The Arctic

OK. Confession.... This is a huge embarrassment on my part, but my entire life....for the past 27 years, I have been mispronouncing 'Arctic'. That's right kids. There's a town named 'shame on me' and right now I'm its chief inhabitant. I have also been misspelling it, which puts us in this 'Chicken or the Egg' conundrum. This week at job-job we learned that Arctic is spelled as such and not known as the 'Artic'. My drawing-girl roots are so hurt.
I was a bit shocked. I considered hiding this indiscretion but it's less shameful if I admit it and move on. Seriously, though...I thought this part of my life was over! In the sixth grade a fight with Lahela Lindsey took a turn for the worse when it came to light that she was in fact correct. 'Pretzel' is not pronounced with a 'n'. Sorry kid, there is no such thing as a 'prentzel'. That's the last time I can clearly recall such a blow. In my defense which one of us is now living an awesome life in the 'pretzel' capitol of the world?! HUH? Take that Hawaii! So who really won that one? I think it's clear. Uh...yeah. In breaking this logic, I have no intention of ever moving to the Arctic. As a compromise I am thinking of christening my studio. It doesn't seem right that our universe wouldn't have some place called the "Artic". Could you think of somewhere more fitting or more sketchy? I for one, cannot.

The Arctic is cold. OK. I'm sure you knew that already. But it's really cold. We're talking negative 40 degrees Celsius. That's like normal winter but times 40! Actually, I have no idea what negative 40 degrees feels like -- but it's really, really bad.

In the summer it is hardly ever dark.

In the winter it is hardly ever light.

Sami and Inuit's live pretty happily in the Arctic. Honestly, I don't know know for sure that they're happy. I imagine things can get kind of dull. Sami live in these really adorable little villages. Maybe they have dances? Food isn't easy to find there. So they fish. It's starting to look like I'd make a really bad Arctic girl... What with the cold and the no sun and the catching and then eating of fish. They fish with nets, so maybe I'd take to that with a better attitude than fishing with bait. Gew. Bait. Gross.I would probably make a better Arctic flower. They are low to the ground with very shallow roots. Plus they're very pretty. They grow long hair that is wild and unruly. They're prickly on the outside but incredibly fragile once you get past the outer layer that they develop for protection. It's like this movie just wrote me a dating profile.

My favorite part about designing and animating this movie was all the cool animals I got to research and draw. I'm going to show you some of them now. Check it:

My art director and I got into a fight about this whale. He kept complaining about how it looked. I'd redesign and then he'd complain some more. I got SOOOOOOOO frustrated. Finally I realized that he was upset with the way that this whale actually looks, not with the way I was designing. After a lot of back and forth I got the last word with, "Dude, take it up with God."We talk a lot about how we're ruining the environment and doing bad stuff for the earth. I animate ice caps melting and glaciers moving. It's actually pretty sad. At one point we have a momma polar bear and a baby polar bear on seperate flats of ice as they float away from one another. It's enough to draw a tear.
Do I feel guilty after this Arctic movie has sunk in? A little.... but then I slap myself and pull up a chair in my perfectly temperature controlled studio and look at my blog stats for today. Let's be honest. The Arctic is hardly even looking at my blog! Maybe I'll go back to calling it the "Artic," afterall.

Watercolor Wednesday

This week I had a lesson with my star pupil, aka. the kid I am most likely to steal and run away to Mexico with. We started using watercolor and experimenting with color. My work of course always runs along the cute and cuddly vein. His work is strong, bold and abstract. Here is one of our collaborative projects.
This was our first voyage into the idea of texture. We had fun. One of my 'freedom through medium" teaching techniques is to turn the textures into something concrete after everything is said and done. My students always go all out trying to make abstract patterns that are too crazy to see things in. This works wonders for them. They stop having the fear of 'messing something up'.

I get them to start doing the exercise completely by themselves. Eventually we stop looking for images because the artwork stands on its own in the abstract. This also makes for an easy jump into looking at art. I got to keep this one because after we finished the texture maps he demanded that I "Make it a horse!" He had so many horses by the end of our lesson this week that he let me keep one. ;)

I left all of the rest of his work with his parents. They figure since they're paying for this tutelage the work should adorn their walls. Sadly, they have a point. I wish I could share it with you. It so kicks other kindergartner art's trash. Maybe I'll take photos next time.

Here's a bit of the loose stuff I did after we pulled the paints out and he was off and running.

Sew Excited!

So you know the drill, busy, busy. " Your people should really call my people." No seriously. My people are busy! Here at She Sure is Sketchy we've been rolling with the punches, the homies and the flow. Here are some new concept sketches. We're "sew excited" to bring you. Just a bit of a gander before we roll out the big guns.
OK, enough rolling for one day.

