WELCOME FRIEND!

so my bff andrea totally just joined the blogging community.
and she is a very talented and enthusiastic student of jewelry design at the fashion institute in new york citttaaayy! she is also my roommate and has made me many pieces of jewels that i love to wear and show off.

so... follow her! comment her! woohooooo

CLICK HERE

IF: poise

yesterday morning was nice and relaxing, poised in the kitchen with a book and some tea. i had a very relaxing day of drawing and reading. today i have to go to the sculpture studio and throw 20 cylinders on the wheel for tuesday. oh joy! (click for larger images)

coney island parachute jump print

so our first multiple-block assignment was to do a three colored landscape. we were showed a 'rainbow roll' (which makes me want sushi) but its a certain method of creating a gradient between colors by rolling both colors on the same brayer. so i made my sky fade into a lightblue/white color. i've always loved the silhouette of the parachute drop from coney island. i never knew what it was exactly, ive just seen it so many times driving into brooklyn, going to coney island and from seeing images of it. i never realized it was an actual ride at one point! it sure was a pain in the ass to cut out all the little shapes from the linoleum but it really paid off because i loooove how the print came out. i made a t-shirt too that my roommate wore yesterday. i have 10 prints, but some of the others have really bad registration, so i think im going to elaborate on those and draw directly on the print to continue making it an interesting image.

sweet yo

subject sketch books

so i bought a bunch of sketchbooks and journals from kate's paperie a couple months ago and i got this pack of 6 little sketchbooks which all had different types of paper. one has vellum, the other has natural paper and there all different kinds and they're GREAT. so i decided i was going to make them subject books and draw certain kinds of things pertaining to the subject in all of them. i've started, and i've been working on it slowly.. i'm still trying to figure out other subjects i could do for them. (just to clarify, the 'trains' book is drawings of people i see on the subway or the train that i draw right then and there.)

IF: intricate

here's some intricate houndstooth from a girl that sat in front of me in math class

more sea life

i like sea creatures, what can i say?

familia primero

this is for my most recent illustration assignment, we had to "tell a story about our family" and of course, food is involved with mine! i was chatting with my mom (who i talk to every day!) and i was really stuck on what i was going to do for this assignment and we were just talking about things that are pretty distinct in our family and as soon as she said the word "paella" a lightbulb just went on in my brain (the right side, because that is the creative side of the brain, hahah)

our family loves to eat. on my mom's side we're very spanish... like 99% at least. and we spaniards love seafood and meat and yellow rice (and who can omit sangria) and paella just combines all our favorites into one amazing dish that takes all day and lots of family to make. paella never ceases to bring family and friends together in our closely-knit crowd, even if some people just stop by to eat. i remember every "paella day" we had. i especially loved the ones in my grandparents/aunt & uncle's backyard when i was younger, we did the macarena before it was completely played out by the radio stations, and i always tried shrimp even though i didn't like them (but i do now!).

even on my dad's side, i can't remember anyone who refused paella. it's always been a thing that has brought us together, and i love my entire family tree, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, mom, dad, my brother Mike, and even those who are just as close as family minus the blood-relation, and i treasure each and every one of these people in my life.

sorry for getting a little sappy, but i hope they all know how much i miss and love them!

ending with one of my favorite sayings,
"Familia Primero"
... "Family First"

DWI: Do it With Illustration

so last night I attended a lecture at FITnyc for $5. it was a panel of illustrators all in the business. one of them (christopher silas neal) was a professor of mine last semester, and i did some really cool things with him in that class. it was a great q&a, really informative about the business, and all over just really fun and interesting. i felt very inspired and educated about the illustration business after leaving.