Leave it to a Chicago politician to drive me out of my illustrator's block. Corrupt Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich, was trying to auction off Obama's senate seat to the highest bidder despite knowing he was under the watch of the FBI. Makes you wonder how he got to be governor anyway.

Looks like I also do pets! Here's some fun, the client has a pet bird and wanted a graphic image to put on cards and gifts for the holidays. Below is the original I based it on.

Here's a great idea. Tie your portrait package theme together. I'll provide square formatted art and have it printed on the cover of your invite. This invitation/announcement features a clean black linen textured wrap that encloses a bright white insert secured together with a silver cord.

Oliner Graphics participated in its first trade show yesterday. It was very fulfilling and very exhausting. I was extraordinarily busy and didn't get to sit down for 5 hours. There was a giant inflatable man (see below) across the floor from me which was quite distracting. The whole family came and wore my graphic t-shirts and they functioned as walking billboards which proved to be highly effective. I met other great vendors too that I can highly recommend, balloonartistry.com, Sarah Merian, who owns a photo/video company, and "two really fun jewish girls from Brooklyn" Karen & Sharon (917-359-3377) at partymavens.net.

Ok, now we're really having fun. I took a tabletop poster print (11" x 17") mounted it on foam core, cut out the portrait and made a foam core spinner for discounts and prizes. My beautiful assistant is also holding some of the "Oliner Cash Coupons" with her graphic on it that go with it.

Parents! Take a look at that portrait graphic over the spinner. Those tabletop poster prints are fabulous for using in many different ways at your own event. If you request it, I'll be happy to flip the art so that you can place the portrait on both sides of the same piece of foam core and stick it in your centerpiece! There's a great idea!

I'm setting up for my first trade show and thought I'd show you how big the portrait posters are and how cool they look next to a standard 12 year old boy. Once again, I took this image with the lowly mac camera (at 6:30 am, very bad light!) on my computer and it needs to be flipped. Why does it do that? With all the programming they have why can't that camera take a right-facing picture that I can use without me having to go into photoshop to horizontal flip???

I'm also back to programming again. I love it, I could easily transition to "geek" if I don't watch myself. I'm revisiting a site I made called Lauren's world. Here's the link if you'd like to see it, (click here!) I set this up when I first started programming and my daughter and her friends loved it. Trouble for me was it was too clunky and time consuming to use as an actual product on my site. I'm trying to reprogram the games now using frames (maybe a bit old fashioned, yes) and tables and importing it into my current Rapidweaver page layout program so that its more insync with my site. The goal is to take these pages and make an effortless web page for each of my Bar/Bat Mitzvah kids so that they can have their own Flash RSVP gaming page with their order.

This is an image of the foam core stand I made for the Bike Montclair Charity Drive. Its a great organization and encourages the use of bikes and building of bike paths throughout the town. I'm donating my basic portrait package and they're going to raffle it off.

Here's the event! Try to attend!

November 15, 2008  12 PM - 3 PM
3Sixty Cycling Studio | 131 Glenridge Ave. | Montclair NJ | (973) 746-3663

Treat yourself to a 45 minutes spinning class on new, computer-equipped bikes in the loft-like space of 3Sixty Cycling Studio. Your donation of $25 or $50 to P4P or Bike Montclair will reserve a bike in one of three classes on Nov. 15, between 12 PM - 3 PM. To donate, visit www.p4p.org, www.bikemontclair.org or email smortier@p4p.org. 

Buy Holidays gifts by Montclair artists, cycling related items (safety, spinning gear...) and books (maintenance, skills, advocacy, adventure, health, novel) while tasting fair trade coffee and tea and other treats.

All proceeds will go to the organization of your choice, so please join us in support of Bike Montclair and Pedals for Progress for an afternoon dedicated to the future of biking.

How about this! I was working away in my office when these came to the door from the local PTA. They were thanking me for working on a logo and a new cover design for their school.

