April 22: Sprigs

Longing for a little greenery. It's supposed to snow all week and I am pining for some vegetation! The only greenery I see these days are the greens in my salad.

April 21: Snail Mail Night

I've been longing to write some letters and mail some packages. I used to be a part of a website called Sendsomething.net a long while ago and I had the inkling today to see if it was still there! When I saw that it was, I about flipped and started roaming through it to find some people to send things to!

Does anyone remember postcardx? I used to send a TON of mail back in the 90s. Everything from postcards to super long emails. It's amazing what kinds of things you receive -- and even more amazing the relationships you make! It's super easy to be a part of it. You just log on, fill in your bio and address and that's it! You can hit a button on top to receive a random person's address (or search by interest) and that's it!

It's a ton of fun just floating through it and reading everyone's interests. I find it amusing that most people are just as into cats, tea and art as I am. I'm sure we're all kindred spirits!

April 18: Snow.

Snow.

Yeah that's right. Time to break out the snow suits and the stompers.
We've got 12 inches, baby.

April 17 : Glacier

I have had an obsession with Iceland ever since my trip there three years ago. It was a magical, wonderful place, filled with lunar landscapes and incredibly incomprehensible changes in terrain. Of course, there are several glaciers in Iceland that took my breath away and I did a tribute to glacial ice for Light Grey Art Lab's upcoming Macro & Micro Exhibition (This Friday from 7 - 10pm at Light Grey Art Lab).

It was a really fun drawing to make and I got a kick out of giving it a warm, dusk-like lighting. It seemed that the sun set for hours while we were there, and that the sun didn't dip down until well after 10pm. I am taking a trip there with Chris Hajny and Francesca Buchko (who are also in the Macro & Micro exhibition) this coming June. I can't wait! It should be a real adventure!

If you are interested, this piece is for sale in the Light Grey Shop as an archival giclee print through the end of the exhibition! You can also take a look at all of the other awesome art by the other 90+ international artists, too!

April 16 : Sleeping birdie

He's worn out from a day of hunting worms and gathering twigs.

April 14: Never-ending moss field!

Never-ending little moss tufts!
It's like a puffy field of dreams!

April 12: A Bird Friend

This little guy looks hungry!


This guy looks hungry, too. For ADVENTURE!
(Found this amazing book at the Half Price Books by my house. I'm not sure if this was the original story for THIS, but you should probably watch it anyway.)

April 11: Never let me go.

It feels like a quiet night. Here's a small, quiet drawing to fit the mood.
Created in photoshop with my tablet, just for fun.


A little detail of the bird

April 10: Script

Sketchbook view

It's getting closer to April 15th and all I can think about is how much I hate doing my taxes. Seriously. It feels like I've been doing them non-stop for the last 9 months. What's up with that? I guess that's the part where I have to thank myself for becoming a self-employed business owner. There are seldom times when I think back fondly about working for someone else's company, and tax time is one of them. Ah, when things were easy. I remember those days.

I guess you trade some perks for other perks, right?


Here's a straight-on view

I got to forget all about my tax woes around 6:30 when I headed to MCAD to teach my Illustration in product design class. Man, I love that class. Let me just tell you (again) how much I love teaching. It's ridiculous. This semester's class is full of geniuses. Every single person in the room is full of amazing ideas and inspires the crap out of me twice a week. I am very lucky that I get to spend time with these guys and there's not a day that goes by that I don't think that. It makes me want to bring them a box of doughnuts every time I come to school. Of course, I can't do that because I'd give them all heart-attacks and I would eventually run out of money, but it's the thought that counts.

Tonight I had just a minute to do something in my sketchbook before I call it a night and I chose to do some hand-type. I have no idea where this came from, but sometimes I just like the feeling of this fancy pen I have. It's called a Kuretake Fudegokochi. It's one of my favorite pens -- it's half brush pen, and half felt pen. I'm not even sure how it's possible that I love this pen so much, but leave it up to Japan to make more amazing things.

My two favorite pieces of script from tonight say "only the lonely" and "nothing matters but you". With a chose third for "Fortune Favors the Brave".

