Lil' Piglet

I want to start working on an alternate portfolio more geared towards the field I am currently working in. I love cute children's characters and animals and there are tons of ways to illustrate this in the surface pattern and paper craft industry. I also can't help but be inspired by all the animals my best friend Jillian Evelyn is always coming up with.

If pigs could fly they would be really cute like this guy.

GAGA

Hallway Show submission week 2. Lady Gaga- I really only know who she is by name. I've never heard her music or anything else- I guess living without cable TV and a strong internet connection has really cut me off from the world. I feel so behind on what's going on. Although I've never really followed pop culture too closely anyway...
Anyway. Here's Lady Gaga. I drew this in my sketchbook and colored it in photoshop. I am trying to make more images that aren't drawn separately and then pieced together later, like I usually do. I have to start working on figuring out my image and composition right off the bat instead of drawing each element and moving things around over and over. Although that isn't really too much of a bad thing, it's just my process.
Still. Something to work on as a challenge for myself.

Pugs in Space

My best friend Jillian requested that we make each other artwork for each of our respective work spaces. Specifically she asked me to make some pugs in space. So, here are some pugs floating in space. I think they really like it out there.

Sketch

I rarely have time to use my sketchbook nowadays ( I know, that's really no excuse). But here's a tiny doodle I did yesterday.

This weekend I hope to finally use my $50 gift card to Dick Blick that I received with the return of my artwork from the Society of Illustrators. Thanks, Society! It's time for a new sketchbook and some brush pens.

Danny Baby.

Last year my friends and I started this weekly show called "the Hallway Show". Each week someone would pick a pop culture icon and everyone would submit their interpretation of the figure. We didn't have actual gallery space to hang these shows, so we started taping them to the wall outside one of the classrooms. It started to catch on big time and by the end of the year we had enough images to compile a whole book about it. My friends Nikki Desautelle and Matt DeBeul put together a book on Lulu that you can purchase here.

Well, lo and behold, Chelsea Kirchoff decided it was about time to start an internet version of this collective effort, since we are all now graduated and can't go back to old times.

It's the Hallway Show, and it's great. So, for good time's sake,

1. Make a Danny

2. Tape it up.

Now, if only we could all find a way to virtually meet at Circa Saloon or Cass Cafe...

Ninja Power

Halloween was great. Danny and I were ninjas. And with none of that store bought stuff. We made our costumes from scratch. Like true ninjas. We are resourceful and wise. Also making an appearance is Billy Mays, Dorothy, Mr. Ray, a zombie and a scarecrow.

Dress up

Halloween is my favorite time of year. I love dressing up and more importantly, seeing everyone else's costumes.

My design team dressed up as the Rockford Peaches baseball team from the movie "A League of Their Own." This was one of my favorite movies growing up so it was a lot of fun to dress up as the team.

Here's documentation of the day's events on my company's blog!

Finished!

For the past 2 weeks or so I've been involved in a sort of secret "test-it-out" project with a few other illustrators and Robert Zimmerman, the guy who created Drawger.com and Illoz.com. He put together a site for students and recent grads (that's me) called Ohger and it finally launched to the public this weekend! You can see my portion of the site here:
http:/ohger.com/mariafilar

Basically, it's a student/grad version of Drawger and it's going to be used for art directors to take a look at what the newer up and coming illustrators fresh out of school are up to, and hopefully some jobs will come out of this whole thing. I'm really excited and honored to be chosen as a founding member!


Also, I finished my skate deck for the good wood show in Philly next weekend. I'm crossing my fingers that I don't get sick before then- I've had the sniffles the past few days. I'm drinking lots of tea in the meantime.

The deck:

Mail Goodies

Besides the expected netflix movie (I'm hooked!) once or twice a week, it's not very often I receive things in the mail.

Yesterday I walked up to my mailbox and found not only my latest movie (Hocus Pocus, if you were wondering!) but a halloween card and a package!! Jillian sent the book and it's perfect! Just the sort of thing I would love to have in my growing book collection. There are hundreds of photos in this book dating back to the 1800's, including shots of all the famous gangsters and criminals- Capone and Dillinger to name a few.

The card is from Caitlin, the illustration is just my style, and no, it is not too early to be getting halloween cards!! At the end of the week when it's finally time to turn over my skate deck to the gallery, I can start working on Halloween cards to send.

This month I plan on watching nothing but all the Halloween movies I remember growing up. Tonight is Hocus Pocus and next on the list is The Addams Family. I am having trouble putting together a longer list, but I know there are tons more. Please leave suggestions!

This is my baby cat, Zoey. She is a little psycho cat. She hasn't actually eaten any mice or dead fish, but a cat can dream.

Fall

In celebration of fall I made a special new Header for my blog! I love autumn. And squirrels.

Good Wood

Fellow CCS alum Andrew Davis is putting together his 3rd installment of "Good Wood", an art show involving skate decks as the canvas of choice. All decks will be auctioned towards a charitable organization. I just signed up to be a part of this and I am really excited. The past 2 shows have been in Detroit and Brooklyn,  and this one is slated for October 17th in Philadelphia. I am hoping/planning to make it out there for the opening. 

Here's a link to more information about the show:

http://awwsweet.blogspot.com/2009/09/good-wood-x-stay-true-x-philly.html

Sneak Peek

I have slowly been working on a new Mugshot illustration.

Unfortunately, I only have access to the Adobe programs at work, and I only have time to work on it during lunch or after hours. Also, I need a new Wacom tablet badly, which is making things move along even slower.

Nevertheless, here's some progress:

Custom Converses

I painted these high tops for my best friend Caitlin. She's really into peacocks and she told me to just go for it. I wanted each side of the shoe to be different and I didn't really plan it out. I think they turned out pretty well for a first time endeavor!

Before:


After

Kitty Gym

My boyfriend and I spent the evening yesterday designing and building a nifty cat jungle gym/scratching post. We did it from scratch! All we needed were some 2 x 4's, a hand saw, an electric drill, some carpet and some nails. And of course a lot of hard work! I won't lie, he did most of it... but I still helped a little!

Photo courtesy of Daniel Ribar