Last Minute Paintings—School is Beginning!

Some last minute illustrations between meetings and school prep this week.

You can request (custom) these illustrations at my etsy shop until they officially become available (probably not the fish), but more than likely the "story time" piece on the left.

All Caught Up — A Cat & His Toy

This was a fun piece to do—although I didn't really do it all at once.  It was one of those projects that I work on a little, then leave and work on something else, then come back and work a little, then... well, you get the idea!

Anyway, I'm becoming more of a cat person as an increasing number of my friends have become cat owners—I think cats are hilarious in their devious ways!  They just make me laugh, though we will likely never have one due to Superman's allergies.  So all you cat haters are safe to visit me :)

"All Caught Up"
Kitten tangled in yarn

My favorite "cat persona" is when they are caught doing something and just look at you as if to say "who... me?"  And that is what I tried to capture here.

This print is available in my etsy shop, and the original is still up for grabs (6x9in)

Watercolor... & More Birds

I finally think I have figured this watercolor thing out!!

Maybe... I'll let you be the judge :)
But I've been struggling with the "freedom" of the watercolor media.  Like, really struggled.  I'm just not programed to be as loosey-goosey (as my professor used to say) as watercolor demands... But last night I decided to watch my husband (a fabulous painter) while he worked his magic.  I strove to mimic his techniques and then I added the ink outline that I use for my vintage style work.  The result:

Little Wren

And... I love it!  I'm really enjoying it anyway, and I think this may be the style that I will incorporate for my children's book (okay, I've said that a hundred times, but this time I mean it!).  It has the realism that I require from myself, the freedom to add some character into the subjects and the softness of a standard Children's book.

Here are some more that I did while I was on a roll, haha—I'm afraid that my steak will end and I'll be a clutz with the brush again!

Rose Breasted Grosbeak

Sparrow

Etsy Shop—OPEN!

My Etsy shop is officially open for business!  Head on over to check out the prints and note cards that I have available for sale!  If there is anything that you don't see that you want, feel free to send me a message or comment here and we will work something out.

Well, what are you waiting for?!  Check out MY SHOP!

The Votes Are In

Yesterday I decided to allow my friends and family to vote (via facebook and instagram) on my next design to be made into a note-card!
Since I am just starting out, I have to be pretty picky about which designs I choose.  I am still working with an outside printer and unless and until I can bring that process home, I have to order my stock ahead of time.

Sorry Blog, I did not include you in this voting process—I promise that you will be in the next one! 

Anyway, the "Vintage Phone" piece won and this is the design that I created for it!

Etsy shop officially opens on August 5th!  This little guy will be present as soon as the order comes in!

Anniversary... quickly and, well, late

Our anniversary was on Sunday!  I have a post in the works with photos and little blurbs about the past year.  But clearly that is not my priority right now, or I'm just lazy, but I would rather that you believe the former :)

Anywho, here's a quick watercolor that I did this week to commemorate the event: (Let's try not to be harsh critics now—it's not easy learning to watercolor when your husband is Mr. Paint... and this is only #2 for me!)

Don't you love how classy I am, posting an instagram photo rather than take a real one myself?  Click on the image to find/follow my instagram and actually keep up with my art :)

I promise, the blog will be under better management when I finally get this little shop off the ground!

A Little Bird Told Me...

Here are some of the illustrations that I have been working on over the past few weeks!  Lots of little birdies and plenty of tea-themed ascents to keep the cravings down.  These pieces will soon be available for sale in my etsy shop!

Once I get that all set up... heh—there's a lot of legal stuff that goes along with selling merchandise!  But in a few weeks there will be 8x10 prints available of those posted below along with some of what I have posted already.  If there is anything that you do not see here than you think I should include/create, let me know!

My first commissioned piece in this style

 No bird or tea, but it was the night before my sister's grad party so I was just killing time between getting ready

Please don't judge my hummingbird! We fought for a long time but I couldn't seem to get him to turn out any better.

He's... special... (another commissioned piece)

No bird, but my teacup is in there along with the roses that grow along the path to our little apartment.

Superman will sometimes pick a few for me :)

My most recent... the plate still needs some more work, but here it is so far.

This One's For the Birds

I'm in the mood to draw birds, birdsa and more birds!  I think it might be because a few of my students are doing projects that have to do with birds / creative birdhouses.  Their theme paired with my own love for birds and the new hummingbird feeder in the backyard has given me the push I needed to draw again.

Here's another that I began working on this week:

Again, poor quality from my iPod, but when it's complete I'll take a better photo.

Prismacolors at Tea Time

I don't work at the school on Mondays so I typically spend the day doing house-work and preparing for the rest of the work week (when I don't have a freelance job breathing down my neck).

Today I really wanted to get something done for my mom but I don't have my watercolor paper at the apartment and my first attempts at drawing did not turn out well—let's just say that I will not be posting them.  Frustrated and tired I reached for my pastel paper.  I'm not sure exactly what I was planning to create because I had not thought past opening the pad itself.  Out fell a series of drawings—still in the sketching phase of life.  I had entirely forgotten about them—I can't even remember when I actually started the project, but some point during the great series of illness that I ran into this winter.  I was particularly drawn (hah, pun totally intended) to the sketch I did of a stack of teacups.

