How's your week starting off? I hope well. Things are moving right along here. Keeping busy - a little bit of everything. Summers starting off nicely here in Phoenix. It's been in the low 100s and 90s recently. Warming up!
Some of what's been keeping me a little busy - I've been working on more artwork for my friend, Towanda Allen. She's been writing books and working on workshops for Mother and Daughter empowerment and enrichment. The first piece I did a while back was the "Brave" artwork.
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| Digital Artwork for Towanda Allen's empowerment workshops. |
That was a fun piece, and I knew she wanted more soon. As promised, she came back recently with a request for a book cover design. The book is a kids leadership development journal that she's written called, "I'm a Leader for a Great Tomorrow - Inspirational Journal for the Next Generation of Leaders." She's finished writing it and working with a publisher now.
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| Painting/Design for bookcover for Towanda's kids leadership journal |
The direction I got was - "here's the title - it's for boys and girls, let me know if there's an image that comes to you." I thought about it for a bit and what came to me was clear and quick - an abstract painterly style painting. Something a bit adventurous, but not in the traditional sense. Above is the image.
I've been wanting to work with the program, Painter, for a while now. I do play with it on my own, but I wanted to do some complete works with it, in a painterly style. This was the perfect project for Painter. I've worked with it off and on over the years, even when I was still in graphic arts in the Air Force. It's fun and really simulates artistic media well. You can use oils, acrylic paint, airbrush, pencil, marker, chalk, pastels, etc - all simulated thru this computer graphics software. (I think Corel is the company that owns/sells Painter now).
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| Painting/Design for Towanda Allen |
I also did a second image - I like it and it's different from the first, but I didn't really like it for this project. Well, as things often work out, Towanda loved it and wanted it...for the Mother/Daughter workshop. Awesome! So, I put some text on it, as seen below.
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| Painting with text - for Towanda Allen's workshops and promotional materials. |
Towanda did like the abstract for the cover and below is a version with text for the cover. I like the idea of having the translucent text box - so the text reads well and you can still see the art. It works for my design sensibilities.
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| Book cover with text. |
So that's it. Since then, another friend wants a book cover also and I'm working on a painting/design for it in Painter also. More to come on that. You can check out Towanda's web site for info on her workshops, books, her blog-talk radio show and more.
www.TowandaMAllen.com
Enjoy every moment - be present - suit up, show up, and live it. Make it a great day - choose to have a great day, even if you're doing a job you don't want, or whatever you're doing...it's a choice you make.
And of course - be good to each other.
Peace,
Tom