Trachouse Logo Sketches

Recently, I have been working on a logo and artwork project for Trachouse.com. They will be launching the new look of their guitar pedals sometime in June 2011.  David Aucoin is a very talented musician and creates some of the best guitar pedals on the market.

Below are some of the early conceptual sketches.

These were then imported into illustrator and cleaned up slightly.

From here the client and I can talk about which look is heading toward their vision. 

The logo that was chosen is not shown here so as not to spoil the launching of their new look.

Pointed Asymmetrical Italic influenced by Denis Brown

My adventure in calligraphy has really just begun. I received my first holder and nib for Christmas 2007. That pen holder and nib came from John Neal Booksellers. My husband did a great job to find one of the best suppliers for calligraphy essentials without knowing anything about the calligraphy world. Since then I have immersed myself in finding all I can on the subject. 

What a beautiful world I found on my journey!

My latest study tool has been the online lessons from Denis Brown. These are a treasure trove of instruction and information. Denis is teaching a compressed, extreme asymmetric version of italic. The class is wonderful in the fact that you can go back and view the lessons as many times as you like, pausing and rewinding wherever needed. There are two modules published already (over 4 hours of instruction already!) with two more to come. This is definitely worth the small cost. 

I have been practicing whenever I can. The piece shown below was done in my style of Denis' instruction. It is painted with sumi and walnut ink on a full sheet of Arches MBM paper.

This piece is for my church. Names will be written on the keys of the piano, sumi on the white keys and Dr. Martin's bleed proof white on the black keys. It will be a living piece as time goes on. 

Adolf Bernd Influence

As I mentioned a couple of posts back, Peter Thornton recently taught a workshop in New Orleans. 

We studied the work of Adolf Bernd. 

During this time I was preparing for an upcoming exhibit. 

Here is a set of pieces inspired by this workshop.

More from this exhibit can be seen on my website.

Adolf Bernd Influence

I have been completely immersed in putting together a group of pieces for an upcoming exhibit. All other things have been neglected and put on hold. But until I can come up for air, here is a piece of a set in progress. 

Happy Creating!

Adolf Bernd and Peter Thornton

New Orleans Lettering Arts Association had the pleasure of hosting a weekend workshop with Peter Thornton. Peter is an amazing calligrapher and teacher. If you ever have the opportunity to study from him, jump at it.

The first two days we studied the work of the german artist Adolf Bernd. His work is intriguing both in design and color. The colors are subtle and very natural. One of our assignments was to bring in a natural object, study it and match the colors. My object was an oyster. You would be amazed at all the colors in the outer shell of an oyster. Flip it over and there you have an entirely new and different set of colors. This study of color has sparked an interest in me. I have been furiously working on a new body of work that will be exhibited in May.

Event Poster

This is an event poster created to promote our Women's Weekend at Walker Baptist Church. The logo for the Women's Ministry was created and used on several items for the event. Then I also created the Angela Thomas signature to compliment the logo.

Each item was written with a pointed nib and sumi ink, scanned and vectorized in illustrator.  

Black Walnut Ink

I don't know if you have ever used walnut ink. Whether you have or not, you should go over to Larks Crafts and check out Kristi's article to sign up for the Black Walnut Giveaway. When I read the article, it reminded me about the time my dad and I cooked down some black walnuts to paint this mural on the wall. Walnut ink is a fabulous tool and can be used for so many things. In fact, a woman once told me she used walnut nut ink to touch-up the gray in her hair when she did not have time to make it to the salon.