Blog Self-Portrait

My throat hurts! Oww…. went to the doctor today and turns out I have some kind of viral infection. Fun! Anyway – I’m on meds now and am hoping for a speedy recovery.

I took some time today after I got home to put together my homework for week three of my blog course. It’s sort of a self-portrait of what our blog is supposed to be about. The fun part is that I don’t realize what exactly is going to make it onto the design or not. So my final elements pleasantly surprised me! It’s a little travel, a little photography and a lot of home-made. We were supposed to use a manila folder but I always jot stuff down in my sketchbook I keep handy and decided that would be more appropriate for this. Enjoy!

A few details if you’re interested:

1) The handwritten letter is from my step-mom Mignon. She has given me some of the best letters and puts so much thought into them.

2) The sketches are some quick ones I had lying around. The colored costume is a concept I was working on for a Mad Hatter costume… more burlesque though 🙂

3) The pad of paper to the right is an old exposure recording notebook my Mom gave to me when I was first learning about cameras.

4) Colored pencils are my quick medium of choice when I’m sketching out an idea or drawing. They’re always lying around on my desk.

5) The photographs are from various places I’ve been. The coins are also from different travels.

I can’t wait to see everyone else’s folders!

Etsy: vol25

Well I hope everyone else is having a great Friday. Mine is off to an interesting start! I lost control on some ice this morning and 360’d my way through some cars (didn’t hit anyone though). Whew! Anyway… I’d like to share the whimsical prints from vol25’s Etsy Shop! So cute and fun don’t you think? I love the range of type used… but then again I have a serious attraction to Typography!!

Hmmm... my fav is the clouds I think 🙂

Have a great weekend! — Ashley

Useful Links : Pose Maniacs

I’m constantly on the lookout for helpful or informative websites for artists/projects/inspiration. Pose Maniacs has definitely gotten me through some tough late nights trying to come up with poses for character sketches. I’ve added an example of my latest use of this site:

Anyway – the great thing about this site is that they offer you over 300 different posed male and female figures. All of them are showing the muscle structure only (which really works great when you’re trying to understand how it all works).  Simply click on the pose you want to study then rotate the 3d rendering to find your optimal angle you want to reference. They also added a “grid” feature which acts as an extra assist when looking between the screen and your sketch. Genious….

For those of you that are trying to do quick figure studies – they have a tool that will rotate random figures every thirty seconds for practice. Cons: Poses don’t seem to be updated and it’s mostly in Japanese. However – a few clicks and I usually find what I’m looking for.

Check it out! It’s one of my favorite finds on the web: http://www.posemaniacs.com/blog/pose/

Do you guys have any recommendations? I’d love to know!