practically-almost-nearly-virtually a real, grown-up human.

the posting of this illustration comes with a huge sigh of relief since OH YEAH IT'S THE END OF MY THESIS. the last what-if? in the series (for the meantime...?) is "what if... you could bring your stories to life?" because what collection of children's illustrations would be complete without an adorable, tiny nerd in horn-rimmed glasses, really?

after the guilt-ridden sketch post of last week, i powered through and knocked out this one just in time for my final review board on monday, and mica's illustration showcase on thursday. showcase is a delightful event in which the illustration seniors are essentially pimped out to art directors in the hopes that they like what they see and want to pay to see more of it in their publications. this is definitely, probably referring to our illustrations, and not our sexy sexy selves.

too bad it is mega-disgusting outside, i will soon be braving a slimy trip to the print lab to get hard copies of this and all my other what-ifs to prepare for my installation which is WOW REALLY SOON. totally feeling the 'being done right now' thing.

you've got a little guilt on your face.

dear blog,
i promise i don't hate you.
love, alissandra

i can't lie, this is a guilt-ridden sketch post. it should be finished, and provide you with a far juicier payoff for your devoted days waiting patiently by your google reader, but as you can see, not so much. in real life, it is a little farther along than this, fully inked and itching to be gouached, but alas, i've been swamped by meetings and review panels, forms to fill out and documents to turn in. soon i will lock myself in my studio to give her the technicolor treatment, otherwise i will go batty from the art-free existence i'm currently living.

once it's all grown up, it will become "what if... you could bring your stories to life?". in color, it'll make more sense and make your eyes bleed less, i swear.

it just takes practice.

i have totally been doing more things than it seems like i have been doing, they just aren't nearly pretty or exhilarating enough to warrant blogging about them. nothing says "WOW AMAZING" quite like html house-cleaning and digital image-tidying... so i apologize for the posts being few and far between, there are all sorts of tiny tasks required so that i can properly commence in like, less than a month. i have managed to stay on track-ish (for now) with my what-ifs, so here is "what if... you could fly?" a classic, i suppose, but a very seriously entertained childhood goal:

did anyone else run down hills constantly, convinced that leaping at just the right time would render you airborne? no? just me? well, all right.

in other news, i finally stocked my etsy shop with a few things. not many to start, but modest collection of silkscreens and digital prints. take a look at it if you please. it's nice, and matches every other tiny web presence i hold. it's also perma-linked to the left now, so you can come and go as you please. i'll be slowly building up a larger variety of items, so stop back frequently!

too busy to come up with a reasonable title.

it's been far too long, i'm so very sorry. here is my latest illustration, "what if... we could live in the clouds?" thoughts?

phew, it's been a busy busy time as of late. i thought my thesis professor whitney sherman was joking and/or crazy when she told us we would accomplish next to no work on our thesis following spring break. turns out? way correct. i have two sketches that are supposed to be in the pipeline that are in fact just chilling out in my brain. sort of. i'm doing my best to stay current over here on the blog, so thanks for being patient.

in other news, i was told that my "what if... flowers bloomed with your every step?" will be the cover of the juxtapositions publication for mica's exhibitions in may-july, aka, the commencement catalog. that is neat.

in which digital coloring corrupts alissandra's soul.

spring break afforded me the luxury of attempting this piece both in gouache, as per normal, and as a fully digital adventure. i prefer the gouache piece (super apparently the second image) both aesthetically and because working entirely digitally made me want to die a little bit. but! here they both are, "what if... you were friends with the monsters under our bed?"
while there are a few magic things that only digital techniques can truly accomplish, my loyalties lie with paint. and brushes. and pushing them around on real paper in real life. i am trying to build up an arsenal of digital skills to incorporate in my manipulation of my final illustrations even when using gouache (like, for example, the colored ink lines and the unifying "nighttime" layer i added after the fact) to maximize the potential digital color has to offer, and to at least be reasonably competent, should something particularly lend itself to being digital. but really, i just don't enjoy it much. bummer, because it is way cost effective, and man it's fun being poor.

also, it features a boy! hooray.

oh hey, flying cupcakes.

