Miscellaneous Ramblings

I have not posted an update about what is going on with life in awhile, so I thought it was about time I got around to it.

Chris and I watched the season finale of Game of Thrones last night. It was not as epic as I had hoped, but it was rather good. It would have been hard for them to live up to the quality of the penultimate episode, even with an unlimited budget. Though, I do wish we could have seen more of Danny's storyline. Unfortunately, we have to wait until next April to see the third season. For those who have not seen the series yet, Game of Thrones: The Complete First Season is for sale on Amazon at roughly half price.

We are anxiously waiting for the arrival of our new puppy. We are adopting an Alaskan Klee Kai from a local breeder in Maryland, and the litter will be born around the beginning of July. We will not get to bring the puppy home until roughly the end of August. 

In the short-term, we are waiting to find out when Chris will have his hip surgery. He had his knee surgery in March, but the recovery time for hip surgery is a lot longer. I believe it is something like three weeks non-weight-bearing and then up to a year of physical therapy.

In other news, I am really starting to see results from working out. I can increase my reps and/or weight with each workout now—I attribute it to finally getting a relatively good protein intake daily. Of course, I still struggle to reach the 175g of protein per day I should be eating. I am thinking about adding a kettlebell workout to my routine, but I need to purchase one first. I really like the look of these cast iron kettlebells from j/fit, so I think I might nab the 35 lb. option. Of course, I will also pick out heavier kettlebells in the future. 

I am still working on the corporate identity for my newest client. So far, I have the logo and business card design finished. Next up on the agenda is to finish the letterhead and envelope design. I will post it to my portfolio when I am finished, so be on the lookout for a future update.

The Read Together Series

I am proud to say I was given the wonderful opportunity to work on a children's book series. With a severe dearth of books aimed at younger children with gay parents, I jumped at the opportunity to illustrate the books. The flagship titles, Your Daddies Love You! and Your Mommies Love You!, are aimed at children from 0–3… which is not an audience I normally get to work with. I am incredibly happy with how the project turned out, and hope to work with the author more on the series in the future!

The books are currently available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Below, you can find the covers for the books, as well as a few images. 

New Work

I had not realized it had been two months since my last update. Time really does seem to pass by without my noticing. With the school semester winding down and more complications with Chris' injuries having arisen, I have not been keeping up with my blog. 

First things first, I suppose, would be to talk about the updates to the Pixel Gallery as well as the Branding and Advertising Gallery. 

   

The first pixel art I have done in a few months, I decided to do a bit of fan art after watching The Legend of Korra with Chris. He has been a fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender since it first aired on television, so he introduced me to the series. After falling in love with the storyline and art style, I decided to pixel Aang from the original series and Meelo from the second. 

 

The second update is a logo I designed as part of my spring semester at the University of Baltimore. For a corporation near and dear to my heart, The Book Thing of Baltimore, I chose to depict their philosophy of recylcing old books to new owners. 

In that same vein, I am excited to be working with a new client on a branding project for her new business. I am always thrilled to help a startup build their corporate identity, so it should be great fun!

Spring & Surgery II

Chris' knee surgery is finally scheduled for Thursday. As such, I am feeling quite antsy at the moment. Fortunately, I have a backlog of books I need to read, so I will bring one or two books with me to read in the waiting room while they operate on his knee. With any luck, it will help keep my mind off of what is going on. Currently, as those who have me added as a friend on GoodReads know, I am reading The Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay. I also want to read The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins, to which Chris gave a rave review.

I am shooting a roll of Fuji's Neopan 400 in my Black Slim Devil lately. I really want to get back into shooting a bit of instant film, however. I have a refrigerator full of film, both Fuji and Polaroid, but I have not actually shot any instant film in nearly a year. Once I finish with the roll loaded in the Black Slim Devil, I might load another camera with one of the packs of Fuji FP-100c45 color instant film I have in the fridge—but I really do still favor black-and-white film over color. Unfortunately, I do not have any of the FP-100b or FP-3000b left. The good news? The Fuji FP-100c45 film can be used to make negatives for enlargement, should I choose to go that route. 

Comments can be Extraordinary Medicine

You know those days where every aspect of life seems to be working against you and you feel like climbing into bed to wait for a better tomorrow? Of course you do; we all have days where we feel like utter shit. 

As most artists do, I often doubt my ability. And, on the aforementioned days, such doubt can hit incredibly hard. It is then that I am most grateful for the kind comments I get through my website's guestbook, e-mail, comments, and on other sites such as DeviantArt and Flickr. You may not realize it, but compliments (and even constructive criticism) can really make an artist's day. It means their work is being seen—that someone cared enough to say something about it. 

So, to everyone who comments: I really do appreciate it, and I thank you most deeply.  

In other news, I uploaded my first poster designed for my Advanced Print Design course to the graphic design gallery. For your convenience, I'll include it in this entry as well: