Dunny Money

Had a project where we had to create currency and given my new love affair with vinyl and just all around awesome toys I did one of Kidrobot Dunny. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

In Other News..

so I have been busy with freelance and classwork. And I got pretty sick so didn't post a few things. So went to see Tegan and Sara and it was fantastic. That was a few weeks ago. I am getting ready to go to the CTN Expo. Excited to see all of the artists. Thinking about going to the DesignerCon Convention, I really want to get the Lava Magnus and Terror and meet Joe Ledbetter but I have to see what is going on at CTN. So much I want to do. Ordered a Beastlies can't wait for it to arrive. and the most fantastical thing is I found a Charlie Brown vinyl with the little Christmas tree. Love Charlie Brown. So that's life in a nutshell. Other than that I have just been working, looking for a new job and working on some product packaging and a catalog. Also started a new custom vinyl. More to come.

Testing 1 2 3..watercolor.

So thought I'd try my hand at water color. These have only been marginally edited to darken the values.it was an assignment thing and I thought a good time to try watercolor. Not exactly successful but hey I gave it the ol' college try.

Illustration

Ok so it has been a full few weeks and these classes I am taking are proving to be time consuming and brain sucking. I like it. Kind of. It is forcing me to sqeeze my creative juices, you know so they are fresh. Although it would be remiss of me not to say every once in a while I really just want to go home and knock out. The stuff I am producing is cool though. It keeps me going.

So I'm trying to work on illustrations and I abused those color pencils a lot this week. I have only within the last few years embraced color. Hard to believe I know. My monochromatic prejudice was holding me back. However, I was a woman on a mission so I really just let if flow and I used all kind of color. It was definitely an exercise in trying to embrace imperfection. I have the crazy habit of trying to fix things that don't look right. Ok so here they are.



The next one is the one I dig. Woot Woot.

As God As My Witness....

...I am going to post on a regular basis. I am defintely making an attempt to post on the regular but right now I am not doing any thing terribly interesting. Other than twiddling my thumbs waiting for Apple to release the updated laptops so I can pounce and purchase.

I have been lusting over the toy collection of Jeff Pidgeon. Now that is a collection. Makes my collection look like a junk drawer lol but if you get a chance and you love toys and all things awesome it is definitely worth checking out.

Jeff Pidgeon Flickr

Well thats all I have today.

Starting again sucks...A LOT!

Most of my sketches have been fast funky profiles or quick sketch ups of ideas more for layout than anything. So I had to draw up a logos incorporating my initials. This is hard to do with a VR very different letters. So here are few I didn't mind so much. I really need to sketch more. Sheesh.




The bottom left one is an ambiagram. It can be read upside down as well. I became obsessed with them after reading Dan Browns Angels & Demons. I am not even close to the caliber of that artist, but it is fun and challenging.

D23 Expo

So on a whim I just said the hell with it and went to the D23 Expo. I have never been to this kind of expo and was unsure what to expect. I have been wanting to go to comic con but have staved off. It was not all of what I expected, but I am sure part of that is the fact that it is the first year. In the end I am just glad I went.

I decided to only go on Sunday being that the bulk of the Pixar and Animation panels would be going on. It was really great. The lines were long and it took hours but the panels were great. John Lasseter was the Keynote Speaker on Sunday and he did not dissapoint. Saw some great footage of upcoming animated movies and shorts and I have to say I am really excited. And not just about the upcoming Pixar offerings, but the Disney films as well. I am skeptical of the princess and the frog. It hasn't quite grabbed me but I will go see it none the less. I really want to go see it at the Disney backlot showing.

I also went into the Imagineering Pixar Panel and was pleasantly surprised. I debated going but in the end I am glad I went. I am not an avid fan of going to the parks. They have lost a lot of magic for me. But from what I saw and heard I have to say I am excited by what they are bringing to the parks and I am really excited to see these attractions when they open.

Finally I went to the Toy Story 3 panel. It was great to have Lee Unkrich and Darla Anderson on hand to introduce the great footage we saw. A lot of people left after the TS3 footage, and I honestly fought with myself about staying. I kept saying after TS. Then that was over, and I said ok just a little bit of TS2, and ok after woody gets cleaned up, and on and on. Before I knew it both movies were over. I have seen them both countless times. Even though this was 3D it was only an enhancement to something that was already great. I definitely was amazed that these movies still have the power to make me laugh and get lost in their world. It was great to see all my favorite Toy Story characters on the big screen again where I initially fell in love with them. And from someone who is kind of learning the basics of 3D animation I see the artistry that went into making those characters real. And making me love those characters like they are real.

Apparently I have an odd perspective....

