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SAM2.jpg LB.jpg
Hi, I'm Samantha! I'm the one in the top picture. That's my fluffy-sausage-muffin cat named L.B. He hangs out with me when I work on my artwork at home. He's even been an art subject in a watercolor painting I did a few years ago. I've been creating art since I was a little girl. I feel very fortunate to have a job that I truly love. I can't wait to share with you a very personal side of me through my artwork.

July 17, 2008

Creating The Joker for Batman page

(10:46 AM)

Yes, I am one of the thousands of Batman fans that can't wait to see "The Dark Knight" which opens in theaters on Friday. The most anticipated excitement is of course watching the late Heath Ledger's persona of The Joker. Which has been the buzz throughout Hollywood since the begining of filming. His tradgic death has brought even more attention to "The Dark Knight," regardless if Ledger were still alive I believe that his performance will still be memorable...
I started working on the design for the Batman page about a week ago. Here is preliminary sketch.joke1.jpg
I then scanned my sketch and brought it into Adobe PhotoShop CS3. I created contrast using Levels. I then turned the Layer's opacity to multiply Doing this allows me to have an underlying layer where I add color.joke2.jpg
Now onto laying out my page design. I don't usually sketch a design for my page layouts, I just start designing. I'm working in Adobe Illustrator CS3.

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June 24, 2008

Orange you glad...my color of the moment

(10:56 AM)

I'm lovin the color orange right now. It just says summer without it being too loud.

guess.jpg

Look, how cute is this handbag? My husband bought this handbag for me from the Bon-Ton. This was a definate splurge because I would never spend what he did for this handbag. But I love it! And it definately gets noticed.

Okay, rule of thumb handbags and shoes don't have to match, but these shoes are so cool looking and yes, they're orange.

orangeshoe.jpg

These Marciano Lucite wedge slingback sandal are to die for. I love shoes, but have really small feet. I wear a size 5 to 51/2. These come in 6 (so I won't be buying them) but you can get them from Victoria's Secret online store at

I buy the majority of my shoes at VS because they have a wide selection of shoes that come in my size.

Last on my list of Orange accessories is nail polish. O.P.I. nail polish is great. The color selections are plentiful and the quality of the product can't be beat. And Target now carries the O.P.I brand.
nailpolish.jpg

June 20, 2008

Don't mess with the BLOG's style...

( 4:11 PM)

Okay, if you haven't noticed my blog looks a little weird. That would be me trying to make it look cool and different. Only now my blog entries aren't lined-up correctly.

Under the Design pull down menu there is Styles tab, don't go there!!!! Or you're blog will be messed up like mine.

stles.png

June 19, 2008

Ramadan lamp

(10:51 AM)

Ramadan light.jpg

This is a vector based illustration. Here are the steps that got me to the finished lamp.

Everyone seems amazed at the fact that I am able to draw on the computer and how do I do it. They also are under the impression that it must take a real long time to create something on the computer. Well, not exactly. In this first step I have draw only the left side of the lamp using the pen tool. Which took about 5-7 mins.

light3.jpg

Now, for a shortcut. I use the reflect tool And what this tool does is make a duplicate copy. I will then use this copy of the left side image to make the right side and thus create the whole image

light4.jpg

light5.jpg

Using the gradient tool I'll add color and dimension to the lamp.
light6.jpg

My lamp is not quite done. I want to add a light source inside my lamp. To do this, I first make a copy of the three greenish window panels of the lamp. Then I turn them into what's called a compound path. I then use the flare tool and create a flare. I then take my compound path and bring it in front of the flare and create a mask. The mask contains the flare effect and gives me my internal light source.

And again here is the end result.
Ramadan light.jpg

June 13, 2008

iCarPlay... iLove

( 4:17 PM)

I bought Monster’s iCarPlay Wireless plus
Icar.jpg

I don't know how I drove my car without it. iLove it!!! All my favorite iTunes neatly organized on my iPod now can be easily listened to in the car. It's so easy to setup and I can preset three radio stations to play my iPod through.

What's on my playlist:
Everyday is Like Sunday by Morrissey
Yellow by Coldplay
Viva La Vida by Coldplay
The Last Thing on Your Mind by Lights (featured in the Old Navy commercial)
Hands to Heaven by Breathe
How can I fall by Breathe
Big Girls Don't Cry by Fergie

There about 10 other songs on this playlist, but when I get this far I end up hitting the back button to start the playlist again. So, I have been listening to the same seven songs about 20 times a day.


Greener York

( 4:07 PM)

Here is a pencil sketch I did for a story about recycling centers in the York area.

recyclecolor2.jpg
Again, I scanned the image into photoshop. I set the pencil sketch layer to multiply. I set the sketch layer to multiply so that the white part of image becomes invisible, and allows for me to add color on a layer beneath easily. I also boosted the contrast of the sketch in levels bringing up the shadows, midtones, and holding the highlights. This brought out the texture in my sketch drawing since I was using a regular pencil. Drawing pencils are different, and come in a variety of heavier lead weights so you can add contrast to your sketch drawings. But, I didn't have any drawing pencils on hand, so I made do with what I had.

The final page design is set to print in this Sunday's paper.


“Incredible Hulk” is here!!!!

(12:03 PM)

Here, is my final page design for “The Incredible Hulk”

hulkfinal.jpg

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