Monday, April 30, 2012

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Pattern Recognition!

A quick post on what I wore last night at my art reception for "Pattern Recognition II"
Those are my original prints on the scarf and dress (printed by Spoonflower)
Backdrop is a section of "Shots" mixed media on canvas, 77 x 69"

I'll be wearing the dress and scarf again on Monday for the Lucky FABB conference

Hooking this up for Visible Monday... stand out and see more!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Quick Draw - Jazz on the Hill

My good friend Larry Quint invited me to his vocal workshop concert a week ago. It was held in the home of his instructor, Julie Kelly. There were nine vocalists (including Julie) accompanied by The Karen Hammack Trio. It was a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon and I share with you my sketches.
Julie Kelly
Tommy Hicks
Yolanda Rodriguez
Larry Quint
Gayle Huber
Gayle
Gayle
Sam DiMaggio
Diana Warshawsky
Phillip DeLeon
Dale Sorenson
Dale
the program

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Pinterest Paranoia and Pin Watch

text:
From a random tweet from IFB, I found peace of mind and fellow crusaders in the Battle against Spam on Pinterest.
I don't feel so crazy now. Onward!

Here is the tweet:
link to article -- READ!
The trail of links lead me to Pin Watch on Pinterest [link]:
If you are on Pinterest, please check out Pin Watch and read some of the links.
DON'T automatically follow a stranger if they follow "all your boards"
PIN RESPONSIBLY! Make sure the URL goes to the specific image/article.
Report any image that seems spammy.
Here's how:
click on "Report Pin" button
this box will appear > tick "Spam" > hit "Report Pin"


Sunday, April 22, 2012

Hommage à Tina for Record Store Day

Yesterday was Record Store Day. I drew this:
Text reads:
It's "Record Store Day" today, say my friends on FB. I pulled this fave LP out of the milk crates:
[image]

"The Hunter" by Ike + Tina. Purchased at Sunny Side Records in Prov in 79 or so.
A lot of memories go with this... I carried it back to Prov in March 85 to complete a fur [rendering] illustration assignment (will look for that later).[Couldn't find]
Lip synched "The Hunter" for a Mattel "presentation" (acting) class in 93.

The album cover is creepy and wonderful:
don't you LOVE Tina's mink mini dress? and how about the mink sandal!!!!
You must see the credits up close:
Now listen up:


Friday, April 20, 2012

Pinterest, oh Pinterest

text reads:
4.19  I put this latest investigation collage together @ work on Mon. Just now getting it logged in here. I'm a bit divided about my Pinterest investigations. It feels so negative and unproductive. It just irks me so much that these "people" are hijacking the site for their own profit and nefarious ends.
I want to like Pinterest. I want to pin "correctly" and know that the pin points back to orig. source. I am irked by lazy pinners.

I really AM reluctant to continue doing this. I got weary of the Pose charade as well. I think I could be using my time better.

That said, when Michelle Obama"started following all [my] pinboards" I was curious to see where the pins came from... [4/20  just reclicked link and the page is down. hurrah!]

Ah, they're all the "media-cache" kind. The kind where the original source is removed.
Other troublemakers from Monday:
There is hope...
When I reclicked on the "dinner on the beach" today, I got this:

Thursday, April 19, 2012

A Lesson Learned @TxSC: The Business Cards I Wish I'd Had but Didn't [Part 2]

In part 1, I discussed the types of cards that I personally found the most helpful for remembering fellow TxSC participants. Now let's brainstorm on some visual aids to memory and design some cards with me as the guinea pig. 


First, your important information. This can all go on the back side, maybe with a graphic from your blog.
most likely the graphic will have to be B+W. oops.
Make sure your card has:
Your name
Your blog URL
Your twitter handle
Bonus points for: instagram handle, Facebook page, etc
And make sure it's easy to read! NO SCRIPT FONTS PLEASE!!!

The front is where the fun stuff happens...  Remember, my focus here is on cards with your picture on it...
Here are some questions to ask yourself to get inspired... (I had more questions but realized they went outside my "visual of self" criteria and better served a card with a less specific purpose -- I'll add them at the very end without visuals, maybe you can use some of the ideas)
Disclaimer - most of my samples here I did quickly at 72dpi. Don't zoom the images!