You may have been wondering why I haven't been updating as frequently over the past two weeks. Due to the unfortunate passing of my old Mac Hard Drive I had to work on my tiny backup computer and wait until my main machine got back from the geniuses at Apple (9 DAYS!!). Luckily, I backed up everything twice but I had to reload all my old programs, art, print drivers, calendar, ipod music, etc.... Took forever! The following seemed relevant.

I sat and watched as my hard drive died just the other day.
She left me on a Friday in the merry month of May.
With no chance to say goodbye there was nothing I could save .
Always back up is what I've learnt from hard drives in the grave.
I sat before a blank screen and thought of what had been.
It's a pity that without it my career would be so dim.

credit~A poem by Paul Francis McCann (slightly modified by yours truly.)
~ found it here http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewPoetry.asp?id=109831

Here's the code: WADDLEFANNED
It's good until Nov. 7, 2008 and worth $5 off any purchase of $50 or more.

It's that time of year again. Time for the annual Hanukkah Luau. This began years ago when I wasn't quite sure how to throw a Hanukkah party and threw in the Luau portion to cover up any mistakes I made!



I actually cut out the envelopes and card stock and made that psuedo-embossed bronze colored leaf on the flap. I created the envelope out of crumbled supermarket paper bags to give it a rough beachy look. I also wanted to respect the economy and go green by cutting and creating my own invites for this yearly party. Look at that, I took the photos of the invites with my Mac camera and it looks like they need to be flipped!

This is hysterical, my husband sent it to me.
Dollar Bill On Floor Sends Wall Street Into Frenzy
OCTOBER 22, 2008 | ISSUE 44•43
NEW YORK—Wall Street investors experienced a sudden surge in optimism Tuesday when, after six tumultuous weeks that saw record drops in the Dow Jones industrial average, a $1 bill was spotted on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
The dollar bill was discovered in the northwest corner of the trading floor at approximately 12:05 p.m., and its condition was reported as "crinkled, but real." Word of the tangible denomination of U.S. currency spread quickly across the NYSE, sending traders into a frenzied rush of shouting, arm-flailing, hooting, hollering, and, according to eyewitnesses, at least one dog pile.
"With credit frozen and the commercial paper market poised on the brink of collapse, this is the most promising development I've seen on Wall Street in months," said floor trader Tim Formato, one of hundreds who gathered around the $1 bill and excitedly called their clients to inform them that they were looking at actual U.S. tender. "I think I touched it."
Read More...

More Bailout Graphic Arts!! I drew this one about the 700 billion dollar man in charge of the Government Bailout, Neel Kashkari, while visiting someone in the hospital all day. How about that 900+ increase in the Dow today! Hooray! Hooray for Morgan Stanley! Hooray, I didn't have to draw Palin today!!

Due to popular demand, I put this bailout art on a t-shirt! click to go to the link!

What a day in the market. On lighter news my husband told me a joke,

"This market is worse than a divorce. I've lost half my net worth but I still have my wife!"

Here's what I made yesterday.

Here are two stunning sisters sharing a Bat Mitzvah.

Here's a comment from my client:
Can I just tell you, this bat mitzvah thing is soooo stressful...but every time I open one of your attachments, I get a big smile on my face and I have a warm happy feeling from head to toe. Thank you! Regards, Nancy

This was a fun one and purchased by a guest of the bat mitzvah girl as a gift. She loves the show "Friends" and we tried to bring a bit of this into her art. Her friends in the background weren't draw but rendered with a filter to create some interesting background art. Elyssa, the bat mitzvah girl, was hand drawn.



Stamp/seal art (also used on mugs)

My artwork is meant to be seen LARGE. Which means on the teeny-tiny format of the computer you are missing some of the POW! of my poster-sized pieces. Here's an example of Elise, a lovely girl with lovely fine soft features which can get a bit washed out on the small screen. I've blown up parts of the image and, as you can see, when they are blown up even this little bit you can see so much more of the details and shading which make the pieces so rich and engaging.

THE BIGGER THE BETTER!!

Here's the stamp art sample!

