girloncanvas.com | making the moves up as I go...

Posted on July 14, 2011

Today, I Remember

I had been watching THE VOICE a few weeks back and Vicci Martinez (one of my favorite contestants) had mentioned how her dad had pursued music but gave it up to raise his kids. He has passed on and she was saying how she is pursing music in memory of him. I thought that was so SWEET because I feel the same way. Two years ago today my dad passed away — and I am writing this not to mourn him but to remember him. I too feel that I am pursuing art and having him live on through me. He did not pursue art as a career but always had it as a hobby. From drawings, paintings, photography even decorating cake he was GENIUS. I remember being little and he always had his camera in his car and we’d be driving somewhere and he’d randomly pull over to photograph something. It was very inspiring because now that I am older, I find myself doing the same thing. I rarely go anywhere without a camera. This is a painting he had done back in 2007…

There is a short story I wrote in college about 4 months before my dad passed away – it is a TRUE story but I thought it would be nice to share here. It occurred the summer before I went into 9th grade – about 12 years ago.

I hope you enjoy my short story…

FISH

[story removed 8/25/2011]

Posted on July 7, 2011

Photography: A Day in Central Park

Photo

Photos taken by me May 2011 – Just random shots while walking through the park.
Find bigger versions on my flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/girloncanvas

Posted on June 28, 2011

Reasons I love the Polaroid POGO Printer

Photo/ Technology

Although I am very passionate about art and creativity, a big part of me loves technology. If its electronic, new and interesting I want to play with it! I’ve been like that since a young age (anyone remember Casio Secret Senders? I had 2!) One of my close friends had gotten a polaroid pogo printer for Christmas only to find out that it does not work with his brand new shiny iphone. BUMMER for him – Great for me! He had needed help getting it to work, (yes even my guy friends come to me for electronics help) but since we learned it doesn’t work with his phone he gave it to me! Of course I was more than happy to give it a good home.

It’s from Polaroid, they also make versions of the camera included in it, but this works through bluetooth.

I can print from my cellphone (droid 2) or from my MacBook Pro. It’s great because you send it any JPG (even if its not a photo) and within seconds you have a picture or design you can literally stick anywhere (the paper is also sticker paper). It uses ZINK – Zero Ink Technology so you don’t have to worry about ink. Although this ZINK is not perfected yet I am hopeful that it gets better with time. The colors sometimes come out a little off and occasionally I will get lines on the photos, but there are tricks and tips they give you to not have that happen.

A summary of why I love it:
1. Its small, I can print things on the go using my cell phone
2. The pictures are not only pics but STICKERS too!
3. It works with my mac (through bluetooth)
4. Doesn’t need any ink, dont need to worry about ink running out or drying up
5. I can print any .JPG with it… even some mini artworks
6. The mini paper isn’t too crazy expensive (most at-home-printers try to charge arms and legs)
7. The photo size is 2 x 3 and although it is not common, It is a lot easier to have this around when you NEED a small picture

Posted on June 17, 2011

The Book Of American Types 1941

Design/ Technology

Last weekend I went to visit my mom, she lives an hour north of me in the town where I grew up. I had gone to community college starting back in 2003 and I always past this vintage shop, located in a building that used to be a barn. For years I drove by without ever stopping in, even though I had interest to. So this time when I went home for some reason I kept thinking about it — almost like it was calling me! So I decided to take a trip and FINALLY check it out after all this time.

I spent a good hour or so in there. Since I am a huge fan of collage and cutting things out I asked if they had any old books. I figured I could find something interesting and cheap enough to tear apart and use! But instead I came across a collection of old type books from the 1940s! I could not tell you how much the little kid in me wanted to jump up and down! I spoke to the man that works there he told me they belonged to a graphic designer named Murray Stein who lived and worked in New York City. Apparently he hoarded everything he owned and when he passed away his wife sold all of his work, books and supplies. I could not find any information on him but the man in the store told me he worked completely in the original style of graphic design – long before computers. And once technology started to take over the field, he decided to retire. The only thing that bugs me is the book has a sticker on it that says “Lou Kashins” and it is also written on the inside of the book too. Who knows, maybe Murray borrowed it and never gave it back to Lou. Either way, I am glad it ended up in my hands. I took some photos to share with you… this is only 1 of 3 books I came across. I will show the others in future posts.