So I took a Flash Animation class to kind of get a feel for the type of animation I may want to do at some point. Hopefully. And this is some of the odd crap that spilled out of my mind. I thought it was a little bent but I think the characters are kinda cool looking.


The Twins by =vramirez on deviantART

Ok so on that video the idea was Opposites. Taking your personality, and the polar opposite of yourself and geling the two in an animatic. As Im sure you've noticed the illustrations look like me. I skipped geling and stitched those bad boys(well girls in this case) together and made my own little frankenstein interpretation.



Dual Vision Video by =vramirez on deviantART

On this one the idea was Duality. So I made a scene literally where you see yourself and it's really overwhelming. Pretty straight forward I think. Well this is something else I have worked on more recently.

Classes begin today and I am definitely excited to see what I get to learn. This time around I am learning Experimental Animation, stop motion and what not. Illustration for storyboarding(dust off those drawing skills, or lack there of). And 3d Animation, which is what I really want to do. Wow this came out really long. Oops.

Trying to keep it AWESOME!

So I have been trying to keep the artistic thing going by drawing and such on the regular. Im not great but I am trying to get on track. So in the effort to keep myself in that state of mind, I have been allowing myself to do random projects. The latest combined my love for The Office, painting, and Mighty Muggs.





So I love how Dwight came out. Michael Scott is acceptable. And lets just say I hate this version of Toby as Much as Michael hates the actual Toby. either way it was a fun process. I will be posting some other stuff I have been working on.

Ok so I am testing my phone blogging skills. Let's hope this comes out right. So I have been very bad about writing my blog. I am yet again vowing to change this grave injustice. But I working on a few things so I have more blogging to do. It may just get interesting. More...very soon....seriously.

Threadless

So I have this obsession with Threadless.com

The tees are great and smart and it is goal of mine to get one of my tees on there and printed. My design is in the running now help me out and vote.

I am ALIVE!!

So week one of my double life is coming to a close. I have been living off of two hours of sleep a night. Last night i slept well though. It wasn't too bad but I am going to take it easy on the weekends to be able to keep it up. I am literally home 3.5 hours a day during the week. I am a workaholic so I think of it as a challenge.

I think the most impressive part of this is that I have done this without a single drop of Red Bull. It was hard, I won't lie. I did buy a can but I did not consume said can. It sits on my desk at work. I will abstain until next week and see how it goes. However, if I do start drinking it again I will not drink as much. Mostly because I have to be careful not to interrupt my careful ecosystem. I f I do not get those two hours I will have a big problem.

I finally got to see my familia. My cousins were like hey stranger. Anyway, I am alive and not too worse for wear. I am going to try to work on my own stuff on the weekends because I want to keep my dream going. Having my own t-shirt line has been that for me as long as I can remember and I am not stopping until I accomplish that. I have many aspirations but that is by far my most consistent one.

Side note: I still have that headache. My excedrin supply is dwindling. And I think I need to invest in a case of gum.

Uggh... life stinks when you cant have wings

So we are on day five of my Red Bull-less existence. To add injury to insult, I cleaned out my car and found a brand new 16.9 oz can in my car and I was deeply saddened. My cousin stole said Red Bull and proceed to drink it in front of me. To top that off, in an entirely unrelated situation, my headache has continued. I have had it since the the previous Friday. I have swallowed so much excedrin my costco bottle is almost empty. I think I have cerebral leak. For those of you who do not know me, I am a little bit of a hypochondriac so this is a self diagnosis.

So back to the Red Bull Scenario. I decided to back off of the Red Bull for a few days in order to avoid the possibility of my heart exploding in my chest (see above for info about being hypochondriac). I made the mistake of mentioning this to a friend, namely Dawn, the amazing owner of Greatest Commandment in Simi Valley. 1520 E Los Angeles Avenue. Yes I do have this memorized. Don't ask. So I told her I was laying off and she said I should stop and I tried to explain that it completes me. long story short i was essentially dared to refrain from consuming this drink, this nectar of the Gods. Now I do not like to be challenged or told I cannot do something so I am refraining at the very least until this next weekend. At which point if I feel I no longer need Red Bull I will set it free. If I feel empty inside, like my heart has been ripped from my chest and I can live no longer then I will happily consume my Red Bull again.

On to my profession. I am still working at my job and I have gotten another job. I assure I do not have a death wish. I like to work. Sadly this puts my line on the back burner, but I have to do what i have to do. I did do a few designs for Life Without Limbs and from what I hear they are doing well. Once they are online I will get a link. Im excited to say the least. I really need to get my new site up I LOVE it. I think it really represents my aesthetic.

So I miss Red Bull, my head is leaking sporadically( I think), and I am about to work myself into the ground. This is my life thus far.

Ooops

So I guess I haven't written as much as I let on. But the year is young. Maybe I should start from the top. Aunika is my cousin. we have decided to join forces and create a t-shirt line. Right now it will be exclusively mens casual apparel. For the time being, t-shirts and maybe a sweatshirt. She is great with numbers and has an eye for design. I am pretty savvy myself and I am a graphic designer that has some fairly okay skills. I started off working for her dad at his screen-printing business when I was eighteen. I have done everything from catch shirts to design and separations on and off for the last ten years. She grew up with her dad working out of their garage. We both have had a desire to create our own lines. Until recently we have talked a whole lot but have not acted on those discussions. This is a new year and we are pushing forward. We are working with a small budget but we have a lot of people who believe in us. And mostly we know that we are led by a higher power.


So right now we are trying to muscle out some designs to get some samples made up. Once everything is in place I can post some visuals for everyone to see. But for now we aren't ready to show our hand. We have an opportunity to go to the Magic Apparel Show and I am so excited. It feels like we are gaining momentum finally. we have a lot of work and I am eager to get the bulk of it done. This, ladies and gentlemen, is uncharted territory and I am scared but excited. I was more scared before however. The thought that we would never move past the dreaming stage was frightening. I am prepared to try hard and possibly fail. I don't think I could live with myself if I never tried.

Anyhow, enough of that. So samples should be done in the next week or so. Our business cards should be here any day and I will let everyone know when the site is up. Line sheet and a few other documents are next on the agenda. In my next post I will show our business cards and maybe give a more in-depth view of our design and the name and all that fun stuff.

New Year, New Pains, New Plans

So here we are again. Another year. It never ceases to amaze me how everyone expects the New Year to feel different. Instead most wake up feeling like crap and vowing never to do that again. But I guess it helps to have hope for the New Year. I chopped my hair off today because I just had enough. This mop was driving me nuts. I had to keep my hair long when I was younger so know once it starts getting past my shoulders I freak. So I am feeling balanced.

So this year is going to be a busy one. I am started a new t-shirt line and I think it would be good to document it via blog. I am partnering up with my cousin. Generally family and business does not gel but we can do this. I have got to make a change for myself. I am tired of bending myself all over the place and busting my ass to make others money. I think I need to apply myself to create a better life for myself as well as a future.

So if someone out there reads this, join me on this new road. It should be interesting.

Broccolli Sunday

So today I did absolutely nothing. Interesting yes of course. I have been vegging, chillin with the Gentle Giant. I have to mop so of course I have waited until the last possible moment and right now I am listening to Angels and Airwaves watching the Giant mop. HAHAHA. All part of my evil plan to rule the world. So this week I am hoping to get some things done that I have been putting off. I have a list:

1. Finish my website
2. Start a painting that has been festering in my mind
3. Redo my resume
4. Cure cancer
5. Find a solution for world peace

Ok so maybe the first three. Anyway, Lets see how the week goes. I guess I have been procrastinating a bit. Well until next time.

Damn...

So apparently that t-shirt sucked. But hey I didn't put too much effort into it so whatevie. I submitted another piece. Lets hope this one doesn't suck being that I actually made an effort this time around. I will post as soon as I have the new url.

I am trying to keep focused. I am working on a new and improved website for myself. This one should be fairly decent if I do say so myself. Hopefully when I am done with that site I can do another for my personal art and match it up to my font. I have a list of things that I want to accomplish this year so I will get that narrowed and post it so that hopefully having it out there will lite a fire under my ass to finish.

Hey Vote for me...don't be mean.

So I decided to enter into this thing I heard about. Very cool concept. So help me out anyone out there and vote for me. i will be sure to use my powers for good if I win. Gracias in advance

Graphically Challenged

Some may wonder why I named my blog Graphically Challenged, and some don't care, some just happened here while scanning the internet instead of working. Whatever your reason, I thought I would explain myself a little. So, I built this blog a few years ago but I barely began to use it today. Why? No friggen clue but hey there is something nice about putting your thoughts out there. A certain amount of anonymity I guess.

So, to explain the name I simply answer you this, I am challenged everyday to create graphic work that will gain me customers and to be different from the millions of other graphic designer around me. I struggle with doing mundane graphics for my customers and trying to create something beautiful for me. I struggle with balancing my love for fine arts and my desire to be a great graphic designer.

Above and beyond that I love music, movies, and technology. My Mac Computers, my iPod and cell phone complete me and my family is my world. I am involved in a few things right now. I have to make a list of things I want to do. And the picture I am showing is hopefully the beginning of something big.