My Hand @ Work

June 16, 2009 on 12:16 am | In Art, Drawing, Graphic Design, Sketches | No Comments

I was looking around for inspiration and came across a site displaying great pictures of numbers on homes, walls etc. and being a person who loves shapes and letters (numbers included) I decided to sketch out the number eight. The image of the woman and the glasses are sketches I’ve finally added to the site. Enjoy!
I look forward to your comments.

Glasses

Woman Smiling

Your Fortune Awaits You

March 20, 2009 on 5:52 am | In Graphic Design | No Comments

Last week’s self assigned asignment was to create ten fortunes incorporating the word “difficult” in an interesting way. I broke the fortunes into 5 categories- Love, General, Corporate, Motivational and Funny. Each category received two fortunes. I decided to create paper fortune cookies as well- just to keep it interesting.
Fortune cookie messages regarding love:
Love

1. Don’t lose your grip on Love and Loyalty, it will be difficult to get them back if you loose them.
2. Love may be the only medicine for a broken heart. But it can be difficult picking up the pieces.

Life On Mars

March 12, 2009 on 12:22 am | In Graphic Design | No Comments

Afriend and I were talking recently and decided to challenge ourselves each week creatively by creating pieces of work to keep the creative juices flowing. I took on the challenge of creating a print ad poster promoting the colonization of Mars.

Images used in poster credit:
Image of Las Vegas by Matt Sims. Image of New South Pole Station scientific research station by Robert Schwartz for USAP. Image earth and mars - wikimedia.org

The Oscar goes to…

February 19, 2009 on 2:40 am | In Art | 2 Comments

Feburary 22, 2009 is the offical date of the 81st Academy Awards better known as The Oscars. I’ve always taken an interest in the ceremonial posters that promote the award show of award shows. A couple of my favorites have been -

the 2005 - 78th Academy Awards poster duo -female in white dress holding her Golden Oscar, male in black tux cluching his Golden Oscar (Hollywood in its hey day) and…

the 2001- 74th Academy Awards poster - Oscar is portaryed as Batman. I love, love, love this poster.

This years poster is awesome as well. I love how The Oscar statuette itself takes center stage amidst all the bright lights in the Kodak Theatre reminding us that it is the reason all have gathered together, to see him, Oscar, the lead actor in this year’s presentation of “And the Oscar goes to..”.
My creative juices begin to overfllow with ideas whenever I come across one of these posters. So instead of just allowing my ideas to spill over and run down the gutter of no return on Do Nothing Street, I decided to create my own Academy Awards poster. And for those who are quick to ask, “Did you approach The Academy regarding the use of your work for this years ceremony?” The answer is, “Yes. Yes I did. And I was politely told The Academy was not taking submissions.

Therefore, I humbly submitt my 81st Academy Awards ceremonial Oscar poster design to you. I chose to go with a design that displays a clean and simple representation of this year’s 81st Academy Awards.
The Oscar statuette image used in the poster is the property of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences. To view the offical poster go to Oscars.com

Back To Business…

December 25, 2008 on 1:30 am | In Sketches | No Comments

Yes, it has been awhile, three months to be exact, since my last blog post. What have I been doing? I’ve doodled, created vector art and I’ve been working. My last post was about encouraging each of us who create to practice that gift/talent daily.

Admittedly, I wasn’t strong in this area myself, but the thought to practice drawing, doodling, etc. daily, continued to consume my mind. It motivated me to pick up my sketch pad and pencil and begin to “practice” what I preach. My passion, one of them at least, is to create with shapes, mostly circles. I also have a great appreciation for rain (the more the better) and as I was riding in my friend’s car recently, I noticed the raindrops on the windshield. I had to draw this awesome site.

Practice is not worrying about the good, the bad and or the ugly of the work, but the doing of it first and foremost. The good will come with practice.

Keep moving forward.

Here is a rough, rough draft of “Circles of Rain”

Daily Practice

September 18, 2008 on 6:27 am | In Art, Drawing, Sketches | No Comments

There’s a lot to be said for “daily practice” -

Practice: to do or perform often, or habitually, to perform or work at repeatedly so as to become proficient, to train by repeated exercises, to do repeated exercises for proficiency

Practicing what you do, what you love doing, is simply taking time to work, exercise your skill repeatedly to become proficient - The Best!
If you write, write often, if you are a photographer, you should be taking pictures every chance you get and if you draw your pencil should be virtually glued to your hand and in motion at all times. : - )
Okay, I exaggerated a bit, but practice does make perfect or at least it improves your skills greatly. The more you practice the better you become at what you do.

Loving what you do is very important as well. It makes practicing/creating more enjoyable. I think doing what you love helps your dreams come true, so if you write, write - if you sing, sing - if you draw, draw. Take your love, your passion to the next level. Life is too short, even if you live to be 120 years old, to sit on the sidelines and continually cheer for others or continually say, “I wish could…”

Make your dreams a reality. That’s where I’m at in life right now, I’m making my dreams reality.

Hear the roar of the crowd scream your name once in awhile, even if the “crowd” you hear is your own voice reminding you that you have a gift or talent and it’s worth expressing to the max.

Weekly offering:
I drew this sometime ago. It reminds me of some of the things I enjoy in life.

To Dance, To Draw, To Enjoy Music

© ajr

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WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU PUT ON A BLOG?

August 22, 2008 on 6:23 pm | In Art, Drawing, Sketches | 1 Comment

Time to start. Time to do it. Time to stop thinking about it and go forward. So here goes. WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU PUT ON A BLOG? Having a desire to do something is not enough. I’ve found that out the hard way. For example, I’ve been looking to put together my blog for some time now, you really don’t want to know how long, just take my word for it - IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME COMING. But here it is, no longer a desire but a reality. Yes, a reality. Not perfection, perhaps not even excellence, but It’s Real. I’m no longer searching for- What on earth do you put on a blog any longer. I had to stop and take a step forward, move, write something even if it’s blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I had to take action. No more searching and standing still - I’m doing, blogging,drawing, creating. Yea. Drawing has consumed me from the age of … well, let’s just say for many, many years. I am pleased to share my work for all to see. What will happen on this blog? Samples of my work will be shared as time goes on. First offering: I recently created the book cover for author Charmiane Wilson. The male character I initially drew is shown here. Changes were made for the final cover. The entire book cover will be posted when the book is released. I now share my passion(s). Sketch of the week: August 22, 2008 Blog Updates You can receive notice each time we update our blog. Just subscribe to our rss feed below: Subscribe to the RSS feed