April 9: Big Eyed Dolls

I hear it's snowing outside. It's so black I can't see. I have been absorbed in talking to my parents and looking at celebrity gossip on the internet. (What a way to spend a Tuesday night!) I took a trip down to Half Price books after work and indulged in three new vintage books. You know when they tell you not to judge a book by it's cover? That's all I do. I have a gem from the 50s, and another two from the 60s sitting in front of me. One is called "The Palace of Eternity", and another "The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu" (yes, that is a real book), and the last one is a pulp novel called "The Tattooed Rood".

The other day my pets broke my scanner that I use for posting things from home (which is why you get to see my sketches via photo!) and I'm desperate for my new one to come in the mail. I know it'll arrive any day, and as the forecast predicts, I am sure I'll find it buried on my front porch under a half a food of snow when it finally arrives. Once that scanner arrives I'll be sure to show you these fantastic covers. Oh, how you'll love The Tattoos on that Rood!

Tonight I drew some girls. I have been drawing characters in my sketchbook for a couple weeks now. It's rare that I get to draw people for work, so I figured I'd indulge today. For some reason I was thinking 'big eyed dolls' all night, and this is what came of my inspiration. Just heads for now... but I think I might just color these ladies up and give them some bodies and post them one of these days. The one on the top right looks like my sister, Victoria, a little bit. Not because of the scowl, but there's something about her!

April 8: Night time and fire-flies.

Full repeat

I started creating this pattern last night by playing with watercolors. I had done these guys in greyscale first and then decided to color them in the computer.
I wanted to make something that had a glowing look and that was reminiscent of a field with fireflies, without actually drawing fireflies.


Detail

It's getting closer and closer to spring and I can't wait until it's nice enough to go outside and see some real flowers. It's funny. I draw foliage so frequently, yet it's been a long while since I've gotten to see greenery around my neighborhood! Soon, right?

We're working on a patterns project in the class I'm teaching. I am really excited about it. My students are geniuses and I'm totally looking forward to seeing what they make!
We went through a bunch of different types of patterns today in class and I taught them how to make damask patterns, toiles, radial patterns and chinoiseries! I'll have to try and keep up with them!

April 7: Black watercolor

Tonight I'm working on a couple patterns and I decided to bust out the watercolors. I have a project that I'm doing tomorrow that involves making flowers that need to be able to be shown in various palettes, so I'm doing all of the painting in grey-scale. When creating patterns I usually create assets like this on a page and then toss them in the computer. It's funny to see them all in a blob like this -- there really is no rhyme or reason for where they're placed or why some match and some don't!

April 6: Raspberries!

A quick and loose sketch of some raspberries for the night! Thinking of raspberry jam, smoothies and all things summer. Too bad it's rainy and only just springtime!

April 5 : Space!

Space is the topic of the night! Here are some doodles that I made during the Light Grey Lock-in! I did a couple type drawings based on the sci-fi books I've been ordering off of eBay!

April 4: Silly Doodle Cats!

I've been playing this game on my phone called Megu, and every week or so, my tamagotchi-esque creature morphs into something new. Most times it changes into a kind of funny, bean-shaped animal or a piece of food with a face. All of which are great. I had been playing with my brush pen and decided it'd be fun to do a grid of silly bean-cats. So, here they are! Bean cats for everyone!

April 3, Frogs for Sam.

I made something sketchy today and I'm dedicating this post to Sam Basques, who asked me to draw a frog. So I did! And I'm really happy with it.
Just a little guy nested in a patch of leaves. I stuck with a pencil-in-my-sketchbook drawing today. It's quickly becoming one of my more favorite mediums for quick drawing. I've got this really nice Pentel 0.9mm lead pencil that's a gorgeous yellow ochre color. It's my pride and joy and I've taken to using it almost exclusively for sketching in my little sketchbook.