Why not?  I hunted down and opened my beautiful Prismacolor pencils and got started.  After about 3 hours I have the familiar cramps in my shoulders from bending over, I am covered with pencil shavings, and I am loving it (but I am still taking a break, lol).
Here's what I ended up with today:

Better quality photo coming after completion—this one was taken with my ipod

Obviously, I need to finish up the handles and decide what to do with the background (and get the highlights to really pop), but for one afternoon of work I am pretty happy! I think I might need to tone down the contrast in my little birdy so that it doesn't grab all of the attention, but the background could fix that by itself.

I am considering making prints of this piece and selling them—if that would at all interest you let me know!

I'm an Illustrator

Sorry I have not been posting very regularly... Life has thrown me for a loop and I it rarely even occurs to me to update the blog!

One of the major reasons I have recently fallen off the face of the blog world has been my increased work load combined with a raw immune system among 250+ germ-y elementary students.  When I haven't been sick or racking my brain for lesson ideas, I've been drawing and working on the design jobs that have been coming in.  In January I spent the majority of my time in bed or with these floral illustrations (one of the series posted below).

While the work was difficult (mostly because of the short deadline and the sickies), I really enjoyed getting to draw again—before this my freelance work was largely digital, though now I am asked to illustrate more frequently, which is great.

It was also cool to research the event that the illustrations were displayed—the National Floral Show in Philadelphia.  This is the largest flower show in America and my work was seen by about 300,000 people!  Talk about exciting!  Below is an image from the specific exhibit that my work was in (you can see my drawings on the posters in the back).

Photo stolen from here

Anyway, that's what I've been doing, or at least one of the major reasons I have not been posting very often.  When I finally get some free time, I find that I would rather spend it annoying my husband.  I'm not sorry.

Makeover: Asphalt Andy

Well, it's been a while, but I'm still working!  I made these back in December (yes, that's how behind I am) for a construction company.  Their old "character" was rather dated and I enjoyed giving him some new life.

I would like to introduce you to Asphalt Andy—Before and After!

(My illustration—the "after"—is on the right)

I also needed to illustrate how roads fall apart from the bottom up (above).  I was so sick of drawing rocks after this! oye

Today I Drew A Spoon

You may not know this, but my SuperMan is also a SuperCoach.  And because he is so dedicated to coaching and to being the best he can be, he often attends track and cross country conferences to meet with other coaches and to grow and improve.

They're great!  He learns a lot!  He loves them!
They are 3.Days.Long.

And I go along with him.  I don't attend the conference or anything like that—it's really not my cup of tea and why spend the money when I will likely be sitting there thinking of how much I am not a runner (a dedicated / competitive one anyway) and wishing I had an actual cup of tea.

So instead, I brought some yarn and my laptop so that I could do some design work.  And should I happen to hit the shops around town, so be it :)

Only, there was a little blizzard that hit all of Michigan.  Seriously, big storm—they even named it!  [And Nemo was his name-o]  So I'm kind of kept from visiting or shopping today... oh, and the design job?  Well that didn't happen either—the client is currently MIA and doesn't want to share any design information with me at this time.  And last, but not least, the yarn I brought? In natural lighting, the two scans look the same, but in lamp lighting they are COMPLETELY different, so my project is kind of on hold.

So... I drew a spoon.

 
Skype date anyone?

Still Working

Here is a recent illustration that I did for one of my freelance clients.  There is an event commemorating the last Liberty Tree that fell in 1999, and I was asked to design the bookmarks that they are handing out as gifts at the event.  I felt an illustration fit the subject best (and I honestly was itching to get the good ol' colored pencils out again!

This design is directly taken from the final tree that fell (something that the client appreciated, so that was nice) and then further enhanced by the addition of the roots and the liberty bell mock among them.  "Rooted Deep in Liberty" is what keeps running through my mind as I was creating this.  Also works well because the top of the bell itself is created from "Liberty Tree" wood. The client is now considering buying the rights to the piece to use for other events, or to even buy the original drawing!  Fun stuff, we'll see if anything comes of it.

It was great to break out this style again—it is really developing into my default for hand illustration and I am loving the fact that I can be literal, but can break the rules of nature to play around with my ideas.

The teaching hasn't kept me from creating!  I am enjoying both my days with the students and my days at home, surrounded with little house-work things and with graphic design / illustration.  More to come shortly—I am currently working on a new personal identity system—now that I have a new name to play around with :)

Wedding Invites

I just realized that I never posted the wedding invitations that I FINALLY created!  After experimenting with at least a thousand different styles, and trying to be creative while preparing for my senior show, I gave up.  And then I found my happy place and eventually my wedding invites in a box of colored pencils and some drawing paper.

