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.