Jessica Kelly Willett

Website and Blog Move

2010-01-13T22:39:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone,

Sorry for the lack of posting! I have been really busy with all of my freelance, most of which I can't post until they come out publicly for the client. Well, this post is to let you know that I have moved my website and blog into one Blogsite with wordpress. This is just a matter of simplification for my life right now. Everything is in one place: www.jessicawillett.net And I can save money on hosting, etc. So if you enjoy following my art updates you can change your following/blog reader to the new feed. I'm still tweaking a few things, like in the portfolio section so it will change and evolve over time. :)

I'll still be using blogger for the personal updates: http://otherthingsbyjessica.blogspot.com/

Thanks for being interested enough, I appreciate all of you!

Sincerely,
Jessica Willett

Sketchbook update

2009-10-21T10:29:00.000-04:00

It always takes me forever to get around to scanning my sketchbook pages, but here's a compilation of pages from this last semester at school, and a few from this summer. I need to get a new sketchbook to fill now...

Bedtime Story 5 and 4

2009-09-18T22:26:00.003-04:00

Apparently I forgot to post the last bedtime story that I illustrated, #4 Stay in Greece, Stay with me:

This week I completed the spot illustrations for bedtime story #5 - Paris has missed you, Gigi

At this point we decided to go back to a look closer to the original concept illustrations, and to enter the story in the blog editor, rather than in a whole separate design layout. Here's the link to check out the Bedtime Stories blog on the Knickers website: http://shopknickers.myshopify.com/blogs/bedtime-stories

Lily Pattern

2009-09-02T19:15:00.005-04:00

I guess I forgot to post this, but I made it a few months ago anyhow. I think I would redo the pattern, I'm happier with the color scheme and the flats I made to apply it to.

Garden Stationery

2009-08-27T10:26:00.007-04:00

A friend and now client of mine commissioned me to create some personalized stationery as a birthday gift for his mother. As she has now received her gift it is safe for me to post this online. This is a digital painting I did of my interpretation of her described garden. I was given much artistic freedom to create the vision as I chose, and only descriptions, no photographs, of her actual garden. Which made this a really neat project to work on! I'm happy with the end result as a painting and the client's mother is happy with her note cards. I've included so many specific plants from her garden that I think this is what makes it personal. You might not be able to pick them all out online, but among others there are: roses; lavender; balloon flowers; dianthus; geraniums; thyme; sweet woodruff; myrtle; Russian sage; butterfly bush; goat’s beard; hydrangea; maple trees, and spiderwort. I did create the original at a much larger scale than the note card dimensions for the possibility of larger printing.

Post Ringling

2009-08-04T22:30:00.015-04:00

I know that I have not posted anything in quite a while but I have been working on a lot of different things actually. I'm surprised and also happy to say that I'm making a decent living on freelancing - some design, some illustration (probably about 50/50). I'm doing work for a local publication/crafting materials company called TJ Designs. It's mostly design/layout work for packaging and print materials related to vintage themes and ephemera for Altered Artwork, Card-Making, Rubber Stamping, and Scrap-booking. Since they are products owned by the company I can't really post much from what I'm doing there.

I also have been continuing to freelance for Lotus and Knickers for which I plan to post a lot of the design work I've done for our advertising, eventually. (Up till now I've only posted illustration work.)

My biggest and most exciting client in my life right now though is Bealls department stores. I wanted to wait a little while before posting anything about it in case it didn't work out. I also won't be able to post a lot of things I'll do for them until after they are in stores. But here's a little bit to show what I've been doing so far:

When I first started interviewing they asked me to do some "Florida Friendly" icons as sort of a test run. This was all the direction I had so they are for a variety of customer demographics and aren't based on any of Bealls' actually lines/or current color palettes.

Shortly after the interviews they gave me my first freelance assignment! I was given 4 patterns that hey had purchased at a trade show and was asked to translate them into vectors/perfect repeats for their pattern library. Here they are: one 1-way repeat and three 4-way repeats.

Christmas in June

2009-06-13T22:03:00.005-04:00

Sorry I haven't updated in a while...very busy trying to attain full time work. Just wanting to work on something for fun, I found this painting that I had started in a sketchbook last year and decided to finish it. It's not Christmas time and this movie came out in 2003...so all I can say is I heart Buddy the Elf. I was thinking about what good reason, beside this, that I would have to do a painting of him and I thought about how enthusiastic he is. He has so much blind faith in Christmas spirit and Santa Claus. We can all find a wonderful example in his zeal. I strive to have this same excitement every day about my savior and His imminent return.