I actually just sat down a little bit ago to relax while Chris plays Bioshock Infinite-- after a long day of designing notebook covers and hosting interviews with two very fascinating people, Mary Jo Hoffman, founder of Stillblog.net, and Nic Skrade from Uptown Tattoo. I have to admit, it's certainly hard to get meditative in my sketchbook while the room is filled with gunshots, yelling and explosions. I'm actually really enjoying the story and it's been fun watching him play. One of these days I'll have to actually learn to use the controller and pick up a game myself. For now, I stick to story games on my phone. Those aren't too hard -- it's just me touching the screen now and again to advance the plot.

Beyond that, I've been thinking of starting a couple drawings that are sci-fi in nature. I've been surfing all over Ebay recently, buying vintage paper items like I do, and amassing this amazing collection of books from the 50s, 60s and 70s. I'm actually considering scanning some of these covers and sharing them, as I've got more vintage paper things than the average person -- and some of these illustrations are crazy awesome. There's one that came today with the title YEAR 2018, by James Blish. (He has an awesome name). I'm considering plowing through that book just to see how much 2013 differs from the world Blish created back in 1959, when he wrote the book!

If I get the chance, I'll make sure to write a full book report. Some of these paperbacks look like I could tear through one in an evening.

April 2! Day 2. Sketching and updating the blog!

Well, here's something that I made in painter. It's definitely different than anything that I've shown on this blog before, but hey. I'm welcoming some new process and some experimentation! I was telling Francesca this morning that it was awfully hard for me to get used to this painting, not because I think it's bad or anything, just that it's been a while since I posted something figural! As I was painting this one I was thinking to myself: "I better not draw a face from the front like I always do, so why don't I do something weird and different, like draw children! And draw them from the back! Yeah! What a good idea".... Hmmm. I guess that's what I did.
Who knows what I was thinking. It's a lot of pressure just making things and realizing that I can't hide them in my sketchbook this month!

I was thinking about all of these interesting things that I've got planned for April -- from field trips like the one that I'm going to on Thursday to the Bell Museum, to the Lock-in on Friday at Light Grey Art Lab -- and I'm actually looking forward to this challenge. I'm hoping to mix a couple patterns in here, some paintings, some drawings and who knows what else!

***

So what do you think of the new layout? I've got a couple personal projects that I was thinking it was time for a little spring cleaning! I added a new background, a new header, and re-arranged a little bit. I'm pretty happy with the re-vamp! Well, one more thing down! Tomorrow I'm headed to help Chris record a podcast at Mary Jo Hoffman's house! I'm excited to say hello to her and help pick out some of the specimens that she'll be lending us for the Macro & Micro show at Light Grey Art Lab. She's going to be our featured guest! Have you seen her blog? It's fantastic. Here's a link to stillblog.net! You'll see why I'm absolutely enchanted with it!

Wish us luck! I'll be posting an update with photos tomorrow! It should be a great time! Until then, I'm off to do some late-night drawings!

Venus Flytrap!

The sketch that started it all


Detail

I spent the whole weekend sketching and this Venus Flytrap is one of the sketches that I was really proud of. It's done with graphite and then colored in Photoshop. I was thinking this one should be pretty subtle since it's particularly line-heavy.

On Friday I was hanging out with a couple friends and one asked to see my sketchbook. I don't know about you, but it's really hard for me to actually let people look through my sketchbooks. Half of what I've got in there is embarrassing -- for various reasons... and the other half are notes that I'd rather not show to anyone. I tried (as politely as I could) to decline, and felt super awkward just sitting there, clutching it to myself, holding on to it for dear life. You know when you're practicing drawing and you draw the same thing over and over? Or when you're not sure what you're even sketching... just making lines all over a page? Well, my sketchbook is full of those things. That, and a zillion notes that I've written about everything I'm thinking, doing, or wanting to do. Sort of a diary, I suppose.

I am still trying to feel good about sharing my sketchbook with other people, but for now, I just show the pieces I think are ok online. The rest I'm keeping for myself.


Full Repeat

I'm also starting a 30 day challenge today for the Month of April! I have been wanting to do one for a while now, but haven't remembered to do so at the start of the month! This is my first one and I'm hoping to kick some fun things out this month. Wish me luck!