Illustrator of the Week: Joanne Liu

joanne liu

blog / facebook / flickr / etsy / society6

  animal orchestra

 

feeding the bunnies

 
butt licking dog


experiment in gray

 tiger

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Joanne Liu has a great sense of humor mixed in with her scribbly illustrations. Her little creatures are always an inspiration to me when it comes to the kids' clothes I design. Check her out!

An Outfit to Get Sick In

 an outfit to get sick in

Thankfully, by the time I managed to finish this and post it, I am all healthy again!
I have determined to use these outfit posts as a way to exercise my hand and have fun, to force myself to draw outside of work. The more I play, the more I like the results. :)

I Heart Sugar & Spice

sugar & spice

1-thermal babydoll top $13 / 2-granny square crocheted bunting $38 / 3-musette bird rattle $29 / 4-pink kitten lamp $165 / 5-hey there cupcake by steph says hello / 6-no place like home bedding $129 / 7-tapestry heart cushion cover $153 / 8-mini-rose the cat $42 / 9-patterned babydoll top $13

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I just found out one of my best friends will be having a little girl come summer and it is making the girly girl inside of me do happy cart-wheels. Babydoll tops with tiny leggings, with tiny chubby legs inside? Yes please!

(PS: What do you think of the new blog makeover?)

Updates, Updates

Hey ya'll, I just updated my etsy shop with some more of my thesis prints at a discounted price of $25 each.  Be there or be square.

 And, because I don't recall posting pictures from the senior show this past spring, here are a few...

Ten Paces & Draw, Part II

...and for my own contribution to the website, I finalized Paul Sargent's sketch of the stereotypical drive-in theater... sort of.

Ten Paces & Draw

Here's to blogging again--I'm gonna do it, really! My big life update from my summer absence is that I am now a totally employed graphic artist, designing in Kohl's kid's department. In just a few months my first pieces will be rolling out in stores... more on that come summer.

This week, however, was Teen Movies week on the kick ass blog Ten Paces and Draw. If you're not familiar with the site, it's a blog where illustrators sketch on a specific theme each week, swap sketches, and then finalize another artist's sketch. Quite brilliant.

I had a big 'ol list of teen movies I wanted to pay tribute to (or rather, I wanted some other illustrator to pay tribute to) but I ended up sketching the Maitlands from Beetleguise, because they're just sexy like that.

 And here's the final piece, finished by the awesome-sauce illustrator Victor Melendez. I am in love with the final.  In love!

Paul Thurlby

So.  I'm thinking I'll be doing a bit more featuring of other cool people while I'm in the process of getting settled with my new schedule. (Who's got an internship in the kid's art department at Kohls?  This girl!)  Here's Paul Thurlby, who not only has a really awesome last name but does absolutely awesome art.  He works with old books and found objects, and his work has a great mid-century feel to it.  Check out more at his website!

Thanks!

Finished up the piece for my graduation thank you cards.  Not sure why I decided to paint on black board (actually, it's because I have so damn much of it--I couldn't bear to toss it all out after cleaning out my studio!) but I think next time around when I try it on a lighter surface I'll be able to try some different effects.  Still can't get over the lovely matte finish of gouache!

Free Time?

It's bizarre to do projects that aren't school related.  I'm working on a little piece for my graduation thank yous, and I've been in the mood to work traditionally lately, so I thought I'd try out some of the gouache paints I bought a year or two ago but never had the time to dabble with.  I think I'll really like them when I get the hang of it--I'm loving the matte finish. 

Here's a quick preview/horrid photo before I scan it in and clean things up a bit:

Mike Lowery

I think I'm in love.  Mike Lowery is a professor at the Savannah College of Art & Design, and his work does nothing but inspire me.  Three of the seven art interns at Kohl's will be coming from SCAD--maybe some will know him!  Don't forget to check out more goodness at his website, here.

(And he does pattern work!  Le-swoon.)

Movin' On Up

I'm officially a college graduate!  Two weeks of freedom before I start my internship in the art department at Kohl's.  I'll be in the kid's department and I can't wait!  Here are some pictures from behind the scenes, including Marisa and mine's bright tights and my awesome cake featuring a taste of my thesis work (har har, see what I did there?).

 (Sorry, I couldn't find a source for the kitty cat picture, I've had it saved on my desktop for ages waiting for today!)

Movin' On Out

College graduation is tomorrow and I still can't wrap my head around it.  I suspect it'll hit me in August when I realize I'm not going back.  Anyway, I always find pictures of artist's studios interesting, so here are a few of my old space at school where I've been working this past year.

One of my exquisite corpse prints from last semester communicated our feelings quite well.

The Roaming Gnome

Here it is; my final MIAD assignment.  :(  We were to choose a mascot and backdate it (prior to its invention) into two calendar pages.  I chose the Travelocity gnome and created a sort of travel brochure calendar.  First is the gnome climbing Mount Everest circa the 1950's, taking you "to the ends of the earth", and second is the little guy leading a wagon train across the wild west in the late 1880's.  The phrase for that one was originally going to be "to the final frontier" but Star Trek kind of killed that one for me, haha.

(click to enlarge)

Nine 'o Hearts

Here's my other card for our final illo project.  It was originally going to be full of details but I liked the way the flat colors looked, so it stayed that way.  It's basically everything I like/enjoy.