Evolution of a logo

Sketchbook

Here is a look into the sketchbook I just finished. 

I picked some of my favorite ones from this one.

I also have been studying people more, thanks to my mentor helping me out there. 

Lots of improvements and ideas moving forward!

Courage

Female Face (at the beginning of when I started studying people more)

Stick Figure Anatomy and Movement

Bubbling up the stick figures

Male face about 4 months into studying people

Symbolism and Interpretation

Melting Beauty (Concept)

The Bowler (Concept)

MDLP logo

sketches

Studies and experimenting style

YING YANG

CONCEPT 1.1

TONGUE JAMS

(CONCEPT)

Homemade Art for our Wedding.

The step-by-step of the heart pallet for our wedding.

Pineapple

Birthday Present for my friend Hannah!

Acrylic on Canvas

V.VIII.XIV

On May 8, 2014 I married my beautiful wife. She is amazing and we have had a great 2 months together so far! She makes me happy and I hate not spending time with her.  I also took a long break from writing on the blog because I was just taking my time from that crazy semester.  Needless to say, I survived and we made it through with heads clear above the water.  Life has had some getting used to, sharing a bed, my credit card and I don't do well with sleeping in the summer because of the heat.  We are waiting until summer comes more into the cool beginnings of Fall. Then it might get a little better, but then again it may not. Only because WE WILL BE IN CHINA!  (Remember when I said we were going to do that???)  We actually got our flight plans yesterday and we will be leaving on the 26th of August and coming back in December.

I heard that things like Facebook and Google are banned/ limited while we are there. So hopefully I can put up cool pictures and updates while I'm over there. Other wise it will just be another break from the good old blog again with really cool updates later!

I have been doing some design work, mostly working with my Mentor and working on getting better, which I've almost completed another sketchbook! I love going back and seeing the progress that has been made. I was going to try and put some of the work that I had done up on here this time but they are all PDF files and not images so the Blog won't let me put them up. BUT.. I will get them up this week. PROMISE!

Here are some of the pics, a couple from our engagements and a couple from the wedding day. She just makes me such a happy guy. I love her!

This has been a handful of a semester. I honestly feel like if I get through this semester with my head above water then I can pretty much do anything. It has honestly been going that way. I have mentioned before that I haven't ever not cared about grades. In fact I've generally always done well in school. And now that I'm paying for school it is more intimidating to do well cause otherwise that is a lot of money that I will have to pay. This semester has been pushing me to so many limits I wonder how I get through and done with everything I have to do. Taking 18 credits is 6 classes in college for me. 5 of them are generals an one is a pre req's for my major. Then on top of that I apprentice once a week with my mentor and try and improve my skills further. Which is more homework that needs to get done. Which is fine. And has been fine up to now. My grades are doing well. Overall high b's and a's. With one c. I'm proud of myself for doing this well with so much on my plate. As well as having to change to 40 hours a week at work just has been piling up. And lastly we are a month away from our wedding!! So we are really getting down to crunch time. But it's been a real crunch time because we are fast approaching finals season. And with finals season comes finals. And with finals comes stress and studying and hoping that the grades stay above so that I don't have to retake classes. It's just intimidating and I feel ok now but every time I think about it I just start getting nervous and anxious that I'm gonna mess it up somehow. And I think the scariest part are the papers cause I've always struggled with those. Struggled with writing them. Struggled with doing them well. Just all around strugglefest. And I know that is where most of my points will get docked.

Anyways like I said. In a month from now we will know where we are standing. An if I get through it all and an still alive. We will be in such great shape.

Since I wrote the above paragraphs it has been a couple of days, I have turned in a couple of the huge assignments that I had. and It is so much of a relief that is done. I feel good enough that I did well, but it's more that it is done that is getting me feeling good.

We also got a lot of wedding stuff done this weekend.  We finished all of the invitations pretty much. There are a few stragglers that we are remembering but we got the big bulk done, as well as the sign in book and started a sign that we want to get done.  Needless to say that the stress levels are going down for now, just finishing up life as a student for this semester. and then getting married and taking a little break. It's going to be so fun! 

Branding and New logo

This week I have thought a lot about the one little logo 

that I posted on here with an art update. 

It really bugged me to the point that I couldn't leave it alone. I talked with my buddy a lot about 

what I was thinking and what was coming from it.

I spent a lot of time thinking about how I could better improve it and make more designs from it. 

I went to his house last night to talk to him about what we could do with it

and where I thought it could go and where he thinks it can go

and just talking about life.

I thought about it as I went to bed. 

Earlier this week I came up with this.

I showed it to him last night and we brainstormed a lot of good ideas about how we could continue improving it all and making it move forward and in a good direction. He said that we should do more brainstorming and come back together.

I drew a bunch of thumbnails as artists always should when getting an idea and driving for the creativity inside.

This is just proof to show that I had a lot of ideas going through my head after we spoke and that I couldn't move forward with out getting them out of my head. 

Sometimes that's a great feeling sometimes it feels like a scary one because I want it to be just like I have imagined.

More updates to come. 

More ideas to spread. 

