i make illustrations

My name is Heather. I am a freelance illustrator and lover of cute things. • Portfolio. • Facebook • Instagram

[heather-rogers]

Alright, I’m so excited to finally share something a little more recent! A few months after Bryan and I got hitched, my new brother-in-law, Sean, also tied the knot with his beautiful fiance, Theresa. So, of course, I had to draw them a picture as a wedding gift! Their intimate ceremony in the woods of North Carolina was so sweet and beautiful; and although rain showers threatened the day, it ended up nothing more than a gentle sprinkle. Besides, how cute is that photo of them kissing under an umbrella?!

Sean and Theresa are missionaries working with Hope Dies Last, an organization that, as explained on the website, "develops media to equip organizations to effectively engage the injustice of human trafficking.” Take some time to check it out and support them in their endeavors.

Heather

[heather-rogers]

Some more sketches from my Instagram for the month of February! Follow me @byrdsofaheather!

[heather-rogers]

New business cards came in, thanks to Moo.com!

[heather-rogers]

I've been doing a sketch a day project on my Instagram, so here are a few of my favorites from January.

Follow me on instagram to see more! (@byrdsofaheather)

[heather-rogers]

One last wedding! Krista and Joey are a sweet couple who were kind enough to commission me to create a visual map of their relationship. They had dated long distance for most of their relationship, many moves and such along the way. This was actually one of the first projects I tackled right out of school last year...and it was a challenging one too! I had never made anything quite like this before, so it took a little while to figure out the composition. However, everything came together in the end, and as you can see, the wedding was absolutely beautiful!

Thanks again, Krista and Joey, for letting me be part of your day!

Photos by Brett Photography

[heather-rogers]

In addition to my own wedding, I also got a chance to do the invitation for the wedding of my best friend, Kendra. We shared a dorm for our last two years of college, and I have so many sweet memories with her. Though we are very different people, The Lord has had us in similar places of life throughout our friendship--similar struggles, serious boyfriends (who we got engaged and married to within months of each other), and, funny enough, a deep curiosity in one another's majors (I was illustration and Kendra was fibers). It's been so incredible to reflect on the way God has used us both in each other's lives to encourage and challenge. Now that we've graduated, our jobs have taken us far from each other, but I know Kendra and I will be friends for life.

Photos are by Kendra's amazingly talented brother, Curtis Wiklund Photography.

Their wedding has also been featured on 100 Layer Cake and Wednesday Amelia. Check the posts out to see more beautiful photos of their wedding!

Peace,

Heather

[heather-rogers]

Jeez, it's been quiet around here! So much has happened since March of last year; I moved to a new city (Atlanta) where I've been working at Carter's as a Trainee in their Art Department. I recently finished my time there and am working on getting myself set up for freelancing! It's very exciting!

One of the other major things that has happened since my last update is I got married!! (Hence the name change to Heather Rogers!) It's been an amazing four months with the love of my life, Bryan (whom you've probably seen in some of my other illustrations ;) ). I'm still pretty happy with the invitation, so I thought I would share it with all of you (along with some pictures!).

The wedding was held at his parents' home in the mountains of North Carolina, and it would not have been possible without the lovely helping hands of my sweet friends and family. At the reception there were over 200 tissue paper pom poms that we all folded and poofed, and my bridesmaids baked the cake and cupcakes in addition to making chalkboard signs to post around the venue. I am still overwhelmed with the love we felt that day! Bryan and I are so lucky to have such amazing people in our lives.

Invitation by me, and just to brag on my hubby a little, he sewed the ties that the groomsmen are wearing! :)

Photos are by Sarah Mesa Photography (another awesome friend)

You can see more pictures on her blog.

Flowers were by Floressence Flowers in Brevard, NC (sooo beautiful!)

Stay tuned because I plan on updating the blog over the next week with a few of my other personal projects from the past year!

[heather-rogers]

Process for my screen-printed greeting cards. In the past I've always used Illustrator to create my transparencies, but this time I wanted to try a much more raw approach by tracing each state with a black China marker on vellum. The final card on the left was one of my mistake/test cards, but it's honestly my favorite one. Funny how that works!

Inspired by Escaramuzas (Mexican cowgirls).