Favorite Elf quotes:
Arctic Puffin: "Hey Buddy wanna pick some snowberries?"
Buddy: "... smiling's my favorite"
Buddy: "SANTA! OH MY GOD! SANTA'S COMING! I KNOW HIM! I KNOW HIM!"
Buddy: "First we'll make snow angels for a two hours, then we'll go ice skating, then we'll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse Cookiedough as fast as we can, and then we'll snuggle."
Buddy: "[quickly, and high pitched] i love you. i love you! I LOVE YOU!"
Buddy: "I'm in love.. I'm in love and i dont care who knows it!"

Ray and I recite these at any given moment to each other on a regular basis.

Moms, Dads, and Grads....

2009-05-11T08:11:00.006-04:00

Or at least that's what they used to say this time of year when I worked at Best Buy for our target shoppers...anyways. Hurray for graduating! It took me 5 years with a major change from computer animation to illustration, but I finally graduated from Ringling (School) College of Art and Design, with honors. (I only put school in parenthesis because I did enter RSAD and graduated from RCAD) But I'll be getting that BFA in the mail sometime this summer! So I'll be getting some better pictures to add to this post later, but there's me and my dad! My parents brought me the most perfect rose that they had in their garden. And on Saturday night I thought it was just too pretty to pass up so I did a watercolor for a Mother's day gift to mom. Went down to their house Sunday afternoon and made dinner for her, we had a nice relaxing time. ^_^

Senior Illustration Show 2009

2009-05-04T12:20:00.012-04:00

For the last two weeks I've been finishing everything up for my Senior Illustration Show, where all of the graduating illustration students display their senior thesis projects. I've posted photos of my display, my thesis statement, and my lamp that I've been working on for what seems like forever! I was also on the planning committee for the show, doing my part in helping to create the poster, brochure, getting the word around town about the show, and helping the whole thing happen during set up and opening night! I'm very tired and yet it's really really weird to be finished with schoolwork. Graduation is this Friday and I'm really excited about celebrating with friends and family!

New Carter's pieces

2009-04-23T17:09:00.013-04:00

So Carter's is going to be back on campus tomorrow! I didn't get as many pieces done as I would have liked to for them, but here are the new ones I've done and have never posted before. Some are following their format very closely as they requested and others have a little more of my own flair. Thesis show and career stuff is consuming my life right now...will post other tid bits after the show!

Product/Miscellaneous

2009-04-08T18:35:00.010-04:00

I was preparing to post the new application elements I've recently created for some of my portfolio pieces and I realized I hadn't posted some of these things originally. So here is the little three ring notebook diagram I made to display another application of my beach girlie design:This is just one pattern design that I made using some characters I did in the Carter's workshop:

This is a personal project I never posted, inspired by Peyton the 3 1/2 year old I've been babysitting for almost 3 years:

And these are the applications for the art, a magnet toy (the new paper doll) and a flash dress up game concept, which I intend to learn how to actually make/design more thouroughly one day:
And one possible application for the tropical watercolors could be for a restaurant menu:

High Tea in the Park

2009-04-01T21:54:00.008-04:00

I just finished this freelance job for the Downtown Merchants Association of Sarasota. It's for a fund-raising event set for Mother's Day weekend on Saturday May 9th, from 3 to 5 pm. It will be one big tea party in the park at five points, hence the event's title "High Tea in the Park." Anyways the artwork is going to be printed on a 5 x 7 postcard to be distributed by the downtown stores. If anyone is interested in a great Mother's Day gift to spend the afternoon with their Mom- tickets can be purchased at Lotus, Jake's Downtown, Write-On Sarasota, L. Kids, and Juno & Jove. It's meant for children and adults, all in good fun!

Best of Ringling 2009

2009-03-28T15:57:00.004-04:00

It turns out the least expected things will get into juried shows... the watercolor piece I did for the Shop Local sticker design got into this year's Best of Ringling exhibition. I'm currently in the process of getting someone to do a circular mat cut for me...not fun and expensive. This year's show, for the illustration department, was juried by Shawn Barber.

Culture Pattern Bedroom

2009-03-17T21:51:00.004-04:00

Created this bedroom diagram to display one intended use for the culture pattern I designed last year. Application is fun!

Baby Flats

2009-03-16T16:01:00.005-04:00

I made some clothing flats this weekend to apply a few of the things I made in the Carter's Workshop to. Haven't really started on the full blown portfolio for them yet...just updating my portfolio presentation a little bit for now.

