Don't play with it

-Bertrice Berry

...and of course, in order to make that collision, you must first 

muster up the confidence to take that first step.

***

It's funny how things happen. I've always been an artist at heart. I excelled in all the artsy subjects in school. However, I've always been on the fence about taking it seriously. I have a few paintings here and there. I've done the occasional gift, one or two commissions, nothing serious... but recently I have found myself trying to take my hobby seriously and develop a proper portfolio and such. I even did a quick portfolio blog page over the weekend.

Prior to this, I have always met discouraging people who don't believe it would make a lucrative career and so forth because of the time investment, markets, etc. involved. However, funnily enough, since I've started making a few tentative steps forward I've been meeting the most amazing artists who've made successful careers out of what they do - for fun. It's been a series of GMH (Gives Me Hope) moments to help keep my inspiration going to finish my current portfolio goal.

So last night, I was with one of my new friends, Caesar, who is a local graphic designer. Trust me when I say you must've already seen his work somewhere. He does illustrations, websites, flyers, business cards (and greeting cards), advertisements, logos, book covers, animations and the list goes on and on...

***

So what does all this have to do with me? As an artist, instead of selling all my originals, I've decided to do a few prints of those I'm reluctant to part with. So... I stepped over to Caesar's office to see what could be done. He showed me some hard copy samples of his work. I saw first hand, behind-the-scenes how the designs get created (I'm horrible at using software to manipulate a picture, I'm better at just using my hands), what other tools are used and how to use them, and the differences and difficulties in deciding on which mediums to use. I never knew that there was so much deliberation involved in deciding what kind of paper to use, much less which type of printer would do the job best.

A match-box business card

It clips in....

It opens out... it's the business card that sells your product while reminding people who you are.

His personalized cards are about $ 7. I saw a few personalized birthday cards and mother's day cards. I didn't post those up because a few were collages of pictures of the intended recipients.

Christmas "Thank You" cards for clients

Experimental prints... which printer? which paper? which effects?

Trimming with the guillotine

A rough quickie example... the finished product.

 busy schedule to help me out. I'm extremely pleased with what I have thus far.

OH! And in case you're maco-vision didn't pick up his contact information in the pictures... and you're interested in contacting him. (His name below is hyperlinked to his Facebook page for easy clicking)



C'est tout.
Shelli out