the girl with the octopus tattoo

spring cleaning

Jess W — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:21:00 +0000

As I go through things I’ve created and not finished, I’m finding some gems. Like these Christmas doozies. Clip art + words by me:

finally

Jess W — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:08:23 +0000

I can post my mom’s surprise birthday invitation that I made. She turned 65, so I got 65 pink flamingos and planted them in her yard. She loved it – and became quite the talk of the town, especially because she still keeps them in her yard 3 months later…

resumes

Jess W — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:06:10 +0000

Sometimes I wish resumes could be more interesting. Sure, there are all these creatives who make infographic-type resumes, but that will probably only get you into a creative job. What if you want an ordinary job? What if we tailored our resumes to the industry applicable?

In any case, I started making this resume one night:

wise words

Jess W — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:01:14 +0000

So, while watching Star Wars one evening, I heard Yoda exclaim: Slimy? Mudhole? My home this is.

And it just made me laugh. We have such a love-hate relationship with our own dwelling that I felt like Yoda was on to something. Not home-sweet-home, but rather:

Good or bad, this is where we live.

incomplete

Jess W — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 03:34:52 +0000

Recently, I have been going through sketchbooks, finding doodled ideas and incomplete work. Somehow, I sort of fell in love with this unfinished drawing. It’s a pastel of (I believe) a sybil from the Sistine ceiling.

But it reminds me that art isn’t always about finishing…it’s about getting it on the paper.

Or at least, that’s what I’m telling myself tonight.

o’kate

Jess W — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 03:16:03 +0000

At a flea market, I picked up an old book of quotations. I suppose back before Google, before the internet, quotes had to be found somewhere, right?

Anyway, I admire people who can summarize large concepts using only a few words.

Georgia O’Keefe: I have been absolutely terrified every moment in my life and I never let it keep me from doing a single thing.

Hand-drawing letters has been fun. There’s something relaxing about making messy letters after dealing with perfect type all day. And with a little help from a scanner and Illustrator, I cleaned up the mess–or made it messier in some cases.

classically untrained

Jess W — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 23:31:12 +0000

There are so many tricks in InDesign for typesetting. It’s mind-boggling at times. I like to stay in practice. I find that, if I don’t use it, I lose it. And what I don’t know, I Google. I recently discovered this useful site, CreativePro.com. Helpful tutorials and just fun graphics stuff.

Oh, so back to the practicing bit. One of the projects from my InDesign course with Nicole’s Classes was to typeset a classic book. Thanks to Project Gutenberg, there are text files at the ready for you to work with.

Taking a book you love and building it with your style–how fun is that? Ok, it’s fun for me, because I am a book lover from way back.

The Book

My brother actually convinced me to read Frankenstein. I found the letters in the beginning difficult to follow while commuting on a train for 20 mins a day; I gave up on it. But he assured me that once I got through the letters, I would be much better off. He was so right. What a powerful story, applicable to so many pieces of life. So this would be a project for me. How do I capture what I felt in that book?

No easy task. And I’m sharing a work in progress–so, be patient. I’m working off of a Blurb template at 6 x 9 in.

The cover: I wanted to capture that feeling, when Dr. Frankenstein spends time in the mountains with his creation. It’s a fascinating interaction…Well, anyway, this is my first pass:

And inside: I dig 2 column pages. I also enjoy being able to find the beginning of a chapter in 1-2 secs. So I made the chapter number boxes easily visible when flipping through (a great example of chapter work is in the book The Night Circus). So here are some pages:

The opening chapter page I kept single columned; the subsequent pages in the chapter are 2 columned. I’m using a Bodoni font for the body of the text, as well. The Chapter info is in Myanmar.

So far, I have a few chapters done. The hardest bit is always setting the design–and liking it. I find it helpful to set a few chapters and review. I usually find things in later parts of the book that need to be tweaked or reworked completely. This way, I don’t have to go back and fix the entire book.

Remember typesetters: Keep Options are your friend.

a crafty tarot

Jess W — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 04:22:21 +0000

Mmmmm, I’m starting to see a theme here: I like decks of cards. I’m sure it’s a phase and I appreciate your tolerance.

Anyway, another tarot deck–this one catered to crafters. No, not that kind of craft. This is for those that sew and stitch.

I got as far as the ace to 10 cards, but I’m drawing a blank on the others. I’ll work on it, though; no worries. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

Also, I love Design Seeds for color inspiration. I usually end up adjusting the colors and reworking some combos, but it’s a great place to start.

I also love using Color Hex to work out CMYK to RGB conversions.

pick a card

Jess W — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 14:42:06 +0000

If you recall, I made flashcards of the periodic table for an online class at nicole’s classes. I enjoyed making the cards so much that I decided to try another deck. This time, of tarot cards.

One of the challenges I appreciated about the project is the simplicity. Flash cards–or really most cards–require a good deal of selection and editing. Not an easy task, since I feel like it’s more natural to try and cram every cm with something. Tarot cards are just that: crammed with symbols, and it can be easy to get lost in them.

By no means am I trying to disregard the symbols of tarot. In fact, the art history/English major in me loves scouring the images for embedded symbols. But I found, for myself, that I would get so caught up in the items around the high priestess that I would overlook the larger meaning of the card. So, I simplified, in an attempt to become more familiar with the meanings and intuition rather than rely on remote symbolism.

Love ‘em, hate ‘em, taking any piece of art and reducing it to a basic but recognizable symbol is not easy. In fact, I’m not sure I’m totally happy with all of these. But it has been a while, so I wanted to share a work in progress with you.

This morning, I completed the major arcana. Honestly, I’m terrified to begin the suits–there are just so many! But, I’ll keep you posted. Here are some of the cards: