In honor of Valentine's Day:

And yes, that should say "LOVE" me tender, not "LOSE" me tender.

Thursday Throwback: Bunny Comic

This is some pre-Photoshop goodness with each panel drawn by hand. If I made this today, I'd draw the key frames and then copy & paste the rest (lazy...or efficient?). The bunny reminds of a Peep for some reason.

Reads left to right, top to bottom.

faux origami/ribbon lettering

I just loved this creation by Nathan Yoder when I saw it on my Instagram feed. A few weekends ago, I got a couple new Copic markers and wanted to try them out. What better to use them for than some handlettering? Thought I'd try my hand at making some faux origami/ribbon letters.

This is what came about in my sketchbook:

The new markers I got were orangey hues. I also brought some other markers with me, which is why the colors are so limited and the shading color is grey. I like how adding shade gives the letters some depth. However, because these letter were in my mind, I wasn't always sure where to add the shading.

I was inspired by this little foray to create some real origami letters from some brown craft paper. I'm currently working on that now (you can see previews of it on my Instagram account). I will post it when it's finished.

Today, I thought I'd redo the "it is what it is" design. After making some actual letters from paper, it was easier to gauge where the shading should go and how the paper would fold. I like this one much better!

colorful lines

Playing around with some color combinations in the form of colorful lines.

little red

Another redhead because I can. Because she is in profile, she kind of reminds me of those custom silhouettes that were popular. They were in profile, and your silhouette was cut from black paper with white paper for the background. My mother took me to get one done when I was a little kid at some little shop at the local mall (which is long gone now). I remember that sitting still there was torture.

Anyway, no torture here, since she's completely made up.

Despicable Me 2 fan art

 

"EWWW! Gru touched Lisa! Gru touched Lisa! Lisa's got GRUDIES!!"

A fan art of a funny/sad moment from Despicable Me 2 (isn't little kid Gru adorable?). I LOVE THIS MOVIE! I got the DVD for Christmas, so now I can watch it over and over and over again.

I saw it in the theatre with a friend, and we laughed ourselves silly. We were the only ones there without kids and we were loud (and probably obnoxious), but it was so much fun. I also love Despicable Me. Both movies are so great.

I think Illumination Entertainment is really going to give (or is giving?) Pixar a run for their money. Awesome graphics aside, the story and characters and humorous moments are just perfect in both movies. I'm lookin' forward to seeing more of work from them.

flower doodles

Puppy drawing evolution

I thought I'd draw the poochies in the style of Sanrio characters (you know, Hello Kitty). As with most things, it was a process. Third try was what worked...or rather, I gave up after the third try.

It's amazing...I live with these dudes and see them everyday, but I'm still not sure what their coloring looks like. I can tell you that Louie is black and tan, but I'm not sure where all of his spots are. And Dexter is a whole other story. That dog is like 10 ridiculous shades of brown.

I've been drawing a lot of "cute" stuff lately. I think perhaps my limited, bright color palette is having an effect on my subject matter (I've been strictly using Copic markers and since they're so expensive, I'm stuck with what I have). That, or I'm turning into a big softy. I used to love to make more quietly menacing & subversive work. Now, it's all puppies and flowers...odd.

redheads

I'm very drawn to drawing redheads. :)  My brother and sister-in-law have two redheaded kiddos, so that might be why.

Some little redhead kiddos.

She is based on a model from the BHLDN site, but I think she looks like
a cross between Julianne Moore and Drew Barrymore.

Dumb and Dumber fan art

An iconic scene from the movie.

handlettering & illustration

I've been playing around with putting decorative stuff around some handlettering.

stamps & drawings

I've always admired Geninne Zlatkis's amazing stamp carving skills. I've tried my hand at making a few over the last couple years, and I've learned that you definitely have to have a steady hand. One false move and you wreck your entire design! I've only made a few, and I like doing it - I find it relaxing.

I recently carved some hexagons and thought I'd experiment with drawing over them. This is what happened:

Based this gal off a model from an old Anthropologie catalogue.

A corgi, of course.

