this american life

I'd just like to say that I am madly in love with the radio program This American Life. It is always thought provoking, entertaining and downright awesome. I love that it portrays real people telling real stories and conveys truth about every aspect of humanity. I love listening to it as I work and I advise anyone who hasn't listened to go to thisamericanlife.org and listen to one of the shows online. Or you can download their podcasts from iTunes too.
Do it. You won't be sorry.

last week of class

It's the last week of my summer class. Honestly, I'm quite sad to see it end. If I could, I'd keep it going for another month until Fall semester started. It's so nice to enjoy a class so much. I have felt so productive this summer which is a huge change from last summer. I couldn't find a job and with only one class I had way too much free time on my hands. Most of my friends did have jobs and other priorities so I was left to myself and although I made plans in my mind to do many things, it didn't happen. The thing I love about classes is that I have a serious motivation to get things done and do my best. I constantly think of projects to do in my free time and things I want to improve upon but without the motivator that someone will see it and grade it, I often let those slip to the bottom of my to do list. I'd like to change that about myself and I'm hoping to truly challenge myself in the month of August with no classes and many exciting projects I could do on my own free time. The fact that it will help me improve as a designer and artist should be motivation enough. Wish me luck!

july updates

It's almost two weeks into July and I've been hard at work making books and enjoying life. This weekend I've been working on my second themed book assignment which is a how to book. It could be about anything we wanted and in any one of the book forms I have made in the class so far. I chose to create a book about how to do sun salutations, a warm up exercise in yoga. I also decided to illustrate the yoga poses by painting them digitally in photoshop which I had never done before. I feel pretty good with it considering it's my first time painting that way and I certainly plan to practice more.
I'm getting it printed tomorrow and then I will bind it together to be ready to turn in come classtime. I hope it turns out alright, and that the boards I created will be the right size for the width of the paper. I wish I had done a trial before hand, which I did for printing, but the paper I plan to have it printed on is much thicker than the paper in the printer and so it wouldn't be an acurate portrayal of the book. I have definitely gotten practice making mock ups at my internship.
Speaking of my internship, I got to go to a photoshoot last week for John Deere Boots and their upcoming catalog. It was on a farm on the outskirts of Nashville and despite the bug bites and and heat, I had a really great time! My creative director and art director were there and talked to me about the process and all the things they had to learn, consider and plan to bring the photoshoot to fruition. When I worked for my father's marketing firm I was able to go on photoshoots before, but they were all in studios so this was a new learning experience. So the month is going well and I expect it to keep going well. Class has only 2 weeks left and then I'm heading to the beach for a little vacation which will be very nice. I'm so grateful for this summer.