You're never really ready, it's just your turn.

Katie's growing up! So I registered for my first quarter of (ahhh!!) SENIOR YEAR yesterday morning. Here's what I'll be up to in the fall.





PLUS, I got a proverbial kick in the ass the other day and finally had to solve my lack-of-website problem, and my poorly maintained resume.

So, now you can check out my portfolio blog,





and finally, here's what I've been up to with my resume design.
I like peacocks, why fight it anymore?
Here's my header. On cover letters it is
a smaller peacock and longer line, as well
as resting at the bottom of the page.

Exciting and scary all at once! Much too soon and also overdue.
As Ty Murray put it in Dancing with the stars, "Dancing [or life] is like riding bulls. You're never really ready, it's just your turn."

Inside out: DigMix

Inside out, or outside in. Whichever, I guess. Digital Mixed Media.
Here are the final(s)?

Process/stages of experimentation.

Progress and Process: Visual Essay

Ok, a little later than I promised, but here's some progress work from my Visual Essay project.

Here's some "year-book style" collages for ya, of my photo shoot, some of my inspiration and stages of my process, as well as the current state of the paintings.

Visual Essay: B Horrors and Pulp Fiction= Modern Tabloid Drama

Here's my overdue project for Visual Essay. These are in the process of becoming paintings (I will post wip's most likely tomorrow) but here is my "photosketches". I enjoyed the graphic design element to these and after all the work I put into the photo montages I almost wished I could call these finished illustrations. However they're just a bit too sloppy and not high enough dpi, maybe next time I will avoid that if I'm going to spend so much time on a "sketch". Still I couldn't call these "illustrations" it just didn't feel right. Even if most of the images were of my own creation. Almost all photos were shot by myself or my roommate. The only found images are Lindsay's face and one hand, Britney's face and the city she is stepping on (which actually a shot of a Kenyan city- crazy right?), and Tom Cruise's face. All the bodies are either myself, my roommate, or my boyfriend (maybe you can guess who is who. Bridget and I actually appear in two each.)

Wow, that was a long explanation with a lot of (...) and "...". Yeesh. Picture time!

my latest little creation. It needs some fixing up. Did this for Digital mixed-media.
Inspired by icons of St. George slaying the dragon, here he is slaying the monster of procrastination and disorganization. :o) A goal of mine.

POP-UP BOOK!!!!

This is going to be an EPIC-ly huge post. An entire class worth.
(REMEMBER YOU CAN CLICK ON ALL IMAGES TO SEE THEM NICE AN' BIG! LIKE THESE LETTERS) ;o)

Ok, so, I've LOVED pop-up books forever and was SOOO stoked to finally get my chance to take pop-up books this winter. I plan on taking Pop-up II which technically isn't a class, but my buddy Alyx and I are obsessed and wont take no for an answer. It took me the whole 10 weeks to learn how to, experiment, and then finally make this puppy. I LOVE it. I hope you do too!

There's no story, just an Arabian theme.
first up: sketch and color study. These were VERY tentative as pop-ups change a lot during production by nature of the beast. Lots of engineering and trial and error, and error, and error. :o/

Then comes the white paper "dummy" book. This was my completed, to-scale, and working(!) dummy. I destroyed the evidence of my many failures. ;o)ooook. Time to ILLUSTRATE! What I did was scan in watercolor paintings of solid colors then put them together like cut paper, but digitally. I got to combine my love of paint, cut paper, and the efficiency of digital, all in one!
Here's some close-ups.

Now lastly, but most importantly, perhaps, is that a pop-up is not a proper, functional, pop-up unless it POPS! That means it looks good pop up, but it must also open and close, and often the most heart breaking part of making a pop-up is when it doesn't close. However, mine does!! YAY! completion :o)

Reporter: Bachuss and Boxed Wine

Another Reporter Online illustration. It will be up soon at Reportermag.com. You can also check out the site to see my illustrations in actions by looking at the current or older mags, either flipping through the pixelated version digitally, or by downlaoding the pdfs.
This was continuing on the theme of my previous wine tasting series, this one is about boxed wines. My art director asked me to do it in the same styles as the previous wine tasting series. So I did an ink-wash painting and manipulated the colors in photoshop to simulate the use of white, and blush wines.

I like puns, this one was unintentional at first and is sort of a stretch; Bacuss-ed Wine.... ? :o)

Anyway, it was a last minute, panic-stricken piece, but overall I like it!