She Sure is Sketchy

Saturday, February 06, 2010

Back to the Drawing Board!

So. Ok. I'm not exactly back to the drawing board.

Well I am, but I'm not really showing you anything new today - I'm mainly doing my annual, 'OH Man, January's over and I haven't posted anything on this blog and thank you for still following me and claiming to love me and not abandoning me as I have abandoned you' post.

I wish I knew how to quit you! It's disgusting how much I think about the fact I haven't blogged when I take an accidental hiatus. I worry about it way more than when I worry that I haven't showered recently enough.

Here's the skinny:

I played in a lot of snow this month. LOTS. And then a little bit of snow. Just a little bit.

I threw wax with my friends

This is my annual tradition and it's pretty dang important.
It is one of my favorite memories from my childhood and one I hold onto with an iron fist.

If it is New Years Eve wax must be thrown.
Use a double boiler, melt paraffin and take turns tossing a cup of wax into freezing cold water one at a time.

The wax makes sharp relief sculptures, predicting your future for the coming year.

Apparently my year will have something to do with a baby-bunting. Let's hope Jen gets bored with bebe and decides she'd rather I take care of him full-time while she pops in on weekends. Would I get maternity leave for adopting? Here at She Sure is Sketchy we never shy away from the important questions.

I brunched.I brunched a lot.
(This brunch was my yummiest and one of the most fun. Of course it happened with JenMO and Bebe)

With the help two of my amazing besties Tess and JenMO I planned an adult/kid's birthday party of dreams Here was my invite: We ate PB&Js and drank fancy Shirley Temples and Capri Suns. Made Orange Smiles. We drew on the wall. We played Pick Up Sticks and watched Tail Spin.

Ten minutes into the night my camera died. Other than that the night was perfect. We laughed until we cried.
We sent Slinkys down my brownstone stairs and made up new games with retro toys and gigantic gumballs too big to chew. I was riffling through the freezer for more ice and Otterpops when the entire apartment went dark. It was so sudden and so unexpected that I had forgotten that that is what happens when it is your birthday and candles need to be blown out.

We New Yorkers were SURE the power was out...the collective grown right before my lit cupcake made its way down the hallway to be wished upon made the novelty of candle bowing even better. And yes... that's a Barbie Girl tattoo on my chest.

The evening's perfect pink and violet cupcakes/wish makers were provided
by Rachel, my go to baking genius friend.
(They made the perfect morning after breakfast too)

Here she is with puppet master, Jill. And yessssssss they're both sporting Barbie Girl tattoos.
I told you we partied like it was 1990.

Everyone was rad and we played with vintage toys. My gifts included a Bedazzler for my purse and crayon candles and new sketch stuff and jewelry and a green house full of flowers and a hand drawn Twilight coloring book and beautiful bound version of The Secret Garden and tons and tons of other amazing things that I love and adore and now use all the time.

Since we're bullet-pointing our way thru January:

I had my birthday.
It was most awesome. Seriously.
Under the word 'awesome' in the Marion-Webster there is a reference to my 28th birthday party. It also met a 30x30 - it was a theme party and it was thrown.

Every evening at job-job I watched the Chrysler Building turn pink in the sunset outside my window.Yay for pink.

I spent three days with the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.Consider my world rocked.

I am now totally Twitterpated - Check out that shiny new sidebar.
You can follow me at www.Twitter.com/SheSureis
I finished a movie about 'Perimeters' at job-job.
I had a Crumbs Cupcake every week but the first during birthday month 2010 28 is going to be just FINE.

I broke up with this really nice kid who loves reading the way I love sketching. The downside is that when I sketch I can still talk and when you read as voraciously as I draw you don't have time for a life. Also, they were boring books, mostly about Jewish politics. In the words of the Duchess of Justice - Good Riddance.

I took a three day Latin Dance Class - where it was further proved to me that I am maybe adopted.

I designed a new line for licensing -ohmigosh it might be my favorite line to date, it's a toss up between Baby Mermaids and this new line - It'll be unveiled in May.

I wrote a children's book about an Ostrich named Sid. - He's convinced he wants to be a reporter and his family would rather he keep his head in the sand. It's funny. I think it's funny. I'm pitching it as a good book to open up discussion about the world around us.

I got a two-hour long deep tissue massage at fancy-smancy spa as a gift from one of my clients. I didn't know clients could give gifts like that but I feel like you should know it, especially if you read this blog because you're one of my clients....

I babysat a cat. His name was Miles

I crafted

Oh and I totally watched Twilight.(maybe twice)

I wonder what birthday-month 2011 will bring!
Raise your glass, loves. Here's to another good year!Alright! I rub my hands together, slap myself in the face and finally, finally
GET BACK TO WORK!
So that's where I've been and now we're caught up.
It's onward from here my loves!
Woot!

P.S. This birthday month catch-up was brought to you by the letter 'A'

for Awesome, Amazing, and All done

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Bird Brain

Last night I went to a lecture on the migration of New York's American-Indian(hyphen? no hyphen?) tribes. The room was crowded and too warm and it smelled like pizza...which can be awesome if you are eating pizza and horrid if you are not. However, the lecture was exceptional and my fuzzy little brain focuses better when I'm inking. I decided it was officially time to christen the new sketchbook I got for my birth-day.

I sat next to some skinny and nerdy boy (swoon) who couldn't take his eyes off my page. Never intimidated by attractive onlookers - I kept drawing, fitting each bird into his respective nook and cranny. When the lecture was winding down he leaned over and pinched my elbow in that come-here-I-need-to-whisper-something-to-you way.

"Gee, you must really like birds, huh?"

YES. Yes, I really like birds.

In my defense it was a lecture about migration! I guess I should have been drawing cowboys and Indians. Stay tuned next week ;)

Happy Tuesday.

listening to right this second: "2 legit 2 quit" -- MC Hammer

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

30 By 30

Today when I woke up I was suddenly 28. twenty-eight. TWENTY-EIGHT!?!?

In two years I'll be #) - I couldn't type that quite right because I closed my eyes and guessed at the keys -- I've got two years to come to rips <--not an intentional typo, but Jen would leave it and I think I should too with it. Yikes. I remember when my mom turned 28 - vomit.

I often have people - mainly young artists, sometimes older artists -- occasionally random non-artists write me to ask how I accomplish everything I get done in a day. The answer is simple: LISTS.
I'm a list making fiend. Sometimes once I accomplish something I go back and add it to a list if it wasn't there before. I live for crossing things out.

A while ago Michelle My Belle posted something sparkly and inspirational, as per her usual. Seriously, is there anything that girl can't do?

I picked up the torch and started this list. Sticking to her parameters, this should be a list of things I'm doing this year -- and it is. I'm just thinking ahead and giving myself 24 months - YIKES ONLY 24 MONTHS?!!? to cross everything off it. We'll see where the next two years lead me. I sincerely hope you're all along for the ride. Thank you for all your support. You make my life more beautiful than it already is -- and I live in Brooklyn, so that's saying something.

Have 'Pammie's Jammies' published and on shelves in the Brooklyn's Writers section of 'Books on Court'
Increase blog readership
Have Amber Ink. turning an obvious and clear profit
Learn to sew and drape and make awesomemanawsome stuff
Get mega in shape
Take classes at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden
Form a group that inspires creativity and beauty
Be financially and freelance-ially set to be my own boss without a full time job-job
Travel the Mediterranean
Learn to speak a second language
Attend a kindling retreat
License my art to a major fashion retail brand
Fall in love
Illustrate for a rock star
Own an original Mary Blair
Be published in a magazine with national circulation
Learn to ballroom dance
Design a children's facility
Send more snail mail
Throw more theme parties
Learn to drive
Organize wildly amazing dinner club
Live in Coeur d'Alene
Watch every movie that's ever won an Academy Award for 'Best Picture'
Make a picture quilt and enter it in a contest
Scan and document all design sketches and licensing data so it's at my fingertips whenever I need it. In a word: Max-Organized
Own a fancy pants SLR camera and know how to use it
Give more - volunteer, support charity, randomly and to friends
Pick one topic a month to study ala 5th grade. So I don't ever worry about not learning.
Upcycle more in my decorating as I tackle this little apartment that I want to be magazine ready.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Ode to Chilly Dog Blog

It's once again the time of year where I get to do wild double takes over dogs in their winter finest. I have always freely judged and laughed at owners who dress their dogs in fancy fleeces. This year, thanks to the dog snuggie, my glee has run deeper than ever. One of the very first lessons ever learned at my mother's knee assured me that animals had their own coats and they didn't need ours. Thanks Little Bear (for everything). The thing is... I don't remember New York being as cold-cold as it was this last week!!!

