Christmas Yetis!!

It's been such a busy couple of months that I haven't had the chance to put up a new post in quite a while! So I'll be posting multiple things to catch up on what I've been working on.

Here is a Christmas window display I did at the Art Riot. It was hard to get photographs of it installed due to glare on the glass, so I'm including some pre-install pictures.

As always, go check out the Art Riot! If you are an artist looking for a venue to sell your stuff, or just interested in hand made items, make a trip over to John street. Heidi and Matt are well worth the trip. Also, as I am not sure what to do with these guys once they are taken down, anyone wanting to take one home can drop me an offer. It'd be a shame to junk them.

The Night the Bones Danced

So this weekend I had the most amazing adventure. I ran a class at the Art Riot in Kingston for kids 7 and up that was full of Halloween crafts and storytelling.

We made skeletons out of Q-Tips. 

And we made musical instruments that sounded like the rattling of bones!

 

 I had so much fun! Thank you everybody for coming and making such wonderful art with me!! I hope to do more classes at the Art Riot and am already planning something fun to do for Christmas. So keep in touch!!!!

A Secret Place

This is a drawing I did for the Quill Them All illustration blog I am involved with. The theme was "A Secret Place", and there's nothing more secret or sacred than being all alone in the middle of the woods.

Hidden Picture

This is a design I submitted to Highlights magazine for their hidden picture search. There are a few things in there, a fork, sea shell, crow bar, ladder, balloon, mouse, pencil, cane, traffic light, banana, and a piece of pizza. Of course, this design was rejected, but it was fun making it. And it hasn't discouraged me yet, so they may get sick of receiving a whole bunch of dumb drawings of animals doing stupid things from me.

Wilhelm der Naturforscher

Since we've started up the Quill Them All blog again I've spent this month working on my submission. The theme was "An Unlikely Pair." I've already posted it to the Quill page, but since this is my own blog I figured it'd be cool to also post some work in progress photos. Especially since to do this drawing I used frisket for the first time, something I've been drooling over but never actually splurged on. I'm ridiculous, I'll just usually painstakingly paint around every tiny detail, but now that I have frisket it takes half the time. :)

I'm not entirely sure about Wilhelm's story and I am still developing him. I do know that he is a German naturalist from about the late 1800s, (Wilhelm der Naturforscher means Wilhelm the Naturalist).  He has somewhat unconventional methods as shown below, traveling in polar bears to study the North Pole. He is not magical, he simply uses his sound reasoning, though his reasoning is a lot like a child's, simple, fantastical, potentially plausible and often improbable. And I think I love him.

And here's some action shots. The frisket is tinted to make it easier to see on the paper, and after it has dried and you're done with it, you can just rub it off. Genius.

Fox and Flowers

Here's some works in progress. I've been busy working on my Quill Them All entry for this month, yes the illustration blog Quill Them All is back up and running, with me and my friend Kris as it's organizers. Check the blog at the beginning of the month to see some awesome illustrations! Perhaps I'll leak some sketches of my contribution next week. I've been a little lax lately in the weekly postings, but only because I'm focusing on a lot bigger projects and agendas. I may switch to officially either once a month postings or every other week. Ive been doing a lot of submissions for publication, so my time is mostly devoted to sketching and designing. I'd rather post something that is a more complete idea, so we'll have to wait and see what feels more comfortable after a time. Thanks for bearing with me!

Working Week

This is a working week. I'll finally get to use my new safety eyes and yesterday I brought home a new array of fur for yeti pelts! I think a yeti with a mottled mustache would look pretty nifty.

Working  hard to get ready for the Cornell St Art Show!! Come check it out on August 10th! Cornell St. Kingston!

Snyder

This drawing is a culmination of some of my dearest things. I still miss you Snyder, even if you were an asshole.

New Comic, New Sketches!!

Check out my new comic strip here!

Isn't summer wonderful! I just want to be outside in the garden, swimming and picking berries far more than I want to be inside making a new blog post. And that's my excuse for slacking this summer, but don't think I'm a lazy larking slob, because in between enjoying the sun I've actually been working on a new experimental project that's going to take a little more time. Not sure if I can talk about it, but if my idea gets rejected I'll still finish it, and then you'll see what I've been up to. Either way I'm excited because I've discovered the joys of setting goals and creating projects. Having a set deadline and a set plan really helps with the frustration of being self motivated. I'm sure many other creative people will agree that once a big project is finished it is easy to feel a little directionless and depressed. And besides that it helps me use my time better. There's a great podcast about it by Chris Oatley from Paperwings podcast. Check it out!

Here's another thing I've been playing with; a small page of character sketches. It seems like a good way to get ideas rolling, and a fun way to rethink classic imagery. It's my visual play with Little Red Riding Hood.

Clothing Designs

It's been a busy couple of weeks, and yes I've missed a post or two, but only because I've been focusing on something exciting. I have two huge screens burned with some neat designs and I spent all day today printing tees, ladies tees, bibs, ladies underwear,  and some tote bags.

Mens sizes

Ladies sizes

 Hanging the bibs so the ink dries in the sun

I'm still printing, so there are at least two more designs that will be done this week. Next weekend I'll be in Kingston at  The Old Rhinebeck Aerodome. It's a plane show with ARTISTS and COOL STUFF!!! A good way to spend a nice June weekend. There will be live art-making, and another code word for me!! If you say the code word: Mantis Shrimp, you will get a fabulous prize! See you then!

It's My Birthday!

It's my birthday. I'm an old lady. Here's a weird opossum-anteater-thing I drew!

T-Shirt Designs

I will be screen printing a run of t-shirts, (men and women's sizes), as well as ladies underpants. Here is a selection of sketches and ideas for those designs. Please vote which designs you'd most like to see printed on clothing.

Of course I'd add more detail to the cats later, fur and shading and stuff. FYI.

pancakes with the syrup colored in

pancakes with the syrup NOT colored in.