Alice Valentine

Audrey Print

My Audrey in Type print is available to purchase at Society 6.

Art Print - 17" X 21" (printed area: 13" X 17")

Gallery quality Giclée print on bright white, matte, smooth surface, 100% cotton rag, acid and lignin free archival paper using Epson K3 archival inks. Custom trimmed with 2" border.

Downpour.

It is raining hard outside. A little while ago I heard a great crash of thunder... what an amazing sound. Luckily Gizmo doesn't seem to be afraid of thunder... just everything else!

Jarod is at work (the poor thing is driving trucks in this weather), and Gizmo and I are snuggled up on the sofa under a blanket. I am currently multi-tasking several things; homework, laundry, and checking my favourite blogs. I haven't been posting very much lately (as you may have noticed). School is exhausting this year and is taking up most of my time. I am also thinking of re-vamping the blog, making it a little less about me and a lot more about things that inspire me.

It won't be long before graduation... about five months now. I am still very confused about what I want to do career wise. There are so many things that I could do: work at a design firm, be an illustrator, design patterns for fabric, be a freelance designer, work at a packaging design company, be an in-house designer, and so on. I guess a lot of it depends on what jobs I am offered.

Anyways, I'm going to leave you with three illustrations that I did for a class project. They are for the short story Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl. Please click on each image to view larger.

 

 

In. Spired.

We had a guest speaker in class today who made me so freakin' excited about art.

Growing up I was always known as the artist. In elementary school I was always among the top artists in my class and I knew that when I grew up I wanted to be an "artist". Then I graduated from high school and took a two year diploma of Fine Arts at college. I discovered that there were lots of other people who had grown up being the artist, and suddenly I wasn't the best any more. Not only was I not the best but I found that my crafty style wasn't really being accepted by my instructors. Apparently "crafty" is a bad thing in fine art school. 

I got my diploma and had a variety of jobs (including working at a craft store, a chocolate shop, a scrapbook store, and a credit union) while I tried to figure out what to do with my life. That's when I discovered the Illustration and Design program that I am currently in online. I put together my portfolio (luckily I had lots of work because of my diploma of Fine Arts) and applied. There were more than 100 applicants and I was one of only 30 accepted that year for the three year program. That made me feel pretty kiss-ass. Until I started my first day and found that once again, there were a lot of people who are much better drawers/painters than me. I was a bit nervous to show my crafty style, but when I finally did I was surprised to find that this time my instructors actually liked it. I found that when I tried to do what everyone else was doing my work kind of sucked. When I followed my heart and picked up my scissors or needle and thread, I made some pretty cool stuff. 

In second year we were given computers and started learning how to use Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and more. We were told to focus on either design or illustration. I fell in love with typography and decided that after graduation I wanted to work for a design firm (since my illustration skills weren't really up to par with some of my classmates). I had a two month internship at a local design firm that has won numerous awards, and had a wonderful time. But my heart was missing something. It's not that I don't love design - I do. It's just that I don't really want to spend my life making ads for cheese companies.

Now that I am in my final year of school we are starting to put together our brand and portfolios. I have been having a really hard time trying to decide what I want to do when I graduate. A part of me would like to get a position at a design firm where I will get a steady pay cheque, be able to go on maternity leave, etc. Another (and much bigger) part of me wants to create beautiful works of art, create a line of greeting cards, show my work in galleries, make patterns for paper and fabric, and follow my heart. It's practical vs the unknown. Until today I was set on doing the practical.

The speaker we had today graduated from Harvard in Psychology. Then he decided he wanted to make art, so he did. He created beautiful works of art from paper and they were shown in galleries. He made GI Joes out of wood. He and his wife moved to New York and freelanced together. He designed collateral for a coffee shop and then was asked to do the interior design for it too. He created a paper city for a music video. He made a video for a fashion designer. He made a book. Then curated an artshow and made another book.

His presentation inspired me.
I love being inspired.

So what's my plan now? Well I don't really have one. I'm just going to start making whatever my heart tells me to make and see where it takes me.

1000 awesome things.

I'm inspired. I LOVE being inspired.

I discovered this fab project by Monsieur Cabinet (aka Dave) and am inspired to do my own version of it. So... I will be doing a daily mostly daily illustration doodle of something awesome. Or something I love. Or something that just makes me want to capture it on paper because it makes me feel good.

Will I try and do one doodle every day? Yes.
Will I upload one every day? Definitely not. I hate scanning things. But I will eventually scan them all, I'll just do it in groups.
Do I want you to play along with me? Of course! Add a link in the comments to your blog, Flickr, whatever! Take your own spin on the project... write a poem a day, take a photo a day... do as you please!

Here are some of Dave's drawings that inspired me!

 

 

PS... He's still staring at me.

Above the Influence

Just finished up this assignment for my illustration class. We had to create an ad for abovetheinfluence.com.

Busy Bee.

On Friday night Jarod and I went out with a big group of people from my program. It was a ton of fun, and I had a few yummy martini's. On Saturday I slept in pretty late, and then Jarod took me to three different stores so I could hunt for Earth Balance (vegan margarine) with no soy. I know it exists since they have it on their website, but I can't seem to find it any stores. If you live in the Vancouver area and find it, please tell me!

Today Jarod and I headed to the Omega Gallery where my class has a show of some of our paintings, including my Steveston at Night. Jarod's parents stopped by, and then my parents came all the way from the island to see the show and go out for a bite with Jarod and me. We went to one of my favourite restaurants, The Naam, only for me to discover that not being able to eat soy or gluten really limits my choices there. Luckily I could still have my favourite salad and a bowl of soup.

Jarod and I also started watching the first season of Dexter this weekend. It has quite the interesting premise -- Dexter is a forensics expert and a serial killer who kills criminals who have escaped justice -- but I think I'm hooked. For a show about murder there hasn't been too many gory scenes which for me is a good thing. It's very entertaining so far, and quite funny at times. 

Tonight Jarod had a hockey game to play and I stayed home to bake cookies and do homework. He's actually just getting in the door now so I think it's time for some cuddling and some more Dexter! 

Pacino

This is a project that I had to do in-class on Friday. We had to pick a quote from an actor from a list and then do a portrait of that person based on the quote. Mine was Al Pacino talking about money.

My Books

I've really been getting in to bookmaking lately and I am loving it. So far I have made four simple books. I'm trying to make one of each common type of book to practice and get a feel for what I like to make. 

1. This was the first book I made. It is a basic accordion fold. I used scrapbook paper from my stash and added a cute button on the front. Enter the giveaway at Freckled Nest to win this book and many more cute things! 

2. This book has a simple stab stitch binding. I used card stock for the pages and for the cover. 

3. I used the pamphlet stitch for this simple book. The inside is regular printer paper and the outside is scrapbook paper. I think it would make a cute journal or photo album.

4. I am most proud of this book. It is a basic codex. I had to stitch the signatures together. It's not perfect, but I just need a bit more practice. It would make a lovely journal or sketchbook.

 For my next book I plan on stitching my signatures over tape. I'm sure that many of you don't have a clue what that means, and I didn't either until about two weeks ago! I love learning new forms of art!

Sand Animation

This video is so beautiful! Love it!

Bookmaking

I have recently fallen in love with bookmaking. All I have made so far is a mini accordion book, but I have been collecting supplies and will hopefully be able to make a larger book this weekend. Take a look at these inspiring books I found on Flickr.

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And while I was browsing Flickr for images I discovered the work of Jennifer from Deckled Edge Bindery which is spectacular! Too many faves there for me to post pictures of, but here are a few. Visit her etsy shop here.