I've never had a New York City dog. My dog was all island.

I was raised side by side with the worlds noblest, greatest, most wonderful dog. He was more than a pet, he was a brother. Seriously, since the dawn of time there has been no greater mammal to ever walk on all fours... If there were any question in your mind I offer up the following:

Here he is as the cutest puppy ever. See? Not up for debate.
He appreciated the years I spent undergoing obligatory french-braiding on my mom's torture chair, even if I could not.

I'm sitting on the our front porch steps surrounded by my brother and sister in one of our many hours of puppy worship.

Palette never saw the difference between him as a dog and us as humans. Why should he fetch sticks when we were all throwing sticks? No. He'd throw sticks with us. We could all run into the water and get our own sticks. Pal was all about playing fair.

He was wonderfully patient and willing to waiting his turn, whether it was a family board game or...

opening our stockings Christmas morning... We'd all be gathered on the floor sharing everything we'd found in our sox and he'd stand alert pointing at the last stocking hanging on the hooks. He knew that our stockings were our loot and he was not interested. He wanted that stocking. Somehow he just knew it was his.

Pal lived for Christmas. Santa brought him to us when I was eight and Ashton was five and April was a mere three years old. He was a Christmas puppy and he was all about tradition. It's almost as if Santa really had bundled him up and driven him in a sleigh to Hawaii just for us. He would hop and jump and thrill the minute the holiday decoration boxes came out of storage. I truly cannot imagine my childhood without him. He always was and always will be the greatest gift of my youth. I miss him fairly often, whenever I see a good looking Retriever on my Carroll Garden Streets, or when I hang those first few garlands up in my apartment.

Pal's one and only flaw was that he was a wimp. In the middle of Hawaii's winter Oahu temperature might drop to a frigid 62 degrees on the coldest of nights. Pal would stand outside our double screen doors whimpering and whining. How could we be so cruel as to not make him a hat and a coat and some gloves to keep him warm in the wind?

If I were lucky enough to have him here with me today. I'd want him wearing a scarf.

These pups were drawn in freeeeeezing plein air at Madison Square Park.

OH and YES. That is a Scotty in a doggie-hoodie.

listening to right this second: "every breath you take" -- the police

Sunday, January 03, 2010

Going to the Birds

I've been peeking at Spoonflower.com off and on for a while now. They have weekly fabric design contests that seem like a hoot to participate in. I'm usually just swamped for time. I like the idea of whipping something up for a challenge in a few hours, helllow Project Runway Obsession... I decided to approach this week's Fabric-of-the-Week challenge in a similar way. I set a timer and gave myself three hours. Here is what happened:

The Color Palette:

The Challenge: Use It.
Oh. Use it to draw some birds. In a repeat.

The Sketches:

The End Result:

listening to right this second: "all will be well" -- the gabe dixon band

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Ring Out the Old!

Ring in the New!

This morning I arrived moody and upset at the airport after spending a hellish red-eye flight next to Neanderthal man and his lesser-half child bride. I was already a little homesick. I know that with my family in Utah instead of Hawaii and my brother working for Delta that I get to see them much more than any other time in my adult life, but the drama queen in me likes to wonder "When will we meet again?!"