Do you post Outfit of the Day photos? No brainer!

Do you have a certain accessory that is a signature look?


Me, in my gigantic glasses
photo credit: Shimelle

note: you will be seeing a lot of that squiggle print background
in my samples below. just warning you!
or my handful of rings --
my hand over my keyboard is a good "blogger" cue
Do you blog about a certain thing?
I do crazy pattern mixing.
If I know for sure I'm wearing a certain outfit,
I could put that mix on the card
(very limited use!)
Does your blog have a unique stylistic thing or special kinds of posts?
I've got my SpyGirl sketches that are also self portraits
there's the self portrait that is my Blogger avatar
Do you have a DIY you might be wearing or that you are known for?
Can you give mini-visuals of the steps?
not mine, not entire image -- source
Do you sell a product? Will you be wearing a sample?

my scarf design I'm pimping
Maybe you have less visuals and more writing? A headshot and your tag line perhaps?

(if you zoom this, it will look pixellated. just warning you)
tag line is legible on my header at top!

Keep in mind -- fashion and beauty bloggers are primarily visual people. They will remember you by what you were wearing, your fabulous shoes, your amazing earrings, your incredible hair style, your style in general, etc, etc.
Help them remember you!

MOO Cards let you do 50 different designs so you could have an array to fan out for someone to choose... let your imagination run wild!

We were given an offer of 50 free cards prior to the conference.
So what did my cards look like for TxSC?










(drumroll)













hint...













this is what I was doing in my motel room at 5pm Friday night of the conference










voila!
>cue awkward silence<

yes, they are the size of a 1 x 3" mailing label
DIY! Information FAIL! (do I at least get points for the QR code?)

What happened, Anne the SpyGirl?
I froze. I procrastinated. I had too many choices. I waited until the last minute. Was I the only person that handed out a weird sized thing (not even card stock) with raggedy edges? Did that make mine memorable? Ha - it certainly became a topic of conversation during card swapping.
Next time I'll do better, I promise myself. I'll start working on them NOW! [I vowed in March]

Did I? No.
At least I'd written this out so that now I'm under a deadline, I won't forget anything important!
When I get them all uploaded, I'll post my designs. That'll be Part 3!
To be continued...

here


ps: more questions/themes -

Do you blog about a certain thing?
I've been working on a 365 photo project. Maybe one of those images?

Maybe one of your Instagrams, one that you're really proud of or one that got a lot of likes or comments?

A trend board?

A "favorite things" visual?

Something from your Pose app?


Did I miss something?

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

A Lesson Learned @TxSC: The Business Cards I Wish I'd Had but Didn't [Part 1]

Jyoti of Style Delights recently tweeted a photo of her new business cards. I thought she'd done excellent design work.
source
Her photo reminded me about this post that I had in draft that I'd written in March after TxSC. It also reminded me that I need to get my cards designed and printed for the Lucky FABB West conference in two weeks. EEEEEEK!

[from back in March]
I am home now after a whirlwind three days meeting an amazing group of women (and a few men!) in Austin at the Texas Style Council. I took tons of random photos, I did a bunch of sketches and now I want to connect the faces to the URLs. By the last day I was pretty good at approaching people. -- on the first night, not so good. A conference is not a normal situation. It's very intense - you meet (and see) lots of people in a very short time. Next time I'm going to make special cards tailored for that kind of event.
Here is the pile of cards that I got:
Let's lay them out in a grid:
(some are fronts AND backs and not adjacent)
click on image to see bigger
For my purposes (putting a face with a name + blog), the most helpful are these:
Jessica Rae of Freckled Mama
Elizabeth of Delightfully Tacky
Lauren of A Wild Tonic
Chelle of Spangled Paraphernalia
You can see they included a photo of themselves so I immediately know what they look like.
(I'm sure when I get to everyone's sites, I will find the graphics on many of the cards match. A lot are very beautiful... Just not so helpful at this particular moment.)

Stay tuned for part 2: Designing a business card especially for conferences