Jenny Cooper

Oh, Adobe…

Jenny Cooper — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:48:42 +0000

Lately, I’ve been brushing up on my Adobe Illustrator skills. So far, I’ve added a few character designs to my site, but expect some additional, more elaborate illustrations in the days to come! Although the teddy bear and plush bunny were more work, I think the spectacled bear is my favorite. : )

Finally!

Jenny Cooper — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:10:30 +0000

Step right up and get excited folks, the moment we’ve all been waiting for is finally here! Ok, don’t get that excited… maybe only I was waiting for it. Anyway, I finally found a good way to embed my animation in this site (via Vimeo.com), so don’t forget to check out my animated short, Honey Nut Latté, on the ‘Animation’ page of this site. You can also check out some new digital character and concept art created in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop on the ‘Concept/Story Art‘ page.

This is just a little snippet of what I’ve been doing lately, but between applying for and following leads on various job, internship and freelance opportunities and standing in line at the D.M.V. in my quest to become an official Californian, I haven’t had a whole lot of time to update. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the new content, and, as always, feel free to contact me with any comments or questions.

Now That It’s Autumn.

Jenny Cooper — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:59:41 +0000

Yet again, this page seems to have taken a back seat to other ventures, namely, the on-going job-search. Although I have not yet found that elusive dream job, I have made quite a bit of progress. I’ve added several new items to my portfolio, most of which can be seen on the concept/story art page of this site, as well as editing and improving other pages. I have found myself temporary employment by transferring to a Starbucks here in Emeryville to help pay the bills for the time being, but I am continuing to apply for more permanent and /or creatively full-filling positions. The economy may not be on my side, but with my glamourous new barista status, time is. At least, more than it was.

That nonsense aside, I do have one more addition to my site: I have finally added pictures of the work I did on the Zilker Summer Musical, Music Man. This was performed over the Summer in Zilker Park, a beautiful green space in Austin, TX. I was called in to help Anne McMeeking, who I knew from the U.T. Performing Arts Center, to help out with some of the painting. My work was primarily on the portals and walls seen in the pictures below, as well as on the scenic art page of this site. Read the captions in the pictures below for a step-by-step explanation of our process, and don’t forget to see the scenic art page for pictures of the final project.

Many thanks to the lovely Ms. Anne for the pictures. : )

Let’s Hope There’s Gold in Them There Hills

Jenny Cooper — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 07:18:05 +0000

It’s been a couple weeks since Dries and I first clunked across the California border, and I’m finally starting to feel at home. The last my stuff is unpacked, if not quite put away, there are posters on the wall, and my locally-based (finally!) job search is in full swing. I’ve also found a bit of time to create some more drawings and develop a flat portfolio for applying to concept/story art positions.

Two days before I left Austin I also picked up some VERY last minute scenic paint work in the form of a prop for my hair dresser, April Skinner, who is also an up-and-coming photographer in the area with her company, Almost Impatient Productions. When I first saw the crescent moon, it was a tacky, disheveled, bright, glossy yellow, with water damage, paint peeling around the edges, etc. April asked for a copper patina kind of look, and, though it was my first try at that particular effect, I think it turned out pretty well. See for yourself in the Scenic Art/Design page, and while you’re at it, check out the design gallery for photos of the scale model of Iden B. Payne Theatre featuring a set of my own design, created for my Design for Performance final project back in May.

Well, my resume is shaping up my online and flat portfolios are shaping up, now to put it all to good use.

Oh, everything…

Jenny Cooper — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:10:39 +0000

Well, it’s been a longer period of silence on this blog than I had hoped, but life has done well in keeping me busy lately. After Belgium, we visited Norway, mostly staying around the Oslo area, but we did drive out to the country to see some fjords for a day. Then, it was on to England to visit family in the Portsmouth area and do a bit of sight-seeing in London and the historic Portsmouth harbor. For me, highlights of the trip, apart from spending time with Dries and my extended families of course, were the medieval city of Brugge, cycling along the coast of the North sea in Oostende, Belgium, exploring the ruins of a 12th century monastery on the island of Hovedoya in Oslofjorden, Norway, the HMS Victory and historic dockyards in Portsmouth, and, in London, the National Gallery and the Wellcome Collection (an exhibition on the practice of medicine both past and present, featuring hundreds of fascinating and sometimes bizarre artifacts from all over the world). A few pictures from these adventures are posted below.

Upon my return to the U.S., most of my life has been consumed by cleaning, packing, and minor repairs to my apartment to (hopefully) avoid move-out fees, in addition to continuing my job search. Although it seems hard to make much headway in this from out of state, I am continuing to create and gradually fleshing out my online portfolio, so I’ll have more to show once I get there later this month. I remain hopeful that even during this recession the world still craves creativity.

Greetings, from België!

Jenny Cooper — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:56:46 +0000

Well, I’m currently abroad getting to know my boyfriend, Dries’ extended family in beautiful, (oddly) sunny Belgium. Everyone who’d been to that region of the world had been preparing me for some dreary, rainy disaster of a holiday, but so far it’s actually been great. The weather has been unusually warm and dry since we arrived earlier this week (knock on wood), and we’ve actually managed to do a lot of sight-seeing in Leuven, Brugge (Bruges) and Oostende. Both the cities and the countryside that I’ve seen so far have been beautiful, although, there is discouragingly little of the latter.

I’m feeling very inspired by this whole experience and have been sketching a lot the past few days. Dries and I have also been taking loads of pictures, and I’m sure that I will turn at least one or two of them into paintings/drawings once I get home and have access to more extensive art supplies. Pictures to be posted soon, artwork once I get back home to my scanner. Until then, on to Norway and England!

What’s Going On?

Jenny Cooper — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:22:48 +0000

Hi, my name is Jenny Cooper. I recently graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a B.S. in Radio-TV-Film. This website, once I flesh out the content is intended to be a portfolio of the work I’ve done over the course of my college career. I will also be adding new items as new projects arise, which I will post here, on the “Recent Projects” page.

At the moment, I am shifting gears between bringing my college experience here in Austin to a close and pursuing new opportunities in the San Francisco Bay Area where I will be moving in mid-August. As I will be leaving the country in a few days, I am struggling to put this site together rather hastily before I go gallivanting across Europe with my boyfriend, Dries (visiting family, celebrating graduation and my birthday), so please excuse any bugs or confusion as I develop this online portfolio.

Currently, recent projects include a stint as a scenic painter on Zilker Theatre Production’s Zilker Summer Musical performance of The Music Man, and my final projects for my Digital Animation and Design for Performance classes. My project for Digital Animation was a narrative short about a college student fed up with her job at a certain corporate coffee chain. I should probably say that this is in no way a representation of any real persons or corporate entities… Anyway, the Design for Performance class’s final project was a 1/4″ scale model of the Iden B. Payne Theatre on the UT campus complete with scale set pieces and props for a story of my own invention based on a randomly assigned piece of music. You can look for both of these in their appropriate categories on this site as I continue to work on one of my newest projects… this site.

New website

Jenny Cooper — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:35:46 +0000

… is up and running!