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Thursday, June 30, 2011

Learning to sketch again

Every summer my company has sort of “Themed Months”. This month is Graphics month. We have a series of lectures on how sketching is still important, how to present proposals for awards, and guest lecturers from various disciplines. We also go out once a week during lunch and do what we call Scavenger sketching. This is always a great way to get people away from their desk and picking up a pencil again. No matter how much I say I’m going to make myself sketch more, I never seem to do it. It was never my strongest skill, but the sketches I love the most have always seemed to come from the end of a long trip of sketching every day. While I was in Oxford last September I found a cute little art supply store and bought a little water color sketchbook, water color pencils, and a water brush. I have always been scared of watercolor. And other than the large watercolor I did at Rural in second year, I haven’t had much practice. The sketchbook itself is only 5 ½” x 3 ½” so I took this a pretty un-intimidating medium. It makes me get away from the detail of the drawings (which I usually tend to focus on) and get more to the general idea and simplest forms. Below are a few sketches I did while in London and Scotland last year. All in all I think they are fun little graphics and one of my new favorite ways to sketch.
View from "The Meadows" Edinburgh Scotland

The Serpentine Pavilion, London (all 4 sides)

Section of the Rottenrow Gardens, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow Scotland


So with these in mind I pulled out my little sketchbook and decided to try again for Scavenger sketching. Needless to say that the 8 months I did not pick up my sketchbook is definitely showing. I get so aggravated whenever I try to start sketching again, but the idea is to keep going. So although these are kind of embarrassing, here is week 1 of Scavenger Sketching. Hopefully during the next 4 weeks I can at least have a couple little sketches I’m proud of.

View From Waterside over to the ship docks
Omars Fountain Cafe

view of Portsmouth across the water


Piles in the water next to the dock


To make the idea of sketching again even more nerve-wracking, I had the bright idea to put all of our Scavenger Sketches up for sale at the local coffee shop to benefit CANstruction this year. So I officially have 3 more weeks to produce something that is worth being displayed and sold publicly. Wish me luck, I may need it.





Friday, June 24, 2011

Decorating Cakes at LaChoclatier

This weeks cakes:

All cakes featured were created as custom cakes by LaChoclatier Bakery. All pictures were taken from the facebook page, so if you like what you see come take a look!

http://facebook.com/lachoc






I am really loving working here but do not sell cakes like these on my own. If you are interested in making an order please take a look at our website for contact and ordering information



Thursday, June 16, 2011

Food Illustrator

http://thefoodillustrator.com/

This guy is drawing everything he eats for an entire year. They say that writing down what you eat can help you lose weight by becoming more conscientious of what you put into your body. I think taking the time to draw it would make you even more aware :)

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Decorating cakes at LaChoclatier





This weeks cakes:

All cakes featured were created as custom cakes by LaChoclatier Bakery. All pictures were taken from the facebook page, so if you like what you see come take a look!

http://facebook.com/lachoc







I am really loving working here but do not sell cakes like these on my own. If you are interested in making an order please take a look at our website for contact and ordering information




How many cakes does it take to buy an i-phone?

Answer: about 150.

I've been at the bakery since February and one of the things I have realized most is how necessary it really was for me to get a second job. Sometimes the hours spent on my feet can seem a bit long, but other than that it is still going really well. At first I thought it would be easy to save all the money I made because it was my "extra paycheck" but that hasn't really been the case. Because they were taking out ELA tuition payments from my main paycheck it was simply replacing the money I was missing. Those payments ended at the end of March. I have been waiting for about a year now to get a new phone. At first i was waiting for my contract to be up, and then I was just waiting to have the extra money. There were a few times I was tempted but with traveling for ELA, a few major vet bills and the usual costs of life in between, it didn't quite happen. That was until this week. Because of some crazy hours pulled at the bakery for some high volume weekends this last paycheck was just what I needed to buy a few new pairs of work out clothes and my brand new i-phone!

I've been a mac user since 2005 and I am always very proud to tell people that I have had the same MacBook pro since then, and other than a lack of battery stamina, it is working just as well as the first day I got it with no services other than the usual updates and clean ups (knock on wood, knowing my luck i will go home tonight and it won't turn on). Anyway, I was so excited to come home and download some of my favorite music to my new phone only to realize that my operating system is too old to support the version of i-tunes i need for my new phone. I was so upset i just sat there and stared at my computer for about 10 min before I started a mad search across the Internet to see if there was a loophole I didn't know about. (so far it looks like to upgrade my syestem would cost at least $129 and I may loose all of my design programs from school that I no longer have the original start up disks for)

side note: To top off my lovely night of disappointment, the lady at TJ Maxx told me "Congratulations!" and when I looked at her funny and said huh? she replied with "you are expecting" and pointed towards my stomach. Probably the easiest way to ruin my day is to think I'm pregnant after I have been getting up at the butt crack of dawn every day the last two weeks practically killing myself at the gym. Thanks Lady!

Anyway, now I have this beautiful new phone and no way to connect it back to my ridiculous collection of music and photos I have been building for the last 6 years. I'm talking to a coworker who is good at these things and I'm thinking there should be some sort of way to use dropbox and itunes on another computer to try to get around my syncing problems. For now my fingers are just crossed.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Decorating cakes at LaChoclatier


This weeks cakes:

All cakes featured were created as custom cakes by LaChoclatier bakery. All pictures were taken from the facebook page, so if you like what you see come take a look!

http://facebook.com/lachoc
And as much as I don't always like making cupcakes, this cupcake tower from a few weeks ago turned out really well.



I really love working here but I do not sell cakes like this on my own. If you are interested in making an order please take a look at our website for contact and ordering information


Saturday, June 4, 2011

I would like to introduce you to...

I would like to introduce you to my new favorite cake... His name is Fred :)




This cake was done as a custom cake by LaChoclatier Bakery. For ordering information please visit the facebook page (where the picture was taken from) or the website.

http://www.facebook.com/lachoc

http://www.lachoclatier.com

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Decorating Cakes at LaChoclatier



This week's cakes:

All the cakes featured below are created custom for each client by LaChoclatier Bakery. All pictures were taken from the facebook page, so take a look if you get a chance.

http://www.facebook.com/lachoc





Cigar cake


"Happy Birthday You Big Stinker!"






Bridal Shower Golf Cake





Hello Kitty Cake




Baby Shower "American Sports"




Tea Party cake










I am really loving working there, but I do not sell cakes like these on my own. If you are interested in making an order please take a look at our website for contact and ordering information.