Sketchblog

Valentine

2010-02-08T14:18:00.000-08:00

This is a very sweet video by Kina Grannis for her song "Valentine." I think it sets the mood of many for this holiday.

And here's a little post from the director on how the video was made: http://rossching.com/valentine/

On Papermint

2010-01-27T14:41:00.000-08:00

Today is a sad day.

My friends at Papermint shared with me a pretty harsh article that accuses them of “promoting promiscuity in children” through their “sex game.” For anyone who's ever met the Papermint team and heard them talk about the game or even, dare I say, actually taken the time to play it, you can't help but laugh at the idea. Papermint a sex game? For kids? Really? There's not even sex in the game. Or nudity, or sexual overtones for that matter.

There is, however, love. Creating love and, thus, creating life through love.

While aesthetically Papermint looks as though it's meant to appeal to the kid demographic, the themes and ideas in Papermint are strictly meant for adult players-- young yet mature adult players who are ready to grapple with real emotions and intangible ideas like love, responsibility, friendship, relationships, community, and peaceful living. While to some these notions may seem childlike, these ideas are so dynamic and complex that they throw many adults for a loop sometimes. Everyone struggles with finding love or peace, with building communities and relationships at some point in life. Luckily, adults are privileged to have a virtual space like Papermint to confront and experiment and tackle how they feel about these ideas in a safe environment.

Now imagine a place where there is no war, or hunger, or disease, or violence. A place, in its essence, that is made from pure love and pure creativity. Where everyone can barely wait to be your friend and to meet you. Where everyone is happy. That place is Papermint.

In my opinion, I feel as if Papermint tries to capture a very real and exciting point in a person's life, when her heart is still open even though she's scared. She's young and alert and ready to face the world even if she hasn't quite figured out how. It's the excitement and confusion and the bliss of being young.

Papermint isn't vile or malicious; it isn't sick or pornographic. Papermint is love in every meaning of the word. Papermint is an experiment to see if you can capture love in a virtual world and boil it down to its essence rather than spreading it out all thin and watery-like.

Papermint is the 22 year old you who's still filled with wonder. Who's just starting out and oh-so scared but still extremely excited and hopeful for the future. Who just wants to take a bus to anywhere and ride for a while, and find her fortune where ever it leaves her. She ready for her big adventures, her greatest romances, her final fights with the Atlantic ocean.

In Papermint she can live that pseudo-dangerous life for once and be free of the fears that plague her. And maybe, just maybe, she secretly hopes to find love, to get married, to have a baby. In Papermint she can. Now what's so evil about that?

This post isn't a debate on whether or not it's ok for young children to be exposed to serious adult issues like sex and promiscuity;* it's not going into video games and their role in promoting healthy sexual ideas in the community; it's not even a technical critique on the game of Papermint itself. It is, however, my viewpoint on what the Papermint world is trying to achieve as someone who has spoken with the team and has played the game.

Papermint aspires to be a place for young adults to explore and play and grow. To seek out how they feel about these broad ideas of happiness and love and peace. And to do it in a safe, nurturing, fun, and cute environment.

It is, in no way, a game for children. Nor does it want to be a game for children. It merely targets those adults who are still children at heart.

Gross and misinformed allegations like this are no laughing matter. In an age where even the idea of selling sex to children (and teens) can keep a news network fed with viewers for days, a small indie company can be destroyed in the wake. One lie, however noble its intentions, can kill. That isn't make-believe. That isn't child's play. That's real life. This article could potentially destroy real lives and real work.

And for all that Papermint is or isn't, that fact is very, very sad.

Papermint is still young. The creators are still learning. They will make mistakes and they will work very, very hard to remedy those mistakes. In fact, I can almost hear them clicking away in their studio far across the sea right now setting up an even better infrastructure in order to protect children, protect the community, and protect Papermint. So please, do not turn those mistakes into imaginary monsters or villains, for they are not. Please do not mistake creating love and creating life for something vile, for it's not. Please give Papermint a chance, and in doing so, give love a chance.

*For the record, no. It is in absolutely no shape, way, or manner ok. Kids only get a limited time to be children and, I feel, that pushing them into sexual awareness too soon is wrong.

The Next Step

2010-01-25T12:30:00.001-08:00

We've all heard the sayings about taking the first step. Some will tell us that the first step is the most important because it is the hardest, because it means that you've accepted that you need to change. And as soon as you break through this mystical barrier of the first step all the other steps will be easy in comparison.

I'm almost ashamed to admit that I have a whole apartment full of the ghosts of my first steps. Look around and you'll find barely used exercise equipment, fitness DVDs, half done art projects, unhung pictures, partially filled boxes, and unread books. I could drown myself in first steps if I wasn't so busy searching for the next first step. As if there is some magical place that I will reach that will allow me the strength, courage, and determination to have all the other steps falling into line.

It's romantic in a way. The idea of starting over, of getting a fresh beginning, of being cleansed makes us all swoon and swear, “I'll be different!”, “I'll be better!” And then we plunge into the next first step of our evolution.

That's why we love New Year's so much. It's a single day where everyone in the world gets a fresh start. A new year. A new you. What will this year have in store for you? Love? Money? Success?

Frankly, there is no starting over. No fresh beginnings. No cleansing rituals. And while the idea of a fresh start may inspire some people to change, most of us just take the first step until we fall back into our own demons and old lives.

I think it's time we stop thinking about our lives as a series of failed first steps and do overs. Stop thinking in starts and stops all together. Because as long as we're alive our lives don't stop, they don't break or pause or wait for us. Life keeps going. And we need to keep going too.

How do we keep going? And where is it exactly that we're trying to go?

The first question is simple: we stop thinking in terms of new beginnings and first steps. We stop segmenting our lives into neat little packages. There is no mystical first step to happiness. Frankly, we stop putting such an emphasis on taking the first step and channel our energies into focusing on our next step. The next step you will take is the most important step you will ever take. Because if you only focus on the first step that's all you'll ever have-- a series of first steps. It's easy to take the first step. It's hard taking the next step.

It's about follow through. Stop tanking time and money on first steps that are only first steps. If you are not focusing on your next step, you are wasting your time and doing yourself a disservice.

Got it? Good.

Now that we've decided to take that next step in our evolution, where is it exactly that we're going?

That depends on where you are. Do you have goals? No? Well, a great next step would be to make some goals. Already have some? Great! What are you doing to achieve those goals?

Just deciding you want to change is a great step if you haven't taken it yet. However, once you take a step it's the next step on which you need to be focusing. Like I said, the next step you take in life is the most important step you will ever take.

Next step for me? Focusing on my goals and finding the next steps to achieve them.

Pandas in the snow

2009-12-17T12:11:00.000-08:00

I couldn't help myself, these snow pandas were just too cute to not deserve a blog post. Images from AcidCow.com via my friend Andy. AWW! PANDAS!

Paper Dolls

2009-12-16T22:38:00.000-08:00

Here's a little sneak at a first pass sketch of paper dolls that I recently did for a client. In the end, we went with a more cutesy and stylized look but I still really like these two. Maybe for fun I'll draw up a set of clothes for them sometime in the future (and faces too). But right now, they will live on in their undergarments.

Fashion

2009-11-24T20:06:00.000-08:00

Oh hey. I sketched something.
Enjoy!!

They like us! They really, really like us!

2009-10-13T13:21:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I forgot to make a blog about this but the Deep Sleep Initiative took home a trophy for being voted as the runner up in both the Audience Choice and Finalist Choice categories!

We were really, really surprised! They had us come up to the mic to accept the award and I just kept blubbering, "thank you!" I think Tracy said something a little more articulate but what it was I'm not sure. It took a while for the shock to wear off.

I've never won anything (or in this case, was the runner up) or received a trophy before. And the trophy is HUGE! And HEAVY! And DANGEROUS! All qualities that should be mandatory in trophies in my opinion.

Then the articles started rolling in. I never thought I'd see my name in an article that wasn't written by myself or my friends but there it was! It was pretty awesome. I'm still waiting for someone to yell out, "just kidding!" and take it all down and come and confiscate my trophy.

I wanted to share with you some of the articles. Some of them are about our game but a lot of them are just about how people like us and think we're neat! For someone who only had one person show up to her 12th birthday party and has been a total pathetic geek her entire life, it really meant the world to me. So, thanks to everyone who thinks we're neat and took the time to write us an email or write an article about our game. It means a lot.

