Getting to Know the Locals: Bonnie Leick
04/24/2018
Bonnie Leick is a local children’s book and magazine illustrator. Her illustrations are full of amusing scenes and eccentric characters. Many of her pieces include one-of-a-kind monsters that transport the viewer to a fantastical new world. It was a great pleasure discovering her work and learning about her process.
Favorite Things: MAM Art in Bloom 2018
04/18/2018
Here at Composure, we are always looking for ways to foster creativity, most recently making our yearly pilgrimage to the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Art in Bloom event. The weather may have been icy and cold outside this year, but the event was warm, inviting, and full of foliage!
Learning how to develop plugins for WordPress gives you the ability to simplify many site development and management tasks. These articles provide good insight into the different pieces of plugin development. In order to get the most out of these articles, it is best to have a basic understanding of PHP and HTML. Two good resources for any questions that you may have are WordPress’ Plugin Handbook and StackExchange.
1. https://www.sitepoint.com/an-introduction-to-wordpress-plugin-development/
This article gives a great overview of plugins and plugin development. It explains WordPress’ use of hooks, shortcodes, and widgets to integrate your plugin with WordPress. Be sure to follow the links to the codex for more information.
2. https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/wordpress-plugin-development-guide/
This guide to creating a WordPress plugin that works with Facebook Open Graph shows different techniques used in plugin development. This is a good source to pull pieces from that apply to your plugin. The hooks and functions used for enqueueing scripts and styles can be modified to fit your needs.
3. https://mikejolley.com/2013/08/13/keeping-your-shit-secure-whilst-developing-for-wordpress/
Plugin vulnerabilities were the cause of 22% of WordPress site hacks, as noted in this article. Fortunately, WordPress has many built-in functions to bolster security. Implementing simple measures can ensure that the data your plugin uses is secure.
I’ve known Susan for a number of years and first met her when she was working as a professor at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design teaching a pattern-making class. Beyond being an incredible teacher, she is an extremely talented illustrator who’s work is playful, energetic, and always full of life and action. Her ability to place characters within a scene is sensational, and she has an acute awareness of the way that textures and shapes can work together to make a whole, cohesive, image. It was an abosolute delight to have the opportunity to learn more about her process and work.
About a year ago, I was struggling to stay creative outside of work. I had a million ideas of what I wanted to do but needed to hone it in and get to work. I believe strongly that my maker side contributes to my design skills at work. A co-worker recommended Skillshare. I signed up for free trial. After forgetting to cancel, the trial membership became a year long membership. Skillshare is an amazing creative community. Each class has a project section so you can share your work and see what others are doing. For me, it has become an On Demand binge-worthy hide out. There are three teachers that I follow on Skillshare that are my current favorites.
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Music and Productivity at work
12/19/2017
Harry Campbell – Artist Portfolio
Do you swear by that 90’s R&B Pandora station as your work playlist, or do you prefer silence to hone in on your projects? Whatever your music taste, there are theories that link music with productivity—depending on the task at hand.
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Getting to Know the Locals: Cassie Genc
12/05/2017
I had the great opportunity of talking with Cassie Genc, a local Milwaukee illustrator living in the Bayview area. Her work is full of whimsy, wonder, and robots. I have looked up to Cassie as an artist for many years and have always appreciated her use of vibrant colors and attention to detail. The pieces she creates transport to magical other worlds that leave you thirsting for further exploration into her work.
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The making of a mural, in chalk
11/09/2017Day 1: Setting the scene
One of my first assignments at Composure was to create a wall mural. It was the largest piece of artwork I’ve ever done. It was slightly intimidating at first, but I was ready to take on the challenge. Here’s a behind the scenes look at creating my first chalk wall mural!
First, you must do the research. Pulling inspiration pieces is not only a great way to get your creative juices flowing, but helps create a starting point for what will become the finished work. As an inspiration point, I began to gather pieces from past projects, a wide mix of different works. I wanted to incorporate designs from all different clients and find a way to integrate them all together.
Creating a cohesive layout is like solving a puzzle. You start out with individual pieces and begin to find which pieces fit together, which pieces don’t.
Our Kids: Childlike Creativity
11/09/2017Anyone that knows me will tell you I talk about my two daughters—a lot. In my defense, it’s pretty much “Dad Law” that I have to brag about them whenever I get the chance and think everything they do is amazing.
All joking aside, my kids’ imaginations never cease to amaze me. Whether they are creating incredibly detailed plots for stories while playing with their toys or making up random lyrics to songs, I find myself often times just watching and smiling.
What I am most in awe of, however, is the way I can give them a stack of paper and just watch them create page after page of drawings. They’ve spent entire afternoons with nothing but their imaginations, a binder of loose-leaf paper and crayons—so many crayons.
Cast of Characters
10/06/2017Portraits have always been about more than ink and paint to me. Part of what sparked my interest in them was finding ways to show the idiosyncrasies of the people around me. Things like the curve of a nose or how someone’s chin sits against their cheek, or in this instance, how much they really do look like their pet.