I have continued to work steadily on my candyland invitations and spy novels. Due dates are coming up and I must stay on my toes! This semester is definitely a challenging one. I am enjoying my projects though so I cannot complain. I did a maternity shoot this past weekend and had quite a bit of fun with it. Using the internet to gather inspiration we found some cool photos to use to base our shots off of.


I ordered a Wacom Inkling pen over the weekend and I am eagerly awaiting its arrival in the mail. I am excited to try it out.

After plenty of contemplating and lots of debating I decided to go with a different route for my invitations project for my typography two class. I did not make this decision on a whim however as it would mean starting the project over. I really did not have a lot of the resources I needed in order to do the ballet invitations the way I wanted to. I did and do however have plenty of resources and references for doing a Candyland themed birthday party invitation for this project.

I have a bit of an obsession with Candyland I guess you could say. It ranks up there with Hello Kitty and Sailor Moon in the fond memories of my childhood that I honestly do not think that I will ever grow out of. Maybe it is my obsession with bright and fun colors that makes me love Candyland themed things. I do not really have an obsession with actual candy I just think it is all so pretty to look at. This inspired me over the summer to do a candyland themed photo shoot.

I have to say it was an ultimate success. I made a scene that looked like you were actually walking into the world of Candyland for my shoot. With spray paint galore I sprayed pinks, blues, and purples all over bags of stuffing I purchased and sprawled it across the ground to look as if I were walking in a world with ground covered with cotton candy. Giant lollipops and gum drops surrounded me.

When thinking of what else I could do my invitations for for this project it occurred to me: Why not do Candyland? I mean after all I worked so hard on making my vision come true for the photoshoot...I had all the references I needed....why not make it happen?

And if you don't have any reasons not to do something, I'd say that's a pretty good reason to go for it.

My buttons are going to consist of swirls as if they are lollipops, my type looks as if it is candy striped. I am vectoring out a photograph for the cover of the invitation now which will be the most time consuming part of the project but once that is out of the way I am pretty much in the clear. Although time is short I do not regret making this decision and it was one I was happy to make.

Making progress

I took some reference photos for my spy novel series this weekend to start vectoring out. The first book is called "I'd tell you I love you but then I'd have to Kill You". For that one I am illustrating a mysterious teenager (sun glasses/spy glasses) shhing somebody and in the reflection in her sunglasses you can see the silhouette of a young man. I thought that was pretty straight forward and spy novel-esque.

Today I also did a shoot for a lady as an anniversary gift to her husband. We did a nerdy pin up look using a nintendo as props. I also took some of their baby for her to give to them and she was such a ham. She was the first baby that I have really photographed so I couldn't get over how cute they were. 

I am doing my invitations project for a fictitious ballet recital. I plan on making the invitation look like a jewelry music box that has a ballerina on the inside when you open it. Here are some photographic references that I will be vectoring out in addition to a ballerina jewelry box as well as ballet slippers.

I also have decided on a direction for my spy novel series. I plan on doing the Gallagher Girls because it is about teenage girls who go to a school that is actually for spies. It has super cheesy titles such as "I'd Tell You I Love You but Then I'd have to Kill you" "Cross my Heart and Hope to Spy"

I wanted to be able to have a little more fun with this series than you can with most spy novels because they are so serious. Because mine have such cheesy titles and the target audience I have a little more lee way.