Hey everyone. I haven’t been slacking—I promise! Just been neck deep in assignments for the end of the semester. Not all of them I can show you right now, but here’s a few I’ve added to my portfolio (apologies for the small format):
Firstly, my type poster. The second half of semester one required us to design a typeface (at least just the uppercase or lowercase). I chose to be quite formal: Having noticed a lack of (non slab) serif typefaces with monowidth strokes, I decided to create my own. I also added
embellishments to the serifs that could be seen at display sizes. The whole typeface was based on Gill Sans, (despite my project on it last time) with a few minor changes (including changing the humanist strokes to monowidth—what a pain!). Considering we had 8 weeks to plan, sketch, create the typeface THEN make the poster, I did an okay job. It is called Jane Grey after Lady Jane Grey, who was Queen for nine days.
The book jacket was part of my illustration class, in which we were to design a new cover for a particular fictional novel. I chose Daddy-long-legs by Jean Webster, illustrating and designing it in a modernised vintage style.
I didn’t manage to scan in four ink illustrations I did for illustration class—I will try do that sometime next semester, and I haven’t put up my abstract stop motion yet—I’ll put that up sometime too.
Otherwise, I am on holiday for four weeks before heading into my final semester! These 3 years have gone by so slowly but so quickly too. Hope everyone’s having a good winter or summer!
Love,
Samantha
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In the midst of Bieber Fever hitting New Zealand I was so caught up on watching TV to catch a glimpse of him and follow him on twitter that I forgot that today I was supposed to post an entry. (But that’s ok, it’s still wednesday—and even tuesday in some parts of the world!)
What’s weird is that I didn’t really care about this kid until a few weeks ago—I don’t
know why. He’s got the angelic face and voice, but he’s still what, 16 and not that much different from other hip hop/pop singers out there. He’s captivating. You either love him or hate him.
Frankly, I think I like him because he looks like my favourite character from my brother’s book (which he did confirm—”yes, justin bieber is boron”—not that anyone has read it yet and knows who the hell Boron is.
127 days until The 4 Powers of Daren Saner is released in NZ and Australia!! (international orders CAN be made online!) The world doesn’t even know what’s hit it yet!
Anyway.
LOISH!. I love this girls work, seriously. It’s not particularly my style anymore—I used to get inspiration from her (see my
old illustration work)—but it still deserves a mention.
What I particularly like about Loish’s work is the colours and the textures and forms. Everything is just so soft and pleasant. Her work is very Disney-esque but she’s made the style her own.
Lois Van Baarle is an illustrator from the Netherlands, who has done some animation work aswell. Her trichrome blue short was beautiful. I thoroughly suggest everyone goes and checks out her work. It’s nothing short of wonderful. Check out her website
here.
Samantha
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Every Wednesday I’ll showcase inspiring Illustrators and Designers for
the Knighting Ceremony. For this very first week, I want to introduce Australian illustrator,
Fontaine Anderson. (Go check out her site, it’s so pretty!)
Her art genre is like mine, and very similar to mine in objectives. I love the colours, the naivety and imagination it holds. It’s very precious.
This genre of illustration is very popular right now, and it fits in perfectly with what I’ve always wanted to draw. I just need to find time amongst my workload to do some illustration!!
This Easter weekend I’m going home, so maybe I’ll draw then. I sure need to continue my
We are not ‘Mused series!
Who out there likes to draw? I’d love to see your work! Please comment and let me know, who knows? Maybe you’ll be featured on the Knighting Ceremony in the future!
Samantha
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So besides the million things I do each day that are not design related (like, getting excited for Obama), what have I been doing? School work, that’s what! And I have a lot of it. Not all of it fun either.
However, it’s time I shared some work with you. For my CGD3 class, we were given the job to design answers to random Proust Questionnaire questions. Here are two of the total six:
The aim of this project was to answer personal (and random) questions about yourself in an original and versatile way. I decided to emulate fifties/sixties style illustrations and design it as though it was in a book. So, my answers were extracts with supporting illustration. I was honest in answering the questions, but rather exaggerating and taking the mickey out of me to make myself seem more interesting.
See the rest of the designs here.
