dailies 6/15-6/21.

it's dailies time. but more importantly, it's sleep time. and really, dailies time was like two days ago. please bear with me during this WOW BUSY time.

dailies 6/8-6/14.

dailies week two wahoo! this will be a quick one because i am very sleepy, even though it is very early. fun fact: the last pattern-y drawing was loosely inspired by staring into the middle distance at my bookshelf, and the first hand-lettering one is me lamenting and/or punishing myself for getting my car towed. because i am a genius.

thank you ladies and gentlemen goodnight!

new studio, new technique.

my new studio is set up and delightful and in my house, wow! hopefully there will be photos to comw, but in the meantime, this is the first thing to come out of it. here we have a tiny experiment where ink drawing meets digital collage, lovingly referred to in my head as "giant-girl naps in the clouds." all the textures were prepped by hand with real paint on real paper, and then scanned beneath an ink drawing that has been digitally colored. thoughts? i'm trying to work out a way to attack my summer thesis (since i'm obsessed with school, slash, am heading into a grad program in the fall), and this is showing some potential, i think.

in other news, i was profiled over at matthew's puzzle, a blog that promotes autism awareness. maryann, the editor, liked the way my what-if series concretely represented whimsical, imaginary situations that autistic children can have difficulty generating in their own minds. please consider visiting and seeing the lovely work she's doing over there, and enter to win a digital print of my "what if... you could fly?" illustration! i'm also doing a sale for matthew's puzzle visitors to my etsy shop for the rest of june, so if you're interested in picking up something adorable from my shop on the cheap, snoop around her site to get the coupon code, and shop to your heart's content!

THE GREAT DAILIES REVIVAL 2009: june 1st-7th.

sorry for the pausity of posts lately - i have been moving to a new place, trying to settle in, and most importantly, crying myself to sleep over my lack of internet. we're trying to work out the kinks, but it's a long, boring, and very sad story that i will definitely spare you. just know it's sad.

on the plus side, the dailies are back! full disclosure: i temporarily forgot when i planned to restart these, and with the nuttiness that was the move to my shiny new (INTERNETLESS; HORRIBLE) apartment, i had to play catch-up and i actually started on june 3rd. ultra-sneaky and terrible, i know. but! they are back in full force and haven't been sidelined since, so there.


now, as far as the posting... this week's was delayed by my impromptu venture up to nyc for MoCCA yesterday. the festival was delightful, and i awkwardly stalked many lovely humans (and actually talked to a few: wahoo brian ralph, jason hoffman, and alex uyeno) and saw a solid panel discussion by seth and adrian tomine.

i must admit that my decision to attend was partially fueled by my comic-love, and partially by my desperate desire for free wi-fi on the bolt bus, i was in no position to wander around baltimore searching for free wi-fi at midnight. i'm devoted, but really? i'd die. plus, this way you get to see my rendition of the eccentric audiophile sitting across from me, emphatically air-conducting many, many symphonies all the way there.

the moral of the story is that a) i am still making things, and b) i still want to show you them, but c) i still have no internet. c) is terrible. c) ruins everything. i will defeat you, c). stay tuned, and thanks for hanging in there.

hey look, i graduated.

well, it's official. i'm a real human. diploma earned, car purchased, lease signed. as promised, here are some photos of my installation for commencement. included in my tiny show were all of my what if illustrations and mixtape story from thesis, as well as my hug-a-city friend. the frames are actually vinyl (think giant, black stickers) as is the table leg beneath the shelf pretending to be a table. but the stool is real, courtesy of the lovely sara allred.


anyway, in my endeavors to be a grown-up, i'm in the midst of moving, so things might be sparse for a bit. i really do plan to restart the dailies, but it looks like june 1st will be a much more reasonable resume date than my birthday, which, by the way, was lovely. so, stay tuned for the big reveal on my summer thesis (yes, it never stops) and dailies: tng!

where the magic happens.

well kids, i did it. not the graduating part, not quite yet, anyway, but the college part? that's done. classes finished up last week, my commencement exhibition is installed, i even got a much needed haircut. i'm packing up my life to move to my new apartment and be a real human. i'm pretty much really excited, but will definitely miss some things.

oh studio, you are my favorite friend. this little guy was small, but cozy, and had 2 windows and the air conditioner. aka, he was perfect. anyway, i thought it would be neat to see where things went down for the whole of this year. full disclosure: my studio was never this clean.

i'm off to pretty myself up for mica's artwalk event, where people get a sneak peek at commencement the night before the show officially opens! be sure to stop by and see the show sometime before it comes down on monday, or, stay tuned for some slightly less impressive photo documentation of my exhibition coming up next!