Ok, ok, enough mumbling, here's the links!

My interview at Bitmob for their IndieCade feature:
http://www.bitmob.com/index.php/mobfeed/indiecade-interviews-everybody-dies-nanobots-radio-flare-deep-sleep-initiative-moon-stories-classicnight.html

Fan article about the game:
http://bitmob.com/index.php/mobfeed/deep-sleep-initiative.html

Same fan article about our customer service:
http://bitmob.com/index.php/mobfeed/good-customer-service-yields-positive-publicity.html

Joystiq:
http://www.joystiq.com/tag/deep-sleep-initiative/

Indie Game Reviewer:
http://www.indiegamereviewer.com/indiecade-california-2009-winners-and-a-surprise-announcement-of-new-indie-game-label-the-singularity/

Set On Stun:
http://setonstun.com/2009/10/the-deep-sleep-initiative-marketing-by-communication/

Little House on the Hill

2009-10-10T22:48:00.000-07:00

There once lived an ordinary girl who lived in a little house on a hill.

How I Found Love at IndieCade

2009-10-09T12:50:00.000-07:00

It's official, I am in love. Yes, I said it, love.

Now hold your gag reflex, this is not a love story although it is a story about love.

This weekend I had the honor of attending the IndieCade Festival in Culver City, CA as a finalist. I found myself lost amongst some of the brightest, most creative people wondering how I managed to wander in and how long it would take for someone to reveal me as an impostor, a thief. I could later go on to describe my IndieCade experience as a game in which the player wanders around aimlessly and confused with no clear objective but everyone is really nice and tells the player how smart she is despite her confusion.

I think what sticks with me is the quality of how extremely nice and friendly everyone was, albeit a bit shy at first-- com'on, they are game developers after all! And how excited they were to talk to you about your game, about their game, about any game really. Then later about comics or art or movies or books or theory or what it's like to have your parents calling you asking you to get a real job or to move home. We were kindred spirits.

And, for the most part, that niceness wasn't just a plastic, “I need to be nice to you because I may want to use you in the future.” It was a genuine niceness that stood without pretense to welcome you in, to tell you, yes, you are one of us and you are loved. Honestly, I had forgotten how it felt like to be amongst a group of creatives who weren't coming at you from an angle. It caught me off guard.

Then there was a shining point in the conference where I realized that these people were very much like me, more so than I thought possible. Eureka! I found it! Or perhaps it's more accurate to say, they were very much like a former version of myself. A version that was excited about the world and passionate about creating things, anything, anything that had a purpose and made you feel closer to someone else. A version who was first and foremost an artist and wanted to expand and create and grow and, above all, love love love. A version that I thought had died years ago under the pretense of the art world and the demands of the business world.

These people made me remember that version of my former self. And over those four days I felt a small ember, a smoldering ash begin to light. It awoke something inside me that I thought had long been crushed out by the “real world.” And for the first time, in a long time, I felt free.

One of the pivotal moments that lit my little lonely ash, I think, was attending the breakfast salon artist talk given by the magical team who are the brain children and brawn children of Papermint.*

Now let me side track this tale of love to describe the Papermint team because it's important. They are a rag-tag group of totally bodacious Austrians who could very well sprinkle star dust and flowers with every step; they are that magical! Electric and eclectic, I don't know if anyone at the conference was able to allude the alluring grasp of these fine Austrians.

Ok, back to the salon. In their artist discussion the team spoke with energy and sparkle of how the world of Papermint came to be. They spoke of how they wanted it to be a world free of trivial things like race or gender or heritage; where the only thing that matters is interacting with each other. It's a world about people not objects, love not possessions, and aggression but not weapons. There were many jokes, mostly about sausage-- they are from Vienna afterall-- and many laughs to had around the table. I could feel my face start to tingle with pain from smiling too much, that's how good it was.

Little by little they revealed how each member of the team came or went or came back again. How the Chief Technology Officer, Claudia didn't believe that the Art Director, Babara “Babsi” was a real person because Babsi was locked away working on her thesis for her doctorate. Claudia spoke about how her attitude changed along the way, from “I don't program strawberry houses” to being very much in love with the idea of strawberry houses. Strawberry houses! How can you not love this type of whimsy?