I’ve also added to the illustration page my threadless tshirt design, a humourous shirt that probably only typographers and designers would understand:
Remember to
vote for it!
Love,
Samantha
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I’ve been wanting to get serious about my artwork, and I have. I’ve been working on some art as of late, and I’ve produced two pieces (so far) for a new series I am calling We are not ‘Mused—a pun on Queen Victoria’s famous quotation. It’ll be a series of drawings of girls and women in my life who I have found visually interesting in some way. My first two, however, I only know via the blogging world. Some of you may know them. Let me introduce them:
Emily
About a month ago I was blog surfing, as one does, and I came across a blog of Emily, a sixteen-year-old fashionista. When I saw a photo of her showcasing an outfit, I immediately fell in love with her. She was just so beautiful—and her hair! I love, love, love auburn hair. So naturally, I asked her if I could draw her and surprisingly, despite my paedophilic and lesbian tendencies towards her, she said yes, thus For Emily, wherever I may find her was created. (The title of this piece is taken from the Simon & Garfunkel song). Mind you, I am not 100% happy with this piece. I may draw her again in the future :)
Louise
Louise was totally the perfect muse. She is so beautiful and classy, and it’s not hard to like her. It’s not hard to draw her either—she was so painless to draw, I think even my pencil was in love with her. I stumbled upon her blog not long after Emily’s actually. For me, what stood out about Louise was how photogenic she was. The way she held herself flattered her best features while still looking sassy. Actually, what I loved the most about Louise was her nose and her lips. Somebody should sculpture her, I swear. Anyway, this piece is called
Ah, Louise!.
Unfortunately, RGB format is not as beautiful as CMYK. One day I shall set up a service to sell prints. Perhaps on Etsy for now. I’ll get more art done first though.
In other news…
Some of you may remember my news last April about my brother’s book, a adventure novel for kids aged 9-13, being
accepted for publication by Scholastic. Currently it’s finally going through the editing stage and today it was finally given an official name! (The editors chose to change the original title to appeal more to boys):
The Four Powers of Daren Saner will be released in New Zealand on the 1
st of September this year (although I assume it’s available to be sold online too). Depending on it’s success, it may be released in Australia, if Scholastic picks it up there too. Although I’m not illustrating it (they offered me a chance to showcase some work but in the end they wanted someone with experience in the feild), they’re in the process of choosing cover artists and it seems like they’re going to pick a good company to do this.
Honestly, this book is amazing. I hope it sells enough to have it’s sequels published, because the first story is nothing compared… I think I’ll hush up now 
Anyway, it’s the end of the week lovelies. Hope you are all feeling swell. Please feel free to leave feedback on my art… And I totally appreciate everyone who comes by my blog. You are all awesome!!
Samantha
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I just saw Invictus with my brother. Oh my word, as a South African this is the greatest movie ever. You won’t believe how much this movie, and the actual ‘95 World Cup victory meant to our country. I loved it! (And don’t listen to the New Zealand fans who reckon the game was rigged and the players poisoned deliberately—they’re just sore losers). Great movie though, much better than that over-hyped-up Avatar! I’m impressed that Hollywood took it on. Maybe America will pick up on this real man’s sport now!
Anyway, to design and fashion!
Here are some items of clothing I’m particularly liking at the moment [click thumbnail for larger image]:
Sweater from Aztec Rose. I got it for NZ$20 (original price NZ$105!). It looks light, but is very warm. Too bad it’s summer and I can only wear it on rare occasions.
This was a fairly cheap item I bought at some random store at a random mall. But I love it!
These pants were worth NZ$129, I got them for NZ$49. Yus! They’re
gorgeous little business pants. And like heaven to wear—they have silk lining!
This shirt was a design of my own. I bought a cheap coral-coloured t-shirt, chose some lyrics (”Love me do” by
the Beatles) and because I don’t have a sewing machine, I went to an embroidery store and had them attach the letters. Took no time at all and hardly cost me a thing!
I ordered some postcards from
Courtney Brims’ website. Really cheap! Here they are:
And I FINALLY got my
Smashbox Lipstick in Nude (Charming)!!. So exciting! Getting it online cost me half the price of what I could have paid retail!