Here's something nice I just got in…

Hi Liz!

We got your wonderful artwork a few days ago, and we are sooooo thrilled! Beautiful, exciting, eye-catching design & colors, with excellent materials, and workmanship, delivered in a timely manner, etc! We will definitely recommend your artwork to all our friends, and use your services again as the occasion presents itself. Thank you!!!!

Best,
Lyn 

This one was more party and polly pocket! More of those eyes and smiles.

I was working on a client job for a book cover and doing some illustration tests to see how I could best portray a woman "breaking through a glass ceiling". So here's my one test, that I liked so much I've decided to put it on my business cards. I needed an image on those anyway.

Here's an interesting version of what you can do with the eyes in an illustration. The client requested "more sparkle" in her eyes as her entire life people have said she smiled with her eyes. Here's the first version...



...and here's the sparkle version! They really pop. I created the difference by layering a series of the lighter shades within the eyes with a variety of gradients. Further I added additional shading and highlights to the outside of the eyes to draw in the viewer. Its a subtle but very powerful difference that really changes the viewers perception.

This will be placed behind Diane at her latest book signing.

My artwork is designed to be blown up HUGE! As you can see from the detail here from "sarah's right eye (scroll down to the bottom of the page for sarah's whole image) . Shown in the teenie, tiny scale of the internet really takes some of the power away from them. If I only had to worry about my work appearing on the net I could probably cut down my illustration time to 1/4.

To get that wow factor, I include a FREE portrait poster with the basic package. Its a huge 2' x 3'.

Thanks to my wonderful client Jennie, I have these great photos of Evan's Bar Mitzvah suited up in Oliner Graphic originals. Jennie is the best and all of her friends and relatives should tell her how great she is once they see this site! Thanks for sending me the photos!

For first time visitors to this site that want to see a blow up of Evan's art click here!

Aunt Ellen

Grandpa "Big Dad" Alvin

Evan and Aunt Ellen





Evan and his mom and dad

Evan's little sister Kennedy (future client?)


From the client:
The T-shirts were a huge hit, particularly the kids thought it was cool to have Evan on the shirts.

Team members can buy apparel and gifts here, http://www.cafepress.com/olinergraphics/4875903

Poor Sarah couldn't have been in a worse spot. This is the only photograph that her loving family has of her. Even as an hard-working immigrant and the mother of 5 children, I can only surmise that if she knew this would be THE photo that would follow her through time she would have at least smiled and taken that towel off her shoulder. So I gave her a makeover, fixed her hair, got rid of one of those chins! I even gave her one of those tight, denture grandma smiles like mine used to have. Now she looks like she's ready for her great grandson's Bar Mitzvah. Do you like the blonde highlights? I think they suit her.

Here's the updated cover art for another powerful woman Diane Dutton of businesswomenspeak.com



I've been working on this book cover for awhile. I've been playing with the glass and the backgrounds to get the eyes to focus in on key aspects. Look hard and you can see the new logo I designed too. (Its on the left) Its been a fun project.

Here's an example of some design extremes.

Below is what the client probably wants...that school sports logo thing. I put a shield in there and made it clean and graphic but, let's face it we've see its like before. I'm sure the kids will prefer this. To be fair the focus on this graphic must be on the school represented by the M and less on the crew team. But please be patient and scroll down a bit...



and you'll come to how designers think differently than regular people.

This graphic is more focused on rowing than the school. I was thinking the 1920s, art deco, the time of rowing. Women in long shift gowns watching the races on a summer day in philadelphia. A quad pulls the perfect feather as it glides across the finish — clean, smooth and controlled. Ahhhh. You can sense the motion.

These are some of the rough sketches I provided my client on which we based our book cover illustration (Beyond the Glass Ceiling). I don't always provide the rough sketches, sometimes I sketch on the computer and give rough idea outlines that way.




