Letters to Sarah: Thanksgiving

This week I made Sarah a Thanksgiving card since she will probably get it the day before or after Thanksgiving. In Japan, for obvious reasons, they don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but I told her to keep the spirit of the holiday with her. I also challenged her as well as all of you to write down 100 things you are thankful for. It may seem like a lot, but once you start going it gets easy. There are so many things to be grateful for. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Birthday Card for Madi

I got to practice my hand lettering today!  I made a card for my friend's daughter. I had lots of fun making it, but I still have a long way to go and lots of practice before my hand lettering is amazing. Currently it's all over the place, but it has lots of character. I hope Madi likes it as much as I do.

Letters to Sarah: Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone! This week I decided to do a pen sketch with watercolors to make Sarah a Halloween card. Although, she won't be getting this card until after Halloween...it's the thought that counts, right? 

In Sarah's letter, she wrote that her companion wanted me to write her name. Her last name is Tojo and Shimai means sister in Japanese. Sarah has oddly left out of her letters what Tojo Shimai's first name is. So Tojo Shimai will have to do. 

I hope everyone is having a fun week of celebrating! Sayōnara

Finn for a Friend

Last week was my good friend's birthday and he really loves Adventure Time. I also bought him the book The Fart Tootorial (you must read this book is hilarious!), so I thought it appropriate to draw a picture of Finn farting with the inside saying "Hope your birthday is a gas!"

Letters to Sarah: Totoro

If you haven't been reading her letters, here is a link to the blog. She is currently in Kyoto and the city was hit with a pretty bad tsunami the other day. I have not gotten word on how she is, but I have a feeling she is ok, maybe dealing with some flooding. I have noticed that my letters tend to arrive when she needs it the most so I thought I would do something fun and cheery, considering current events. So, I decided to draw my sister Totoro and his friends. It was our favorite Miyazaki film when we were kids and it is still a favorite.

Letters to Sarah: Wings of Angels

This week I decided to illustrate my sister riding her bike with a dove symbolizing an angel. She has been a little discouraged learning Japanese and I made this to cheer her up. 

Since it takes 10 days for a letter to get to Kobe and visa versa, I hope she is doing better by now. 

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy 50th Birthday to my amazing mom! I decided to hand letter her birthday card and I had her open it over the phone this morning. She absolutely loved it and said it's not fair that I can hand letter like that.

I also doodled my mom's birthday invitation for a trip up to Lake Arrowhead for the weekend.

Folksy Fox: Letters to Sarah

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

I am doing a personal project that is 52 weeks long. Every week I have a different topic to draw on (which I plan on posting weekly). My first week was a self portrait and this past week was "plant."
I absolutely love drawing trees and decided to copy-cat the Welsh artist, Valeriane Leblond. I love her folk art style and I wanted to try it out.

Cheers!

Draper Temple Painting

My dear sister-in-law got married to her awesome husband in the Draper temple about a month ago and I made this painting for them as they start a home together. I have to say I had a blast making this for them. This is the second time I have painted the Draper temple for newly weds. The first was for a good friend and unfortunately I didn't document it very well. I learned my lesson and I had a photo shoot for this painting and now I am sharing it with you!

Letters to Sarah: Koi

Here is the card I drew for Sarah this week. I copy-catted Japanese illustrator Ryo Takemasa. I really loved his koi, so I did a pen & ink drawing instead of doing a color print like Ryo. Cheers!

Letter to Sarah: Hand Lettering

This past week I thought I ran out of blank cards, so I used one of my favorite stationary card shown below:

Since the card was done, I decided to try my hand at hand lettering the envelope to fit the vintage circus theme. I still have a lot to learn, but I am having fun. :)

Letter to Sarah: Cherry Blossom

Here is my fourth week sketch for Sarah's mission letter. Since she is going to Japan, I thought it appropriate to draw her a cherry blossom branch. I am loving every minute of drawing things for Sarah and look forward to every week :)

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day everyone! I hope you are having a wonderful one so far. This year I made my dad and both Father-in-laws cards and I thought I would share them with you. 

For my dad I played with hand lettering typography. 

For Trevor's dad I drew him a rat rod, since he builds his own cars. He actually used to have the exact model above. 

For Trevor's step-dad I drew him a buck, since he hunts deer.

I am excited to see their reactions today, when we give them the cards :)

Letters to Sarah

I have been writing letters to my sister Sarah while she is on an LDS mission. She will be going to Kobe, Japan and currently she is in Provo, Utah at the Missionary Training Center learning Japanese. 

I have been writing her a letter every week and illustrating her a card or doing fun typography. 

I decided that I would like to start posting my cards for everyone to see. Who knows, I might even set up an Etsy shop and start selling cards. 

This sketch was inspired by the Russian artist Olga Gamynina. 

Business Cards for Basic Gear

If you all remember, I made a logo for the company Basic Gear. My client came back and asked for business cards. It was very exciting for me, since it was the first time I got to design a business card (yes, I am still new to all of this).
I wanted to make a bridge between the outdoor (camping, hiking, rock climbing, bush whacking, etc.) and a clean modern look. So I took a wood texture (if I had a bigger budget I would get actual wood and brand the cards) and used that as the background. Then I took elements from their website to make a transition from web to print for the graphic elements on the back of the card.
With this experience I have learned a lot about making a design simple and not boring. I absolutely loved this project and can't wait for the next.

El Mustacho :{)

This Christmas I decided to paint my sister something instead of going out and buying something. I looked around on her pinboards on Pinterest and she has a whole board dedicated to mustaches. Then I saw a pin that said "I mustache you a question" and I was inspired. This was my first hand lettering project and I must say I am pretty happy with it.  I have to say, my sister was ecstatic when she got it.

Process:

I first drew it on to a masonite board with gesso and scanned it into the computer. (I didn't like the way it turned out so I decided to try a different method rather than drawing and painting.)

I did a rough trace in Illustrator because I was going to be painting over it anyway and then printed it mirror image.

I then layered more gesso onto a masonite board and laid the print out on the board so the ink would transfer. Once the ink was transfered I scrubbed off the paper and then painted over the image.

The reason why I painted rather than make a print from Illustrator, was to practice my craftsmanship and mainly because I love the texture paint has and the character it adds to the piece.