Saturday, January 7, 2012

Where have I been

Hello! I feel awful that I haven't updated in the past few... oh let's not count. But some very monumental things have happened since my last post. If you recall, I was living with my sister in San Marcos, California, and during that time I was able to get a pretty cool freelance illustration job. Although I'm not at liberty to talk about it yet, gettin' 'er done was part of the reason for my recent disappearance from the blog. I hopefully will be able to show you some of the job later this month, or in February.

The other reason: Well, I had to drive back to Michigan! My parents came to help, and together we drove through some of the worst winter blizzards of my life in Albuquerque, New Mexico (and I'm a Michigander mind you! Worst winter driving of my life!) But we made it back in one piece. Here was where I may or may not have slacked off given the holidays, and my long time departure from my long term boyfriend.

In the meantime, I had been preparing another sort of portfolio for the other graphic art work I do. Things like marketing, logo design, typography on packaging, etc. And luckily, I was hired immediately for a job I applied to where I get to use those skills! Hallelujah, I get to use the skills I was trained for! So I am very thankful, and very excited to get to be in a collaborative, creative atmosphere again.

On the flipside, freelance fantastical illustration continues, so now I have two jobs (oh brother!). And that is what you can still expect to see from this blog. Long story short, I'm still here, and I will be updating all of you on what's to come. I don't think you'll be seeing anything new in the coming weeks, as I am preparing some older pieces to submit to Spectrum's juried competition. Spectrum is basically my guidebook and go-to for eye candy for the kind of illustration work I enjoy and want to produce. Here is a bit on them:

Believing that there was a tremendous amount of high-quality fantastic-themed art work created each year that some how wasn't being represented in other annual art books and shows, Spectrum was established in 1993 by Cathy Fenner and Arnie Fenner with the intent of providing creators with a regular showcase for the best fantasy, science fiction, horror, and otherwise uncategorizable artwork created each year.

Also, I look forward to their new convention happening this May in Kansas city! So, those are some more immediate things to look forward to. I'll show you guys updates and revisions (centaurs, Aloja, Steve Irwin, Dragon) for Spectrum soon, so keep your eyes peeled!