Oh my goodness, so much has happened since the last time I did a blog post. I didn't want you guys to think I forgot about you. But before I go any further I want to wish you all a Happy New Year! I hope it's had a wonderful beginning so far and wish you hope, happiness and blessings over the next coming months!

Well since my last post I have attended my graduation ceremony for UHV and received my diploma for a bachelors in Communication Design. In addition, I got a new job at the Victoria Public Library as Materials Manager. That was an unexpected development as I hadn't planned on going back to libraries, but they had an interesting sounding position with the right amount of money. So I gave it a shot, and lo and behold I got it! 

With that being said, I'm going to be a bit more choosy about the project I choose to do with Allyson Artwork. In addition, I might just change back to doing the artwork that I like and simply offering it for sale. If it sells, great. If not it is still making me happy to create. However, if someone really has an intriguing project I don't think that I'll give it up. Ha ha. 

Keep your eyes peeled over the next coming weeks. I am planning on having a few new posts on here to showcase the things that I have been working on over the last few months. Which I am quite tickled pink about. :) 

Have a fabulous day!
Allyson :)

Inktober is a challenge I just recently heard about, and without meaning to, I've actually been doing the challenge every day this month so far. Basically it's a challenge where you work with ink in your drawings, and it's meant to get you to practice drawing technique. So over the last week this is what I have been doing with my Periscope broadcasts. I decided to include the images from the last few days so that you can see those images! 

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this little journey through my sketchbook this week, and I'll be posting more. If you are interested in viewing my drawing broadcasts you can follow me on Periscope @AllysonArtwork. 

Thank you so much, and I hope you are having a wonderful week so far!

--Always, Ally

For the last couple of weeks I have been insanely busy. I'm in the process of selling my old house in Ohio, I've been writing articles for a new website called InterestBeat (keep your eyes peeled about this - it will launch soon), and I've been doing my freelance stuff in addition! Keeping busy is the spice of life though right? 

This whole writing content articles is a gig that I happened upon by chance and I gotta say that I'm actually enjoying it. My most recent article was DIY decorating projects for Halloween. Oh my gosh, I had a lot of fun on it. I really hope they launch soon so that I can start sharing the links and the pictures with you guys! 

Another new thing that I discovered is Periscope. Have you guys heard about this? Apparently it is an app through Twitter which allows you to broadcast yourself live. I like it because there isn't an insane amount of people on it, it's easy to use, and it seems to be a good way to advertise yourself if you're an artist. I had several people asking if I made the DIY stuff I was doing for people to buy. This was not something I had considered but I suppose I could in the future. If you want to look up my broadcasts on there sometime just download the periscope app and look for AllysonArtwork. I broadcast (also known as scoping) pretty much the entire time while I was doing my DIY projects. It was nice to have the opportunity to chat with other people. Very few trolls (which you can block easily). The biggest thing was the exposure to so many people from different countries around the world. If there's a language you want to practice, Periscope is the place to go. Ha ha. 

I hope you guys are having a great time this week. I'll be posting things real soon. 

​--Always Ally :) 

So, one of the things that I really wanted to buckle down on this summer was getting a better handle on how to use Illustrator for ... well, illustrative purposes. I'd been able to create simple shaped icons, but never really had the time to do much more with it than that or to learn more about what it was capable of doing. 

After taking several courses through Lynda.com as well as looking up some tutorials online, I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of some of the illustrative capabilities and that ever scary "pen tool". Today I decided to try doing a whole scene, and make it Halloween themed. Therefore, without further ado. Here's today's image. :) 

I plan on doing more images to add to my portfolio. But I really just wanted a whole original image to get my feet wet with Illustrator so to speak. I hope you like it. 

Thanks!

​Ally 

I'm so excited about this one, guys! I've been working on it for a little while. It's going in as part of my portfolio to apply to book publishers as a graphic designer/book cover designer. And those quotes are from two of my awesome customers that have used my services in the past. Thank you so much, ladies! I really appreciate your time. :) 

Obviously, this is not a real book cover, and Black Cat Publisher is my fictional book publisher company that I created. If you want to see the website for it, go to www.blackcatpublisher.weebly.com. 
​

Well, that is it for tonight. I'm a tired puppy. 

Good night!
​Ally :)