Their story ended with tales of rushed romances with various publishers who left them standing, sadly, at the alter. One such story was their potential deal with big wig who they call the Big Em. They told of the Big Em, that big bad wolf with a slick designer suit and sexy black business cards, locking them in these glass towers of litigation or shuffling them around to talk to this important person or that important person. It was almost a joke, the way they recounted it. Babsi said, “we felt like rockstars.”

But, of course, I'm sure you know how this fairy tale ends. After a year of being tied up in big business paperwork and not being in their little studio working on the game, the love affair ended. And then, Babsi, this little pixie of a girl turns dark and solemn and says, in the most serious and honest tone I've ever heard, “it almost killed us. That's when we went from a team of eight down to one. We almost died.” Around the table you could hear the sound of little hearts breaking. As I looked at the faces of the Papermint team, I could see their pain as they relived that dark moment in their lives. I wanted to die too.

It was this. This pure emotion. This honesty. It took me back to that one moment in my life, where litigation and perception and pretense had just killed me. It reminded me that I too was once alive but then I died. I wanted to cry with this realization. I still want to cry reliving it.

But then there is a silver lining! Because, like I said, this is a story about love and one thing we know about love is that it triumphs over all.

Slowly, the Papermint team picked out the shattered glass and pieced their broken hearts back together. They kept going, as they should.

Now, I could go on and talk about every keynote or panel or round table that reminded me of all the things I used to care about, but that would just drag on. I could mention how I got to meet Bill Viola, an artist I used to write papers on and take tests about in art school. I could talk about how funny Erin Robinson, mastermind behind the love bots that are Nanobots, was when she recounted the real life of an indie designer. Or when Eddy Boxerman of Osmos talked about the perils of game design. Or when, alcohol starved, a determined group of developers went running around Culver City just looking for a liquor store so we could stay up late and talk about games and comic books and awesome little video shorts. But I won't.

I will, however, end with a Springer moment:

Sometimes in our struggle to become real live functional adults, we forget the magic and the mayhem that made us feel like real live human beings. In our seriousness, we become lost in email and to do lists and the general drudgery of life.

IndieCade helped me remember what it was that I loved about myself, about the world. It made me remember that even though I hate my job and I hate being broke and I hate being in debt, there is something else out there. It's not tangible or marketable, but knowing that it's there makes the world a little less lonely and a little bit better.

Thank you.

* And as a side note, if you haven't yet, check out Papermint! It is so kawaiii!!!

** Images courtesy of the internet

Shoes

2009-10-07T11:01:00.000-07:00

If I ever regret not pursuing modeling when I was 16 and skinny and had agents calling me up, please point me in the direction of Alexander McQueen's runway. My ankles hurt just from looking at these things. I have no earthly idea how this poor girl managed to walk up and down a runway in them. Worst. Job. Ever.

ARx on of Top Ten Finalists for IndieCade 2009

2009-09-29T12:16:00.000-07:00

It's been announced that the game I worked on last spring, the Deep Sleep Initiative, is now one of the top ten finalists at this year's IndieCade Festival! Hooray! I am so excited. Tracy and I are flying down to LA on Thursday to present our work. So please, if you are in the area, drop by and say howdy!

Here's the link to the article: http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2009/09/indiecade_finalists_revealed.html

In other news, I suck at this blog (ya think?). As we know, I started it as a way to inspire me to draw more. Well, I've been drawing, doodling, and even trying my hand at oil painting but, alas, none of it has made it onto the trusty blog. Resolution, I will try harder to be a blogger.

Did I mention that I'm working at Sun Microsystems now? It's a short contracting gig as a junior editor. Mainly I digitize, edit, and beautify video which then get puts online. You can see some of the videos that I put into the computer at: www.thenetworkisthecomputer.com Watch the music videos, they are a riot! There's even one of the CEO dressed up as Batman (Batboy?) repelling into an amphitheater. Good stuff.

xoxo
Karin

Informational Brochures!

2009-05-27T17:12:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned in the previous post, a project I worked on has been asked to participate at the IndieCade booth at this year's E3. My team, ARx, has been very busy trying to prepare. For the past few days, I've been designing some of the printed materials we would like to bring with us. Below are pictures of the brochure that I designed; it unfolds to reveal a poster!! Enjoy!

