anne is an artist

Well, so things have been very crazy and busy and extremely exciting yet very worrying. I'm trying to put all of my extra time into thesis, which is a good way to forget all of the other homework I have. Such as this little character. I'm illustrating Medusa for a children's book, and this is my character development sketch of her. She's endearing, in a hideous way.

As far as busy goes, I've I just went to visit my mom and now I'm trying to find an open spot in my schedule to get myself down to KC again. Also, my cousin had her baby boy, so that's another place that I would like to go, I just don't see it happening right away. I actually had a moment today to do some chores so that was pretty exciting!

In all of this craziness of leaving homework behind, I have forgotten about writing a paper about my influences. And when I went to think about who all has influenced me, I can't remember any of them! So this week, I've been browsing illustrators to try to refresh my memory on people that I look at. Influences are so broad and so fleeting, that it's kind of hard to keep track of them. I never really am influenced by an artist as a whole, but rather by small instances of images or stories that I read or see. It seems a lot of illustrators have that one other artist that inspired them to get started. Well, I don't really have an artist, as much as I have that one story. Or rather, the idea of what illustration can be. When I see all of its possibilities, that's what inspires me.

Well enough of that, here's a real sweet illustrator, that I've always known about, always looked at, but could never remember her name. The only reason I remembered her is because of her sweet images and how she referred to her paintings as "creepy cartoon children living in wasteland fairy tales [which] are critical commentaries on the failures of capitalist utopias." I'm in heaven.

I ordered my postcards from Jakprints today. It was a pretty decent deal, and I used my first thesis piece that I finished in the design. I do hope the color turns out right. I have a feeling my card is going to be a bit color sensitive. It feels like such a transition! To be ordering postcards to promote your work. I've definitely felt the transition from student to professional a lot this semester. A lot more than I ever have, even when I had a real free-lance job. What a crazy ride!

Anyway, here's the first one that's finished--Actually there are still little details that I want to do to it, so it's not exactly done, but I cleaned it up digitally just so I could get the postcard out in time. I can't wait till they get here!

I got my postcards in the mail and now I'm going to send them out! If you would like a postcard, email me or IM me with your address (my aim is anneisanartist) and I will send you one, STAT!

In other news, I'm kind of getting to that point, where I'm illustrating and it's coming out (almost) exactly as I intended. Not that it is a perfect image, by far, but I am becoming more comfortable with what I am drawing and how and where my style fits in. Here's some recent stuff, it's an excerpt from a children's book. Here is how I interpreted it (click for a bigger view):

I am about 2.5 weeks from my Senior Exhibition. Things are running smoothly thus far, and I have a couple of pieces that I need to get scanned in, in order to place up here to show y'all! Just a reminder, for those of you in the Milwaukee area:

"Dreamy"
A Senior Exhibition Show by Anne Harvey

Friday, April 20th, 5-9pm
Gallery Night

I also have several postcards that I've been mailing out. If you would like a postcard, feel free to drop me a line and I'll send you out one! (Don't worry, I don't sell addresses to companies, and such)

Also, take a look at anneharveyillustration.com, because I just redid the whole design last night, and am rather proud of the outcome! Next is this blog design. Also, if you come across any mistakes, please let me know so I can fix them up! Thanks kindly!

p.s. MY MOM IS COMING TO THESIS! Considering that back in December I thought she was probably going to be dead, (which would have been quite a bummer )this is particularly good news!