...that's pretty much what we've got here. officially, this is "what if you could move things with your mind?" but i lovingly refer to it as "telekinetic cupcake party." the "lovingly" part is only true when i'm not thinking about what a pain in the butt those sprinkles were.

this is another gouache painting layered with an ink drawing that has been digitally colored, like the last few. i will be, however, venturing into full digital for the next piece in the series, as yet to be determined. maybe something about dopplegangers, because the idea of a carbon copy you somewhere is sufficiently weird and terrifying.

also, thanks to all of you who came out to my opening on friday night! it was real swell, and a lovely departure from the crazy crazy week i had leading up to it.

dailies week OH NO, or, flowers for everyone.

it's finally happened for real. while i did manage to churn out another two weeks of dailies after the initial I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS panic session, they are for real on hiatus. february appears to the month in which everything ever happens, so i am swamped. they are good things, but there are just so, so many. so many. the dailies will just have to wait. but i love them, so they will be back, i promise.

so that this post isn't entirely void of substance, here's my second 'what if' piece, "what if... flowers bloomed with your every step?"

it's a little desaturated, story of my (and everyone's) blogger-related life. next up is "what if... you could move things with your mind?" and i will give you just one clue: TELEKINETIC CUPCAKES. make of that what you will. fun fact: row houses are the greatest kind of houses.

lastly, my 2008 dailies in their entirety are currently installed in the gateway here at mica. while it was a rough time getting them all ready and installed, it is really exciting to see them all together, fancy style. the opening will be on friday from 5-7pm, and the lovely marika mccoola will be having her opening simultaneous to mine in gateway too, so you can come love on us both!

in which the dailies take an indefinite hiatus.

hello, everyone. it's a bit of a melancholy day here in the studio, since my beloved dailies project, well, how to say this, um, tanked this week. i completed half the week as normal, and then, boom, catastrophe. not in the form of something dramatic, like chernobyl and the hindenberg combined, but in a quiet, sneaky way. before i knew it, my ever-growing list of things to do (like that weird fact that if the population of china marched past you in a single-file line, the line would never end due to the rate of population increase? if that's the case, china and my list have that in common) had grown out of control and my dailies were the sad casualty.

especially since this year's dailies are designed with a "be better" sort of purpose in mind, i wish i had the time to treat them that way. instead, they feel like an afterthought. so... until i get out of the "oh (expletive deleted) i'm (expletive deleted) graduating (expletive deleted) (expletive deleted)(EXPLETIVE DELETED)" woods, the dailies will have to wait quietly on my desk to be resumed. tentative plan? my birthday is in may. birthday day will be the day.

well, now that all that unpleasantness is out on the table, here's the first of my thesis pieces in the what if? series, "what if we could talk to animals?"

apparently, if she could talk to animals, she would have forest-storytime. wouldn't you? while i was thinking of these strictly as a series of adorable for kids that would allow me to work with whimsy and narrative, whitney sherman suggested they might accompany a fictitious monthly short-story installment in a kids literary magazine. I THINK THAT'S A GREAT IDEA, CRICKET/LADYBUG/SPIDER ART DIRECTORS.

i'm trying a couple new things with this series, so this one is an ink drawing with a gouache painting layered in photoshop. i'm pretty okay with the process, it's doesn't feel/look too too digital for me, almost. stay tuned to see how things progress! i should have two sketches this week, and since my dailies took a nose-dive, i think i'm going to start posting some of my sketch-phase work (pencils? color studies? something?) so as to not completely neglect the blog here. i'm working on the next one, a "what if flowers sprouted with your every step?" i'm not 100% sold on the language for the title, but you get the gist of it, like the king midas effect, but with flowers and your feet.