Money Shot

In my experience, people are way against showcasing their booths anywhere. It's like they're top secret or something. Maybe I should have labeled this post "The Secret"? Who knows? Anyway. Here is my booth from this year's Surtex show. I had such a wonderful time. Major things that worked and a smattering of things I learned this year:

• Wear your fancy shoes
  
• Bring your running shoes and wear them until the last possible second
• Have a friend with you in the booth at all times
• My friends are wildly attractive - this didn't seem to hurt (This was actually something I learned. I'd never really considered how good looking my posse is.)
  
• If you are afraid of heights make sure someone tall is there to hang the high stuff
• Velcro sticky dots are the ideal medium for tacking stuff to the walls
• If you use Velcro sticky dots stick them and un-stick them five or ten times against your jeans before you actually apply them to the wall - so you can get them off later
• The multiple business cards from last year really paid off again this year
  
• Keep the energy in your booth high
• Position your spot lights so they are "just so"
• If you're not getting people to use your booth space the way you want them to, CHANGE SOMETHING!!-- We moved the table around twice before we got it in the right place and things changed drastically once it was perfect
  
• Tell students who want to talk to you to come back after 3pm on any day of the show, things will be way quieter
• Make sure you have an exit strategy - this was my Waterloo - it took me forever to pack up
• Don't stress out
  
• Have fun!
• I learned lots of other stuff, but that's top secret ;)

Fallout

Thursday I made snowflakes. Turns out my horoscope was spot on. Yesterday I spent the full day at the Javits Center, putting out fires. It was a Murphy's law kind of day. The specs on the banners I ordered were off and we had to make do. I think all things considered, we are awesome. These kind of things always happen. I like to quote NASA as often as possible during this time. "We've just had our glitch for this mission."

Rachel (my hero) and I were at the Javits Center setting up until they kicked us out. I'm on my way back there now. Fun fun! I'm excited, but TIRED. Updates to come, I'm sure. Have a really happy weekend.

Sometimes My Horoscope Scares Me

How does it know?!

Thursday, May 14th, 2009 -- Finish up old projects today because you won't have time tomorrow when the Moon is in your sign. Being able to respond quickly to fluctuating circumstances may be a blessing, but making rash changes to your daily calendar isn't such a good idea. Tying up as many loose ends as possible now will have you ready for whatever comes your way.

How does it know that even though I took a full two days off this week to get down to bidness, that Rachel just flew in from Scotland and that all I want to do is go running in the park with her!? Does it know I was considering blowing off a day of last minute Surtex prep to eat leftover jelly beans and watch Juno with with my "small business" friends?! Thank you horoscope. Thank you for calling a spade a spade. Maybe it's just the extra little kick I need today ;). OK. Drawing Board ho!!!!!

I thought I'd tackle this next:

I found it on the back of an Adobe receipt from 2007. I figure it's time to do something about it.

Celebrate!

Counting down to Surtex! This will so be me on Wednesday when it's all over and I can breathe and think and be kissed without making long lists in my head, occasionally jumping up to get a pen to make a quick smattering of notes. I don't think that's been going over too well.... haha.

As requested, I've been trying to show you more of my process. This final illustration is two drafts away from the sketch I showed you last week. It was a fun one. The angle of the arm had to be changed. Then we made her a bit more curvy and gave her better shoes. The lapel of her jacket needed to be wider and of course she needed some fancy, flirty bag. The bag was the most irritating change to me. Now that everything is said and done the bag is my favorite thing about the illustration. Now for the fun part. Off to the invoices!

Idea Tree Tuesday

One of the most functional things I have here in my office are my 'idea trees'. A year or two ago I stumbled across the Umbra Fotofall Tree on a pilgrimage to aimlessly spend my paycheck at the Container Store.

Did I know what I was looking for? No. Did I know I wanted to buy something awesome? Yes. Did I buy something that changed my life? Most def. Raise your glass to the impulse buy.

The Fotofall was created to display pictures. I use it to manage my ideas. I use the alligator clips for postcards or photos that are inspiring or bits of magazines that made me think 'great color palette'. Most often I clip hints of designs on my Idea Tree. It's foliage consists of doodles I've made on the backs of receipts, post-its, envelopes, anything I can get my hands on. If something looks promising I put it on one of my trees. I have two idea trees now, one is four tiered freestanding and the other is a short stack that sits on my desk.

When I have some time but not a lot of direction I'll sit in front of my Idea Trees and find something that needs development. They've changed my life. I'm not wasting time trying to find a particular scrap of paper that would have most likely gone through the wash with my jeans. I'm not spinning my wheels trying to think of something to do. I highly recommend adding an Idea Tree to your life.

This was sitting on my idea tree. I think I drew it last July when I was testing markers at Utrecht. Who knows how long it's been sitting around? I plucked it off, pulled it into Illustrator and used it as inspiration for my latest bit of surface design.

See? See? Makes you want to run out and get a design tree right pronto, huh?!

Bats Yo

That's right. Bats.

Fashion Rough

Okay, okay. Surtex is in two weeks.... So I'm busy! Here's a sketch. No whining.