Welcome to Night Vale Listening Party

Allow me to use my blog to shamelessly promote a local event that I’m co-hosting:

The Welcome to Night Vale Listening Party is happening THIS SATURDAY! You don’t want to miss it. Hosted by Matthew Carr and myself, hang out and listen to the 2 latest episodes of WTNV on the stellar sound system of the Lovecraft Bar. There will also be a raffle of official WTNV swag.

graphic design by Valerie Herron

 

A bit of background info for those of you scratching your heads: Welcome to Night Vale is a brilliant podcast. Influenced by the writing of H.P. Lovecraft, conspiracy theories, and community radio, WTNV is a hilarious and beautifully written production. Narrated by Cecil Baldwin as the Night Vale community radio announcer, WTNV illuminates the strange happenings in the desert town of Night Vale. I recommend it highly, so highly that I think you should listen to it in a group setting!

The Lovecraft Bar is Portland’s own “horror-themed” bar. With tentacles and sigils on the walls, this is the best place in town to get a drink or pot of tea, in my humble opinion. Matt and I thought it was the perfect venue for a WTNV Listening party. So go check it out. What a perfect way to punctuate the romance or disappointment of Valentine’s Day! See you all there 🙂

 

 

Creatures of the Deep a.k.a Why is Illustrator so f***ing Hateful?

I know I mentioned this before, but Adobe Illustrator and I are not friends. I know that I need to make some effort in strengthening the quality of our relationship, however, since we will most likely have to work together for the rest of my life. I am not exactly thrilled to work with a coworker that forcibly micromanages your every move on a project, moves necessities when you aren’t looking, and generally can’t be reasoned with. Trying to work on Illustrator is like collaborating with somebody’s personality disorder on an art project. I’m half surprised that Illustrator hasn’t attempted to steal my boyfriend or burn down my apartment.

So after several days of frustration, mistakes, tweaking, and screaming at my laptop, I’m as done with the tile assignment as I’m gonna be:

Creatures of the Deep wallpaper tile - digital media, Valerie Herron 2012

It is far from perfect, but it’s not too bad for my second actual project made in Illustrator. I do plan on going back later and fixing the imperfections and fixing the composition for more seamless wallpapering. For now, I must walk away from this assignment before I throw my laptop.

Creatures of the Deep - Digital media, Valerie Herron 2012

 

Curiouser and Curiouser…

Hello everyone. I have been so insanely busy it is just…. insane. Amongst all of this insanity, progress has been made on the Creatures of the Deep project. Here’s a little preview of the progress so far:

Who knew Deep Ones could be so cute? I will post the results when the project is finished. I also will begin painting my Crowley triptych tomorrow.

Tonight, I will be filming! At The Lovecraft, Raqs Obliettes will be performing a much anticipated show, Curiouser & Curiouser.

Now to decrypt that sentence:

ceiling of the Lovecraft Bar

The Lovecraft Bar is a horror-themed nightclub in Portland, OR. It is one of my favorite places in Portland, run by one of my favorite people in Portland, Jon Horrid. As you can imagine, they have several different theme nights (goth night, metal night, Tom Waits night, etc.) and host many different performances and events of the same ilk. The place looks like LaVey Satanists and H.P. Lovecraft enthusiast were hired for the interior decorating. Most likely, this is the case. One feature I love about this place is that they have a vegan menu that fits the Lovecraftian theme, and a selection of high quality teas that you can order in 16 – 24 oz pots. Again, I can not speak highly enough about this place, and you can often find me there. It is a must see if you come to Portland, OR.

Raqs Obliettes is a belly-dancing troupe with a dark aesthetic. Hands down, I have seen these ladies perform the best fusion belly-dancing EVAR! I believe this is the first themed show that they have performed, and I am most excited to see this Alice in Wonderland themed production of dark-fusion belly dancing, Curiouser & Curiouser. If you are in Portland, why on earth would you not go see this tonight? Doors open at the Lovecraft for this at 9pm. Just sayin’ 😉

Sushila - digital media, Valerie Herron 2011

Raqs Obliettes is led/produced by another one of my favorite people, Sushila Battagione.  She is an experienced tarot-reader and energy worker, as well as Doula and enviably talented dancer.

Alright, I must get ready go do a million things. At what point did I cease to be a lazy person?

Crowley and the Deep Ones

I have the pencilling and inking finished on what I’m now calling “The Crowley Trinity.” My puns have gotten out of hand lately, and I blame The Bugle entirely. Anyway, here’s a sneak peek at the triptych:

I’m debating on whether I want to finish these in aquarelle or digital painting. What do you guys think? I’ll sleep on it and see how I feel.

An in-studio assignment I have coming up is to create a wallpaper pattern. The goal is to create a pattern that can essentially be tiled and applied to things like iPhone and laptop covers, wrapping paper, notebooks etc.

Each one of us got a prompt to use as a theme for the assignment. Lucky for me, my prompt was “Creatures of the Deep.” I spent the last hour drawing deep sea critters:

 

and naturally, I had to include the Deep Ones:

I must admit, these turned out way more adorable than I had anticipated. I’m going to scan these, and create a tile pattern in Illustrator. Wish me luck, Illustrator and I don’t get along that well.

I’ll keep you posted as these projects develop 🙂