Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Happy Halloween from a stressed out pumpkin!

Yaaay, I love Halloween. Unfortunately I have to work all day tomorrow so not a lot of celebrating for me.
Not that I would let that stop me, no! I've dedicated a chunk of my day to Halloweeny goodnes. Yesterday I made Halloween cookies..they're all gone now...;) Today I made a pumpkin lantern!

Below you can see the process and the end result of my pumpkin carving endeavors!
Enjoy.

It begins with an ordinary pumpkin...

Some surgical marks are placed upon it's little noggin. 


Open brain surgery going on here!

 Poor pumpkin. He is obviously stressed out about loosing his lid :P

 But now he looks awesome and glows in the dark!


Trick or Treat everyone ^^


Until next time
Anita K. Olsen

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Feather tattoo desgin v.2

Below is a tattoo design I made for a client. He had lost three people who were close to him,
and he wanted a tattoo in honor of their memory. The design had to contain three feathers and the text " I may not see you, but I can feel you.

The client was very happy with the design, and I can't wait to see the finished result of his tattoo.



(c) Anita K. Olsen 2012


If you are looking for a tattoo design please feel free to contact me at:
anitaolsen.illustration@gmail.com

Wbesite:
www.anitaolsen.daportfolio.com

Until next time,
Anita K. Olsen

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Logopalooza! Lots of logo sketches

Yes, yes, yes, walk right up and sneak a peak at the lovely fruits of my labor!

As some of you may have read in one of my previous posts I was hired to create a logo for a local company specializing in fish and shellfish, namely Røa Fisk AS. As a result I blogged about how one should approach the process of logo design. (I don't know if anyone besides myself found it interesting, but you can read about it here).  

Anyway, I've finished the project, and my employers seemed to be very happy with the end result.
If you read my previous post about logo design you might remember how I talked about the importance of doing proper research, sketching down your ideas and choosing a selection of your best ideas to show your client in a semi-finished version? Well below you can see a selection of logo sketches I made. These are all sketches I showed the clients, and still there were quite a lot of ideas I didn't show them. I gave them a lot to choose from, and since they didn't know what they really wanted I think it helped them to see the possibilities of what kind of logos they could end up with. It helped me as well, because after having looked at other similar logo types and having sketched 15-20 different logo suggestions I felt very confident in the selection I presented to my clients. We still needed to have several rounds of editing, but having done all the prep work I never lost that feeling of confidence in my own work. So I can't stress it enough, the prep work in the beginning of your projects are the most important ones, because they are the building blocks for the rest of your projects. ( I hope I didn't get too preachy on you guys there, I just get all hot and bothered when I talk about illustration).



I haven't posted the finished logo yet because they haven't launched it officially in their store or on their website, and even if we don't have an agreement on when I can show the design publicly I have chosen not to show it until they are ready, out of respect for my clients. So you'll just have to wait and see.

Until next time
Anita K. Olsen


Contact:
anitaolsen.illustration@gmail.com

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

A good cause!

I wanted to talk a little bit about an issue I care about. Namely animals and animal rights. I'm not going to preach, but I feel like I have something to say and what better place to do that than here on my blog.

Say hello to Madiba, the chunky Halloween cat, and yes he exists. This illustration was inspired by my black, slightly overweight cat. We recently adopted him because his original owners had to move far away and they couldn't take him with them.



I have always loved animals, and I can't stand it when I see pets or other animals being mistreated. I don't understand how some people just leave their cats in cardboard boxes in the middle of the road or when owners beat their dogs or starve their livestock. It just makes me angry inside.

I know that there are a lot of people out there that share my views, and a lot of them are members of animal rights groups or work in animal shelters. Those people deserve a lot of praise for the work they do, but you don't have to work in a shelter or be an activist to help our four-legged friends. I believe in the greatness of little things, every little bit helps. I'm not a member of any group, but I try to do my part.  My first cat was a stray that I named Hedwig. Someone had just left her on the countryside, she was starved and tiny when she first came to us. I didn't have the heart to leave her by herself so I took her in. She was such a great pet, she was like a sneaky little cuddle-lovin' ninja cat. When I moved to Oslo I sadly had to leave her behind, but my grandmother took good care of her after that, but unfortunately she had to be put down due to illness (the cat, not my grandmother).

After moving around a bit and studying abroad we (my fiancée and I) decided it was time for a new cat.I chose to adopt a cat who needed a new home instead of buying a brand new kitten from a breeder. I originally wanted to adopt one from the local animal shelter, but they didn't have any cats that were suited to my living situation, and I didn't want to adopt a cat that I knew wouldn't be a fit. No-one would benefit from that. So I checked some on-line ads and we ended up with Madiba, a quiet, kind of shy black cat, who loves being carried around and snores when he sleeps. He loves food and he really likes sleeping in the hallway closet. Purrr-fect match.


My Fiancée and Madiba the cat.

A friend of mine has volunteered at an animal shelter for dogs and cats a few times. There volunteers can walk the dogs and socialize kittens and puppies. That is something I want to try one day as well. Now to all of my readers out there I want to encourage you to do some good too, because no matter what you do a little is better than nothing and will definitely be appreciated. Whether you choose to donate to an animal rights cause, adopt a pet from a shelter or from a home, volunteer some time or choose to join an organization. We all have favorite causes, and this is mine.

So if you've read this entire post, thank you, and remember to show some love for our furry friends

Until next time
Anita K. Olsen

website:
www.anitaolsen.daportfolio.com

contact:
anitaolsen.illustration@gmail.com