it's good to be back

Hey, guys. It's been a while.

News:
1) After 4 good years with the ole Sony Ericsson phone, I "upgraded" to a Motorola Karma. Stupid name, okay phone. I still like my old phone way better, but It was fallin' apart and that just wasn't alright.

2) Lots of people have been asking me to make websites and logos from them lately. It's great and good and fun! I've been working on Travis' site today. Here's Travis Wilburn's site if you want to take a look at the progress.

I've been working on some logos as well. Will post those eventually.

Travis Wilburn doodlins

When I went to Barnes and Noble last week and whipped out the ole sketchbook, I was surprised to discover that I still vaguely remembered how to hold a pencil. I drew some customers, then felt like a creeper and decided to draw from my imagination instead.

My boyfriend, Travis, is a pretty talented dude. I guess I had his music on my mind, because this is what happened:


Expect a digitally colored revision in ink. Also, less crappy type on the word "travis"

Day Job

Hey guys. I'm sorry for being so scarce of late. I work a lot. I also cut people's hair, drive places, drink gin and tonic like it's going out of fashion, and try to exercise. These days, drawing comes last.

However, it's not as though I haven't been making things. I just haven't been making things that I can legally post online. It's all copyrighted to the University of Kentucky.

Here's my office:
This is the stadium I work inside. I see this when I walk 10 paces outside my office door. Pretty neat.










I love being able to wear comfy clothes to work.












This is my desk. No, that isn't my name. That wooden structure beside the desk is an engraver and we like to stick the nameplates with errors on 'em around the office.

6 rubber bands

Hey, Everyone!

So a lot has happened since my last post.
I got a job in retail, worked there full time for a little while, then got offered a job in my field. I start working for the University of Kentucky as assistant to the graphic designer of the athletics dept. on Tuesday. I have a parking pass and everything! It's glorious.

I will update more soon. I owe someone a drawing of a coal mining newborn puppy, so expect that. but... for now, i'm going to go enjoy my weekend outside! :D

shaky legs

Sorry to disappoint, but I haven't been making much art lately, guys. Instead, I've been gardening, riding my bike a lot, and getting absolutely filthy every day. It's been great. My mum and I dug a hole from the terrible clay "soil" in the front yard and turned it into an herb garden. The plants are small and pretty upset about being transplanted and promptly monsooned upon, but I think they'll be okay.

horseshoe pits

I weeded a lot today,
carried ridiculously heavy bags of sand,
finished a book,
got accidentally tipsy on some pina coladas my dad concocted,
bought 6 boxes of strawberries,
watched a really amazing movie called Once

Southland pool and quesadillas

I was going through some of my older pieces, when I happened upon one I still liked. It's in pretty rough shape, so I decided to scan it in and use it as the foundation for a new vector piece (started last night). Here's a small section in progress! Once I get the linework done, I plan on going back in and realistically coloring in certain portions. We'll see how that goes.

When it's done, I think I'll be selling digital prints online.












Here's some of the progress I've made today. I'm trying out a new technique that consists of making the line art in Illustrator, then moving it over to Photoshop for coloring. Experimentation abound (some of it bad). Which color combinations do you guys prefer?

Self Promotional Box

I've been working diligently on a mailer to send to potential employers.
This is it.






























































































































Listening to:
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Hard Life
Bon Iver Radio on Pandora. very chill.

Home

I'm back in Lexington, KY!
I've been organizing my files, stowing away past projects in order to make room for future ones.

















This is my bro sitting on our deck. You can probably see why I spend a lot of time out here.

Other News:
The parents drove to PA for Kelly's wedding. Congrats, Kel and Mike!
They're due back today. And they are bringing my printer with them. WOOT!
Our lawn mower really blows.
I love Banana Boat spray sunscreen so much, I could just marry it.
The optical drive in my computer is being a little jerk. It's not reading discs. So, we'll see how that shakes out pretty soon.

Listening to:
Van Morrison - Love Come Back

no more college

Here's some pictures of my work from the MICA Commencement Exhibition.

Calendar updates

JANUARY: Meredith and Gill enjoyed standing in perilous locations

FEBRUARY: Daniel and Sue fell hard into love
MARCH: Shannon would later regret following the leprechauns
APRIL: Harold knew better than to feed the bunny
MAY: Lewis couldn't wait for fish
JUNE: Ellie loved her own reflection
JULY: Larry was always under foot

AUGUST: Juan took the prank too far
SEPTEMBER: Randy had angered Pricilla for the last time
OCTOBER: Edward was never much for sharing
NOVEMBER: Hubert took matters into his own hands

DECEMBER: Mary was consumed by holiday cheer... and fire

otter pop tat

One more week of this and i'll be done with school forever.

On that note... here are some celebratory nudie pics. Well, not really. These are for my DIY class. We all designed tattoos out of typography we gathered and I created these models to indicate where the tattoos would be places on a girl and boy. It's really much more complex than that, but who cares?
Here's the tattoo I created. It would definitely be a tramp stamp.

