Desktop Calendar {August 2012}

Have you been watching the Olympics? We can't get enough in our house. The first night that Stella saw gymnastics, she immediately started doing her own performance - using a yoga block as her "vault" and doing this funny head-spinny-break-dancing move. We were trying to teach her to stick her landing and put her arms up high at the end. It was pretty cute, if I do say so myself. 


And in honor of the London Olympics, I decided to go with a British-themed desktop calendar this month:

It features an AWESOME double decker bus filled with some fun characters. If I wouldn't know any better, I think they're headed to the Olympic Stadium to watch some Track and Field.


And of course, you can click on the above image and save it to your computer, or you can also find it here. Please note that this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Are you watching the Olympics? Do you have a favorite event?

LOVE Pouches {Shop}

Earlier this Spring, in preparation for Gallery Night, I made some new screen printed products : LOVE pouches. And now I am excited to say that they are finally listed in my Etsy Shop!

Utilizing my LOVE type from the Valentine's Day cards, these bright and fresh bags are sure to bring some happiness into your life. Pairing funky colors and vintage fabric lining, they are a whimsical approach to your typical pencil cases or cosmetic bags.

Each pouch as two different colored sides : sky blue/grass green; bright red/hot pink; coral/mustard; mint green/plum purple - you can switch it up just by flipping it over! 


Head on over to the Bluestar Ink shop to get your hands on one of these fabulous pouches!

Jurassic Park

Good Morning!


Today I'm excited to share my first illustration for Ten Paces and Draw. Ten Paces is a collaborative website that brings artists together for different illustration challenges each week. I finally got the opportunity to participate in one of the Character Redesign challenges.


This week's theme was Jurassic Park. Since I haven't seen it in years, I decided to check it out from the library for a little refresher. What a nice way to spend my Saturday afternoon!


Our challenge was to illustrate one of the main characters or one of the dinosaurs. I decided to go with the main character, Dr. Alan Grant in one of the more tender moments of the movie - when he was 'singing' to the brachiosaurus from up in the tree.

I'm still playing around with textures to bring in some depth and interest to my flat color blocking. It's fun, but it's still feeling really unnatural. I just have to find the right balance. That's why challenges like this are good for me - it gives me a reason to experiment!


Head on over to Ten Paces and Draw to see the other Jurassic Park submissions. It's pretty cool seeing everyone's different interpretations and styles!


Have a great week,

Do What You Love

Hello!


I just wanted to share another submission for Positive Inking:

I haven't had a lot of time to draw lately, but when I do, it makes me SO happy. Today's message just seems so appropriate. Even if I am distracted with other obligations, taking just a few minutes to do what I love makes such a difference in my overall well-being.


I hope y'all are able to find that special something that makes you happy!

Play Every Day

The talented Alyssa Nassner of Small Talk Studio has started a new blog called Positive Inking (clever!) that focuses on motivational illustrations for artists. I immediately fell in love with the idea. 


Though I consider myself a generally positive, happy-go-lucky person, there are definitely times when I fall into a rut. Sometimes it stems from lack of sleep and being overworked and other days it's from constantly comparing my work to others and feeling like I'll never be as good as the next person. Whatever the reason, an extra dose of motivation is always welcome in my life!

I decided to submit a mantra that I've been trying to stick to the last couple months: Play every day. You can find my 'Positive Inking' along with some other wonderful submissions here. And if you go RIGHT NOW, there is currently a giveaway happening to celebrate the launch of Alyssa's new blog! Bonus!

New Project {Zoe's Nursery}

Remember this post when I showed a sneak peek of a big project I had been working on?


Well, I am finally able to reveal it in it's entirety. Yay!


Several months ago, our friend and local photographer, Andrea approached me about making some Fuzzies for her baby's nursery. Of course, I was totally on board! 


Andrea came up with the super fun color scheme of orange/teal/purple and a MONSTER theme! How cool is that? After discussing the rest of the decor with Andrea, we decided that in addition to the Fuzzies, I would also make her a custom monster mobile and some illustrated monster prints to supplement the theme. 

It was a big project, but it was great working with Andrea to see it through. She has a great eye for detail, and as she added more accessories to the room she looped me in so we could always be on the same page. We wanted to keep the balance of the 3 main colors in check. Knowing the rest of the plan (rug, lamp, rocker, crib bedding, etc) helped me coordinate my portion. It was a real team effort!