I think I prefer when the stamp doesn't interfere directly with the drawing. Anyway, I'm not overly pleased with how they turned out, but I was just experimenting. I think this idea could be more interesting if I spent more time on it.

light grey art lab holiday art exchange

I signed up to participate in the Light Grey Art Lab "Make My Holiday 2013" art exchange. After swapping some info about ourselves, Dominique and I created drawings for each other.  Here is the awesome drawing she made for me (I love dinosaurs!). I really like her style & color choices. Also love the subtle "10" on the hat. :)

This is what I drew for her. Ever since picking up some gold acrylic paint this summer, I've been attempting to use it in everything! I used some to embellish various parts of the drawing.

Marker and gold paint on bristol board.

Closer detail.

Lou & Dex doodle

Louie & Dexter in marker. Because I can. <3

doodle-a-day november

While browsing illustrations on Instagram, I came upon the Doodle-a-Day trend. Rhianna Wurman (@ellolovey) creates a monthly Doodle-a-Day for people to follow. I thought I'd give it a try for the month of November. I also signed up for NaNoWriMo, but that's a different story...

I was determined to draw something related to each day's subject. However, I started off in failure as I completely missed the first day's doodle. I gave myself the deadline of midnight of each day to create a doodle & upload it to Instagram. I realized that if I didn't have an idea for a doodle that came to me rather easily, then I wasn't interested. And it's not that I couldn't come up with ideas, but it's that I wanted to come up with clever a/o unique ideas.

Anyway, I failed. After I got a few days behind, I kind of gave up.

The Doodle a Day November list created by Rhianna.

Day 2 - "Classic"
Classy redhead in a little black dress.

Detail.She reminds me of Elizabeth McGovern.

Day 3 - "Medieval"
Little friar with his severely-angled halo.

Day 4 - "Roots"
Happy [creepy] baby carrots on brown paper.

truth

Sometimes, I think even the little Zoloft mascot has a bad day.

dog doodles

I've been drawing a lot of dogs lately. They don't require too much brain power, so they're a relaxing subject to render. Drawn with Copic markers.

flower illustration

Once in a while, I draw flowers. It's rare because I don't like flower art and it's already been done extremely well by others (such as those created by Robert Mapplethorpe and Rachel Ruysch). I decided to go this route for this illustration, which was for my cousin's bridal shower invitation, because it seemed appropriate for the shower and because I was partially inspired by the lovely work of Anna Rifle Bond of Rifle Paper Co. I looked online for bridal shower invitations and most of them had cakes and stylized brides and wedding dresses on them (Puke - we already know the bride is getting married, don't we?).

I had also decided that I was going to save the original illustration and give it to my cousin as my bridal shower gift, along with a frame for it. So, in summation, it had to be really special.

After taking a trip to the crafty/art supply store, I made a concept sketch:

From my Instagram feed. Copic markers & gold acrylic paint.

The concept sketch above is more loose without the outlines. True to my personal style, I decided to make everything relatively tight. This is the final design I came up with:

Copic markers on bristol.

Detail.

Another detail.

The final illustration that I gave my cousin had some gold paint embellished on it, and I wrote her name and her fiance's name in the center. And of course, smarty here forgot to take a photo of that.

children's book

After dabbling in bookmaking in college and being a fan of children's books (for life), I've always wanted to write, illustrate, and physically make my own children's book. It's kind of funny, actually, because I'm not really a fan of the kiddos - but they got the good books. Anyway, this has been something I've wanted to do for years, but haven't ever had solid inspiration.

Well, as luck would have it, while "camping" in an air-conditioned RV in the northern woods of Minnesota over Fourth of July weekend, inspiration finally came to me. I don't have the story really fleshed out yet, but I do at least have a notion. And some initial concept illustrations (below).

Without giving too much away, it's about about a bear who can draw.

Thank God I remembered to bring a sketchbook and some drawing tools on that camping excursion!

Thursday Throwback: Feminist Comic

A tampon comic created as a teenager, for the high school newspaper. This comic caused such a raucous that from then on, the principal had to approve all content for the newspaper before it was printed. It was a very proud moment for me. :) Seriously.