I've been here myself. I remember being broke right out of college and going to a temp office. I sat next to a guy in the office with the same background, grades, school, everything. We could have been brother and sister. While I'm waiting, I was shocked to be brought in for a typing test while he was led in to be directly interviewed for a marketing research position. I remember asking why I was taking the typing test and if everyone was required to take one (meaning the guy), they just sat me down and turned on the timer.


I bet Hillary Clinton feels like this below image all the time. Where, oh where, did those 70s feminists go?


This image was pretty aggressive but fun to draw. I keep thinking, "what's going to happen to those guys when she breaks the glass". Ouch.




This was my "king kong" concept. This woman is climbing the corporate ladder being attacked by men swirling around her. This was a tricky one to sketch out and I actually had to shoot photos of my girlfriend on a ladder waving around Barbie dolls to get an idea of the perspective.

Ok, this top one's my favorite. I like the negative image representing the ES and the circle representing the online. This use of the negative space is a powerful tool as it gives me one more way to pull in the observer. The yellow (for power and strength) portion of the image represents the ying/yang balance of business. The segment missing from the left ying is part of the E and leads the eye to the right to see the name of the company. So clear, so clean.

Well, I've been working on that book cover for Diane Dutton. If you've been here before you've read how I did the test image based on myself. Diane has a fabulous website named http://www.businesswomenspeak.com/. She provides straight, clear ideas concerning how to get your voice heard in a male-dominated financial field. This cover is for her book called, "Soar Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Lock in on the secret weapons gauranteed to rocket your career." If you're interested, you can purchase the book with the old cover and title at this address: http://www.businesswomenspeak.com/womenladder.htm

These are my new cards. I felt that instead of just my logo I should put one of my images on them. Yes, that's me, Liz Oliner, flying through glass to meet the urgent need of your graphic emergency!!

I was just emailed this from one of my Bat Mitzvahs. In this case the mom used the poster to highlight where the sign-in books were and to help direct the guests to different locations. We also offer mini-poster prints (actually not so mini 11" x 17"!) for only $8.99 in our shop sites. These are great on doors and outside the building for parking etc. Don't forget the art makes great thank you cards too, all available in your shop. Don't forget this poster art is included in your portrait purchase.

Here's another great idea. Your portrait image can be merged into a signature icon to place at the footer of all your emails.

Took my kids to my Celebrate Showcase (Bar Mitzvah/Sweet 16) Trade Show yesterday and I'm going to give a couple of plugs to the other vendors that they just loved! Here is my daughter sporting a balloon hat from the Twisted Balloon Company. My booth was next to his at the show and his work is fantastic. My kids walked around with these hats on and gave out his cards all day. (Of course, my kids were also my own walking advertisements sporting shirts from my own site.) He doesn't do centerpieces but if you're looking for them (perhaps with some Oliner Graphic images?) then look no further than Balloon Artistry. I watched him make a life-sized balloon palm tree in about 1/2 hour. It was amazing.



Sorry about the quality of this pic but I wanted to show the airbrushed tattoo. My kids picked these up and loved them from Joan at Everything Plus. Joan doesn't have a website but you can contact her at ibjbus@yahoo.com or 201-768-8942. Gail, the party planner's site had a fabulous character artist who draws quick party sketches right at your party. They were so much fun!



Of course, my kids also came home with tons of great photo frames and greenscreen images from The Main Event and Ace Entertainment. Dance Heads offer absolutely hysterical CDs. We couldn't stop laughing. Todd Yahney is a DJ who sported they "giant inflatable man" I discussed on my last trade show post but he gave out very cool photo magnets that they have plastered all over my fridge.

Here I am at my site, it was another busy, fun day.

My client has a great sense of humor. Because I'm realizing that people seem to respond more quickly to personal images on the web, I suggested that we pose her (my client) in various guises. Here she is as "Mom". I had her pose and then when drawing the image put the crazy hat, pearls and mom glasses on her. Not to mention I considerable aged her, really she looks about 29. I then went with the idea of the "Uncle Sam wants you" theme and there ya go. My goal with this would be to create a collection of images that her clients could look forward to when they logged in.