Author: Messy Art Teacher

I am an art teacher/artist and a little of everything in between. I share art lessons, art advice, and career tips.

2.05 Interview Jennifer Greive, Graphic Designer, Illustrator, and Hand Lettering Artist

Today I have my first guest from my Instagram feed, Jennifer Greive. I’ve been following her work for the past year. I came across her from some of the other lettering artists I follow. Her work is super cute, and profession! I feel very fortunate to have her on the podcast. Here is a little about Jennifer. She specializes in t-shirt design, logos, and branding. Her personal brand Fueled By Letters was born from her love for Typography and Hand Lettering. Jennifer started out at a very young age doing illustration which then lead to the world of Graphic Design. Anime got her into design. She attended Stark State College of Technology and The University of Akron receiving both an Associates and Bachelors degree in Graphic Design. Jennifer is available for commissioned work or visit her Etsy store to purchase a digital print.
To see more of Jennifer’s work visit:
Fueled by Lettters
Instagram @Jennifer.Greive
Etsy Fueled by Letters

Visit My Creative Life with Nancy Miller to listen!

Thanks for listening!

2.04 Interview Heather Tietz, Writer

 

 

 

 

This episode I interviewed my writer friend Heather Tietz. I was lucky to illustrate her book Yes, Jesus Loves You. She is a talented writer, and a really nice person!  Little about Heather below:

In 2008 Heather’s first book with Cook Communications was born,”Through the Bible Crafts for K-1st Grade”. In 2009 she was contracted to write “Crafty Cookin'” for Cook Communications, as well; both are FunStuff books, stand-along books that can be used to supplement Bible-in-Life Sunday School curriculum. Her picture book, inspired by her daughter, was published later in 2009 by Ambassador Books, a subsidiary of Paulist Press. It is titled “Yes, Jesus Loves You” after the old and well-loved hymn. “12 Colorful Things” was released summer 2011, and “Rock-a-Bye Baby Jesus” was published in December of that year.
Here is Heather’s author page on Amazon.
My Creative Life with Nancy Miller
Thanks for listening!

2.03 Podcast Interview Marsha Lott

 

On this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking to Marsha Lott, a watercolor painter and art teacher.  She has taught for over 30 years and has had her work in several galleries. She has traveled as far as Alaska to teach her fabulous watercolor techniques. I’m very fortunate to know her, and she is a generous soul with knowledge and kindness.  She shared her extensive knowledge about getting into galleries and showing at festivals. Thank you for listening!

To see more of Marsha Lott’s work visit her FB page Lott Fine Art & Photography.
Thanks for listening!

Kyles Brushes Munch

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Just found this video from Adobe. Kyle Webster has created an amazing set of brushes that mimic the look of Munch’s brush strokes. I’ve been playing around with creating my own brushes for my graduate class in illustration. It’s been a lot of fun. These are FREE! Here is the link to the Kyles Munch Brushes video, and in the description box is the link to download the brushes. Happy Painting!

Season 2 Episode 2, Interview with Danielle Brannon, Photographer

Screen Shot 2019-06-15 at 12.33.56 AMOn Season 2 episode 2, I had the opportunity to interview Danielle Brannon, photographer, in the Statesboro area. She is the photographer for the Averitt Art Center in Statesboro, GA, and a freelance photographer. I met Danielle while teaching in Bulloch County. On top of her photography business, she is an art teacher. I got some great tips on the business of photography and how she balances it all. To see more of Danielle’s photography visit her Instragram @danielle.brannon.photography.

Thanks for listening!

2 Episode 1 Interview with Whitney Earley, Artist/Teacher

This is Season 2 of My Creative Life. I’m interviewing my friend Whitney Earley, artist and art teacher based out of Ohio. She currently teaches high school. I met Whitney while I was teaching in Bulloch Co, and had loads of laughs with her while attending art teacher conferences and PD. This is here story about her creative life. You can see Whitney’s work on her instagram @whitneyearley.

 

Listen to the podcast at My Creative Life.

Podcast Episode 13 – Interview Nikita Prokhorov, Graphic Designer

62372231_439182943532593_8643443248783687680_nMy next interview is with Nikita Prokhorov. I met Nikita, 13 yrs ago at Scuba Diving Magazine. He filled in for me while I was on maternity leave. He had just finished his MFA in Graphic Design from Savannah College of Art and Design. Nikita has some beautiful design work and I’ve been watching is an evolution of his work on his Instagram TypebyNikita.

Here is a link to the podcast on My Creative Life Episode 13.

Below is a little bit more about him.

Nikita is an NYC-based lettering artist, graphic designer, and design professor. His minimalist style reflects an admiration for work such as pure marks by Stefan Kanchev and beautiful typography of Doyald Young. As one happy client put it, ‘his work is conceptual, clean, and the reasoning behind every design decision is crystal clear.’ Focusing mainly on logotypes and lettering, Nikita has worked on a variety of design projects for local and international clients. He is an ambigram expert that has taught several ambigram workshops–in addition to having written a book about ambigrams. Nikita’s work has been featured in multiple design books and websites.