[heather-rogers]

Screen-printing.

[heather-rogers]

I've been wanting to experiment with gouache for awhile now, but I haven't tried my hand with traditional media (other than making textures) in such a long time that I've been a little afraid to try; however, I'm in an Independent Study this quarter, and it's proven to be the perfect venue to experiment. While I'm no master, I've been having a lot of fun painting; it's a nice break from always burning my eyes out in front of a computer screen for hours on end. Here are a few gouache/pencil/colored pencil drawings I made and collaged together in Photoshop.

I've been really inspired by Immortelles lately. We have beautiful dried bouquets of them in the store I work at here in Savannah, and I just love their vibrant yellow color and twisty stalks. 

[heather-rogers]

Got this little surprise in my inbox today! Talk about a great way to start off 2014!

I'm so excited and beyond grateful. Nate and Salli are so sweet, and if you haven't already, you should definitely check out their projects They Draw and Cook and They Draw and Travel. They comment on everyone's work and care so much about the illustrators that submit. You should also take a peek on TDAC at the featured collection of recipes from Quick Draw Collective, which is part of the reason I submitted my work! 

Happy New Year everyone! I hope yours has started out as wonderfully as mine!

[heather-rogers]

I'm now hooked up with BlogLovin'!

If the blogs you follow are signed up with BlogLovin', you can keep track of all of their posts in one streamlined newsfeed! It's super duper handy. 

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

[quickdrawcollective]

I chose to illustrate a recipe I tried in the summer on this blog for Matcha (Green Tea) Cupcakes. I love baking sweets that use unconventional ingredients and flavors, plus I just love the taste and color of green tea in desserts, like ice cream, cookies, frappuccinos, etc. This is definitely one of my favorite cupcake recipes that I’ve attempted so far. The texture and color of the cake itself is just wonderful!

As far as creating the image, I didn’t really want to just draw a green cupcake partially because this was my final portfolio project and partially because I was inspired by the submissions on They Draw & Cook that were less literal. I thought of Japan because of their tea ceremony, and I started to reference Japanese paintings and prints for more ideas. As an artist I am also drawn to story-telling and love as a theme, so the idea I came up with for this illustration is that the girl on the left is sending a package of cupcakes to her samurai out in the field. After all, the best part about baking is sharing with others!

-Heather

[heather-rogers]

Had to wait awhile to post my final project in Portfolio class because it’s also my submission for this month’s QDC challenge! Come check out all the other fun illustrated recipes being posted over the next few days, and look out for them on They Draw & Cook!

I’ll probably post the sketches and other process for this piece soon. :)

[heather-rogers]

WIP of my final project in Portfolio..............trying to muster up the strength to finish strong!

[heather-rogers]

Final image for the book cover I did for Holes by Louis Sachar. Changed some things around from the final sketch with help from my professor that I think improved it greatly--the composition feels much more balanced with the holes in the background, and the Warden feels much more intimidating in comparison to tiny little Stanley.

Overall, I'm very happy with this. I don't have time for it now, but during winter break I'd like to revisit this piece and design the full book jacket.

Typeface is Deming from Lost Type Co.

[quickdrawcollective]

It’s the week before finals!! AHHHH

-Heather

[heather-rogers]

My What I'm Working On post for Quick Draw Collective. Acorns!!

[heather-rogers]

My second project for Portfolio, which is a self-assigned editorial piece. I found and read this article about why daydreaming is awesome in The Atlantic and thought it would be a lot of fun to illustrate.

The first of my three sketches is based off of childhood memories I had looking out of my car window on the way to school and imagining Digimon or Pokemon flying or jumping across the landscape alongside us. The second two sketches are meant to reflect the freeing nature of daydreaming as well as the idea of exploring the inside of one's mind. After discussing with my professor, we chose to use only the top half of my third sketch, feeling the presence of the actual daydreamer wasn't necessary to communicate the idea.

This piece was a lot of fun, but very challenging. I still don't even know if I'm totally happy with it. It has gone through multiple color changes, compositional adjustments, re-drawing, subtracting, adding, etcetera; however, I know I learned a lot from the process, as tedious as it was, especially in regard to creating a successful composition. I thank my Professor, Julie Lieberman, for all of her helpful feedback!