Laurie Jess

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Honored To Win

T-shirt Design Contest

Here is how it actually printed in the very end after many changes:

I'm honored to be voted the winner!

It was a close vote, there were many great designs !

I almost could not enter this contest ...

but hurray, finally my broken hand is healed! It was a long summer without being able to draw or paint. Then I started working on that pile of art projects that got put on the back burner. I learned once you stop, it's really hard to restart :-)

The first thing I did was create a design for an organization that is dear to my heart, my old high school. They are having a big reunion. Know as ISB or The International High School of Bangkok Thailand, they pick a different state or country every 2 years to hold this big reunion. Last time it was held in Virginia Beach, VA and 650 alumni students from all over the world came. That one was actually my first one to attend. I only learned about it through Facebook. Facebook has helped unite my old school friends as we are scattered all over the world.

This upcoming 2012 reunion has a theme called "Rocky Mountain Thai". Many designs were submitted by other alumni students & voted on by the entire alumni body. The winning design will be for the official t-shirt. The shirt is given as a gift at the reunion. The design should include Hanuman, our school's mascot. He is the magical monkey warrior in Rama’s simian army. There is no monitory award, but they do pay for the hotel room. For me, the best reward is the honor of representing my school on a Tee-shirt.

F.Y.I.

ISB, back during the Vietnam War days, was the world's largest international school. It enrolled 4500 English speaking students from all over the world to attend school in Bangkok during the early 70's (my grades 10th -12th). For me, it was a once in a life time school experience, and packed full of great memories growing up in Thailand as an American teenager while attending the world's largest International school!

(click on image to view super sized)

Above is the final design after tweaking it
** The 2012 ISB Reunion Logo Winner **

We decided not to put the logo on front.
No gals want to wear Rocky Mtn's across their own mountain range.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

I ♥ Corel Painter

I would have to say, for me, Corel Painter is my favorite of all the professional art softwares! Unfortunately it does have a steep learning curve and I'm pretty darn rusty. It's time for me to brush up my digital skills within it again. Photoshop is a close 2nd, it finally caught up with Corel's brushes. Well actually I love both Photoshop and Painter, but it seems like Painter never gets its justified glory of recognition. Today I played around in Painter with this one simple cat sketch, and realized how powerful Painter is...and this is just scratching the surface, it makes little animations too!

Friday, July 29, 2011

New Improved Signature

Developing a Signature
I spent a few days stylizing a new signature for myself. I tried all kinds of looks. It's important to have a consistent signature appear the way you want it to look on all your artwork.

I also decided it would be nice to get my initials made into a "seal stamp" in Japan.

A stamp, or "Hanko" as they are called in Japan, is a very common Asian custom for printing artistic impressions that are used in lieu of signatures on personal documents, contracts, art, or any item requiring acknowledgment or authorship. The seals are typically made of stone, metal, wood, bamboo, plastic, or ivory, and traditionally used with red ink or cinnabar paste. But in moderns times any color is alright to use.

My girlfriend MO, who lives in Tokyo, is coming to visit me in Boulder end of August. She will deliver my new Hanko... totally cool ! The stamp is being made especially for me by her local craftsman in Tokyo.

UPDATE 9/20/11

HAND-CARVED WOODEN HANKO STAMP

Here it is, something I designed using my initials & it had to reflect my personality.

My very own stamp design!

My HANKO stamp was hand carved from wood,

in Japan by a Hanko Master.

To my wild surprise,

this was gifted to me by my special friend named MO,

she lives in Japan.

Very generous of her (they are very expensive) a cherished gift indeed!

In the below photos, I was practicing,

it gives a little whimsy to the backside of my business cards.

I will use it to authenticate my original artwork,

along with my hand signature.

Thank You MO

ℒℴve♡ it & YOU

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Renamed from"Once Upon a Line" to "Laurie Jess"

July 2011, down time due to a broken hand

What's in a Name?

Hello, My Name is Laurie Jess

...And you can find me now at lauriejess.com

I have a story to share, I made a mistake of poorly naming my art studio. My business is just 5 months old and yet its name is confusing to some. Therefore, this weekend I've changed my studio's name from "Once Upon a Line" to "Laurie Jess.com". I've also been including my maiden name (McLeod) just to confuse you more, so to simplify everything, I'm Laurie Jess.

The main problem was that my art studio's name "Once Upon a Line" was too associated & stereotyped within the "Writers & Poets" category, hence the name kept getting misunderstood or misplace. So I've dropped it!

Q. Why is using your own name a better idea?

A. My former experience working for several large art studios was very exciting & the work steady. However, the downside was "my name" never appeared on anything. My name only appeared at the bottom of the proof sheets. Yes, I am a published children's book illustrator & product licensing designer. But my name appears no where because my work is property of the studios. In addition, some studios have policies not allowing you to take any artwork home, or even use it in your portfolio. So you can understand why having my own name on my artwork sound pretty good to me!

Yes, this did involve some growing pains, I had to throw away 2000 new business cards, stationary & let go of my cute websites domain & email.

The moral of this story is be sure you brand yourself with "your very own name" especially when you are marketing yourself. My name is Laurie Jess. Wow what a concept ! And guess what? It's easy to remember, short & simple, and it belongs to me!

I've learned an important step towards marketing on a very fundamental principal
Point to Yourself !