I created the Fuzzies first, as they would be the inspiration for the illustrations. When Stephen wrote the stories, the teal monster ended up chasing butterflies, and the orange monster was an extreme unicycle racer. So of course, the illustrations had to depict them in their natural environments!

And then we have the mobile. I was especially excited about this, since I have been toying with the idea of making mobiles as an extension of the Fuzzy family, but never had time to actually see it through. Thinking it wouldn't take me that long because of their small size, I severely underestimated the work. All that hand-stitching takes time! And then I had to figure out the actual hanging apparatus. I'm no woodworker, so it had to be simple enough that I could make it. Using a combination of wooden dowels, pre-formed round knobs and a cube, I was able to pull it off. I painted the center cube and ends a nice teal blue to pull it all together, added a star to the top, and voila! A mobile!


I am really happy with how it all turned out. I also really enjoyed the challenge of designing a "space". Even though my contributions were mere accessories, working with Andrea on the entire decor was a lot of fun.


Now that you have seen my creations, please head on over to Andrea's blog to see everything in its place! She did a fantastic job putting the room together. Her daughter is a very lucky girl! And, Zoe's nursery was even featured on Project Nursery! How cool is that?


On a side note - if you're in the Madison area, be sure to hit up Andrea for any of your photography needs. She is one talented lady!

Illustration Bootcamp {Part 2}

Howdy!


I'm back to finish posting about my experience at Illustration Bootcamp. If you missed Part 1, check it out here!


I went into the weekend knowing how to draw, but I wanted to refine my skills. I have had my own freelance business for almost 5 years, but there was so much more about the biz side I wanted to learn, such as licensing work, getting a rep, self-promoting, etc. 

Lindsay and Meg are teaching us the ways.

Over the course of the weekend, we had many opportunities to self-reflect about our illustration careers. We pondered questions such as:

•What makes you unique as an illustrator?

•What reaction should your audience have when they see your work?

•What do you want to achieve with your work?

•What are your dream projects?

•Who are your illustration heroes?

•What is working for you in your career so far?

•Who are your competitors?

The myriad of questions were great. I really needed to dig down and consider why I was choosing this path. Though some were harder to answer, the end result was pleasing: I had even more reasons to believe this is what I want.


We also got to listen to many illustration pros in the Minneapolis area talk about their jobs. The variety was excellent, and it was nice to hear their perspectives. Meg Hunt, our guest instructor, took some time to meet with each of us individually and talk about our work and our futures. She was so incredibly down to earth - I could have talked to her for hours!


In between the streams of information, excellent conversations and really good food, we also got a bit of time to draw. Our assignment was to interpret our idea of Summer in a small illustration. I decided this was the time to experiment a bit. Since I haven't had a lot of experience painting with gouache, I figured this was the place to do it. Here's my interpretation:

At our final dinner of the weekend, we were all presented with a certificate and this cute little book:

What was in the book, you might ask?

Well, all 18 of our Summery illustrations! Can you believe it? The Light Grey team scanned, sized, printed, glued and bound all of our illustrations into this amazing accordion book. I will treasure this collection forever. 


Hanging out with my fellow bootcampers was a blast. The conversations couldn't be beat! They are so talented and we learned so much from one another. And I feel made a lot of good friends along the way. I just wish I could see them more often!


The Light Grey team took some great photos of our weekend. If you'd like to peruse, check 'em out on flickr: 


All-in-all, it was a fabulous weekend. It was a great way to inspire and motivate my new illustration career. Now I just need to find more time to draw!

Desktop Calendar {July 2012}

Hello, and Happy July!


Inspired by the ocean life at the Pittsburgh Zoo last week, July's calendar features a few baby sea turtles. They were SO cute!

While I was working on this, I realized I hardly ever draw water animals - fish, whales, seahorses, turtles, etc. I may have to incorporate more of them into my repertoire!


You may notice a slightly different drawing style. At Illustration Bootcamp, I was inspired by Meg Hunt's use of analog brushes and textures, and I decided to experiment with the depth it creates within my linework. I'm still using the default brushes that come with Photoshop, but eventually I want to start adding my own unique brushes to my library. 


You can click on the above image and save it to your computer, or you can also find it here.

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

Thanks for stopping by!