This is a picture of me holding up an idea for next painting project, its oil on illustration board. Yes it's abstract. Yes it's totally different than anything I've done in awhile. And this took me 4 hours to complete, if you must know. I took a little advice from an experienced graphic designer who told me 'Always log your hours!'. This sounds like the most mundane, tedious, boring thing to do. However, I've learned the importance of tedious mundane things thanks to a (rather boring-but learned a lot from) desk job I had for a brief moment in time.

Sometimes, you have to crunch numbers to access certain valuable information. Ok, enough about crunching numbers, I'm kind of feeling like a geek on a Friday night blogging about time tracking and new studio spaces. Peace out!

Oh, PS- I'm also at my new studio in this picture!

Finishing touches for the San Chez Bistro ads.

Based on my recent posts, its clear that I've been working on some promotional materials for San Chez Bistro. This restaurant has been around for 20 years now (ancient in restaurant years!) I'm honored to have the opportunity to be responsible for the 'look' of their upcoming advertisements and promos for their 20th anniversary. The project is still in progress, but see above for the recent developments.

This is a vector-based image that was once hand drawn. This is the first vector illustration I've worked on in a looooong time. I've always favored Photoshop over Illustrator because it won't ever lose the hand-drawn look that I love so much. However, I've really been yearning to branch outside of my 'line drawing-ink on paper-color in photoshop' process. I become really antsy when things start to feel routine or monotonous. This project will give me a good way out of that.

In other news I've been studio shopping around. Currently my dining room is my studio. There are two kinds of artists in this world, those who enjoy working at home, and those who do not. For me, it is definitely a struggle to find that space, at home, where I can let the messes and distractions of everyday life fade away far enough for me to produce some solid work. But I've had to force myself recently. I'm really looking forward to what other people, projects, and quality of work that can unfold from studio life. Stay tuned for that update, and more illustrator projects :)

Here is the finished poster for the "A lot of Art" event coming up in September. For this, I integrated the Avenue for the Arts logo directly into the design- the logo being the very top part of the sandwich. For those of you who aren't familiar with Avenue for the Arts, it is a non-profit organization here in Grand Rapids that promotes arts and culture in the West Michigan area. I'm really excited to be a part of this association. The event itself is an excellent opportunity for artists and musicians to showcase what they've got to our community. Looking forward to seeing some great art and great people!