Bodoni

Garamond Bold

Facing pages – Garamond Bold and Garamond Bold Italic

Goudy Cursive

Agency Gothic Regular and Open

Raleigh Gothic Condensed and Headline Gothic

This book mainly focused on the examples of type sizes. 12pt, 36pt, 72pt etc..

I took photos of the inside of this book as well…

Empire Typeface

Bernhard Tango Swash Capitals

Advertising Figures – Examples of how money should be displayed

An even smaller chart a loose single page – found within the supplement book.

Posted on May 1, 2011

What to paint?

Art

A few weeks ago I bought a canvas and new paint brushes. Its been about a year since I’ve painted anything. Now what to paint??? I can’t seem to figure out what I want to do. I seem to have the same problem when I may layouts for myself >.< go figure. I looked to etsy for some inspiration. Although some aren't paintings, they are still inspiring to me. I see it as creative caffeine! What do you think I should paint? I have a whole naked wall in our apartment... I need to fill it up! I was thinking of something more pop-art, or even abstract. Too much real-ness makes me nuts. I like looking at it, but doing it? Thats a different story. Some Etsy art that inspires me...

by @sagittariusgallery on Etsy

by @AlisaPaints on Etsy

by @AHgraFX on Etsy

by @LostWonderland on Etsy

by @Velvet Morning on Etsy

Posted on April 3, 2011

Goodies – just for you!

Design

I’ve added scans to the “goodies” section. Right now there are a lot of vintage, girl magazine cut outs, and some random stuff. As I add more I’ll post updates each time I add something new. I’m hoping to create some vectors and PS brushes in the future to add to this “goodies” section. I may also have some downloadable PDFs for things you can print too. Here is a preview of some of the current scans:

If you have any ideas of something you’d like me to scan, let me know!

Posted on March 19, 2011

Museum of the Moving Image

Videos

A few weeks ago I went to the Museum of the Moving Image. I hadn’t even heard of it, but one of Bryan’s friends (my boyfriend) wanted to go. I’m ALWAYS up for going to a museum, of any kind. I love them. I could get lost for hours. They had a lot of awesome displays for animation, abstract film art, even costumes/masks from movies.

They had the original mask from Mrs. Doubtfire (who hasn’t seen that movie?!?)

And fake injured legs from The Black Swan (which I have yet to see)

They also had from the first Exorcist, a dummy of the girl from the part where her head spins around. It was soo creepy, and I guess I was just staring at it so much that I forgot to take a photo. There was A LOT to see there, and it was really interesting. I think anyone can enjoy it, but to really appreciate it I think it would be better for older kids like 10+. They had a whole section dedicated to stop animation, video games, and costumes. They had different exhibits of current stop animation and my favorite was Dolls VS. Dictators which is on exhibit until April 10, 2011.

In the stop animation section they had a station where you could make your own, since I didn’t have much time to play with it, mine was only 10 seconds long. They let you email it to yourself so you can download it later. I edited it adding music and put it in slow mo, so now it is about 30 seconds long. They had paper doll characters with moveable limbs, since all the little kids took the characters I was left with 1 doll, an arm and a guitar. It was fun either way. =]

You can watch my quick stop animation, I uploaded it to my youtube account.

Posted on March 14, 2011

New Layout… Finally

Design/ Rambling

I had been wanting to make a new layout for a while, but I had a bad case of “creative block”… well not so much creative block more like “happy-with-what-I-made” block…. if there is such thing? I find it funny that I have no problem creating things for others but when it comes to making something for myself, and I am soo picky, and I get tired of staring at it so I start from scratch 400 times. I guess it is just good creative exercise in the end.

First I started out with this…

I wanted to show art and design in one but I felt it looked too… little kid-ish? So then I came up with this…

And I didn’t like that after a while either… so I headed over to my favorite artist’s site for some inspiration: www.misprintedtype.com aka Eduaro Recife (who I am secretly in love with)…

I used his free font named “Shortcut”: