Inspiration: Minimalist Marvel

When I was a kid, I had a massive comic book collection. Well, my dad did, and he bequeathed it to me and my brother.  
Ever since then, I have LOVED comic book characters.
(I mean, hello, my cat's name is Loki, afterall.)
So when I ran across these minimalist Marvel posters, I couldn't wait to share them with you! Minimalism just speaks to me. Uncluttered. I love it.

Can you guess who the posters are depicting? The ones I chose to share aren't very hard.
1) Captain America 2) Hawkeye 3) Spiderman 4) Wolverine
The artist is Marko Manev. You can find him on Behance, where he has numerous other minimalist artwork. 
One day I hope to create artwork like this. It's good to have goals, right?!

Interview with Stephanie of Shades of Color Art

I feel very blessed today to be able to interview one of my favorite bloggers and artists. And it just so happens she is a sponsor on my blog! If you haven't heard of Stephanie before, please check out her blog, Shades of Color Art, or her shop, where she sells paintings as well as custom notebooks. You won't be disappointed!

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What first got you into art?

When I was little, I took painting and drawing classes just for fun. It wasn’t until college, that I took more professional classes and started painting for me. I always liked color and painting so I’ve been always doing it.

What is your favorite art style? (Impressionism, realism, etc.)

Being an artist is difficult to select one favorite art style. I’ve always been a fan of Abstract Expressionism and Color Field Movements. Also, I like Impressionism and Fauvism styles. These movements are inspired by color, and everything that has color combinations caught my attention.

What inspires you?

I’m inspired by everything around me. I’m constantly taking pictures of everything that I like and uploading it to instagram. You can see me there a lot! Usually everything that has color, nature, interiors, beautiful things, and everything that is uncommon inspires me.

How did you come up with the idea to create notebooks?

The reality is, I’ve always been a fan of notebooks. I used to collect them when I was little. One day, I decided to create one from scratch for myself. My mom saw it and told me that she wanted one too. I was in shock! Then she told me that I should sell them. When I took my notebook to school, friends would ask me if I could make some for them. I couldn’t believe that people around me would be interested in personalized notebooks. This is how it all started and I’m in love with it! Thanks to the support of my family and friends, and for my passion of writing and have pretty things, I opened Shades of Color Art.

Do you have a favorite painting or project that you did?

I have many favorite paintings, but what I really love the most is creating personalized notebooks. I love to see the creativity of every individual and how it turns out. They usually have great color combinations, and being able to create something special for my clients, makes me really happy.

Do you have any advice for beginning artists/designers?

Never give up! When you are starting your business or freelancing, at first is not easy. With passion, determination, perseverance, and patience you can accomplish everything. :)

Isn't she awesome?! And the best part is, for the month of December, if you use code XMAS30 in her Etsy shop,  you get 30% off! 
Just in time for Christmas!

Designer or Artist?: Getting Inspired

Every year, there it was, under the tree, wrapped with my name on it. I would be happy every time I got one, because they were all different, but I was never really surprised. I received art supply kits for Christmas since I was in Kindergarten. And I would use every last piece. The markers, the crayons, the watercolors, the colored pencils. Every piece would be loved and used.
I used to consider myself an artist.  But now I consider myself a "designer".
When did that change? What is the difference?
A designer creates artwork. An artist can design. So where do we draw the line?
I think it has something to do with that designers don't create for themselves. And artists do. In my opinion. 
But artists create for other people.
It's a conundrum. 
I need to inspire myself. Look at what I used to create, and be inspired. I used to create for myself. For the fun. But do I do that?
I'm trying to now, for sure.
But I need to get inspired.

So in this journey, I decided to show you some of my more favorite pieces I have created.

1) A converse shoe made with the gradient mesh tool in Illustrator. I am working on a post on how to use this tool. It really is an amazing tool. I had so much fun doing this. It was for an assignment for my Digital Imaging class. As was #3. Actually, #3 was for the same assignment. But this one I enjoyed so much more.
2) Rocko's Modern Life. I drew this probably 6 years ago, for my exboyfriend. I don't even know if he still has it. Maybe I should ask for it back. Think he would give it back after all these years? Who knows. This is hand drawn and colored.
3) This rose was created, like number one, with the gradient mesh tool. It isn't perfect, but I love it anyway. 
My goal in having this blog is quickly changing. I not only want this to be a resource for you to grow and learn, but also as a creative outlet for me to grow and learn as an artist AND as a designer.

Do you ever look back at your old work and get inspired? Do you create for yourself?

Minimalist Inspiration

I love minimalist design.I strive for it, personally.
But I always end up adding one thing that pushes it over the edge.But I try.
Here are some minimalist movie / play posters that have inspired me, and I think will inspire you too!

1) I love this movie and this poster! What a great minimalist way to show the movie! 2) I have never seen The Tempest, but this creative poster makes me want to! 3) This poster really showcases a bit of the kind of movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is. 

What inspires you?

I love doing these kind of posts because it keeps me inspired to do the kinds of work that I love to do! I'm putting the call out for guest posts about what inspires you! Any takers?

Project Life - My Way

So, I'm not much of a crafter. I hate getting my hands dirty. I can't knit. I can't crochet. (Despite my mother's attempts to show me.) But when I came across Project Life, I was like, now I can scrapbook! (For those of you that don't know, Project Life is a way of scrapbooking that is much simpler, and much more laid back than traditional scrapbooking. More of scrapping your life how it happens, rather than waiting for specific big events)
So I thought.  I am a designer.    I can do this myself. And so I did.    Granted, my pages aren't as intricate as some of the ones I have seen.  (Search for Project Life on Pinterest for some great scrapbooking porn!)  Here is some of what I did, just to give you a glimpse:

This is one of the first pages I did. I had all these great pictures and no idea what to do with them. That's when I started playing with free digital scrapbooking pieces and clipping masks in photoshop. And this is the look I got. This is still one of my favorite pages, but maybe it is because I am so glad of the pictures I got.

This page isn't really about a specific week, like much of project life is, but I knew that Dakota and I didn't have a lot of pictures together (he hates it when I pull out my camera -- ladies, will that ever go away?) But I wanted a way to showcase some of our relationship together. I thought of this as a cover page, but now I think it will be just fine in the book. (Anyone have tips on getting Dakota to take pictures? Four years together and this is all I have to show for it!)

This is one of the more recent pages I did. Sparked by some difficult times in my family (my dad lost his job, please keep him in your thoughts and my brother moving to Virginia, rather than San Deigo) I wanted to look at pictures of my family. I am very happy to be in the family I am in. Despite the fact that my brother is going to be around the world from us, I still feel like we are a close family.  (This sparks an idea! I need to do a page of him in the military. These pictures were in his last few months home before he left -- he left about 2-3 weeks after he graduated high school)

I believe you already saw most of these pictures here, but this is still one of my favorite pages. I am very proud of the pictures I got, and looking at them makes me happy. Dakota and I need to go on more vacations together. 

I think the biggest issue that I have is journaling. A big part of Project Life is journaling. I try to journal on the pages, and I did on the first page above, but after that, I concentrated more on the pictures. But I know someday, when my children and grandchildren look at these, they will want the stories. They will want to know why we were in the mountains, or how Dakota and I met. So my goal for the rest of the pages I make is to try and explain. I know that is what I would have wanted from my grandparents. Hell, even my parents.

Have you ever done Project Life? If so, what did you think?

Nana - Wordless Wednesday, but with words

I just had to show this picture of my Nana hard at work. She does needlepoint (she's sketching the letters in these pictures), ceramics, painting, all sorts of things.
She is one of the best artists I know and I have always been inspired by her.
She has been through a lot in her life, but still she keeps her head up.

This Wordless  (ish) Wednesday is dedicated to you, Nana! I love you and miss you <3
(The best part is, she didn't even notice when I was taking these!)

The Paper Mama