Also, for those who live in the Utah area, and know about colorfestival... even though I'm positive that people outside of Utah know about it (it's not even from here, just really big with all the college kids)

I'm going today and totally stoked. 

Pics to come! 

Sometimes, actually most times I don't know why or how things work out the way that they do. Sometimes, in college, I just feel lost and like I don't really know what's going on half of the time. It seems like I study and study and study and try and make sense of what is going on in each class. -Now I realize taking so many classes and getting a new job that has more hours and helping plan for my wedding it just all adds up- but on a poor college student, I think that is when most kids start doubting themselves and their confidence in supporting the direction if their life. Things add and build up and they know what they are doing is supposed to help them in the future and with supporting themselves and their families but it's often so hard to have that perspective when you're in the moment.  I found out that my grades are improving today (not that I have ever really gotten bad grades) but I am honestly seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  Also, with so many classes it seems hard to stay focused when you bounce around from class to class to class.  I worry that it is going to catch up to me especially around finals time. Today in my class that I am struggling the most with I found out that right now I have a B- and that it jumped up from a C- with the last test.  I don't know why it is working out so well right now but it is, and for that I am grateful!

Superhero Saturday 1.1

I was scrolling through my social media this week and I noticed this picture,  It made me laugh and I thought that I would share it for Superhero Saturday! I am 99.999999% sure that as I have kids (male or female) they will learn to love superheroes and what better way to reward them for eating their fruit?!

If I could choose what hi super powers were in this moment it would be to generate watermelon that heals sicknesses, because watermelon tastes so great and it would help out lots of people. 

His second super hero power would be to make spring come sooner than it is. So that it's a little bit warmer and not so dull looking outside :)

Painting update and quick sketches.

I ended up finishing the Bountiful Temple paining last week! 

This was the final product,

I was really happy with the way it turned out, the texture of the sky stands out and was one of my favorite parts of the piece. I also really enjoyed the shadows on the building itself and want to push myself to work on landscapes more.

I also was thinking of some ideas with one of my friends logos and had some fun playing around with those. Just some rough sketches to get out but really a fun idea!

And then a simpler logo. 

I'll be getting my other projects back this week as well and will post those here then!

This is Sparta!

So I went to class, I usually get there early enough to get a decent parking stall and today I decided that I would park backwards to get out those 4 seconds faster (time is money).  In my parking endeavor I readjusted out of common courtesy a couple of times to ensure that any other people trying to get decent parking stalls would be alright with opening the door and having the convenience of space surrounding their bubble to get in and out of the vehicle.. you get the picture.
I come out to my car, and although Mr. Truck you are in your stall, You are too close.  As you can tell in the picture ( which I take for those who think I make this stuff up) I have a full body shadow in between the line and my car.  I still struggled to get in and out of my car, which still took away those four seconds I was trying to save.

The other fun activities of the day were the blessing of getting my promotion at work a couple weeks earlier than I was expecting or hoping for. #HUGEBLESSING So, as part of the reward system in place we went to the arcade with some friends and did some basketball shooting and dance dance revolution and tried the stupid machine that you use the claw of doom and never get the stuffed animal (while the stupid teenagers before you got lucky and DID get the stuffed animal and sat around watching you laughing that YOU seem so incompetent to be able to grab the stupid animal) they got lucky anyways, and then finished the night with Frozen the cute little movie. I had never seen it but my nephews are pretty good at singing the songs so now we can sing them together.

Then finally, to a little bit of a throwback and an inside story. (Kind of like an inside joke but I'll do my best to fill y'all in)
At my old job we would play games for physical activity with the boys. It was often basketball, soccer or football. I usually participated, well because I need it, and because it helped keep them from getting too crazy and intense.  It got to the point where some of the kids got a little crazy and I ran in yelling THIS IS SPARTA and then they would laugh and run away from me. ( Knowing if they kept their behavior up I would consequence them) So we had a This Is Sparta joke for a little bit and I saw a picture of this sign and it reminded me of them and so in honor of them trying to improve their lives

THIS IS SPARTA!

Thoughts of the day and art update

Sometimes life is crazy, with decisions and luck you get thrown around in a whirlwind of experiences that are hard to know what and how everything really happens the way it does.

Today is kind of a crazy day, having it be the last day of my current job and starting and old, new job next week is kind of a crazy experience in and of itself. But making a little bit more and being able to progress a little faster within the work force - seeing as I kind of have put in some "time" already.

Having to change my schedule around that is going to be another activity making sure I'm still productive and keeping up with classes and schedules.

With everything going on I have still had time to work on the art projects, the top one is for my art class and the latest project we have been working on. We just turned it in yesterday and then the bottom one is the update to what I have so far on the Bountiful Temple for my friend.

Superhero Saturday 1.2

Today I was thinking a little differently, I put up some pictures to remind you of the majority of superheroes in the world, I understand there are more and that some people like villains more.

So being in college, and with my last post talking about how hard it can be to prioritize I got the idea to see what kind of super powers people would choose in college to use if they could. 

So you can comment and say 4 things.

1- Which super hero is your favorite one

2- If you could have any superpower to get you through college, what would it be and why

3- Would you use it to help others, or would you keep it to yourself

4- What would be your weakness

My favorite super hero is Iron man.

