Welcome (to my new, short-term) Home!

Today marks the end of my first week in Denver!  It's been a fairly relaxing week, which I'm thankful for because I got the flu two days before heading out here.  Fortunately the flu is on its way out and I'm ready to start illustrating again!

I went to the Denver Botanic Garden for my first day last Monday.  It was a little tricky, cause it was raining and I have no car here in Denver - my intention is/was to commute by bicycle, but rain makes that a bit difficult.  So one bus ride and a bit of walking later I arrived at the Garden for the very first time.  It is a beautiful place, in a gorgeous neighborhood and I can't wait to explore the gardens this coming week (sadly, because I was ill, Monday was my only day at the Garden, and not the best impression because of the weather).

I met the people I'm going to be working for in the horticultural department, as well as tons of other people whose names I'll never remember, but I really like the people I'll be working with and hope to introduce you to them here sometime.  But I'll share more about my project later...

Right now I wanted to show you where I'm staying and how I'm getting around.

So here's my house...

It's a bit obstructed by trees (they really should cut those down).  ;)
But it's not much to look at anyway.  If you'll notice the for sale sign, it turns out the place is being sold in September, right after I leave...  I share the house with two other women, both recent graduates of the University of Denver.  One a little older than me and one a little younger, but both very sweet and friendly girls who have lived here for the past two years (both originally from the East coast).

And here's my room...

It's pretty cute!  With a nice, big bed... and enough room to keep my new bike.  Speaking of which...

Ta-Da!  I'm proud to introduce my very first road bike!  I've wanted one for a few years now and somehow rationalized it by getting a bike instead of driving here and back (all under the guise that it would save me money).  Not sure how those numbers worked out in the end, but that's what I'm still telling myself.  And yes, it will definitely be coming back to Long Beach with me.

It rides like a dream, super fast, and super light and now that I've gotten over the sticker shock, we (the bike and I) are settling in quite nicely.  In fact I'm planning on going out for a good long ride today...

Be back soon.  :)

School's out!

Well I'm back!  I'm sure you thought I fell off the face of the planet, but alas, no....   Since you last heard from me I finished all my coursework, left Monterey, unpacked, took a short trip to Palm Springs, repacked and flew to Denver.  Whew!  And pretty much all of that was in the last 2 weeks.

But, since I like to go in order, I'm first gonna catch you up on all the work we did during our final term in the Science Illustration Program...  So I had four classes again during the final term: Botanical Illustration, Zoological Illustration, Computer Graphics 3, and Applied Science Illustration.  Let's start with Botanical Illustration (in order of completion):

 Botanical dissection plate  - Blueberry vaccinium sp., pen and ink

"Field Guide" - Various Grasses of Monterey County, Gouache on black paper

(Found out after I was done that the first and the 2nd to last are the same species, oops!)

 Olive Tree (Leccino Olives) - for an assignment about plant usages, Illustrator and Photoshop

(I mean to make some changes to this one before it finds its way to my website or portfolio)

And finally.... the long anticipated (?)...

Berry bee osmia aglaia and Raspberry rubus strigosus, watercolor on paper

Then there was the Zoological class of which I'll share the highlights:

 Red-legged grasshopper melanoplus femurrubrum, colored pencil on Duralene

(Part a larger piece, but this is the star)

 Zoological final - Eggs of Yellowstone Birds

(all painted in watercolor on a single sheet) 

 zoomed in selection of the "Eggs"

Next we have the final Computer Graphics class:

 This piece is a combination of watercolor and digital media (click to enlarge)

 Technical illustration of a compass - rendered entirely in Photoshop

We also had to design and build a website as an assignment and you can find my newly designed site here: www.michellebourne.com.  This too will change in time (either during the summer or the fall) but the changes won't be drastic.  Just adding some new artwork and changing the layout of my portfolio pages so that you can see larger versions of each image (and potentially purchase artwork as well).  :) 

Our last class was less about creating new artwork as it was about preparing our existing artwork for the exhibit we had in May at the Pacific Grove Natural History Museum.  It was a blast and I'll share a few pictures in a follow up post, but we did do one assignment for this class -- it was a collaboration with the Science Writing program at UCSC (of which we used to be the partner program).  We, in the Science Illustration program, are paired up with a Science writer to illustrate an article they've written during their program.  This article will then be published in an online magazine called Science Notes.  I'll post a link when Science Notes 2011 has been posted, but here is my illustration from that collaboration:

 

I was asked to create an antique style map of two islands off the coast of Africa.

You can find out more when Science Notes is published.

And there you have it!  The end of year highlights for all my coursework, which I am so happy to say is over -- not that I didn't enjoy it, but it's nice to finally have a break from being so productive.  :) 

I'll be posting again soon to tell you all about my next phase in Denver...