Critters

Hello!!! I have a pile of things I need to post. I just returned days ago, from a wonderful vacation in Italy, where next to doing lots and lots of eating, I did a fair amount of drawing and painting. Heaven on Earth does exist, in Italy. When I can stop daydreaming for a minute and get my drawings scanned in, I'll post them up. :)
These little creatures ended up being an exercise for me to think/draw differently than I normally do using shapes. I did a bunch more that didn't make the cut, which made me realize the more I "thought" about the drawing, the less successful it became. They are pen on cardstock.

Oliver 3

This was a very special and personalized Christmas present I made this past year.
The Oliver 3 model is a beautiful, rare typewriter from the early 1900's (I believe between 1900 and 1907).
This is the first in a series of "felt paintings" I'm making, but on a very large scale. I'm particularly excited, not only about using fabrics and felt and sewing vs painting, but about experimenting with stylizing large shapes and defining details with simple lines of thread, etc. I hope to build a collection of these pieces by the end of the year. Please wish me luck!

Rainy Days

[I've been rediscovering some old(ish) sketches and things that I've never posted here and decided why not. Lots of new things to come, but in the meantime, here is a self-published mini book I made from rainy day sketches...]

Jennica and I were upstairs getting dressed for bed one night when we heard a loud "CRACK!" and saw a bright blue ball of light out the window. The electricity went out, we both screamed, and ran downstairs to discover the tall tree in Pop Pop's backyard had been struck by lightning! The following month, it became our see-saw.

On cold, rainy days, Grandma's favorite thing to do for us was to make peanut butter and banana sandwiches. And we'd dip them in hot cocoa. Sometimes, I'd hope for it to rain just so we could have that treat.


When the big hurricane hit, Grandma's roof flew off. My uncles and cousins had to go down the street to get it.

It rained so hard for maybe a week straight one summer, that Jennica and I rode on our boogie boards down the street gutters with the neighbor kids. We had so much fun! I was 11. Jennica was 7. We were so busted.

We never wanted to stop playing when it started to rain....
And always pushed our luck when we tried our best to ignore "The Whistle."


Chasing and catching lightning bugs in late spring, under a light drizzle, we promised ourselves we'd never grow older... and catch lightning bugs forever....

Birds

Can't...stop...drawing them....

Naughty, Naughty School Girl

I thought I posted these awhile back, but I guess not. They're a couple years old, drawn from life at The Drawing Club. (click to enlarge the raunchy details hehe).

The King and the Caveman

A couple silly character designs, playing around.

"Gracious! Do you think she's handsomely paid?"

Last year I discovered Audrey Hepburn, and several of her movies; most famously of course is "Breakfast at Tiffany's," which I swear I've memorized by now. Cleaning up my computer I came across these little doodles I did while watching it. She was incredibly beautiful, wasn't she? Such an angel. I gave up trying to capture her, without the mask. :)



And Paul's "decorator:"

Food Chain

Some of my strangest ideas come to me right before I fall asleep late at night, when I"m overly tired but my mind won't let me sleep, or in the morning when I'm just about to wake up. This is one of those things. I have a couple more I need to do.

The Office

Maybe a weird way to start off 2010 posts since New Years, but for some reason I was inspired to do a few charicatures of The Office staff. I've always liked the Office, even though this season veered on a strange course. I don't really have a favorite character either, I love them all because they're just the perfect mixture of weird, together. I started with Dwight and laughed the whole time I drew him, then randomly did five more. I used picture reference online, and tried to spend no longer than 10-15 minutes on each (So, apologies, Angela for your unintentionally mannish jaw, I didn't allow myself to fix you).
Here are: Dwight, Jim, Angela, Creed, Kelly, and Meredith.

Happy Holidays

I wasn't able to mail out a card in time, so I hope this virtual digital kind will suffice. I was originally drawing an elf doing the robot. But it was very complicated. Because he was at a rave. So I opted to draw a quaint chrismassy city block instead. The other day I did the robot in the shower, for no reason. It just felt natural.

The holidays snuck up, didn't they? Not to mention 2010 is practically busting down our doors. I don't like it, mostly because 2010 takes a long time to say, unlike "09", there is no shortened version. We can't really say "0-10," can we? Wait til we get to... 2017. Why do we say the 'Two Thousand' part anyway? We all know what millennium we are in. Can't we just start counting upwards without it?
Well, there's my rant for the day.

Happy Holidays to everyone, and I hope two-thousand-and-ten only brings wonderful things to you!!

Have you heard?

Everyone's heard!!

So, this is one of a series of little birdies I've been making this summer for friends as birthday gifts. This one is property of the lovely Maurene. I wonder if she named him/her.
(Btw - the grey drop is his little poop.)
I'll post more when I get some photos.
I intended to make a whole bunch (along with other plushies, books, prints, etc) to have a presence at APE Con in San Fransisco this year, but alas, things didn't work out that way. Not enough time to prepare for it, since it's happening in less than a month! These things take time, you know! And I have tv to watch! Just kidding, I'd really like to try for next year though...
Mmm boppa mmm mau mau, mmm boppa mmm mau mau....

Update: Here is little Mandy's birthday bird (sorry it's not as a great a shot):

Illustration Friday - Wrapped

Couldn't think of anything else. :( Oh well, Mr. Mummy will have to do.
Have a great weekend!

Afternoon doodles

Who wants to work when there are kitties and silly characters to draw and paint?!

Illustration Friday - Impatience

We've all seen her. Or we're related to her. People impatient with her, and she's impatient with everyone.




My good buddy Ryan motivated me to do I.F. this week, tonight being our deadline (you better finish yours and post it or ELSE!!!) So I tried to keep minimal colors, and couldn't decide if I like her with or without shading, so posting both. I'd like to say these were done quick but they kinda weren't. The sketches were, but trying to keep few colors was a fun problem-solving process, as simple as they are. I end up doing too many variations for my own good.
Anyway, and now... back to work. Have a great week!

I love lines.

Lately, I'm doing a lot of this while I think.

Bring it on, Wednesday...

Sunday Sketch

Many Sundays ago, in a friend's backyard. The late afternoon lighting and shadows were much prettier than what I could get down quickly.

Black Butterfly Productions

Some months ago my sweet friend Shev asked me to help her make a logo and business cards for a business she's starting up. I love the name and jumped on the opportunity. These are the finalized logo concepts I presented her, after getting a good grasp of what she was after, and thumbnailing out initial ideas.


She really liked the bottom one, and from there I did various layout ideas for the business card.


And then ultimately, the finals!
[back]


[2 versions of the front, with different font choice for her to choose from when she's ready to print]



This project was a lot of fun for me and I like the way it turned out. Shev is a great friend and she was suuuper easy to work with and let me run loose. I don't think I've really shown the process of many of my projects before and thought I'd mix it up a bit.
Have a great weekend!

Colored Heads

Because it was fun! These are random doodles from meetings and such I decided to color before going to bed. Saw "Dead Alive" for the first time tonight with friends, and though it was hilarious, I needed to ensure my last thoughts before going to sleep are gore-less....but now I just reminded myself of the head in the blender part... dammit. This isn't working out so well.

Hug Me To Sleep