She can kill you with her eyebrows.

I recently signed on as a freelance illustrator at elance.com and this was the first of two jobs that I bid on and won. The client wanted an illustration of herself in a stately den, sipping brandy with the ghost of Leona Helmsley. Immediately, I imagined Leona’s furry eyebrows framing her snarky face, enticing the viewers to join, while at the same time making them aware of her clear superiority to them.

You can check out my illustration in context (soon) at Leona’s Ghost.

I had a great time designing and illustrating this project, and my thanks go out to the client and to elance.com for making this all come together. I dare say I think I have a future in freelance illustration!

This was a fantastic job and I had a lot of fun doing it. I hope to be able to work on similar projects again in the future.

Hungry?

She's still my little girl.

My boy grew up so fast!

Spend wisely!

Watch out, he's 16 and has a car now!

Start small and save up.

Who spends $135 on blue jeans. Honestly!

OP Fall 2009 Newsletter

This is it, my last newsletter for the UO Outdoor Program. It’s been a fantastic three years being webmaster and graphic designer for the OP. I’ve made numerous friends, gone on many adventures, and learned lots of new things. I hope I can find a job out there in the real world that will be as fun and enriching as my time at the OP has been.

You can view a low-res version of the full newsletter by clicking here.

[Please note: This work is a not-for-profit piece for the University of Oregon Outdoor Program. So it's copyrighted. Don't mess with this work at all. Plzthx.]

ellejohara
[posted 14 September 2009]

Your soul is as dried and withered as the books to which you so cleave.

I happened across an art jam on deviantArt last night and I really wanted to get in on it. The deadline is today, so I stayed up until 3 am just to get it finished. Whether or not it gets into the art jam doesn’t matter. I’m just stoked that I managed to create a new illustration so soon after the last one!

I think I might just be getting over this creative lull.

el jo

Dean and Hank Venture

I drew a sketch of the Venture boys a long time ago, back when I didn’t seem to be quite so apathetic about drawing. Now that I’m done with my college education I want to get back into drawing again. I think drawing a fan illustration of the titular characters from one of my most favorite shows ever is a good place to start.

Rockin' the pennyfarthing!

This is a poster I threw together for the UO Bike Loan Program and their huge bike faire shindig at the EMU. The old guy on the big wheel throwing the goat was pure inspiration.

Check out the Ginger Ninjas at their site: gingerninjas.com.

[Please note: This work is a not-for-profit piece for the University of Oregon Bike Loan Program. So it's copyrighted. Don't mess with this work at all. Plzthx.]

Pale Blue Dot

This poster was really fun to work on. I cranked it out in only two days and I really like how it turned out. A co-worker of mine at the UO Outdoor Program commented on the flower, saying that he’d shot a photo of a desert flower that looked exactly like my graphic one here. (It had five petals instead of three.)

I based the flower on the traditional recycling logo. The sun and rays were a bit of inspiration though. I felt the design needed some zap, and the rays provided that while drawing attention to the flower.

[Please note: This work is a not-for-profit piece for the University of Oregon ASUO. So it's copyrighted. Don't mess with this work at all. Plzthx.]

Bicyclicious!

This is perhaps the most insane cover ever made in the history of the Outdoor Program. I had an absolute blast working on it. Before I graduated, I wanted to try my hand at a retro 1970s style newsletter cover. The photos were all taken by me on my Nikon D80 digital SLR and then tweaked in Photoshop with a gradient map. Then I put everything together in Adobe Illustrator.

You can view a low-res version of the full newsletter by clicking here.

[Please note: This work is a not-for-profit piece for the University of Oregon Outdoor Program. So it's copyrighted. Don't mess with this work at all. Plzthx.]

ellejohara
[posted 23 April 2009]

The peaceful hush of backcountry skiing.

I worked with photographer Fred Sproat again for the Winter 2009 cover. I think it speaks for itself.

You can view a low-res version of the full newsletter by clicking here.

[Please note: This work is a not-for-profit piece for the University of Oregon Outdoor Program. So it's copyrighted. The photo is copyrighted by Fred Sproat. Don't mess with this work at all. Plzthx.]

ellejohara
[posted 23 April 2009]

Sexual Wellness Advocacy Team

Yes, that is underwear.

This was a brochure I designed for the University of Oregon Women’s Center S.W.A.T. program (Sexual Wellness Advocacy Team). The only things that were really required in the design was the typeface and the color scheme (black and red). The typeface was my key source of inspiration and you can see I carried its grunginess through the entire design.

[Please note: This work is a not-for-profit piece for the University of Oregon Women's Center. So it's copyrighted. Don't mess with this work at all. Plzthx.]

ellejohara
[posted 1 May 2009]