Onward. Ive been reading a lot. I'm almost done with mah book. I really shouldn't be reading at all. I've no time for it. I should be working on thesis in a panic. But the panic has been dulled by apathy and distraction. (Mom, don't worry, I still care enough).

Boring stuff you won't be interested in:
I have been drinking energy drinks lately. They make me feel strange.
Sometimes I wake up in the morning and I have dried salt marks on my face. I don't know what that's about. I either cry in my sleep or secrete lots of fluid (gross).
I miss my friends. All I do is work.
I'm too sober. (Once again, Mom. I promise I won't get hammered and fall off any more decks).
I DON'T WANT TO WRITE THESE ESSAYS.


Listenin' to:
Jean Ritchie - Edward
Billy Bragg - The Saturday Boy

Wall Dolls and cover design

Hey guys. The past 2 weeks have redefined my idea of what "busy" truly means. I don't have time to elaborate on everything i've been doing right now, but i wanted to let you know that i am still alive. I'll have a lot to share pretty soon!

My teacher still has the other box i made with the painted crab man in it, so i've been unable to photograph that one right now. Wall Dolls are just sculptures with flat backs and a bracket that allow you to hang them off nails on the wall, btw.

I'm going to alter/add a lot of new content to my site directly. So, be prepared!

I'm in charge of designing the cover for the latest edition of the Best Type Found In Baltimore. This is the progress. There will eventually be an image where the black is.



















listening to:
The Macrea Sisters - And Am I Born To Die
Jean Ritchie - Edward

crab man and little girl

I finished clay girl and made crab man.
















I plan on sealing them, painting them white, then deciding whether or not to paint them colors and then seal them with gloss medium. What say you guys? Should I paint them?

I post on here too often...

Listening to:
Nina Nastasia - Dumb I Am
Jens Lekman - Julie

hey, girl

I didn't write my paper today. Instead, I bought butterfingers, watched Smilla's Sense of Snow, and sat around in my wheely chair missing my family. My landlord showed the house to some potential new renters today. That was a little awkward considering I wasn't entirely awake when he knocked on my door to show them my room.

I've been working on my little, flat-backed clay girl. Here she is:
I plan on adding her teeth later. They were just too much of a PITA when I was trying to put them in her mouth while the clay was damp. I'm seriously considering giving her a mastectomy. I don't think my little girl should have boobies. I'll squish 'em right down into her belly.

It has been 2 years since I'd seen my landlord. And in that 2 years, he's probably aged 10. He's really grey now. And he said "Boy, Ellen, It looks like you're a foot taller than I remember you being. You sure you haven't grown?" I think he might have shrunk.

Age is such a sly bitch.

In other news:
I am scared that my "thesis" wont be done for graduation. WE SHALL SEE.

Listening to:
Electric President - Good Morning, Hypocrite
Emmylou Harris - Where Will I Be?

I saw a cat get hit by a car tonight

There was a kitten meowing a foot away from my open window earlier tonight. I looked at it and it looked at me for about a minute, then it ran away and peeked at me from behind an electrical box across the lawn. I thought it might be hungry, so I went outside with some tuna fish. As I was sitting the tuna down on the sidewalk about 50 feet away from the cat, it darted through a fence into North Avenue. Right in front of a car. I stood there, wincing with tuna can in hand, watching the cat scream and try to stand. I couldn't hear anything over the sound of cars. No car stopped because there was no space to pull off the road. But finally, the cat dragged itself off of the road and through the fence again.
I wanted to call the humane society, but it was around midnight and they would be closed. And last time I called them about a stray dog ripping apart garbage in 20 degree weather, they didn't even ask me where to locate it.

I looked for the kitten from afar (because it was clearly terrified of me), but it had dragged itself down some hole and disappeared. It's probably dying a painful, slow death as I type this. I feel terrible :(

I made some stuff. I'm still thinking about a leave-behind.
Tomorrow, I have to make some sort of presentation and write a massive paper about something. So that day is pretty much wasted. Still, it's much better than dying alone from getting hit by a car...

Listening to:
Gregory and the Hawk - August Moon

what kids should[nt] do

These are wicked old (from freshman year), but they still cheer me up, so I'll post them for any of you who haven't already seen them. They're from a series called What Kids Should[n't] Do. I can't seem to locate the other 3 images in the series, but here's the 3 I have!
Brace yourselves, now...Okay. Yeah.
My favorite is the one of the little boy shoving a fork into an outlet. Couldn't find that one. It just occurred to me that I've always had a sort of sick fascination with drawing cute children in peril. Weird, huh?

Today wasn't awesome. I DID discover my lost driver's license under my dresser though, so that was nice. The picture on my license is from 2005. I never got a new photo taken.

P.S.
The GRAND opening of ellenkling.com is nigh! GET READY!

Listening to:
Basia Bulat - I Was A Daughter
Pedro the Lion - Options
Elliot Smith - Needle in the Hay