FYI: The brochure folds down to about 4.25 x 5.5 inches and it is printed on 11 x 17 paper. This is just the prototype (that I printed at home and glued together! tacky) and the final printed versions will be much, much better.

The Front Cover (designed by Brad Michael)

Back Cover, This is a letter written by a character in the game asking for help in her quest for the truth!

ARx description (left) and ARG definition (right)

Opening

Inside left flap gives information about the story and the journal.

The center depicts images from the game and the right flap gives information about some of the elements in the game.

Once open, there is a poster sized version of our rabbit hole cards.

Picturepalooza

2009-05-14T16:56:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks (months?) have been super busy, fun, and productive for me! I have some exciting (non-sketch related) news and images to share:

First, the ARG that I worked on with my Carnegie Mellon team, ARx, has been accepted to be shown at the IndieCade booth at E3. Our ARG is called, The Deep Sleep Initiative, and you find out more information about it here: www.DreamersOftenLie.com I do have to warn you that you will have to complete a small puzzle to gain access to the site but once you do you will enter a world of dreamers, liars, and a very important missing child! Check it out!

Second, I started contracting part time at Gazillion Entertainment (which I what I'm going to blame for my lack of sketch updates!). I really like the work I'm doing, none of which I can speak about... but I like it a lot and that's really what matters the most.

A great part about part-time work is it still affords me the time to work on all my crazy side projects. I have a couple I'm juggling but one that I'm most into right now is a book that I'm writing. Every few days I try to sit down and write a few paragraphs. It's still in a very fledgling state but I like that it gives me a chance to unleash my creative juices and go wild (in book form).

Now for the most interesting part... FOOD! You laugh, but since I graduated from grad school I've had so much time to cook delicious meals. No more ramen noodles, cold pizza, or late night chinese take out for me... Ok, that's partly a lie, ramen noodles, cold pizza, and chinese take-out will probably still be staples in my diet for a few more years. Whatever, here are some of my culinary hijinxs:

After months of not leaving the house early enough to catch the Saturday Farmer's Market, I finally made it there. Here's what I scored on my first trip: fresh cut flowers (I think they are ranoculus'), organic strawberries (favorite!), thyme plant, oregano plant, jalapeno plant, grapfruit, organic asparagus, tomatos, raisins, honey sticks (!!! these were my favorite thing when i was little), honey, hot pies (spinach/feta and thai curry chicken) and some butternut squash soup. I know it's dorky, but all that yummy food really makes me happy.
Then, the next morning I got to eat a delicious breakfast (something I rarely do, I know, shame!) of grapefruit with a bowl of yogurt/granola/strawberries. It was a really awesome weekend.

Inspired, I made veggie lasagna that week for Meatless Monday (is anyone else trying this?). Now, I don't know if you've ever made lasagna before... but I haven't. It took me 6 hours to put this bad boy together. I think cutting and stewing the veggies took the longest, although the bake time of 1.5 hours probably didn't help. Either way, it was very delicious and I'm glad I made it!

All the veggies stewing in the pot. Let's see, we have brocolli, carrot, red/green/yellow peppers, squash, zucchini, tomato, onion, and mushroom. With fresh thyme, basil, and parsley to season.
Here's all the delicious ricotta! Add a little shredded mozarella on top of this and we had a very cheesy lasagna.

Here it is before I put it in the oven topped with some fresh green onion. I totally mismanaged my time on making this and it was already 9:30pm by the time I go it all prepped and assembled (seriously, lasagna takes a long time! Lesson learned). I put it in the oven and ended up making a different dish for our extremely late dinner. And if things couldn't get any more hectic, all the juices overflowed the lasagna dish in the oven and made a mess so I didn't take any pictures of the end result due to grumpiness and tiredness. Even with all the stress, it was super, super delicious!

Alright, there's my very random post!

Cupcakes

2009-03-13T18:17:00.001-07:00

I made cupcakes today! I think they turned out pretty neat :)

Melted chocolate, sprinkles, and butterflies on wax paper

In the fridge, hardening

Done!

Close up!

Bad at posting

2009-03-02T16:19:00.000-08:00

Oh dear, it seems I have neglected you blog. And I've also neglected my sketching. Oh dear.

