It's over!

Well, the semester is, at any rate.  And it went quite well, I must say...once I settled in.  Coming from a science background and most recently a university, an art program at a tech college was a bit of a change.  While I may not be any more or less in touch with my creative side, I'm certainly more in touch with my ADHD side.  Having some actual time management skills from the real world turned out to be my saving grace because with graphic design work comes a whole slew of logistical nightmares from broken DLLs and plug-in mismatches, a lack of lab hours, color correction fiascoes, winter driving conditions, cloud storage fail, thumb drives in the wash--breathe!--to idiots at the bargain print shop.

By the way, CopyMax: I love you with all of my being.  You are full of win.

I have a few new pieces up on my portfolio in the School Projects gallery, and there will be some more to come once I get photos from my instructors.  Especially since I hear it's rare, I'm very happy to have something to show for my first semester other than "A"s (not that I'm complaining about that!).

In other happy news, I managed to secure a freelance job for AMATYC, the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges, designing their quarterly journal.  I seem to be the only graphic designer who thinks this is choice fun.  Well, their loss.  Hooray, math!

Merry Yule and all that.

Wow, publicity.

If I wasn't such an obsessive proofer, I might have missed this.  Gothology's "The Belfry Twins," a short comic I collaborated on with an old friend of mine, Ashley Witter, was featured just today on the anthology's website.  This is most likely due to the very recent release that Ash's until-now "super secret mystery project" is an adaptation of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire.  I'm very, very proud of her, despite our current...distance.

Anyway, it's always lovely to get some press.  The feature can be found >here<, and Ashley's (ahem, very well edited?) interview at Publisher's Weekly is >here<.

Machine of Death 2

Any self-respecting Internet hipster should know about Machine of Death already, but in the event that you don't, go read it now.  At any rate, the submission deadline for the second installment of this brilliant book just recently passed, and I managed to pull off something I could be rather proud of.  Take a peek at deviantART or after the jump.

Drawing Fundamentals

I've recently enrolled in the Graphic Design program at MATC, dipping my toes into the water with Drawing Fundamentals this summer.  My first real art class, and I got an A.  :D  My final critique:

Annalise,

You have the Midas touch.  Every challenge was met & achieved in spades!  You have a keen analytical eye and a great hand for drawing.  I truly hope that you continue to advance your considerable ability!  Both your classroom & on location work was terrific--the Union picture really worked well!

Loved you chicken in pen & wash & your crowning finish in our media blitz was the 2nd monotype of the figure on the floor.  Beautiful job!

It was really a pleasure to work with you!  You bring a lot to the table and I look forward to seeing your progress through the program.

Knock 'em dead kiddo!!  Great job!

What's This?

Why, it's an art blog, for lack of a better term.  I got sick of depending on other people for my personal/portfolio website, so this will have to do.  But I like the solid sense of chronological grounding a blog provides; and, given diligent labeling, I think I can keep things organized fairly well.  That said, I'll probably be directing most of my posts about various creations to my deviantART page at thelipglossary.deviantart.com.

What you can expect to see here is the journey of a burgeoning freelance fiction writer and novice illustrator.  I won't ask you to be kind, but, as I ask (naively) of all of the Internet: don't be a dick.