Doodle {Chipmunk}

I'm back with another Daily Animal Doodle!

This time I chose #21, the chipmunk. Or as Stephen would call it, 'Grinny Squirrel'. Have you ever heard that name? I think it's a Pittsburgh thing. Anyways, here you go:

Lots of white space. And some crazy eyes. Chloe, our dog would like this one - I think she dreams of catching a chipmunk to make her pet. 

Later!

Wyatt & Katie {Plush}

Well, I told you I'd be back with another Wyatt & Katie project! This one was super fun and extra special. Katie asked me if I would make some Bluestar Fuzzy "cake toppers" for their wedding reception. And even though they were serving cupcakes, the Fuzzies would still be sitting on the table serving up the yummy goodness.

If you've been following the Fuzzies at all, you'll know that I've never created likenesses of people (or animals) before. I'll admit, I was a little nervous. I didn't want to offend anyone with my plushy expressions or proportions! I got all the wardrobe details from Katie and set to work.

I wanted certain Fuzzy details to remain, such as the star, eyes and basic proportions, but I figured I could go wild with the rest of the specifics. I even got to sew scruff! It's hard to tell, but Fuzzy Katie is wearing pink TOMS and Fuzzy Wyatt is wearing charcoal Keens. So stylish, those two are!

Creating the plush happy couple was an amazing experience. I've seen some sneak peeks of the photographer's Fuzzy photos, so maybe in a few weeks I'll have some professional photos to share!

Have you ever thought about yourself as a plush? My mom pinned this clip from Sesame Street, and it got me thinking. I think the coolest thing EVER would have a Muppet likeness of myself. Wow. That would be SO rad. The second-coolest thing would have a Bluestar Fuzzy likeness...right?  Right?  

:-)

Wyatt & Katie {Part 2}

Howdy!

Remember this post where I showed you Wyatt & Katie's screen printed Save the Date postcards? Well, last Friday, they got married! And I had the pleasure of designing their whole set of wedding invitations.

Keeping with the charcoal grey - magenta - white color scheme, my original plan was to screen print the whole set. But unfortunately, with our move to a new house, I wasn't able to get my screen printing studio set up in time. So instead I printed them on my spiffy Epson. Because I wasn't limited by the screen printing process, I was able to have a little more freedom with the detail and color variations. 

Here we have the whole set:

We kept with the bike theme and all of the text is hand-drawn type. Some more details:

It was such a fun project! I loved having the freedom to "do my thing".

And tomorrow I'll show you one more related project.
Until then, have a wonderful day!

Doodle {Swan}

Hello!

I hope y'all are doing well. I know it has been a while since my last post. That's because I've been mega busy doing some work for an upcoming wedding. But after this weekend I'll be able to show you the fruits of my labor - it is has been a fun project!

Tonight I felt like doodling again. I really miss the Daily Animal Doodles, but sometimes "real" work takes priority, right? I took a look at the September list of animals, most of which I've skipped, and the Swan jumped out at me. I wanted to create something that was simple, yet bold. Here's what I came up with:

I think it turned out pretty cool.

Even though I haven't been totally committed to the Daily Animal Doodles this month, there are a lot of other artists who have! I am so impressed with the brilliant drawings submitted lately. Be sure to check out the group's pool here!

Take care,

 

Doodle {Seahorse}

Howdy!

Today I drew a Seahorse for the Daily Animal Doodles.

I'm calling him my 80s seahorse because of the color palette and the halftone pattern. I decided to go with the halftone pattern because I didn't necessarily want to add a new color, but I did want to add some shading and dimension. So I thought it might fun to play with that texture a bit.

Have a great day!

Renegade Chicago Lovelies

Hello!

How was your weekend. Ours was wonderful. We traveled to Chicago for some IKEA and Renegade action. This was our first trip to IKEA since moving to the new house, so I needed some shelving to help me organize my office/studio. Plus some key accessories for around the house. Can you say red shag rug? Woo hoo!

Anyways, as always, Renegade was a blast. The sun was hot, but that didn't stop the throngs of people from some quality shopping! I didn't go too crazy this year, but I have to say - there were a LOT of very tempting booths.