Well, I will write a quick post (sorry no pictures today) of hithers and tithers.

Since my last post Valentine's Day weekend came and went. Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday and I normally do a special drawing for it but not this year! Too much to do, no time to draw (alas). However, I did spend a fabulous weekend in the city and got to visit two museums: the Exploritorium, where I saw some really awesome exhibits by Snibbe, and the DeYoung, where the line was outrageously out the door and I came up with a million ways that the museum can provide a better experience to it's guests who were waiting in the rain. I called the weekend a sucess.

Then much busy work and house work in preparation for my brother's visit. Then my brother's actual visit where we hit all the tourist sites in San Fran, Half Moon Bay, and Sonoma/Napa Valley. It was, as you can expect, delightful. I miss Kevin very much.

And now, I'm busy, busy getting prepared for the TEA Summit this weekend: updating my portfolio, business cards (my phone broke and I had to get a new number), and finding a dress for the Gala Award show.

So yes, I feel busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest. But busy is always good.

Promise to draw something soon (really, I do).

Still In Progress

2009-02-06T18:21:00.001-08:00

Hmm... maybe 60% done. I think that's enough for now. Maybe I'll pick it back up in a week or so to finish it.

In progress

2009-02-06T16:01:00.000-08:00

Working on a few studies. Here's a portrait that's about 30% complete.

Minotaur

2009-01-21T22:44:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things to do for practice is troll sketch blogs for ideas and inspiration. I like to experiment with new ways and styles of drawing. Plus, I've always been the person who likes to sit behind the best artist in art classes, it helps me learn!

Here's something that I drew a rough outline for a couple days ago and then came back to today. It's just a rough sketch of tonal values and form. Maybe I'll use it for a color study.

In one of the children's book series that I'm reading the main character battles a minotaur. I liked the body style of a demon drawing that I happened upon during one of my late night internet art blog trolls and thought it'd make a pretty neat Minotaur. I haven't finished rendering the face yet... and I think I want the head to be a little bigger. Oh well, we shall see.

Self portrait

2009-01-17T21:37:00.000-08:00

This wasn't supposed to turn out to be a self-portrait, but like many of my figure drawings, it started looking somewhat like me... so it became me. Granted, a Schiele-esque, broken, bar sitting me, but me nonetheless. I can't believe I'm guilty of being one of those artist who just draws herself, even when she doesn't mean to. Guess it's something I can work on.

Here's the sketch:

Portrait of a Lady

2009-01-08T23:31:00.001-08:00

Let's face it, Target, Ikea, and Goodwill are godsends to broke twenty-somethings trying to hodge-podge together some semblance of a living space. I'm not going to lie, like most 24 year olds, I am pretty much addicted to all three. Normally I'm pretty practical about my purchases, essentials first! But, I believe that everyone should treat themselves every now and then. Buying things for my humble apartment (and the occasional sweet treat or sushi delight) is my way of saying, "here's to you Kid."

Naturally, my last Ikea trip for a coffee table (Lack Series!) took me far and away from the coffee table section and straight into the jaws of the wall decoration section. Okay, okay, that's an exaggeration; I was in there for the purpose of finding cheap frames in which to house my collection of limited edition silkscreen band posters. Whilst in the frame section, however, I met and fell in love with Ung Drill, the ridiculously decorative plastic oval frame:

It was pure impulse... but I had to have that frame.

I bought the frame and it sat in it's packaging leaning against the wall for about a month or two. Then, I decided to just put something, anything in it and hang it. I found some left over wrapping paper, cut it to an oval shape and hung the frame.

It took me about 4 days of staring at the ugly paper in my awesome Ikea frame. Something had to change. So, this morning, I grabbed some leftover BFK and craft paint and sat down to figure out what could go in the frame.

My apologies for the dark photograph, fingerprints, and the flash that I poorly photoshoped out. I wish I had access to a silkscreen studio because it'd be neat if it had a patterned gloss background, but, I'm pretty happy with my simple (ok, super simple) painting. At least I don't have to walk past the wrapping paper stand-in anymore. I see a few things that I might go in later and change, but it's fine for now.

