www.martaryczko.com

I’m the worst

August 20th, 2010

Ok, ok, its been awhile, but this summer was really bad for super art producing. I won’t get into details but my time was eaten up by summer classes, work, moving to a new apartment (finally in Toronto!), and battling a nasty sickness for practically 4 weeks. I don’t remember ever having such a busy summer without actually doing any illustration or design work for myself. I now have about two weeks before I go back to school, so I’m trying to do one really nice look illustration zine, and I actually have a few ideas for some paintings (those who know me know that I don’t really like painting). I’m just a bit worried that I will get distracted by new episodes of Futurama and True Blood. But I’m trying to stay on track. I already registered for canzine and I have 3 sweet prints that I will be selling. Here are some process photos of one of them:

Ok, ok, its been awhile, but this summer was really bad for super art producing. I won’t get into details but my time was eaten up by summer classes, work, moving to a new apartment (finally in Toronto!), and battling a nasty sickness for practically 4 weeks. I don’t remember ever having such a busy summer without actually doing any illustration or design work for myself. I now have about two weeks before I go back to school, so I’m trying to do one really nice looking illustration zine, and I actually have a few ideas for some paintings (those who know me know that I don’t really like painting so this is mind blowing for me). I’m just a bit worried that I will get distracted by new episodes of Futurama and True Blood. But I’m trying to stay on track. I already registered for Canzine and I have 3 sweet prints that I will be selling. Here are some process photos of one of them:

Sugar Skull Screen Print Process Photos

My screen waiting to get inked.

Yup thats my Sugar Skull print. I just need to finish applying the 3rd colour and its going to be ready to go. I printed them on Stonehenge paper and they look really nice. I have 2 more other prints that will be ready for sale come October, but this is all you get. I did these prints while taking a great course at Open Studio. The instructor was Shannon Gerrard who is just the most awesome person ever. Check out her website for neat stuff! By the way, I’m also going to have some sweet sticker and button designs this year so keep your eyes peeled!

Also, Florence + the Machine did a really nice cover of Roger Palmer’s Addicted to Love. So good.

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Good

March 30th, 2010

Oh man, this week is going to be crazy! Tomorrow, or rather today (since its early morning), I’m seeing Beach House with a bunch of buddies of mine. It’ll be a nice treat after a long day. I have a big essay due, along with a poster to accompany it. This is what I did, based on Art Nouveau and the Vienna Secession:

I didn’t have a lot of time but I worked hard on keeping it nice and simple. I only wish I had more time to fix those atrocious hands. I was worried about not finishing everything in time, but I just spoke to a few buddies of mine who haven’t even started, so I’m feeling fairly confident.

Work is good, school is good life is good!

Posted in Design, school | 14 Comments »

Whoop!

March 25th, 2010

Good news, I finally found a job. Best thing is that its at an art store literally right around the corner from OCAD. It’s part time weekends, which is insanely perfect for me. I start learning things tomorrow. I’m a nit nervous, but so excited and relieved. I bought a cadbury egg to celebrate, go me.

Last night I saw The Big Pink for the second time. Thankfully the venue was Mod Club, which is a million, zillion, gajillion times better than Lee’s Palace, which is where they played last time. We got to stand right at the front for the whole show. They sounded a lot better than at Lee’s and thankfully they stayed away from the seizure inducing strobe lights that they used for the whole show last time. Big Pink is one of those bands that sound amazing live, better than the stuff on their cd. My favourite part was when they did a cover of Otis Redding’s “These arms of mine”, of course no match for the original, but still very nicely done. I got to stare at their bass player the whole time too, which is not a bad thing at all bahah.

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Wat Pomp

March 17th, 2010

Today is such a nice day! And its St. Patrick’s Day too. A bunch of us went to get some drinks, but all the bars were full so we went to a mexican place for margaritas, which is decidedly not Irish in anyway, but we still had fun. I hope the weather stays this nice because it makes me and everyone way happier.

I’ve posted new illustrations that I have done for my classes this semester. I’m also going to add a design category because I think that my graphic design pieces are equally strong. I originally was going to do a whole separate site for them, but it doesn’t really make sense to do that.

Recently I’ve been listening to this crazy South African group called Die Antwoord. I don’t know if they’re putting on an act, or if they really are the way they are, but its awesome I hope they come to Toronto sometime soon. Here’s Wat Pomp ft. Jack Parrow:

Posted in illustration, life, Music, Toronto | 3 Comments »

The Comeback

January 17th, 2010

Oh boy, I guess I’ve disappeared for awhile huh. For the past couple of months I haven’t been feeling particulary good about what I have been doing design/illsutration wise. I’ve been sort of in a slump and I’ve been feeling uninspired. However, over the winter break I got the change to spend some time reading books, looking up inspirations and just exploring the state of illustration and design. I also went on a few cool photo expeditions and a great trip to New York with a few good buddies from school.

It was really good for me to go, because as much as I love being in Toronto, I really needed to breakaway for a bit. I did a lot of cool things there, including going to the Freedom Tunnel, which is a train tunnel where some graffiti artists do there thing. It was a great thing to see and even though we didn’t get to go right the end of the tunnel (we heard angry voices coming from the distance and we didn’t want to risk anything) it was still very inspiring to see some of the awesome works on the walls. Here is some of the graffiti adorning the tunnel:

It was really neat, next time I’m in NYC I know that I’m going there again. Maybe I’ll put something on the walls myself and become a part of it.

After I came back I had over 600 images of inspiration from the city that never sleeps and I realized I need to push myself further. So basically, I am trying to commit to actually do things instead of thinking about them or just doing half assed sketches. I’m going to try to update this thing with sketches, drawings, illustrations, inspirations and things that in my life that I find interesting. A couple days ago I realized how lucky I am to have a super cool group of friends that run around with me exploring abandoned places or doing weird things. Its nice. On that note, I’m ending this post with a cool Irish band called Fight like Apes and their song ‘Tie me up in Jackets”:

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