Practice

I have never been good with traditional art. I can paint (sort of) and I’m good with crafts and DIY projects. I love anything that makes good use of my hands, but drawing has never been a strong point. I love design because I can put what I think in my head to use without worrying about a lack of skill with a pen.
When I started the design program at my school I was excited to learn Illustrator but nervous that it would be out of my realm of skill. Now I love it. I love how much I can do with it but I definitely have not mastered it. Lately I have been thinking up projects to help me improve my skills and find my style. This is the latest one. The map kick is in full force.

Drop Cap update

Last week I posted about Ms. Jessica Hische’s Daily Drop Cap project and how awesome her hand lettered alphabets are. Well last week she finished her final alphabet and started a new chapter in the project. The new alphabet is featuring some amazing design and typographical talent. Not only will you get to see a fancy letter from some great artists, but, for me, it will be a whole new list of talent to check out!

These things are pretty.

Just a few things from my Pinterest lately…

Pretty Colors

Pretty Dress

Pretty Ink

Pretty Hair

Pretty Blouse

You can find all of these things and their source links on my Pinterest

See the world

I love maps. I always have. Maps of the world, maps of cities, maps of states, treasure maps, star maps, globes. I love them all! You can use them to mark where you have been or where you want to go. You can see the whole world right up there on your wall.

These are Things

Jan Kallwejt

 

My favorite map idea comes from the lovely Wit and Whistle. Her blog is always full of pretty things to look at! She took a map and made it a record of where her art has a made a mark on the world.

Today’s blog brought to you by the letter….

As an avid lover of all things type, I love perusing any work by the lovely
Jessica Hische but her hand lettered type is my favorite. If only I had a hand steady enough for this type of work…heh heh heh….”type.” I love puns. But seriously, Hische is not just wicked talented but generous as well. If you visit
The Daily Drop Cap you can see twelve hand lettered alphabets she as created, as well as find out how you can use them to dress up your blog! She also has a store to buy letter-pressed prints of some of them. Letter press is dreamy no matter what you do with it.

The Design Sponge got Ms. Hische’s permission to use the daily drop caps in this lovely DIY, faux embroidery project! I put it on my very long list of DIYs to try.

By the way, I did Wii Boxing and Wii Rowing this morning. I’m glad typing only uses my fingers. My arms huurrt!