showcasing the talent of Brooklyn Illustrator Amber Alvarez: You've found your way to a sketchblog of fun, great for kids, girls and the occasional guy who's comfortable with his masculinity
This June, Mika and I will mark six years at job-job. At high noon on Friday, I had her make my annual pilgrimage to Utrecht on 23rd and 8th so I could fulfill my pre-all-night-drawing ritual, which includes, um... going to Utrecht to buy things I'm going to burn through over the span of 12 hours. In pure brilliant Mika style, after crooning through sketchbooks and drooling over new pens she deadpan delivered this, "I can really mark the year by your weird traditions." This year we know it has been a year. It's Spring. I have life drawing to share.
Also, in pure traditional style, I walked home from Pratt at 8am, absolutely high, my body pumping with pure adrenaline. It's a marathon for a reason, and while I've never run more than a 5K (in which I felt my lungs may explode ;)) I can understand how absolutely crazed with energy you can be after pushing yourself as hard as you can go. After 12 hours of drawing straight through from dusk to dawn, you feel like you're bionic.
So just like last year, and every year for the last decade, I power walked home. In true traditional Mark-Your-Calendars style I listened to Elliot Smith, Eminem, Eartha Kitt, and Ben Folds, (Maybe there was a little bit of unauthorized Gotye thrown in there).Pratt fuels me, and when I am nostalgic and ecstatic and feel like the world can barely hold my energy, I listen to the music that mattered to me when I lived on Dekalb and when it was an odd day that didn't find paint in my hair.
I got home. I sang in a cold shower (like every year). I dressed in jeans and a fresh t-shirt (like every year). I dance-ran to my studio (like every year). I got about half an hour of prolific work done, barreling through without even a hint of tired, and then... I zombie walked to my bed, half crazed with an all systems shutting down urgency unlike anything I know 364 days a year. I threw myself across the mattress, where I stayed until 2pm (just like every year).
The soap box I'm usually standing on here at She Sure is Sketchy is one that screams 'DRAW EVERY DAY' or "BE HAPPY - DO IT FOR YOUR ART". Today I want to show you something of a different color.
A few weeks ago I got a scathing email from a friend that went on and on about the commercialization of cancer, there was so much pontification on Pinkification that this letter needed three long and drawn out paragraphs. I read it thrice and slam dunked it into my little trash icon.
The thing is, I'm currently developing a line for a particular brand who's kind of in to the pink thing... It's been a long time coming and here's why I want to talk about it. When I began developing it, it was beyond sweet. Any of you here on a regular basis know that I like things cute, kind, cuddly. As I write this to you I'm decked out to the nines in girly girl clothes, and sitting twelve inches from a plush fuzzball inspired by a swooning pet store scene in the Harry Potter films. Here's the deal though, I put pencil to paper and I did a ton of work on this line, and then I thought of a friend I had in college
In the Summer of 2003 she was diagnosed with breast cancer. That year I watched her transition from someone cute and innocent to a blinding orb of fierce unbridled power. She shaved her head. She bought combat boots. She took to wearing short skirts and saying what she thought. She had the face of an angel, but I never knew it because I'd always been blinded by her mane of hair. She became the strongest version of herself, and when it was done, and her hair came back, she always rocked a curled pink ribbon.
Thoughts of her made me change the entire direction this line was going. It's brash and its bold and when it's done I'll be proud of it. So that's my 2cents.
Life is exceptionally good these days, pinch me good. When Life is good, I draw birds.
This bird though. This bird made me mad. He was so not cool. However, he reminded me of a bat.
Then I drew a bat.
I liked that a lot better.
Then I drew some more bats.
With Surtex growing ever nearer (in the past this time of the year I typically feel as if I'm being chased by my personal version of The Never Ending Story's Nothing). The end of March always finds me forcing my brain to think so production-y, so market-y, so trend-y.
In a cherished conference call last month, a client pushed Dr. Seuss out of the #1 most quotable things I auto-mantra to myself during 3am jam sessions. Here is what she said, "What I love best about these little guys, and actually everything you've shown us, is that your drawings are utterly disciplined but totally carefree. I look at everything that you do and I think, "Let's march headlong in to recess".
So this April I am focusing on returning to what I love most about my work, and remembering that when it is good, I am trying -- when it is great, it just happens--that's when it feels like somersaults at the beach.
In summary, this post is about how birds become bats, and how Surtex is gonna rock this year.
I take late meetings at job-job on Mondays and we talk about video games and sound effects and commercials from the 90s. Sometimes I doodle. Today was one of those days.
I jumped and jogged along the Chicago Waterfront's freak 70 degree magnificent mile this week. I stayed at the Chicago Essex where I swam every morning, raced instep with sailboats every evening, got schooled in bagpipe traditions in dimly lit pubs, took care of mega-business and fell madly in love with every freaking thing I came across....
I'm sure I'll be back in the windy city before we head into June. In the meantime, here's some of the blueprint babies I found on my walkabout. Seeing so many skeletons was exhilarating. Process wise, I started by sketching an accurate representation with purple ink ballpoint. I'd cop a squat and whip out a little pot of ink and a waterbrush to really bring it home. Without further ado, these are straight from the book, done whilst I floated on dinosaur cloud 9.
(Admire that sexy-sexy bandage on my thumb. If I had procured said gash in the 18th century that paper-cut would have taken care of any malady imaginable. P.S. Chicago's ER was a breezy dream when it wasn't a disappointment of 90's proportions. I did not see a single man worth of Noah Wyle's pointy nose cuteness or George Clooney's eye crinkly laugh.)