practically-almost-nearly-virtually a real, grown-up human.

the posting of this illustration comes with a huge sigh of relief since OH YEAH IT'S THE END OF MY THESIS. the last what-if? in the series (for the meantime...?) is "what if... you could bring your stories to life?" because what collection of children's illustrations would be complete without an adorable, tiny nerd in horn-rimmed glasses, really?

after the guilt-ridden sketch post of last week, i powered through and knocked out this one just in time for my final review board on monday, and mica's illustration showcase on thursday. showcase is a delightful event in which the illustration seniors are essentially pimped out to art directors in the hopes that they like what they see and want to pay to see more of it in their publications. this is definitely, probably referring to our illustrations, and not our sexy sexy selves.

too bad it is mega-disgusting outside, i will soon be braving a slimy trip to the print lab to get hard copies of this and all my other what-ifs to prepare for my installation which is WOW REALLY SOON. totally feeling the 'being done right now' thing.

you've got a little guilt on your face.

dear blog,
i promise i don't hate you.
love, alissandra

i can't lie, this is a guilt-ridden sketch post. it should be finished, and provide you with a far juicier payoff for your devoted days waiting patiently by your google reader, but as you can see, not so much. in real life, it is a little farther along than this, fully inked and itching to be gouached, but alas, i've been swamped by meetings and review panels, forms to fill out and documents to turn in. soon i will lock myself in my studio to give her the technicolor treatment, otherwise i will go batty from the art-free existence i'm currently living.

once it's all grown up, it will become "what if... you could bring your stories to life?". in color, it'll make more sense and make your eyes bleed less, i swear.

it just takes practice.

i have totally been doing more things than it seems like i have been doing, they just aren't nearly pretty or exhilarating enough to warrant blogging about them. nothing says "WOW AMAZING" quite like html house-cleaning and digital image-tidying... so i apologize for the posts being few and far between, there are all sorts of tiny tasks required so that i can properly commence in like, less than a month. i have managed to stay on track-ish (for now) with my what-ifs, so here is "what if... you could fly?" a classic, i suppose, but a very seriously entertained childhood goal:

did anyone else run down hills constantly, convinced that leaping at just the right time would render you airborne? no? just me? well, all right.

in other news, i finally stocked my etsy shop with a few things. not many to start, but modest collection of silkscreens and digital prints. take a look at it if you please. it's nice, and matches every other tiny web presence i hold. it's also perma-linked to the left now, so you can come and go as you please. i'll be slowly building up a larger variety of items, so stop back frequently!

pretty please?

i am planning to print my postcards for commencement slash, real life in the immediate future.
i am definitely decided on the "what if... flowers bloomed with your every step?" image for the front, but i have been waffling on the color scheme for the back for infinity hours. i would love you to help me decide, and/or decide for me, which one i should go with. here are the whittled options (from many, many permutations of unreasonably similar alternatives):


please please comment and let me know which one you like better (and p.s., don't forget how washed out blogger makes things!). my brain is so overstuffed, i can't choose all alone. incentive! do so and i will make sure you get one. don't you want to help me not go crazy?

too busy to come up with a reasonable title.

it's been far too long, i'm so very sorry. here is my latest illustration, "what if... we could live in the clouds?" thoughts?

phew, it's been a busy busy time as of late. i thought my thesis professor whitney sherman was joking and/or crazy when she told us we would accomplish next to no work on our thesis following spring break. turns out? way correct. i have two sketches that are supposed to be in the pipeline that are in fact just chilling out in my brain. sort of. i'm doing my best to stay current over here on the blog, so thanks for being patient.

in other news, i was told that my "what if... flowers bloomed with your every step?" will be the cover of the juxtapositions publication for mica's exhibitions in may-july, aka, the commencement catalog. that is neat.

in which digital coloring corrupts alissandra's soul.

spring break afforded me the luxury of attempting this piece both in gouache, as per normal, and as a fully digital adventure. i prefer the gouache piece (super apparently the second image) both aesthetically and because working entirely digitally made me want to die a little bit. but! here they both are, "what if... you were friends with the monsters under our bed?"
while there are a few magic things that only digital techniques can truly accomplish, my loyalties lie with paint. and brushes. and pushing them around on real paper in real life. i am trying to build up an arsenal of digital skills to incorporate in my manipulation of my final illustrations even when using gouache (like, for example, the colored ink lines and the unifying "nighttime" layer i added after the fact) to maximize the potential digital color has to offer, and to at least be reasonably competent, should something particularly lend itself to being digital. but really, i just don't enjoy it much. bummer, because it is way cost effective, and man it's fun being poor.

also, it features a boy! hooray.