So here they are, the illustration was created by myself with a pastel pencil, colored pencils and colored paper.  All done while watching a Jane Austen movie!  And then I just plugged in the typography the way that I wanted and v-walla, they were complete!

Something a little different...

Here is my latest show entry—I entered it into the end of semester show for the final show of my undergrad.
weird.

So this is the piece I offered a little "sneak peak" to a few weeks ago.  not my usual style or subject matter, but they asked for "conceptual", and this is what they got.  More creepy that I usually care to do—I feel like I have fallen into the typical category of "depressed art student", though I am far from it in actuality.

Just in case the "message" is not very clear, allow me to expand on my inspiration a little.  I've been talking with some of the girls that I mentor, and just some that I know closely, and have become more aware of the pain that girls inflict upon themselves in order to be accepted by society—not just anorexia, though that is a more well known issue.  Slowly, these girls kill themselves, hardly able to keep themselves "above water" (represented by the horizontal).  Thankfully, I do not know any girls who are in a position quite that bad, but I do know plenty about how society works against us and pushes girls (boys too, but we're talking my drawing of a girl right now...) to become the impossible "perfect".

The awesome thing is that God is in control—and He allows us to be vulnerable to Himself.  And in exposing what we are going through, the pain of what we have lived through—whatever it may be—we allow Him to come in and provide the necessary healing.

God is so good.  It's hard to grasp how nobody can be too "terrible", too "full of sin", too "unclean" for Him to reach—just look at Manasseh from 2 Kings 21!  He was described as the worst king to ever live, and he had "shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end—besides the sin that he had caused Judah to commit..." (v.16).  Yet, when Manasseh turned to God at the end of his life, God forgave him, loved him and even blessed him—he did not bring the punishment that the people deserved while Manasseh was living.

Feedback is welcome and encouraged as always—I'm considering bringing the line down a little more and maybe allowing it to fade higher.  Thoughts?

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Sneak Peek —Spring '12

Here is a horrid cell phone photo of my latest project sitting on the floor of my dorm room (thus the unrelated wood beams in the photograph).

 

I am working on a "conceptual" piece—they want a masterpiece, but sense I cannot seem to figure out what that actually means, they're getting this.  It's much looser than I usually work, but it's still modeled, I'm working with charcoal and pastel pencils and I am just really enjoying myself!
I wish I could describe the feeling of a project—specifically a figure—come to life under your finger tips.  That moment when you swish your drawing tool just right and there it is!

Poof!
Endorphins flying everywhere!
Heart racing with excitement and you do a little hop of glee before continuing with fresh zeal!

Because I'm enjoying the project so much, I have refrained from showing it to Bippes yet.  So far each of my projects have been moved to the computer—which is fine, I mean, that's part of what I do—but really? I finally get a semester to illustrate (draw!!) and I have to spend it on the computer.

Anywho, I'm going to have to show him soon, because I'm pretty far along... but I'm going to wait just a little longer.  Maybe Friday morning will witness a reveal—which would mean a reveal on here of course :)

Stay posted!

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Triptic with a Bike

Here is my latest illustration.
Okay, not my latest—but it's the only one I have to post right now!

I did this piece 5 different times. FIVE.
Each time I changed media or style until Bippes finally just said—"do it on the computer", but at least now I can change and tweek things the way he wants them without wanting to pull my hair out!

So there you have it—riding through the seasons and across the world. 
Go For It.

Feedback welcome as always!  More to come...

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Time Ticks On...

Still pretending to have some time in my life right now...

I have my heart set on finishing this piece, but it's slow going as I try to finish up here at school, plan a wedding and go to Italy...  Maybe this fall (should jobs find themselves elusive) I will have some time to get this together and really finish this story—at least this page!

Catching a few moments during lunch the other day to add some ink to my sketch and even some colored pencil during advanced (thankfully I wasn't caught by Bippes!)  Wish I could do more of this, but commercial is the direction they are pointing, and if that's what they want, then that's what I'll give them!

Until I have some moments to breath, little Tyler will just have to wait to face his fears...

The Key Word

Here is one of my latest projects.
I drew the original portrait about a year and a half ago with my (then new) prismacolor colored pencils.  Instantly in love, I have turned to them as my default ever since this moment.

Anyway, for my senior show, I made the addition of the tie and then converted the entire image into a graphic by transferring the image to photoshop and adding the texture, stripe (because I love stripes! lol) and text, created this piece.

Hopefully it transfers to be the humorous piece that it was designed to be, but who knows...
Thoughts? Comments? Critiques?
...please?

Anyway, this is the VERY LAST piece that I need to get to print correctly (grumble of frustration) and frame for the show! YAY
Everything has to be done by TOMORROW, so it's time to get this piece done, ya know?

Longing For Time...

I have a small idea that I'm brainstorming for a children's book.  An idea that I will likely pass on to my beautiful and talented sister to write, while I enjoy drawing my little character.

Obviously, this little scheme of mine will not be commencing for another few months or so, but it's fun to think about as I avoid studying for my art history exam tomorrow morning... oops

Anyway, here's a page for what I'm thinking...

Thoughts?