His love of bad puns and jokes is second only to his love of type. To pass the time between projects, he reads, scuba dives, skydives, wingwalks, skis (not very gracefully), and travels. He thinks that writing about himself in third person is a bit strange, but he has gotten used to it.

Disney Launchpad & Podcast Update

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Disney is providing 6 lucky directors with the opportunity to bring their stories and visions to the screen. Here is a link to to Disney Launchpad. Application deadline is July 2nd at 12 pm. This is from their site:

The Disney Launchpad: Shorts Incubator is a brand-new opportunity for up to six (6) directors from underrepresented backgrounds to present diverse perspectives, through the production of original, live-action shorts for the proposed initial exhibition on the upcoming streaming service, Disney+.

Artist Bio - IBTrav - Travis Falligant, Character Illustrator
Artist Bio – IBTrav – Travis Falligant, Character Illustrator | http://www.ibtrav.com

My podcast with Travis Falligant is live on My Creative Life.

My plans for this summer are to attend some webinars online. One is for Adobe CC to learn more about the changes for student logins and possible savings. Then I’ve got a webinar for e-Sports.  It is sponsored by Dell. Free to sign up. I’m gathering there may be a tie into selling you some computer equipment to compete with e-Sports. Link Esports for Education by Dell.

I’m teaching a night class for Lightroom and Photoshop for the local university continuing education program. Then I’m starting graduate school this summer. Lots of things going and I plan to post some of the photos that students color correct on my blog. I’m thinking when I teach my drawing class next time to include my students in the podcast. They were so amazing my drawing students. They are a great group of people. Amazing stories to share. Super excited to teach that class in the Fall. Maybe Sept. 2019.

Episode 12 – Interview with Illustrator, Travis Falligant for My Creative Life

Artist Bio - IBTrav - Travis Falligant, Character IllustratorThis podcast episode will be live on Saturday, June 1st at 2 pm. on My Creative Life. I had an amazing time talking with my college friend, Travis Falligant. I had the pleasure of meeting Travis while attending SCAD. He may have been one of the first people I met from orientation. Travis has been bringing pop culture and movies into his illustration work. He has done work for Fangoria, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, and 20th Century Fox. Just to name a few clients. I could tell when we met at SCAD Travis had a passion for movies & pop culture.

I laughed so much while we talked about our time at SCAD during the 90’s. Now seeing his illustration work it amazes me how he takes popular culture and iconic 90’s movies and puts his own spin on it.

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Some of his illustration work contains mature content. To see Travis’ art and animations you can see his illustrations at ibTrav.com or follow him on instagram/ibTrav

To see my illustration work visit www.nmillerillustration.com or on dribbble.

Instagram.com/nsmillerillustration
Nancy Miller Illustration YouTube

Macbook PRO 2015 i7 Core, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD

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I purchased the macbook 2015 from ebay. It was a refurbished model, and I’ve been really enjoying it. I did a lot of reading of reviews. I didn’t want to purchase the newest version, because it was so costly for the SSD drive. I wanted at least 500 GB. I really wanted 1 TB, but that was going to be WAY TOO MUCH MONEY. My macbook 2015 runs pretty quickly and starts up fast. It does throttle and it gets hot. Overall I’m happy with my purchase. I love the trackpad! Feels great! I read the new macbook they were missing ports, and then issues with the keyboards. I spent $1120 for mine. It had Apple care included and I got Final Cut Pro. I will keep you posted on it continues to work.

Photoshop CC

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I just saw a youtube video by Brad Colbow on how Photoshop is raising their subscription rates.

I use Photoshop all of the time. Luckily I can afford the entire Creative Suite. I agree with the video content by Brad Colbow regarding how Adobe really hooked people on the lower subscription price and now they are raising their rates.

I’ve been hearing slowly that designers are trying Affinity Designer and some of their other products for their design work. I don’t think I’d be able to justify crossing over, but I’m thinking about paying for the software to try and see what it is like. At $19.99 it is reasonable, and you don’t have to do a subscription. Schools just don’t like the subscription model because they see that you have to upgrade and pay the cost every year.

I’m thinking about downloading and trying it. If anyone has tried it love to hear what they think of the software.

Georgia Southern University Cont. Edu

Screen Shot 2019-05-03 at 9.34.34 PMI’m excited to announce I’ll be teaching a Lightroom and Photoshop course in June for the Georgia Southern University Continuing Education Program. It’s a night class that runs twice a week for 2 weeks. I love teaching the night classes and enjoy spending time with students who are older. It’s been a wonderful experience.

Here is a link to the site for my class. Introduction to Lightroom and Photoshop.

After my high school classes are over I’ll be posting what I’m working on with my Lightroom and Photoshop course. Looking forward to it.

I’m also trying to get some work together for an art show Aug 1-31. Then I’ve got a workshop that I’m going to be teaching to art teachers about art and technology. I’m very excited about everything that is going on. Then I signed up for 3 graduate classes at SCAD. I’m back to trying to get my MFA in Illustration. I’ll be posting along as I go. I also started a Youtube channel for Nancy Miller Illustration.

I finally got a custom URL for my Messy Art Teacher Youtube channel. I’ve gone past 102,000 views.  http://youtube.com/c/MessyArtTeacher

This has been all the effort I’ve been making while working full time.