Straits Wedding invitations!

Whew these invites took a while, but I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. My sister-in-law is somewhat of a designer herself, so she's proved to be my toughest client to date since she had as many ideas in mind as i did! In the end, a pretty good wedding invite came out of it, though. Take a look-- Can't wait for October 21!

Congrats, Ryan and Jordan!

BTW: Ryan and Jordan just got their engagement pictures posted online by Lark Photography.

A long time coming

Freakin excited right now, because my band's (Static Society) debut album "Beholders" is up on iTunes today! We are so excited about this, it really has been a long time coming. We've been a band for about 3 years, and things just started coming in to place where we could record our album, and it came out great! I think the best part about it is that it was all (for the most part) created by the band. Our keys player, Morgan Cooper, did the recording and mixing and what not. We got some friends (JT Daniels and Dominic Petrucci) to help with the album cover/casing), but then we assembled, packaged, burned, and labelled them ourselves. Tedious, time-consuming work to say the least, but we feel like the end product was worth the effort we put in. And hopefully it shows to all who hear our music. Now we're just excited to get back to playing more shows, spread our music, and grow our fan base. Help support by getting our CD on iTunes or cdbaby.com today!!

What's been going on this summer?

Not doing too much really. Watching many movies. Sleeping.... well not really that much more often. Trying to work when i can. BUT just to fill you in with a bit more detail, i'll bullet-point the basics.

• Just got my first smartphone. It rules. Am i one of those people that say  i now can't live my life without it? Not yet. Although I know it will make me more available to do some broader networking, so thats a plus. Also having the fat booth app is the best thing ever.
• My wife just got her first full time job! She graduated in May, so we're happy that she was able to land a job fairly soon. I'm ok with having a sugar momma for a little while, but i'd like to get my own career going sooner than later too!
• In light of my wife's aforementioned job, we may be moving into the city! Not fully decided yet, but its where we initially wanted to move when we got married and it didn't really work out, plus an apartment we really like is available to move into.
• Gonna be a counsellor at my church's high school camp in a couple weeks. I got to design the logo for the theme this year:

You might be wondering if i've done anything in the design realm this summer. The answer is yes. Not too much, but enough to keep me occupied. One project was of that mentioned above. The most recent thing i designed were a couple father's day cards for my dad and father-in-law:

(My dad's is the bottom one; my father-in-law's [Dan's] is on top)

My big project this summer has been my sister-in-law's wedding invitations. How exciting! This has been a tough but very fun project. I'm still working on the formal invitation so i can't show you much, but the save the dates have already been sent out so i'll show you that to give you a little preview of what the feel of the formal ones should look like:

oh yes... it's coming...

So that's about it for now. Hope your summer is going good!

BTW i'm on twitter now! follow me! @lileseric

I guess its a poem...

I was standing in church Sunday, listening to the music, when my friend began to sing. She has such a beautiful voice its almost unfair to the rest of the world. Well anyways, as i considered this, i also thought about the fact that she is also a Spanish teacher. It was amazing to consider the fact that God has gifted her mouth in so many ways to bless other people. I started to wonder, "what has God gifted me with?" To be honest, i'm not great at much of anything; I'm good at a lot of things, but not great. Fortunately it didn't take me long to figure it out- God has given me gifted hands. I play drums, and i am a developing graphic designer. Some may argue whether or not graphic design is a gift of the hands, but i definitely think it is (its a big factor, at least). Sadly though, i pop my fingers all the time, will probably have carpal tunnel within the next decade, and have quite recently developed a recurring twitch in my thumb. So i'm not sure how long these hands will last, but i'm hoping things will pan out. In light of my gifted hands revelation, i began developing a collection of thoughts on my hands, which has turned into a poem of sorts. I'm no poet, so i don't know why i wanted to make this a poem, but i did, so here you go.

These Hands

These hands aren't much, are they?
They are big and long and boney.
They are calloused.
They ache.
They twitch.
But they can palm a basketball....I guess that's cool.

These hands bow to the right side of my brain.
These hands create.
They drum.
They design.

These hands wish they could do tons of other things.
Like play the piano.
Or the guitar.
Or draw better.
Or do that pen-flip thing.
Maybe one day...

These hands love.
They hug.
They shake hands.
They high five.
They pat backs.

But these same hands sin.

They lust.
They hate.
They steal.
They envy.

These hands get lazy.
They love the remote control.
They waste time.

In the end, I think God still loves them, though.

Now they work.
Now they praise.
Now they love.

Fine Art

Just a few pieces I did for drawing class this last semester that I didn't think came out too bad.

This was more comical to me, but it was actually a good nose study. There's some friends and family noses as well as some notable celebrity noses (Michael Jackson, Jay-Z, Adrian Brody, etc..)

I just like how this one came out in the end.

The goal of this piece was to take and "old master" sketch (in this case, Leonardo's "Condottiere") and make an abstract collage. I sort of went outside those boundaries a little, because there is a theme to the piece- war. I didn't try to communicate any personal stance on war, whether I agree or don't agree with it or whatever. I just wanted to show the characteristics of war. What is war? How does it make people feel? There is no one-sided opinion, just the facts of war. War is messy, its violent, its dark, and sadly seems to be the only way that anyone can resolve an issue over the past 5000+ years. I used paper cutouts, acrylic, charcoal, coffee, pen, and a wood burner to create the final image.

Color pastels- I like how the colors came out for this one. Just so vibrant!

lieulls.com is live!!

My official website is now up!
just click here

I'll still be posting designs/blogs on here too, though, so check here and on my site to see what's new!

Minimalism

I love minimalism. I am craving the skills to create many minimalist pieces. Seriously, it takes some skill. Skill, wit, and an understanding of layout and placement. In my opinion its really easy to mess up a minimalist piece- its a double edged sword!

This is my first attempt, and I like how it came out. Its a little text-heavy because I'm making this for a "theater poster" assignment for my design class. but still, the idea communicates.