This is what I took home with me:
- A set of Thank You cards from Yellow Owl Workshop
- A handful of cards from the awesome Tad Carpenter and Vahalla Studios 
- A necklace from cursive design
- A Wooden Wonder Loop Troupe from The Small Object


I didn't have much of a plan going in, but I was hoping to pick up a necklace from Cursive Design. I've been eyeballing Sarah's wares for a while now, but I really wanted to see it in person. Boy, was her jewelry beautiful! I picked out a pretty party necklace made out of wood, lace and glass. Isn't it fabulous?

Now hopefully I can keep Stella from yoinking on it...

Some of my other favorites were
- Moss terrariums from Twig
- Embroidered garland and mobiles from Specks & Keepings
- Rad necktie wallets from prix-prix
- Hand-dyed pillows from Prozan McGlinn 
- Prints from Little Things Studio
- Notebooks from Make My Notebook

I love Renegade!

Doodle {Loris}

Today I drew the cutest little animal - the Loris!

This one was interesting because of the major foreshortening going on with his position. But I think I pulled it off.

Tomorrow we're heading to Chicago for some Renegade Fair action - I'm SOOOO excited! I can't wait to see some of my favorite artists in person. I'll be back in a few days to share my experiences.

Until then, have a wonderful weekend!

 

Doodle {Baboon}

Hello!

I've decided I'm going to just pick and choose some animals from the list that I really want to do. My "real" work is picking up again, and it's becoming quite time consuming. But I don't want to forgo the Daily Animal Doodles all-together, so I figured this was a good compromise.

With that being said, D.A.D. #6 is a Baboon:

I really like the color palette of this one. Again, I'm trying to find a good balance between color shapes and linework. 


I chose the Mandril Baboon because of his unique facial features. My version looks pretty tame, but I have to say, after looking at reference photos, these guys often look quite scary with their teeth bared. I would definitely not want to run into one of them in the wild...


Hope you're having an excellent week,

Doodle {Manatee}

Hello!

I'm back with another Daily Animal Doodle. This one is a Manatee:

This guy is so simplistic! I guess it helps when there isn't any fur or feathers...

If you missed my interview over at Paper Sparrow, be sure to check it out here!

Later,

 

Paper Sparrow Interview

Howdy!

If you've been following my blog the last month, you'd know that I have been busy participating in the Daily Animal Doodles. This fun project is being organized by the lovely Andrea of Paper Sparrow. Well, she asked to interview me for her blog and the post is officially up!

So if you're interested in learning a little bit more about me, head on over to Andrea's blog for the full interview!

 

Doodle {Hare}

Hello!

Just poppin' in to post another Daily Animal Doodle. We're actually visiting my parents' this weekend, but I got a little time during the kiddos nap to draw. My next doodle is a hare:

I'm still trying to figure out this new drawing style, but I'm definitely having fun with color blocking. My limit is 5 colors.

For those of you in the U.S. have a swell Labor Day holiday tomorrow!

Doodle {Heron}

Okay, I'm back with more Daily Animal Doodles. Since I was 100% for August, I figured I'd take it easy from here on out; not necessarily committing to EVERY assignment. But then tonight at 10:30, I'm looking at my computer, and I suddenly have the itch to doodle. 

This time around, I'm going to take a different approach. I'm going to concentrate more on color blocking than the linework. Last time, I'd do the sketch in my sketchbook, transfer it to the computer, and then color and finesse it in Photoshop, leaving the original sketch pretty much intact. Now I'm going to still utilize the initial sketch, but it will only be the framework for the blocks of color and minimal, only necessary linework. We'll see how this goes.

Today is a Heron:

It's simple, yet graphic. Hopefully it still exhibits some of my style, such as the eye and the uneven lines. 

I hope you had a great September 1st!

September 2011 Desktop Calendar

It's September! And that means a new Bluestar Ink Desktop Calendar for your downloading pleasure!

In honor of the First Day of School for so many kiddos, I decided to draw a couple panda kids making their way to school.

You can download it here, too.

Please note that this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Have a wonderful day!