Another @yegartwalk in the books, 2nd year in a row 😊 thank you to everyone that came out to support me and the other artists this year! #yegartwalk #yegartwalk2018 #artwalk #artist #supportlocal #thankyou #thanksforthesupport #thanksforcoming
graphic design blog
*POW* Inktober 2017 *SMACK*
Blog Post, Creative Challenges, illustrationsSoooo stoked to start Inktober for my 3rd year in a row!!
Last year I decided to do a horror theme, this made planning and illustrating much easier! This year’s theme is going to be *insert drum roll here* Super Heros!!
My focus this inktober is to work on figure drawing with these dynamic characters. This is also the first time I am using the inktober prompt list.
I am super (no pun intended) excited and will be posting them here and to all my social media pages, so be sure to follow me on instagram or twitter for live updates!
More about this awesome challenge can be found here: Inktober – Where it began
Click here to view my Inktober 2017 results.
Don’t forget to Check out my Inktober 2016 and Inktober 2015 and let me know what you think!
Thanks for reading 🙂
Welcoming November!!
Blog PostOctober was probably my busiest Month this year!
Between teaching myself…rather giving my self crash courses on how to do Special FX make up & Face Painting, the first Global News Press release for Night of Fear Festival, where I painted my sister as a green zombie & did some special FX make to promote me at the event: Press Release Link
Making 17-20 zombies with another spray artist and an Author helping with latex the following weekend: Night Of Fear Fest Zombies
Branding & building a new Facebook page, website, signage, price lists, signup sheets & business cards for my side project: Inspiring Designs Body Art to further my creative career in other ways while making a little bit of extra income.
Thanksgiving with my boyfriend’s family & celebrating his birthday.
A 4-5 hour pro-bono face painting session at Spirit Halloween to promote my business then go to an AMAZING Slipknot concert the next day – my boyfriend’s b-day present & some tasty treats I made that he likes to eat.
My Niece’s 9th birthday, baking then decorating her cake & my side of the family’s Thanksgiving the following weekend. (Link to come)
Being haunted by some old ghosts that just wont leave me alone.
Making my Niece & Nephew’s Halloween costumes. (Link to come)
The actual 2 day Night Of Fear Festival Event (LINK) Making my first official client into an undead creature: Link to the Undead Then taking my niece & nephew trick or treating – my dad usually takes them every year but last minute was not able to come out sooner; since they are 7 & 9 I brought them out to start and my dad came by later to join us 🙂 While doing this my sister Marie and her boyfriend were able to come over and tend to the trick or treaters for me – they were coming over to watch horror movies while I did the door anyway this year so it worked out perfect.
Finally, I decided to also take on another awesome creative challenge: Inktober! You can read more about this and see my illustrations by clicking here: INKTOBER to read my Inktober blog post.
…it was a very busy month to say the least lol so I am welcoming November with open arms to hopefully catch up on some sleep and experiment with other creative things 🙂
Thank you for reading 🙂
Take Typography Out Of The Box & Play A While
baking, Blog PostThere are many different ways you can exercise those mad typography skills away from the computer, one that is enjoyable and delicious is baking. Make your tasty creations more personal and unique with hand crafted messages on cake, brownies, muffins/cupcakes, cookies, pies crusts and more!
For this blog I decided to feature how I broke out my typography skills with baking. I was inspired by the ingredients of this particular cake and thought to myself:
“why write on a cake with icing when you can try something new?!”
The Influence:
This month my nephew, Hayden, turned 7 years old and wanted me to make him an ice cream cake for his birthday; for the past year his motto has been “Cake Is MY LIFE!” with his amount of enthusiasm towards cake I was more than happy to oblige and made him a lactose free Oreo ice cream/pudding cake.
It was the main ingredient of the crust that inspired me to be a little more creative and try a stencil instead of icing, that ingredient was Oreo Cookie Crumbs.
The Process:
1. Take a piece of card stock, it is thick enough to hold the stencil’s shape, and cut it to fit the surface of cake.
2. Sketch or trace your message into the card stock. I used a slab serif “H” for Hayden to make the letter a bit heavier without adding too much weight to the stem or crossbar, allowing me to have some wiggle room for a stylized “7” for his age.
3. Cut out your letters; I used an x-acto knife, self-healing cutting mat and ruler. Scissors will not do as you DO NOT want to BEND your stencil or it may not be flat enough on the surface to work effectively.
4. Place your stencil onto the surface and press down on the lifted edges so the cookie crumbles, cocoa power, confectioner sugar or whatever you are using to heavily sprinkle over the stencil does not leak or roll under the edges, keeping your typographic play crisp and clean.
5. Remove the stencil, be sure to keep it as straight as possible while lifting all the edges up as evenly as possible to prevent any spillage of the excess ingredients on to the cake’s surface.
Cut out letters from the stencil
Stencil after using it on the cake
The final out come
The great thing with stencil work is that you can choose if you want to use the negative or positive version; for instance, I chose to use the positive space as the letters but could easily of used the negative. This can be achieved by taking the cut out letters form the stencil, placing them on the cake and heavily sprinkling the powder or crumbs over top and carefully removing the paper cut outs; though I felt in this case there was more contrast by using the positive space.
This is a fun, fresh approach to utilizing those typographic skills away from the computer. Give it a try and share your creation with me on Instagram or twitter @noelle_fontaine
Thanks for reading 🙂
Professional Borders, Keeping It Clean
Blog Post, illustrationsWhenever you are working on a project for a client, it is very important to keep it as professional as possible. One way to achieve this is to have clean borders, depending on what you are working on of course, not everything is going be boxed in; some elements may break the border, while others might reach the end of the page or canvas.
Some helpful tips on keeping your border sharp & clean:
1. Masking Fluid: Great for small or awkward shapes. Though I do not recommend this for airbrushing as it can peel the surrounding paint. It is a white, goop like consistency during application that hardens to yellow-ish rubber. There is an eye dropper attached to the lid, you can use this but I would recommend using an old paintbrush for more detailed areas.
I use Dr. Ph. Martin’s Masking Fluid, don’t let the aroma fool you, it is a great masking tool!
2. Transfer Tape by EM Plastic (4″ roll): This tape is ‘semi-transparent’ so it is easier to see what shapes you need to cut out once applied. Take an x-acto knife & lightly (emphasis on the lightly! as if you are scoring the tape, you do NOT want to slice your illustration underneath) slice the tape, masking the areas you do not want contaminated.
It is excellent for protecting certain areas of a project while airbrushing.
3. Good Ole Fashion Tape! Masking or Painter’s Tape To Be Precise: This is excellent for taping off borders, but be sure to stick the tape to your pants or shirt before applying to some surfaces – it can tear the top surface texture (i.e. illustration board) if it is too sticky.
Masking & painter’s tape is the easiest material to find anywhere!
4. Removing Techniques: Once your illustration is complete (and dry!) slowly peel off the tape; it is best to not rip off or lift the tape vertically when peeling but to slowly peel horizontally or at an angle, protecting your surface from tearing. As for the masking fluid, just rub it off with your fingers or an eraser.
Clean lines make for a beautiful presentation while keeping the illustration professional. Keep you client in mind, would you want to invest in a piece that is sloppily put together? Craftsmanship is key, show that you take pride in your work!
For further information about the materials used for the featured illustration check out my last post Water Colour Pencils you can follow me on Instagram and Twitter for instant illustration updates.
Thank you for reading 🙂
Noelle Fontaine Design & Illustration 