Thank You cards

2009-03-05T15:06:00.002-05:00

So I was very inspired by the Hallmark workshop and felt the need to continue making pretty cards after we were all done... I also had a lot of beautiful reference that I had taken at Epcot last year during the International Flower and Garden festival. It just happened to still be going on during our Disney anniversary trip, so I took advantage. ^_^
I really wanted to play with contrast in shape and line...so I started in my sketchbook and then moved to the computer.

Hallmark Workshop 2009

2009-03-01T14:58:00.000-05:00

Okay, so the Hallmark workshop was really fun this year, we did a lot more creating and learned a lot more about what it would be like to actually work for Hallmark.

Here is the editorial I chose, from the ones they provided, to design a card for:Here is what the front looks like closed:
Front and back of the exterior - see the heart sunset is a cut out:
Interior reveal:
I ultimately think I made the card assignment a little harder on myself than I needed to, simply because I chose editorial intended for a man and I tend to have much more feminine/children style. I created something that I know my husband would like to receive - but probably more because it would be from me, than he would necessarily have liked it if I had picked it out for him at the store. I did my best to man it up-using a more angular style and going for more of a sunrise color scheme than sunset. But it's probably still too girly.

So they also had some little side assignments for us like drawing a deer, (or flower or bird), in multiple styles for different types of card recipients. i.e. masculine, feminine, funny, children, etc. So we doodled in our sketchbooks for about half an hour.

On the first night they had us illustrate words and phrases, and I was a little put on the spot because I don't usually doodle words. After I went home and played around on my own I started to really like the idea...just wished I had been doing it all along before.

Senior Illustration Show Poster 2009

2009-02-28T14:54:00.003-05:00

Finally, finally, finally done with the Senior Show Poster!!! This was a very long and arduous process. Getting the portraits from each and every last person, a lot of hours put into the overall design, and then the process with the printing company. Everyone did a wonderful job, it was just a lot of back and forth, and troubleshooting with file/color management. The files were also just so large that it became a huge ordeal just to open and save the files each time.

Matthew Crotts mainly worked on the collage side and I mainly worked on the portrait side. We had help from a senior graphic designer, Samantha Everhart, with the type.

We did our very best to please everyone, and incorporate everyone's ideas into the main theme that got voted for, the "urban" theme. The most important part though is everyone's individual portraits and artwork.

North America Stationery

2009-02-27T14:55:00.002-05:00

Here's the last stationery set out of 7, North America. Nice to be finished with the main chunk of my thesis! I heart baby moose.

Bedtime Story #3 - Bridget and Gigi go to Greece

2009-02-17T14:53:00.001-05:00

Pulling in more color for a brighter, daytime look. You can see the previous stories on my blog or on the Knickers' Bedtime Stories page. Stories written by Wendy Joan Biddlecombe, and characters created by Wendy Getchell.

Arctic Stationery

2009-02-01T14:49:00.002-05:00

Had a lot of fun with this one. Yay for the northern lights! 6 out of 7 finished....

Carter's Workshop

2009-01-30T14:39:00.001-05:00

I learned new and interesting techniques in the Carter's workshop, and exactly what it would be like to work for them. I'm excited about the possibilities there!

Europe Stationery

2009-01-26T14:42:00.002-05:00

Europe was another difficult one in the way of representing the whole continent, when there are so many cultures and countries. I chose to go with a "British Isles" theme as I figured the landscape and animals would be most recognizable. It's tough having to simplify, when there are so many cultures I'd like to illustrate.

Bedtime Story #2 - Quelle Coincidence!

2008-12-20T14:34:00.002-05:00

This bedtime came out around new year's, so the nightime party theme worked really well. You can see the first story on my blog, or at the Knickers' Bedtime Stories page. Stories written by Wendy Joan Biddlecombe and characters created by Wendy Getchell.

Australia Stationery

2008-12-06T14:31:00.004-05:00

So this is the Australia set...I heart crocs and kangaroos!

Senior Poster Portrait

2008-11-25T14:28:00.001-05:00

So for my self portrait I decided to stick with the vector look seeing as that's the trend I'm in right now with thesis and everything...though I could certainly have used any other media as well. I also chose to include my husband, Ray, as he's not only a huge part of who I am, he also has really really been there for me throughout my entire Ringling experience. Through many of the late late nights, through the computer issues, helping me with the heavy duty stuff (power tool, hardware type stuff), changing majors and having to wait another year for me to be finished with school, not to mention completely supporting me and taking on my mounds of student debt in partnership with me. So he completely deserves his spot on the poster too. ^_^

South America Stationery

2008-11-16T14:24:00.002-05:00

^.^ LLAMAS!! Okay so here's the South America set.