Physical Reminders

2009-01-08T18:30:00.000-08:00

One of the blogs I read, Leon of New York , inspired me to start a 43 Things list. Basically, it's a list of things you want to accomplish in your life tied into a social network of folks who help cheer you on and give you ideas and inspiration in reaching those goals.

One of my goals is drink more water. An entry by LittleJude gave me this idea to create a journal to track the amount of water I drink in a day via drawings of glasses. I extended it to include things that my boyfriend and I are interested in doing (and tracking) on a daily basis. I opened up Illustrator (which incidentally helped with my “Draw More” goal) to sketch out a simple list of things I want to track everyday.

My boyfriend and I are interested in tracking:
1. Vegetarian meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner)
2. How many servings of caffeine we drink (0-2)
3. How many times we eat after 9, 10, or 11
4. If we played or practiced hockey with room for notes
5. If we did yoga with room for notes
6. If we meditated with room for notes
7. Our mood (happy, sad, neutral)
8. Hours of sleep
9. Servings of water
10. and a space for notes

The size is 4.25”x5.5” (a quarter of a page) which is think is manageable to carry around and I can always print out more pages and staple them together.

Sketches for Ms. Merry Story

2009-01-05T19:13:00.001-08:00

About a year ago, I wrote a story about how the Pillow Tree came to be. I've always wanted to illustrate it so I decided to take it on as one of my side projects.

Here are the first couple of sketches:

This is a drawing of the Castle of Miracles (it's a real place!). This is the setting of the story.

Here's a few sketches of the main character, Ms. Merry.
This is a dream of Ms. Merry's.

I'll post a link to the finish drawings when I'm done!

I finally have a scanner

2009-01-05T18:42:00.000-08:00

Expect more frequent posting for 2009!

Celestial

2008-11-17T12:17:00.000-08:00

A while ago my friend Tam asked me to draw her a new tattoo. She wanted various stars in swirls and, seeing that I've been on a swirly cloud kick, this was right up my alley.

I did the sketch using Illustrator (computer sketches totally count).

A few days later, a co-worker of mine mentioned that she wanted to add to a tattoo that she had gotten of a moon. I showed her the sketch I did for Tam and offered to draw something up to give her moon a little more spark.

Here's what I came up with.She just wanted something simple to add to the moon so it wouldn't look so plain.

:)

Website woes

2008-10-19T14:00:00.000-07:00

I'm in the process of updating my website and, in all honesty, it's taking much longer than it really should.

I guess one could liken it to that saying, "it's like pulling teeth," except it's more like pulling teeth, then tilting ones head, then replacing the teeth, then pulling them again, re-arranging them, switching them out for different teeth in a new color scheme, tilting ones head again and then deciding the first set of teeth were the best. Okay, it's probably not like pulling teeth at all... especially since I'm not a dentist.

Teeth or no teeth (I think I'm back at having the original teeth), it's almost done and for this update, I wanted to include a sketch I did for one of the many, many, many iterations:

It was inspired by the wonderful artists over at the Delicious Design League; they're so good, they make me wanna spit. I don't remember why I canned this... but, I decided I should share it somewhere...

About Sketchblog

2008-10-09T14:24:00.000-07:00

Hello Blog-o-sphere!

My name is Karin and I've done it; I've finally entered the wide world of blogging. I am now a blogger.

I'm sure you're wondering, "who are you, Karin? and why are you blogging up the blog-o-sphere with your puny little blog-lings?" Well, oh great deity of blog, I'm Karin. Hello. I'm 24 years old, I live in Pittsburgh, and I've just finished my Masters in Entertainment Technology (that's a fancy way of saying that I have a big piece of paper that lets other people know that I'm qualified to do entertain-y and technology-y things). I like long walks on the beach and watching, Dexter. When I grow up, I want to design immersive environments like theme parks and interactive museum exhibits.

I made this SketchBlog in hopes of getting myself to draw more and also as an outlet for non-work-related things that I create ... and well, pretty much for fun! I've always liked drawing and I wish I had more time to do it. Hopefully, this will be a good kick in the butt for me.

I will leave you with an illustration I did for Valentine's Day. Tara McPherson is one of my favorite artists and Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday... so, it seemed fitting. Okay, so it's a little emo, but I like it.

Aaaand...here I am... on the phone... on a boat:

Happy sketching.