And thus ends my shopping spree!
PS: I really,
really want
this house! Oh, it just
soooo “me!”
Samantha
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Hey lovelies. You won’t believe how long it took to post this. My blog has issues posting things straight away. Anyway, I’ve been getting into some illustrating lately (some which I’ll hopefully post before I leave for Uni), and so I wanted to share with you some artists who inspire me, and some who I just think are fantastic:
Kelly Thompson
Catherine Campbell
Eveline Tarunadjaja
Jules Julien
and Kareena Zerefos
In other news, I just want to thank everyone who comes by my blog and leaves lovely comments. I read them all and I always return the kindness. I love to see what other blogs are out there!
Samantha
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Two home interiors that totally inspired me this week, courtesy of Design*Sponge:
And from the Design is Mine blog, they has a selection of photos displaying various interiors.. the designs were quite quaint, vintage and delicate. I love it! Click the image to see more:
I’ve been really inspired by illustrators as of late, and one I particularly liked was Courtney Brims, a Brisbane-based self-taught illustrator. Her work is so beautiful, I feel that they are inspired by Audrey Kawasaki’s work, which is innocent yet seductive. Courtney Brims work is very sweet, but it has these dark themes mixed in with it. And she uses pencil! There aren’t many artists these days who don’t use digital or even traditional paint. Anyway, I ordered a set of postcard prints from her website. Have a look at her work.. Here’s a few for a start:
Lastly, but more importantly, who else is a huge fan of
Frankie Magazine? If I could afford it, I’d subscribe to it. I love that magazine. Someone buy me a sub! Haha :P
My brothers (well, one of) and Dad are back from their African Safari trip. Unfortunately they landed only 2 hours after Prince William arrived in NZ… I’ll post some photos of their trip sometime. Lucky dogs, I haven’t been back to South Africa since we emigrated!
Samantha
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New illustrations up.
For Dragonball Z fanatics like me. I’m wondering if I’ll ever grow out of my childhood obsessions…
Samantha
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Do you know what I’m excited about?
Seeing Morgan Freeman play South African ex-President, Nelson Mandela. I’m even more excited about Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar, the South African Rugby Captain of the ‘95 world cup. I was only 6 at the time of the match, but boy, do I remember it. As I am South African, and my family are big SA rugby supporters, you can imagine how excited that time would’ve been (as for the 2007 WC).
Anyway, who would’ve thought Americans would’ve taken on something like this? Especially Rugby. It’s probably the first dramatic American sports movie that doesn’t involve super bowl, ice hockey, baseball etc (American versions of Rugby, field/turf hockey and cricket—and much less enjoyable than the British counterparts). And my brother’s first laughed at the idea of Matt Damon taking on the role. It’s like the idea of Paris Hilton playing Mother Teresa—except not nearly as crazy. Anyway. Here are some pics:
I love rugby. It’s great. I remember how I supported Jonny Wilkinson England in the 2003 WC and he they won, and South Africa (and JW) in the 2007 WC and they won (and England was in the final again.. go JW).
I think I love Jonny Wilkinson more than Rugby itself.
In other news..
My brother Michael met with his publishers (Scholastic) a few weeks ago, and during the full-on discussion of everything and anything, he slipped my name into the conversation about an illustrator (for the book jacket). Now, usually first time authors don’t get to choose who illustrates their book, but they said that I was welcome to show them a few concepts and illustrations—and if they like it, they may just use it!!!!
!!!!
!!!!
I could be an illustrator! My work… on a book!
Ok, I’m quite skeptical about it, I mean, I’m not a brilliant artist, and they most likely won’t choose it—I mean, Michael’s biased about my work probably, but heck, I’m taking it on! It’s a once in a lifetime experience for me, and this way Michael can also have a say in what goes on his cover design. So I have a month to get a few things done. Hoping for the best!! 
Samantha
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Samantha Oehley is a 20 year old undergraduate at the Wanganui School of Design in New Zealand. Her interests include the 1960s and 1910s, the Beatles, politics, reading, music and drawing. She has a thing for Priests and Authority figures, and has the habit of always exaggerating things to a more dramatic scale 
