www.martaryczko.com

I’m not dead! (Yet…)

October 24th, 2009

Okay, so I’m sorry that I haven’t written anything since Sept 13. It’s actually sad really, that my own mother asked me why I’m not blogging. So I took that as a sign, to make a little room and show what what I’ve been up to. School is mainly the thing that’s keeping me away from doing anything enjoyable and second year is a lot harder than I expected. Enough said on that.

Now, first thing is first. I’ve been doing some more things for Canzine (which is only a week away, holy crap!) Here are some sneak peek preview photos of what I’m going to have at my table:

H’okay, so first image is a sneak peak at my second zine. It’s really small, 2″ x 2″ folded, and 2″ x 10″ when spread out. It’s double sided, again, just illustration. I will also have large prints of the main illustration for sale ( 4″x17″ so short, but wide).

Second and third are just two of the 6 boxes that I hand painted and will also be selling.

Fourth photo is buttons! Many, many, many buttons, which again, you’ll find at my table! So please come say hi!

Last week I had a small part in a art exhibit called Xpression against Oppression at University of Toronto. I’m not sure how big the exposure is/was, but any exposure is good exposure. My friends Myra, Mimi and Guru were also showing. Here are some shots from the opening:

Apparently none of them know how to look at the camera (From Top: Group, Mimi, Myra, Guru). Before the show we went for delicious Chinese food at a surprisingly clean place in China Town. I will return again.

Finally, because Jeannie asked, these are the business cards I ordered awhile back:

There! It’s 2:26 a.m and I am watching infomercials and I am so ready to buy the Bullet Extreme! I need sleep!

Posted in art, Design, Zines | 3 Comments »

Preview #1

September 13th, 2009

So the weeks leading up to Canzine, I’ll be doing these preview posts, to show what I’ll have at my table. The first photo is a look at what my first zine looks like. It’s filled with drawings, no words.

I’m also going to be selling handmade notebooks and stickers. The following is just a prototype. The books are pretty small, 4.25″ x 5.5″ and the paper I used is thick bristol vellum, so they are suitable for light wet media (watercolour washes and gouache mostly) I also bought glow in the dark sticker paper and wanted to see if my printer will handle it. I’m happy to report that it did and I’ll be buying some more sheets tomorrow so I’ll have a bunch ready for Canzine.

That’s all I’m showing for now. Stay tuned for more.

Posted in Zines | 6 Comments »

Aesop’s Treasure

September 12th, 2009

So I finished the first week of school. It was hectic, thats all I’m going to say. I ended up dropping a class, Graphic Design for Illustrators because I thought it was pointless for me to take it considering I’m still in the GD program and I’m doing a lot more in depth things then that class offered. So now I only have 6 classes instead of the 7, and I managed to condense my schedule to fit into three days. That means I have a 4 days weekend (whoop!) and I won’t have to spend money on lots of tickets of bus passes. I’m happy with my schedule now and I think its going to be a good semester.

Today I hit a couple of thrift stores with my friend, in search of old children’s books and National Geographic. I find that they are the best for collages, especially nature books. We actually ended up finding a whole series of animal books, with really awesome vintage photos. I can’t wait to do something with them. I also found a really nice old copy of Aesop’s Tales for only 99 cents! I always loved those stories and I’m thinking that for one of my zines I’ll do a little accordion style book based on one of the stories. After we hit Deserres to get some cheap art supplies. They’re having a huge sale for Back to School so I wanted to stock up on spray varnish and little tiny cradle board that were only a $1. Good Day.

I’m geeking out a little bit because I just ordered my first business card. With rounded corners! I hope they’ll come in soon, I’m so excited. For now I got 500, I thought that was a decent amount. I didn’t out my address on them because who knows where I’ll be. I’m also geeking out about the fact that Apple finally came out with a 64GB iTouch. I want it so bad but honestly, I had my iPod for three years now and it works perfectly fine. Its filled to the brim with music, so maybe for now I’ll just have to uncheck some songs. I’m sure by the time my battery dies, the iTouch will be cheaper.

Posted in art, Geek, school | 13 Comments »

Four Pounds of Early Halloween

September 6th, 2009

So school starts Tuesday. Even though I just finished my summer classes like two weeks ago, I must say, I’m still super psyched to be back. I’m going to have 7 classes though (normally its 5 per semester) and I’m trying to get a job within the school and also start some serious freelancing, so I’m pretty sure sometime in the next 4 months you’ll see a post here that will seem maniacal and won’t make any sense. if that happens, it means I’ve officially lost my mind.

Monday I went to another session of Dr. Sketchy’s, with a Tank Girl theme. Honestly, it was my favourite one. I got some awesome poses and and drawings, and the music was sweet, and the MC was as dirty as ever. It’s become my new favourite thing to do on a Monday night.

Yesterday, my dad and my sister went to Buffalo to some outlet mall. We ended up buying winter coats and freakin’ 4 pound of Lindt chocolate. FOUR POUNDS. It’s like an early, gourmet Halloween for me. It was a pretty epic trip I must say.

Today I came back home, and cleaned up half of my apartment and then spent the rest of the day doing roughs for zines, commissions and a birthday present for a friend. I’ll post what I made after I give it to her in case she reads this!

I finally got registered for Canzine! I have so much to do, I hope it all pays of the in end. I need to order business cards and postcards soon, but I’ll have to wait until OSAP transfers my funds to my bank account (starving artist no more!)

I’m leaving you with Club Feet’s ‘Teenage Suicide”, a song that played at a previous Sketchy session.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Aw Yeah

August 17th, 2009

So today was my second last day of class. For our final project we picked a word from an envelope (mine was moveable) and then we had to design/illustrate/compose 20 different images that tie in with the word. I am quite happy with the way mine turned out and I decided to share with you six of my favourite ones:

It always interests me how my digital designs differ from my hand-drawn drawings. I’m not sure if that is a good thing or not and I’m wondering if I should incorporate the same style throughout the different media I use? Hmm.

Last week I attended the Passion Pit show. They were pretty good, but the opening band, The Grates, stole the show in my opinion. Patience, the lead singer was smiling throughout the entire set and was bouncing along to every single song. She gave off such a great energy and you couldn’t help but smile back. After the show we actually go to meet them and take some pictures, but according to my sister, we all look like sweaty hell, so I will spare you hehe. Here’s a video for Aw Yeah, enjoy!

Posted in Design, illustration, Music, school | 1 Comment »