Jumping Julian Rex' development was one of the focus' of this week's sabbatical. I had no idea how much I would learn, or the fact that there are a ton of T's in the world, and not many Rex'. It makes Julian that much more special, but it also is sure to expand his social circle ;)
There were lots of reasons I found myself in Chicago for St. Patty's Day, but now that I'm back in my Brooklyn art studio, I have to wonder if this sketch was the main reason ;)
In new Miracle on 34th Street like glory, Subaru has paired up with a few brilliant programmers to create the greatest ad campaign known to aging Americans with reminiscent stories of their glory days. I have friends tell me all the time that they're mad jealous of my animation skillz, now you can dive in to my tool box and make your own little movie. Shine on, Americans. Shine on.
Here's a little blip of days gone by I pulled together this morning.
Share your great car memories in the comments.
Rock steady.
I'm baaack!! Remember me? It's Ashley! I was a guest blogger here about two months ago blogging about keeping your art space organized.
I first want to start off by thanking you all for the amazing comments and inspiring links. There were so many wonderful ideas and I'm so glad that many of you shared with us! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
Okay, so you are probably wondering why I am back? Well, do you remember this video Amber posted showing off her fabulous art studio:
Amber challenged me to come organize it for her and I am here to tell you: CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! And of course we wanted to share the transformation with you! Here is my version of Extreme Makeover: Amber's Art Studio Edition.
My first task was to get a list of everything that Amber wanted in her new studio. I told her to make a list as if money were no object. I truly wanted to know exactly what she wanted to get out of her space.
A classy shoe rack that could go at the end of her work table
Clipboards to hang in-progress children's books on or other sketch ideas. That way she can just grab one on her way out the door this summer
Place to hold her paper towels and freezer paper
Shallow shelf for children's books
Something to house "paper and tools, paper and tools"- since that is the majority of materials that she uses. Plus she also does her make-up in the studio so that area needed to be added as well. She needed room for it all!
I looked at her list and made an estimate that it would cost about $280 (NOT including the dresser). For those of you who don't know me, I am a bargain hunter. So let it be known that I was able to get everything but the shelf, bakers rack, and dresser for only $120!
Here is a list of the supplies I bought:
Pegboard
Buckets (12)
Ribbon
Spray paint
Clipboard (4)
Towel rods (2)
Paper towel holder (1)
Shoe rack
Banker boxes (for storage, they are cheap and can be decorated with wrapping paper because they are not the nicest things to look at. And they are cheaper than plain white storage boxes)
Screws and wall anchors (for pegboard and hanging items)
This past weekend I drove up to NYC, power tools in hand, and organized her office. Now let's take a look at some of the pictures and I will walk you through how I did it.
The pegboard was normal white. We couldn't have that. So I bought some iridescent spray paint and made it a little more interesting.
Before:
After:
Alright, here is a before collage of what Amber's studio was looking like when I first came over.
A little intimidating, right? In a nutshell, she had a lot of stuff and nothing really had a home. She felt overwhelmed. First things first, we took everything out. Gutted it. Then we cleaned it (wiped down counter-tops and floors). It's always good to start off with a clean, empty room. I knew she was super excited about the pegboard so I put that up first to keep the morale up. She snapped this shot as I was drilling a large hole in her wall:
Here is the end product:
This is a 2 x 4 peg-board from Home Depot for only $8! If you are wanting to try this at home, make sure to buy hooks to hang your items on. I would buy a multi-pack, they are the best! Here is an example from Amazon: Multi-pack. The most important thing you need to make sure it comes with is spacers. The pegboard cannot be attached directly to the wall because then you cannot hang your hooks on the board. So buy the spacers! It is super easy!
Luckily, with Easter around the corner, it was really easy to find these buckets. This tin one (shown below)actually had terrible ribbon on it so we switched it out to match the color in Amber's studio.
We kept finding scissors with every new drawer that was cleaned out!
Now there was a place for them :)
Here is Amber's clipboard idea come to life. I bought clear ones so that she could decorate them in whatever pattern/paper she would like. I am excited to see how they turn out!
Another small project involved these towel rods:
We attached them under her desk and voila, there were her paper towel and freezer paper holders! Out of the way yet easily accessible!
After we put up the peg-board, clipboards, and towel rods, we had the tough task of going through everything we took out of the office and finding a place for it. Here are some amazing before and after pictures:
This is where she kept all of her makeup! On her scanner!
So what did we do with everything? I had Amber go through nearly every shred of paper in that office. It was her choice to keep, scan or throw away. The scan option was swell, because she uses something called Evernote that lets her easily scan documents into her computer. Then she can throw the paper away, thus eliminating most of the papers that were cluttering her office. Once most of the paper was gone, we organized the rest into these storage cabinets below. We had a craft cabinet, project cabinet, card drawer and paper shelf. Once everything was grouped into their categories, putting things away got a heck of a lot easier.
We used the "shoe rack" as her make-up holder by the mirror. We knew she wouldn't be doing her makeup anywhere else in the apartment so we had to make room for it in the studio. If it were anyone else (not living in NYC) I would tell them to move it to the bathroom. But when you have limited space (and natural light) you have to get creative. And that's what we did.
We did it! See, it wasn't so scary! The hardest part is getting started, but once you do, you will be so happy that you did. Here is a message Amber left on my Facebook wall the day after I left:
"Leaving my brand new office was practically torture. I'm pretty sure there are my fingernail prints trailing from the office door all the way to the subway station from dragging myself away this morning. I cannot wait to make home and make new art."
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