Create quirky repeating patterns tutorial

I am enjoying trying out tutorials on the Digital Arts site. I found this little gem today in search of something I would like to learn. The artist that walks you through this lesson is Andrew Groves. He does quirky, imaginative illustration like you see below. I wanted to put my own spin on it so I added a fox, bear, and deer. I also like going camping so I added a little tent with a camp fire. I had a lot of fun making the pattern, but sadly the only thing I learned was that you can't make a pattern swatch (Object > Pattern > Make) with shapes that already have a pattern in them. So what you see is a manual shift > click > drag. If you would like to learn the basics of making patterns in Adobe illustrator, click on this link.

Silent Spring Tutorial

Today I decided to do some professional development and do a tutorial. I was recommended by a coworker to do a tutorial on a ad called Silent Spring that appeared in Faar magazine originally created by Vesna Pesic. If you are interested in looking at the steps click on this link. I was given all the pictures, but I masked them and color corrected them. I traced the lettering from her sketch and applied effects to it for a 3D effect. I also made the milky ceramic effect on her eye and arm. That part I practiced my painting skills to make it look real. I had a lot of fun on this project and it was good to practice my Photoshop skills. If you want to do it too just click the link above.

Below is Vesna's aka Beca:

My version:

Christmas Poster for School Improvement Network

The Holiday season was crazy for me this past year and I am finally posting something from Christmas. I was asked by my work to create a poster to promote the company Christmas Party and gave me artistic freedom. So I decided to so something classic looking to fit the semi-formal dress as well as the style of the hotel the party is at. Originally I made the poster with gold and black. The client did not like the black and wanted to have it more "Christmasy" or "wintery." I first changed the text from gold to blue to make it look more like snow, but it was still too dark for the client. 

I really wanted to keep the black and changed the text to glitter. I really loved the black and glitter because I thought it looked classic. But the black was not cutting it. I changed it to the green that you see in the first image, which achieved the classic look I wanted and the festive Christmas look the client wanted. 

Letters to Sarah: See you in Japan!

This is the last letter I will be able to write my sister while she is serving an LDS mission in Japan. I am so proud of her giving selfless service to the people in the Kobe area as well as working on her own spirituality. At the end of the month, I am going with my parents and husband to pick her up from her mission. I am so excited to see her, so I drew this illustration of us in Japan. See you soon Sarah!

Letters to Sarah: Robin

This month in the illustration community is known as #inktober (an ink drawing a day for a month). So I am hitting two birds with one stone (pun intended) and making a card for my sister and an ink drawing for day 3. I wanted to draw a robin today and gave it a huge eye for extra cuteness :)

Happy Birthday

This past Friday was my wonderful friend's birthday. For my birthday she always makes the cutest handmade cards and in turn I make her hand lettered cards. She absolutely loved it!

Letters to Sarah: Work Hard

This week is a two-for-one! The first quote is for my sister and the second is for her companion, Sister Hamilton, who asked to have a drawing too. I decided to play with the calligraphy style this week and I am pretty happy with both of my pieces. Of course I still have a lot to learn, like being original in my calligraphy, but first I need to learn how to do it. If you'd like your very own hand letter quote, let me know and I'd be happy to make one for you!

Letters to Sarah: I love you

This past Saturday I went to Craft Lake City, which is a DIY Festival. There were many artists that ranged from Illustration to Pottery. I was particularly inspired by the Graphic Designers, who hand lettered so well. Every year I tell myself I can do it too, but fear always chokes that dream.

This week I wanted to practice my hand lettering for my sister's letter and honestly I feel I improved a lot. I really love this letter, and it is one of my favorites so far. I hope you feel the same.

Introducing Edivation Video

Introducing Edivation: The New PD 360 from School Improvement Network on Vimeo.

I am excited to do a post of something I did at my work, School Improvement Network. I was asked to storyboard and provide graphics our newest promotional video for our product Edivation. I worked under the creative direction of Galen Leith as well as with two great animators: Michelle Ballamis and Greg Griffeth. 

I drew up 4 version of a storyboard while working closely with the animators to see if things would flow well. I then brought my ideas into the computer since I would have to give all the elements in the video to the animators.

I originally had my characters more human like, but to make it easier for the animators, we decided to capitalize on the thought that our "i" in Edivation was our individual. I designed the following 5 characters for our video. Our administrator and our 4 teachers.

Here are some shots from my storyboard that you might see in the video above. Of course as production goes on, things get cut and new ideas come up.

I had a great time working on this video. It is so fun to see something you conceptualized and worked so hard on as a finished product. I am so grateful to have collaborated with such talented people and to learn more about motion graphics. I look forward to creating more project like this in the future. 

Letters to Sarah: Blackhawk trail

This week I thought it appropriate to draw my sister a landscape of the Blackhawk trail. This past week I was the camp director for my church's Girls Camp and I had an incredible spiritual experience on this trail as did all that came with me. I wrote my sister about this experience and how it has strengthened my testimony in my Savior, even Jesus Christ. Usually, I am not sure whether to talk about religion on my professional blog, but I find it difficult not to do so when it is a huge part of who I am. But for now, I will leave it at that. I hope you enjoy this little sketch I did. It truly was a beautiful hike through the Unitas!

Letters to Sarah: Paper Cranes

A few weeks ago I wrote my sister and this is the drawing I made for her letter. I just got a letter back from her telling me that she loved it. I hope you all enjoy it as well!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful dad! I am so grateful that he has always been here for me. He has always encouraged me to work on my talents in the arts and I would not be where I am today without him. I could not have asked for a better dad.

Letters to Sarah: Matsuyama Castle

Sarah has been on her LDS mission for a year now and was just transfered to Matsuyama a week ago. I thought I would draw her the castle in Matsuyama to commemorate her transfer.

Happy Mother's Day!

I want to wish my wonderful mother a happy Mother's Day!

I drew this card for her, but I want to share it with all of you and wish all of the moms out there a wonderful day, because you deserve it! Being a mom is no easy task and it is the hardest job ever. So thank you for being amazing!

Happy Birthday Trevor!

Happy 26th Birthday to my sweetheart, Trevor! 

I made this card for his birthday and I illustrated myself giving a ballon to Trevor. It made me so happy when he told me it was his favorite card :)

Hogle Zoo Summer Party

My work is having a summer party for its employees and the design team was asked to make a poster for the event. However, my coworker's design was picked, but they are going to use my typography. So it's a win-win in that we are creating a hybrid of our designs. Yay teamwork!

Letters to Sarah: Happy Easter

Happy Easter Everyone! I know it's a little early, but in order for this to get to Japan before Easter, I mailed it a week early. I had a lot of fun drawing for this for Sarah. I love the style of pen drawn Folk Art and I hope you all do too. Have a wonderful Easter weekend!

Happy Birthday Jade!

Happy Birthday to my sweet sister-in-law Jade!

Letters to Sarah: I miss you beary much!

Valentine Connections

This year for our women's Valentine's Day church activity I was asked to make a poster to advertise and so I created the poster shown above. Ever since I did the church Halloween activity poster )I will post later), I have been dubbed the "ward graphic designer." I have not posted other things I have done for church because it didn't really occur to me to post these until some friends urged me to share them on my blog. 

As I post more of these you will notice that I am obsessed with the vintage block letter look. Since no one at church has a theme in mind when they create an event, I do whatever I want. Which is really fun for me. No limits!