Illustrating Fool

If I could go back to college I would study design. Because despite not having artistic talent, I am drawn to creative design work. But because I can't afford the time or money to redo college I have opted for a few classes here and there. If you have ever heard of Nicole Hill Gerulat, photographer extraordinaire, you may have heard of Nicole's Classes. Nicole works with Mike & Alma Loveland, as well as other professionals to teach us lay people some creative skills. I have attended two Art Weekends, which are three day events that offer  lots of different two-hour mini-courses. I have taken screenprinting, Illustrator 101, pattern-making (in Illustrator) and Photoshop. And Illustrator is my favorite. I feel like I can create something that I can picture in my mind, without my hands having to draw at all!

For Christmas this year, my sweet husband paid for me to take an online course from Nicole's Classes. So this month I am taking Illustrator 101 from the illustrious Alma Loveland. And I am loving it! It's so nice to take a month-long class instead of just two hours. I completed week 1 and am deep in the throes of week 2. For anyone yearning to cultivate their creative side I highly recommend Nicole's Classes. I am very impressed with their online format and they offer classes in photography, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, flower arranging, sewing, and watercolors.

My first assignment was to make a typographic poster and I chose to make one for my friend that just had a new baby. I asked her about colors and used the sweet baby's name (isn't Piper Jane the cutest!). This poster is not fabulous design-wise, but it was fabulous as practice for all the things I learned in my first week. And I learned something about saving files properly so I was very pleased with the printed results. Costco prints a 16 x 20 size for only $6.