You also have the ability to decline work from a client, but that means you also decline a payment! You need to keep your blogs up to date with things you're working on, and what you've done. I'm new to this kind of thing, and to me it's emotional labour, I forget a lot to post my work onto this blog, as you might have noticed. It needs to be done for everyone to see my work and get me more work and I will keep working on it

Every job will have some emotional labour, something you just are not wanting to do, but in order to succeed those things will have to get done.   

Please come back often to see my updates, hopefully I can get the hang of this and post more for you all to see.

thank you xx

Sara Stroud

Popularity!

Inspiration for this week is "The Cabala" by Albert Pucci. 

I was pretty excited to do this word, so many thoughts came into my mind! From what girls "think" is popular with orange faces, to what society makes us believe should be popular. 

Here are my lovely thumbnails! 

I went with the bottom right one, with what our society makes us believe is popular or "beautiful," everyone is beautiful and more people need to realize this. 

I did this with pencil crayons, and added the text in with Photoshop, because I wasn't happy with my own writing! 

I hope you like it!

Your comments mean so much!

Sara Stroud xx

Suspense!

My inspiration for the word is an illustration by Bradshaw Crandell for Cosmopolitan Magazine! 

For the word "Suspense" many ideas came to mind! 

I went with the jack in the box thumbnail, because as everyone remembers, those things are quite intense! 

I started with a radial gradient for a simple background and drew a jack in the box in primary colours, and added text under it. It's more of a sarcastic little saying, and I love it :)

It's a really simple piece of work, but I liked how it turned out!

Hope you enjoy it also :)

Sara Stroud xx

Forward

My inspiration for the word Forward, is this American Legion Magazine illustration from 1951, artist is unknown. 

I decided to make a poster for Pay It Forward, you can check out the website Here

I found a bunch of nice things to do for people on that website and that started my thumbnails!

I went with the Charity fundraiser poster.

I added a neutral background with a design on it, then added the title, an idea of what you can do, and the date. Then I drew a hamburger and hot dog, showing that a BBQ is something you can do. 

Hope you like it!

Sara Stroud xx

Twirl

My inspiration picture this week is an illustration by Tod Draz from April 1956, for American Artist Magazine.

As soon as I seen the word Twirl, I knew I was going to use a picture of my best friend Emma. She's an amazing dancer and will be a perfect model for this word! 

I started off with a picture of Emma from her dance competitions, then added a bunch of effects to make it black and white with high contrast.

I then added the image to a larger black background and added a dance quote.

Thanks

Sara Stroud xx

Prepare

Prepare

For the Illustration Friday Challenge, the word of the week is "Prepare."

I found this image as inspiration for my piece !

NY Art Directors Annual
Illustrated by Betty Brader

I decided to do something to do with surfing again! Hearing the word Prepare, I immediately thought of a surfing event, how everyone must prepare for the big competition!

This is what i thought up, 

I am really liking the bottom right thumbnail, I can work the text around the girl and bring everything together! 

After I drew out the girl, I realized I needed a background pattern.

Then I Added colour to the girl and the surf board, then added my text.

I made it into an event poster, because what better way to tell someone to prepare is for a competition!

Sara Stroud xx

International Women's Day Progress

Hey bloggers!

I will be posting updates on a little project I am working on. It's for International Women's Day, and my inspirational woman, is Demi Lovato. She's been through so much this past year and she's stronger than ever now, and I find that very inspiring.

I painted the background blue, and added her skyscraper lyrics on top, and some words around that would make someone feel bad about themselves, because that's what forced her in such a deep depression. 

I'll keep you updated with my work!

See you later :)

Following up on my Illustration of the week, for the word "Grounded"

I decided on the image of the girl sitting on the sand with her board beside her, looking out at the waveless ocean..

Here is my pencil drawing of my image, I'm thinking of doing it in pencil crayons!

Here is my final image, the girl is sitting on the sand, staring out at the water as the sun sets, and no waves are big enough to surf. She's grounded from the ocean. 

Hope you liked my first Illustration Friday Challenge.

This weeks word is "Prepare"

Thanks for checking out my blog.

Sara Stroud xx

Thumbnails

I have created 4 different thumbnails for my final concept. As you can see they all have the "surfer" theme, I really enjoy the ocean and have always wanted to learn to surf! In 2 of the images, the surfer is looking out into the wave-less ocean, therefore, she is grounded from the water with no waves to rip. The one thumbnail on the right side is a close up of a beached piece of a surfboard that was broken from rough waves, which makes a surfer unable to surf. The bottom thumbnail is a surfboard graveyard of all the beached surfboards broken from impact of the waves.

I now have to decide which thumbnail I will bring to life!

Sara Stroud xx

Inspiration

"Grounded" is the word of the week for the Illustration Fridays Challenge.

My inspiration

"How Far Is far?"

Illustrated by Ward Brackett

1964

 

I chose this image as my inspiration because to me it displays something being out of reach, or as it says in the art work, far. When I think of the word grounded, I immediately think of when you were younger and got something taking away from you in consequence of acting out.

Ideas will be uploaded later !

Hello bloggers,

I am a Graphic Designer and I will be posting some of my ideas and creations on here for you all to browse!

For the next 14 weeks I will be taking part in the Illustration Fridays Challenge, and will be keeping you updated step by step with my inspiration and ideas.

Please feel free to comment and let me know what you think. Your opinions will help me a lot.

Thank you

Sara Stroud xx



Illustration Friday