If I could have any super power, I would have the ability to teleport so that I wouldn't have to deal with the cold weather or traffic or parking tickets.

I would keep it to myself unless people paid me and I could monopolize on the commodity.

My weakness would be the inability to walk on carpet. It would be equivalent to walking on ice- possible, yet difficult. 

Well, there is my example go ahead and have fun with it!

T.G.I.F.

I found some funny memes this week and thought I would collectively put them on the same post on a day that is desired amongst so many! 

FRIDAY

Friday is such a great day because you are finishing up classes for the weekend, you usually are on your last day of work before the great break of the week, and it usually means that you can sleep in on Saturday (unless of course you have things to do or you are like me and your mind wanders carelessly around and around and you have an internal alarm clock that never stops going off at 5 in the morning)

Anyways the first one goes out to the ladies! Spring is coming around the corner and its about time to start harvesting!

Or when you were a kid, at least when I was a kid in elementary school, we always looked forward to Fridays.

Friday was always PIZZA DAY!!!! 

So, in honor of that looked forward to day-

Friday night date night? 

I think that it is always a maybe! (Usually no, because I work so late)

But to those looking to go out tonight, and the ladies aren't coming around the corning running into your arms, this meme could be for you.

Easy solution to drama free.

Then finally just as a kind of pick me up to our memories and reminiscing of childhood, the weeks or days when you ruined your weekend and got grounded for doing something your parents didn't approve of,  or that feeling of being double consequenced because in the moment you got spanked and then you got grounded afterwards- like, didn't I just get my punishment?

Now I know that this is becoming something illegal, I believe that discipline is good and sometimes that means a good spanking here or there.  

Working with youth, sometimes I feel like they lack the ability to have respect for others and can't take no for an answer. Now I'm not saying we should revert to spanking or any abuse whatsoever… I'm just saying…

I survived just fine. 

Why the top 3 really aren't the top 3.

I was thinking about my week this morning (after a pretty rough test and some assignments have been due occupying my time) and trying to figure out how we usually get things done.  I have heard of the triangle that looks like this … 

Where you have the choices between your top three priorities. Which as a college student I can vouch aren't always the easiest choices to make. 

1. Getting good grades

2. Social Life

3. Enough sleep

Only being able to pick 2 of these is hard enough to do.  We all live for each one of these and it seems like it gets to the point for most that say "c's get degrees" but with the way that society is today it seems like those that get c's or even b's can't really apply for their programs. 

In my research, as a good college kid does, I found a diagram that shows this kind of struggle to a more realistic level. 

This triangle then turns into a decagon with what really occupies our time.

1. Class

2. Work

3. Family

4. Homework

5. Sleep

6. Hobbies

7. Food

8. Extra-Curricular Activities/ Resume builders/ Volunteering

9. Love Life

10. Friends

Sometimes I feel like so many try to do everything that they don't realize how human they are and how much they can't do it all at once.  

How many of you end up veggin' in front of Netflix watching your  favorite show because you don't wanna deal with all the food on the plate anymore? 

My Visual Graphic art teacher this semester would say that there are way too many choices and that you can't mix flavors. 

If you have too much food on your plate then you might as well just blend it in the blender and drink it, cause that's what is ending up happening anyways!

Well, I guess today is about priorities, work 'em out and know that you can't get everything done in one day. And each day's priorities can be completely opposite or different from any other day.

Inspirational story

There was a group of boys at a summer camp. They were enjoying themselves, playing games and starting to get quite exhausted from the heat. In fact the heat became such a concern that the camp leaders decided to help out in a creative way- with funds available they made it a competition to see which group would drink the most water.  They split the boys into 5 groups of ten.  The groups started out drinking an drinking. They made piles where they could drop the water bottles off when they were empty so they could be counted at the end of the week. Through the heat, through the struggle the boys pushed on making sure they pace themselves but drank what they could. At the end of the week, one of the groups of boys cumulitively drank 3,000 bottles of water. The next closest group to them drank less than 1,000 bottles. And the number progressively got smaller.

One of the boys from te winning group turned to the councilor and asked him in a tone of frustration  "Why didn't you tell us we were winning by so much?!" 

Looking for the opportunity to teach the young boy an important lesson he took a moment to think about his response. 

He turned back to the boy and said "if I had told you where the other boys were, you wouldn't have pushed yourself so hard. You would have just gone the bare minimum and where would it have gotten you?  You may still have won, or maybe not.  What would you do if everyone told you what the minimum was that you had to do in life? Where would you get in life and what would you do? Would you still push yourself? Would you give up out of frustration?"

The boy stopped. A little puzzled he started making the connection of the analogy. He realized that life had no limits. 

In fact, life only has limits that we put around it and for some reason we stop ourselves from doing great things because we let others tell us what should be our maximum potential and we live with that dissatisfaction - at least until we pull away from those who hold us back and reach for the stars.

So as for me this year on living life for this year, I am going to get married! We are going to go to Mexico and then a few months later we will go and live in China for 4 and a half months.  We just got accepted to a school to teach english in Changzhou! We are so excited!! We will be living it up for sure because that is what we do best!