sweet, my astro-lovers are on Illustration Rally!

My good friend Stephy who is far more aware of all things cool told me about this Illustration blog that  accepts submissions of holiday theme work. I sent them a pic of my Valentine's Day card, and here it is!

A big thanks to the fine folks of Illustration Rally - go visit them and check out some cool work!

pictures of already mentioned projects

the business card box

 black velvet lining

 with the lid on it looks good, but sticks. Any suggestions on how to fix this problem?

 The new watercolor chart (I actually only have 30+ squares left out of the 225)

 The old watercolor chart, which was inaccurate because I didn't mix my colors strong enough

 The Astronaut couple, part way through carving

 The original sketch. I ended up making the space traveler in the foreground larger, and opting out of the heart shadow for now.

 The inked block, and some of the cards

 my ity-bity print shop

 I get so immersed in printing that I don't always clean off my block as often as I should- this has lead to prints where the shape of the boot kicking up looks like a lunar shadow instead.

  Experimented with different colors and multiple layers of different colored prints- the white ink over black is really quite lovely (lower left corner)

The text on this block measures 1.25 by 1.25 inches. (Yes, I am crazy, and it only took about 7 minutes per character...)

 

I used the leftover ink to color some paper and illustration board I had- the roller made the surface very interesting, so hopefully I might start working some kids from my new photo book into these moody places. 

So, what do you guys think?

A possibly- hipster love story

My boyfriend and I toy with the line of being hipsters on a regular basis. We both like to think that we are far less self-celebratory and ironic than required to claim true hipster membership but our interest in art, design, bicycles and skinny jeans does makes us suspect. I bring this up because I just made an Olympia beer valentine's day card.

Another thing my boy and I have in common: we are both cheesy as hell. So no, i didn't just feel like painting an homage to cheap beer (besides, being a good Milwaukee girl PBR is my nostalgic beer of choice), it's a symbol of how we met. (cue the awws)
I was at his local haunt for the first time ( which has been transitioning into a playground for all those newly hipstered hipsters) and saw him dancing. My friend pointed him out to me and asked if I thought he was cute. Yes, but hell if I was going to talk him since I'm shy and a little skittish in social situations. My dear friend, brazened by a drink or two, snatches a beer my another friend had just bought for me, walks over to him, gives him the beer and says it's from me. I am horrified and blushed violently. He introduces himself, but goes back to hanging with his friends. A little later my friends and I decide to leave, but before we do, a friend of his notices and she asks for my number. I have never given my number to someone I have just met, and decide why not, and give it to her. Later he realizes I have left and feels like an a-hole for not getting my number. 2 days or so later his friend tosses my number to him as he's lamenting the situation. Now we've been dating for nearly 5 months, which isn't a terribly long time, but a lot of things have happened that make us very appreciative for each other's company; welcome relief from what life has been throwing our way.

We ponder how we met, thank the boldness of our friends but most of all wonder how a cheap can of beer started this exhilarating adventure we're on.

The card is watercolor and micron pen on bristol board. This picture is mid-production, as the flaps open to little water color vignettes that were painted on a separate piece of paper and glue on the inside panel of the card.

As expected, the cheesiness of this card blew my boy away, and at the end of the day, I'm going to say that the response this card elicits snatches it out of the domain of hipsterdom and places it in the land of nostalgic goodness.
Moral of the story? Go out and if you're not brave enough to meet people yourself get a trusted friend or two to help you along and test your comfort level (safely please!) Then craft something from that experience!

christmas cards

During an an afternoon before work I decided to make prints off a lino block I have been fiddling with since the summer. I cut a few cards from some nicer sketchbook paper I had around and played with how I applied the ink onto the block. Here are 2 of 6 cards I ended up making.













I like the one of the left the best, because the halo shape came out looking like the moon. The one on the right is blurry and a little mysterious, but it didn't turn out as eerie as another one that I've already given away.

A few days before I was bored and decided to make a stencil of a reindeer to go over the large rainbow flag outside of our house. These are the mock-up sketches I made for it. The bottom one I painted with metallic paint  and turned into a postcard.

I ended up with two usable images so I put one up inside the house and one outside. They're a little silly and look more like cows parading as reindeer but I am quite fond of them both. I really enjoyed exaggerating the antlers but found it challenging to think of the positive and negative spaces in terms of what would actually work as a cut-out. Maybe I'll try to work on cut-outs  more often...