Wednesday, March 24, 2010

just for you, mr. trump


hello mr. trump! i hope that you are reading this after my tweet to you today @realDonaldTrump.


i did this painting of you in 2004, for an illustration for Online Degrees magazine (no longer in publication). i was thinking of selling it, and i thought i would offer it to you first.

so, if you're interested, make me an offer! i'm happy to deliver it in person too. =)

all the best,
nicole block
designer and illustrator, the nic studio

Thursday, February 25, 2010

poster for the haiti poster project


i finished my poster for the haiti poster project! the concept centers on all the countries in the world that have donated help for haiti, to help rebuild. the sizes of the flags shown represent how much one country may have given in relation to another. the building is based on a number of painted metal shacks in port au prince's la saline market.

the poster may be printed generously by the folks at red dog graphics. however, they can only donate printing for one designer, and since a few of us finished by their deadline, there will be a vote held online to decide who is the lucky designer. i will alert my fans as to when the voting begins. =)

Sunday, January 17, 2010

cross-post: drawing for new project



what do we think? hand-drawn illustration for a current project. i think it's pretty damn, well, pretty!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

sketch of DUMBO brooklyn


i'm doing studies of brooklyn neighborhoods for some stationery work i'm doing. this is of DUMBO.

final illustration!


here's how the final illustration looked! client is very happy.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

cross-post! my little girl's first birthday invitation


i just finished illustrating and designing our daughter's first birthday invitation. i did the illustration rather large, so i'm actually going to hang it for her in our apartment, and then switch it out each year with her new birthday illo.

i hope you enjoy it!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

second baby illustration -- little boy blue

to welcome a new little boy into the girl-laden lot, i made a piece for mr. spenser everett that was based on little boy blue. again, i accomplished it all on my wacom cintiq, and i documented a bit of the process below.

i started out with a brown grounding in the background to work off of, just as i would a painting. i wrote out the colors that i wanted in my sketch layer, and then quickly blocked them out in my painting layer so that everything could come together faster.

as you can see, i started to lay in the dark details, like these on the house, after i had layed in the majority of the basic colors. my "brush" technique was influenced by this tutorial from digital arts online.

i started to actually lay in the brighter color details after that.

as you can see, the sketch layer remained available to me to work from as i moved forward in the project. i tried to bring all areas together at the same time so that it was a united piece. the last this i had to address as of this point was the boy himself.

when the sketch level was hidden, you can see the level of completion in the overall piece, and how the details had yet to be added to the boy.

and the piece is complete! i'm really happy with how this turned out. i hope you enjoyed seeing the steps in the process! it's good to know that you can still get a fulfilling "painting" experience when you cannot use paints at the moment. its definitely not the same as a palette, a brush, and my pigments, but it's the next best thing.