Bedtime Story #1 - Your Train Leaves at 4:30

2008-11-03T14:21:00.001-05:00

So this is the first in a series of stories that will be centered around the Bridget and Gigi characters for the Knickers website. There will be a blog section of the site called "Bedtime Stories" and that's where these will be posted. Wendy Joan Biddlecombe is the writer of the stories and the Bridget and Gigi characters were created by Wendy Getchell, while I obviously am doing the illustrations and layout. They are meant to to be kept simpler and sketchy-ier for cost reasons with the client and for a slightly different aesthetic than the rest of the site.

Knickers Website Illustrations

2008-10-20T14:04:00.002-04:00

These are the shopping category illustrations and home page illustration for shopknickers.com. The color scheme has changed a bit, due to art direction, from that of the concept and bookmark stage. The main shopping categories include accessories, bath and body, bridal, lingerie, loungewear, sleepwear and undergarments. My favorite of these is the bridal image. ^_^

Asia Stationery

2008-10-15T14:16:00.002-04:00

Okay so Asia is obviously a gigantic continent with a lot of different cultures, but I decided to go with primarily Chinese influence..though some of the animals could be indicative of other regions- India, Japan. But I'm pretty happy with the result.

Knickers Concept and Bookmark

2008-09-25T12:43:00.003-04:00

I really enjoyed creating these concept spots in coming up with the look of the Bridget and Gigi characters. These girls are based on the antique Pucci mannequins that my boss has in her boutique (Lotus). They became the sisters that live in London and France. The owner's niece will be writing stories of their adventures and I will be illustrating those as well later on.

Africa Stationery

2008-09-15T13:58:00.003-04:00

This is the first of 7 sets of themed stationery that I will be designing for my senior thesis. Each of the 7 will be representative of the seven continents and this is the representation for Africa. I will obviously have to simplify quite a bit in some cases to try and recognizably represent a whole continent. Each set will include letter writing paper, envelope, postcard and sticker designs. I intend to send out the actual product to missionaries that can write back to me on them about what God is doing in their part of the world. I think it will be really neat to show the stationery really being used and going through international mail, etc. Exciting!

Chick Flick

2008-09-02T12:41:00.002-04:00

I have Mr. Regan Dunnick for my senior illustration teacher and he wanted to give us one assignment just to get to know us/see what we are capable of...etc. Then we will be allowed to follow our own pursuits...moving on to thesis. For the assignment though he gave a list of phrases to choose from to illustrate, I chose "Chick Flick." I don't really care for these kind of silly word type projects but I did enjoy paying homage to some classic movies.

Shop Local Sticker

2008-08-27T12:44:00.003-04:00

This is a sticker design I did for a freelance job. It's really just a grassroots campaign for shopping downtown. The 5 districts are represented: Main Street, Palm Ave, Burns Court, the Rosemary District, and Towles Court. I did do the typography layout too, though I realize as I'm not a trained graphic designer I may very well be doing some atrocious thing that breaks the rules. But the client is happy with the piece and you can see the sticker on many windows around town!

Cross Culture Pattern

2008-04-25T01:15:00.004-04:00

My last assignment with Fiore was an open assignment and I really wanted to play with patterns and borders influenced by cultures throughout history. I think I focused more on the illustrative parts than the overall pattern, but the borders still came out really nice. The characters are sharing in each others' culture. i.e. The Japanese and English girls are sharing each others' tea, the Inuit and Aboriginee girls are sharing fishing techniques, and the Greek and Indian girls have swapped instruments. I really enjoyed, as usual, using a restrained color palette to express something very specific and I also liked playing with the line and shape in illustrator. There is a definite transformation, but a good and interesting one that comes from translating a pencil sketch into this medium. I would visualize this imagery in a fairly large printed medium, like in a little girl's bedroom decor.

Pen and Pad Holder

2008-04-25T00:19:00.001-04:00

My last project in advanced media with Brandes, an open assignment. I decided to create a post-it and pen holder from a character in my sketchbook. I also created three designs for the pad paper. I really enjoy the colors of this piece and of course designing products!

Figure Painting - Junior Year

2008-04-21T00:26:00.002-04:00

These are the pieces from this year's figure painting class that I don't completely hate. The drawing is col-erase, which I like for line sketches...but I discovered is not very good for creating range in value. The last piece is a digital painting (done on my tablet pc) and the rest are oil. All are from life. I had Hodges Soileau for first semester and Carl Johnson for second.

