I’ve been doing a lot lately in preparation to go back to work soon. While my resumé and portfolio site are as up-to-date as they possibly can be right now, I’ve taken on a lot of personal projects to stretch my legs/learn new skills/sharpen up old ones. Last night after Alex went to bed I decided to try to some photo illustration. I mean, I’ve done this kind of stuff before a little, like when I worked for Totino’s and even a few times with Vita.mn. But this felt more like doing design for design’s sake. It’s an incredibly enriching process. Even though I haven’t had a real design job in over a year, I actually think I’m better than I ever was before.
(it probably sounds ridiculous, but I did a ton of maintenance on my Pinterest boards over the weekend and now I have like 8 boards for different facets of graphic design instead of one big massive one; like “Art Direction” or “Packaging” or “Typography.” IT was kind of like a light switch off when I created them all and I now feel inspired to just create).
What’s cool about having these self-initiated projects is that a lot of them are good enough (in my mind) that I stick them in my portfolio. Recently I had an almost job offer (ha!) for a designer who can also do food photography. I started the food photo project basically as something fun to do while being a full time stay-at-home-mom and in the process, picked up some skills that are valuable to a potential employer. That’s cool!
With these photo illustrations, I mean, it was just messing around (I made these in InDesign), but who knows, maybe some art director from some magazine someday will be like “Hey I like these, do you want to do something for this magazine?” And I’ll be like “Yeah”. So anyway, with that all said, here’s a few photo illos I did for fun and practice. I began by searching for hi-res photos on Creative Commons, not really knowing what I would do, and it went from there. I just kinda dig the wolf and winter aesthetic. I think 100% because I am excited about Game of Thrones being back. 
So, there’s lots to explore. I wish we could jump right in but sadly I think this bathroom project is quite a bit further down the line.
Growing up, I was a tomboy. Not like, wearing dresses and climbing trees like Caddie Woodlawn, but like shopping in the boys’ section at Old Navy. That kinda thing. Femininity has never been something that came super naturally to me. There were periods in my life where I tried to even out my more masculine side by going hard “girly”. I liked how I looked wearing makeup, but it also made my skin itch and I touch my face too much. I’ve realized this recently when in a therapy session. I’ve never felt like a conventional woman, but in the last year I’ve embraced my own brand of womanhood. I found out that long hair suits me as long as I wear it up, jewelry’s not really my jam (unless it’s this 
Strange News from Another Star 