Art Has Consumed My Life

Whoever said that artist's were lazy was seriously deluded. This week I have started working on a font book for my typography class. For those who are unfamiliar with the term (as I was a few weeks ago), a "font book" is a book that displays original, digital typefaces and presents them in a systematic way. Although font books normally display many typefaces, my assignment is to focus on one. I am to market my typeface's strengths on 12 pages in a unique and flattering way. The best part of the assignment? I have to make and bind the freaking book myself in a professional and creative fashion.

Seeing as I have never made my own book I have spent the last little while in the library looking up and studying book binding techniques. I have a feeling that the binding won't be the difficult part. Figuring out the printing is going to be the nightmare!

I am excited for this assignment, these books can turn out really neat when they are done well. I found a woman online who is brilliant at them. If you are interested at all in graphic design check out Claire Smalley's portfolio: http://www.clairesmalley.com/index.html. Her work is incredible! I hope that mine turns out half as good.

Along with my font book, I have to complete a narrative painting and a children's fairytale illustration. Did I mention that they are all due on the same day? If my paintings turn out good I will post pictures of them on this blog and my new art blog: Ink Blots and Paint Stains.

For my narrative painting we were given scenario's to work with, mine is "Dining Alone." I had my friend Alyssa model for me and we spent last Friday running from restaurant to restaurant in Provo center street and University Ave until I found the perfect one. The restaurant we took the photos in and ate at was called Spark. It is beautiful inside. I'll post some of the images I am using as a reference. I apologize, I am not a photographer and the photos when enlarged aren't that great. They were taken with a basic point and shoot and I didn't want to disrupt the natural light so I didn't use the flash of my camera. Also, I focused my camera on the center of her figure vs. her face to help with the distortion the camera creates.

(I believe I am going to use the above image as my reference. I love how her white cardigan looks with the dark background and the red couches behind her. I also love how the couches lead your eyes to her face.)

(I love the shadows on her face in this image!!!)

(Here is a random image of the food we ordered, fancy huh?)

I really like how the reference images turned out. Plus it was fun to go eat dinner and hang out with my friend. She was a great help and I am very indebted to her. I am not that far in my fairytale piece, but I will post pictures of my progress work and the end result later.