GIRL!

Brenda's birthday was today! Well... I guess yesterday at this point. I made her a birthday card but forgot to bring it to dinner to give to her! Rats! Anyway, here it is:


I guess I'm not quite finished with it, so this gives me some time to go back and add a bit more. I think I need to shade the hats and pants. I'm really happy with the drawing though, and it went fairly easy.

Sometimes when I'm drawing, it just... doesn't... work. Ya' know? You just want to sit down and draw a face or a house, or anything really, but for some reason your hand just doesn't want to move correctly, or maybe your brain just doesn't want to fire the correct synapses. In any case, it feels like shit. I hate it! Luckily, that didn't happen during this drawing. Hooray!

Typography

Typography isn't my strong point. I'll be the first to admit that. I unfortunately did not take a typography class while at MCAD, and sincerely feel that I missed out on a lot. What a fool I was! I've come to learn that I'm very behind, and to quote a designer I met with in New York: "I'll be honest. I hate your typography."

That being said, I do enjoy it though, and sincerely wish I had a better understanding of it. When I see a good composition of type and image, I get a good feeling, and I think that's important. I've decided to try to and work with it more, to see if I can uncover any talent I might have. Two times a week, I will take a news article and try my best to create an interesting layout using only the original text. The focus in on the word 'try' here.

Here we go! Practice Number One:

---Original text here--- The copyright of course goes to the newspaper, as well as the image, don't sue me Evening Sun.

I kind of cheated a bit on this one and added the last line about contacting the writer. I'm already breaking my rules! This does not bode well.

Criticism is welcome. Very welcome in fact. I'd like to learn my mistakes! Also, if anyone knows of a good book to learn the basics of typography, I'd like to start there and work my way up. Hopefully up is where I'll be heading.

2Wheels is go!

This has been a not-so-secret project I've been working on with Lyndsey Lesh. After graduation we started trying to work together on a few projects under the team name 2Wheels Studio. Two wheels like a bike.

Our first project we started working on is a poster series called +/- (or, positive/negative). It's a series of 10 posters of negative and positive phrases and imagery that indirectly comments on our current economic and social status. Our goal is to try to get it into the Fallon Winter Exhibition. We submitted our proposal and the images over the last couple weeks, and we'll hear back soon. Wish us luck!

You can see the project, along with our newly created website, here: 2wheels Studio.

EDIT:///
Just a a little update. I wanted to post a picture of my favorite poster Lyndsey and I worked on:

Mom's Tape Recorder

Ben and I wrote a short song, and recorded it on a Hitachi LevelMatic:


Mom's Tape Recorder from billbill on Vimeo.

Sorry for the crappy video. My digital camera isn't the best.

I was home a while ago, and found an old tape recorder in the basement. Apparently my mom used it when she was younger. I'm not sure what for, because most of the tape somehow got sped up and the audio is distorted. I had chance copy the entire tape onto a hard drive, so all the memories are preserved. There is however, a really beautiful song still intact. I think it was my uncle singing to one of my aunts. It's him playing the acoustic guitar and the quality of the recording is unbelievable. It's very haunting and romantic. There is also a cute, but also a little creepy recording of my brother singing the ABC's. I can post that later if I get the audio from Chance's hard drive.