Sci Fi/Fantasy - Wish Tree

2008-04-02T01:41:00.002-04:00

This is the second piece I had wanted to do for the sci/fi fantasy acrylic project in advanced media...but I did it as an open assignment in Ill. I also decided to post the thumbnail page I did for the various ideas for the acrylic project...I would really like to do many of them. You'll see the rabbit thumb in there... Oh and just the line drawing and studies for the tree piece.

Santa Claus in a Submarine in 1774

2008-03-29T01:36:00.002-04:00

Fiore's assigment -3 random picks from envelopes. I got Santa Claus, Submarine, 1774. I went with the fact that in 1774 Louis the XVI was crowned King, and I could therefore get Marie Antoinette in the picture=much more fun. I also loved the history of Versailles and the fountains in the garden...how they got all that plumbing to work with just gravity. So I put an early classic interpretation of Santa under ground in his early submarine design, and he is putting the couple on the Naughty List. This piece is pretty large, oil on board. It looks a little warped because I had a very difficult time getting my camera/the board to photograph straight. Perhaps I'll come across a really large scanner one day...

Rabbit Fantasy

2008-03-25T01:26:00.002-04:00

Brandes has asked us to do a sci-fi or fantasy piece for our acrylic assignment in media and I decided to use a doodle from my sketchbook and run with it. You know, something random like a girl with bright pink hair feeding watermelon to rabbits. I like it!

Hallmark Workshop 2008

2008-03-20T00:14:00.002-04:00

The workshop was so much fun! I really liked all of the people, both the artists from Hallmark, and all the people from school that were in it. It was like one big brainstorming session. We were concepting for a custom gift to anyone we like, more from a personal point of view than a commercial point of view. I decided to go with a a special display container to hold special Christmas ornaments that I and my family would make, adding more every year. This would be a tradition to keep our focus on a more family oriented view of Christmas time than consumerist. I sketched ideas for a lot of ornaments and some container options. Then in advanced media for our sculpey assignment I went ahead and created a finished ornament...I decided it would be a gift to my husband for our one year wedding anniversary. It is of us, from our Disney wedding! ^_^

Old Birthday Card

2008-03-10T00:00:00.002-04:00

I found this old card design that I made for a friend a few years ago. I did it before I really knew anything about photoshop,,,but I still think it's kind of fun.

Tropical Trio

2008-02-27T01:44:00.002-05:00

For the watercolor assignment in adv. media we were to create 3 pieces that go together and they must be intended as a gift for someone who has really helped us through school (i.e. most likely our parents). So my parents are really into gardening (orchids), Jimmy Buffett, and Florida tropical stuff. I did transfers for the type in a font called treasure map deadhand or something like that. The orchid and fish have their scientific names and the drink has a made up one that reads "Frozenus concoctionis". They are framed and hanging in my parents dining room.

Booker High Dance Poster

2008-02-27T01:17:00.000-05:00

Cada Character

2008-02-12T00:45:00.000-05:00

The Future Cat Lady

2008-01-29T01:21:00.001-05:00

The World of the Psychic

2008-01-20T00:25:00.000-05:00

Snowglobe/Character Concept

2007-11-13T01:43:00.001-05:00

Sarasota Bay

2007-11-02T01:39:00.001-04:00

Cake Surrealism

2007-10-16T01:12:00.001-04:00

Pride and Prejudice

2007-10-12T01:24:00.000-04:00

Egon Spengler

2007-09-20T01:20:00.000-04:00

Animal Spot Illustrations

2007-09-02T00:03:00.000-04:00

Candyland Re-design

2007-04-23T23:43:00.001-04:00

Group credits: Jeslyn Cantrell, Sarah Marino, Kendra Melton, Jessica Willett

Little Curtis

2007-03-09T23:49:00.001-05:00

Site Painting

2007-03-09T23:34:00.001-05:00

Tribute to Walt

2007-02-04T00:00:00.000-05:00

Figure Sketches - Sophomore Year

2006-12-02T23:55:00.000-05:00

Muscovy Duck

2006-11-14T23:56:00.000-05:00

Clark / Best of Ringling 2007

2006-10-23T23:46:00.002-04:00

Vivien

2006-10-20T23:59:00.001-04:00

The Trees

2006-10-17T23:57:00.000-04:00

Sarah & Ashleigh

2006-10-15T23:41:00.001-04:00

Oils for the first time

2006-10-10T23:22:00.001-04:00

Texture Acrylic Still Life

2006-09-10T23:54:00.000-04:00

Banded Shrimp

2006-09-01T23:39:00.001-04:00

Aesop

2006-03-09T23:14:00.000-05:00