Illustrator progress!

I finally hunkered down and got a full piece done; even if it's based off a silly tutorial.

Get jiggy wit da Sugar Skull!



What was good at least is that I got practice manipulating simple objects, and thinking with a vector mindset when making the objects. On to another tutorial. :)

Tutorials, workshops and demos, oh my!

Today's schedule should hopefully consist of youtube tutorials and demos for illustrator, and hopefully I'll be able to squeeze in an ImagineFX workshop.

As I'm going through all this, I'm thinking about the teaching thing again. Teaching in LA was fun! Not getting paid though was not fun, and the school closing wasn't fun either. So is that something I should consider here? Where would I teach? Photoshop and Illustrator, or just Photoshop? I'd have to get the newest version and update myself too...

I guess I could look for some screen recording software and do some demos and see if it's something I might like to do..

UH ok. The day just got weird. The bank right next to the strip mall my job is in just got robbed, and we were told to lock our doors. The woman in the store next to mine said she saw the cops pull their guns... Then after all that got settled, a frantic woman comes into the shop asking if I saw a 4 year old in a sundress, because her mother abandoned her at the walmart across the street, and now she's missing...

???

latest

This was the final result of me messin with my eyes and gearing up for the zombie challenge:







This is what I submitted for the zombie challenge:


I am the only one so far that worked directly over the image supplied. That means that not only does mine looks the most like the girl, but it's also low resolution. The others did paintings from scratch, using the photo as reference. I'm not sure my approach helps me or not. I don't mind either way; I just need to get workin!!!!

Painting IS therapeutic!

I kept on goin with this one, after looking at it again with fresh eyes today.



This is a section of today's messin. I'm using this as my facebook profile and tomorrow it will morph into something else!




Yeah, I know, I'm supposed to be working on Illustrator stuff! I needed the painting for therapy purposes actually. It was the only thing I figured would work, because it's so forgiving, and at the moment any work I do in Illustrator won't be. And man, it's really got me going!

quickie painting

I really needed to just push some pixels to relieve stress. Vectors were not holding my attention; I just couldn't get myself to sketch out ideas. Plus, trying to make sense out of the design briefs on 99designs was making my stressed head swim so I went with what I had started already. No direction; no real purpose, just doing it to do it.

Painting to Illustrator first pass

Ok, so for my first attempt to redo a painting in illustrator is Brom's Autumn. I love this painting!

Here's the original, but the levels are tweaked in photoshop so I could see more detail in order to work on it:


And my progress so far:



Back to work!

Progress, perhaps?

To kick start my 30 days of Illustrator Maaaadness, here's what I got going on:

Entry into the Vector Challenge for August: Special Occasions, on the iStockPhoto.com site.

Entry into a couple of logo contests on 99designs.com.

Also working on some digital paintings specifically for this blog. I'll post progress after I actually make some today!

I'm also going to attempt to enter ImagineFX's Zombie challenge!

Melt me down and reforge me.

You know, I have a hard time going from the ideas I write down to the actual *doing* part. I'm just that rusty me thinks. It's like relearning to ride a bike or something, and I'm so out of practice that even though I know I can still ride to some extent, I'm not the pro I once was. I almost just typed "wunce". Why aren't more words spelled phonetically???? lol.

I know I'm going to stumble all over myself as I restart all this; and all the craziness of the rest of my so called life plays a part.

So how do I jump the hump? It's depressing to have slid backward in ability.

I still have a pretty good intense desire to create. I just let so much time go by doing other stupid shit.

I keep wondering why I let it happen.
Do I simply have the attention span of a gnat?

I let my distaste of doing weddings stop me from doing photography for awhile altogether, then digital took over and kinda screwed me up...
then I decided to go to art school in CO and in LA to learn illustration, and was doing pretty good but had no follow through; since by then I had no money and a kid... My progress got disjointed!

I decided to give up art for freakin FOOD??!!
omg wtf??????
so now I'm rustier than a tin man out in the ocean!

There is one metaphor that has seemed to fit the bill for the past few years:
I am a piece of metal
in the hands of a wicked blacksmith
who keeps BEATIN THE SHIT OUT OF ME till I'm so out of shape!

I need to be melted down and reforged...

Illustrator madness!

I am so freakin tired. Stressful weekend. The puppy was actually really good last night and only got me up once, but I still feel like I need toothpicks to keep my eyes open.

Gunna try to focus on Illustrator today, and what should be in my portfolio. I have a goal; to somehow get into Grecco Design and Epoch Arts, either as a freelancer or possibly employee, if that's even an option. The woman that owns Grecco teaches at Epoch. These are both in my freakin town!

To build my Illustrator portfolio, I'm going to create logos from 99designs.com, recreate some of my favorite art pieces as vector, recreate some vectors I find on iStock.com, and of course create some originals. Recreating a piece of art as vector is especially useful. I did this in 2003 with a Brom piece:



I went insane with this one, and I only hope that I can get back to that level quick!