I hailed a cab from the curb of JFK. Stepping into the familiar yellow taxi I shook out my snow covered scarf. We left Queens, keeping to Atlantic Avenue in a wild flurry of snow that blanketed everything in sight. I couldn't help but feel a deep satisfaction and calm wash over me as we made our way into Brooklyn. When we turned on Court Street and I felt my neighborhood get closer, that familiar warmth of belonging made my pulse quicken in excitement. I hadn't been out of the cab long enough to grab my suitcase when the grocer from the fruit market across the street yelled out "Ahhhhh Happy New Year Miss Amber!!!!" I lugged my "way over-sized" luggage up to my third floor apartment. At the top of the stairs it hit me, we're at the end of a decade! I hadn't really put it together yet. I took a moment to reflect on the past. I was senior at Kahuku High this time ten years ago. Now I am here. (picture a big red x on a map of awesome)

I CANNOT wait to kick 2009 to the curb, let's be honest, it's been seven kinds of lame. At the same time, I smile so broadly on the the last decade.

Ten years ago I rang in the decade of double zeros with my family, Pacific Ocean side. I distinctly remember chasing my twelve-year-old sister down a sandy stretch of beach with a sparkler held aloft.

at that point in my life

I hadn't ever spent a night completely alone.
I didn't know what it felt like to have friends that are like family.
I'd never been in love.
I'd never swam in the Atlantic Ocean.
I didn't comprehend how a computer could do anything but hinder you as an artist.
I had absolutely no idea how anyone could stand talk radio.
I swam faster than I walked.
My skin was about ten shades darker.
I wanted to be a full-time animator.
I hadn't lost anyone close to me.
I hadn't graduated from high school.
I was more interested in biology than I was in any other subject in school, including art.
I had in no way embraced my inner-nerd. I spat at her, embarrassed when she showed her 'glasses-face'.
I had no idea how to walk in heels.
I was torn, wondering whether Blink 182 or Weezer was the best band of all time.
I didn't know how to ask for what I really wanted.
I was often paralyzed by my fear of the unknown.
I didn't know how to stand up for myself.
I trusted so easily.
I wouldn't ever guess that I'd live for tough contract negotiation or that I'd thrill at the challenges that come with new clients.
I didn't have an identity or a style as an artist - I was fairly sure I wouldn't ever find one.
I was terrified at the idea of disappointing my family and my community.
I hadn't yet made the decision of Brooklyn's Pratt Institute over Valincia's Cal Arts.
I was sure I that no matter my choice, I would want to work for a huge company in California as an animator after I graduated from college.

I had no idea that a decade later I'd be in love with my life, confident in who I am as an artist and an individual. How could I know that I'd be thriving, making a living as an artist in New York City? I didn't know that I'd have so many rich experiences or that I'd live through so many hard lessons. I didn't know that I would have so many people in my life who make living fun, exciting, challenging and oh-so-rewarding. Who could know that I'd love Brooklyn as much as I loved my sprawling white-sand "back yard"? When I'm here, I am home, my soul knows it.

I wish I could go back there for just a moment and really see my seventeen-year-old self. I know how scared she was and how worried she was that she couldn't make it in this big world. I know how terrified she was to leave her family all the way across the country. She loved where she was but she needed to go somewhere new. She wondered if it was a mistake to fly off to a totally new existence in a far off place where she knew nothing and no one. She wondered how New York could be the right choice. How could you ever feel at home somewhere so big and urban? Plus, what if she didn't make any friends? What if college at an art school was as hellish as high school had been? What if she wasn't even that great an artist? What if she couldn't do it?

I'd go back and hold her hand and tell her that she was in for such an 'effing-fantastic adventure. I wish I could let her know that in ten years time, at twenty-seven, she wouldn't change a thing about the path she'd taken. It's been a Robert Frost journey. I wish she would know not to care when people tell her she's throwing away huge opportunities. Then she wouldn't be so nervous when she turned some things down for other chances that just "feel right". I wish I could let her know that broken hearts mend, that career crises subside and that the people who matter most are the people who let you be yourself. Most of all I wish she knew that New Year's Eve 2009 would find her shimmying into something fancy and scrubbing India Ink from under her nails before running out into the night full of glee and anticipation for everything that is coming now, without a smidgen of worry. Then she'd know that it's a wonderful life and that everything works out the way it's supposed to. I wish she knew she'd be giddy about staring down a New Year, excited to get started on a new decade, "a new day with no mistakes in it yet."

Happy New Year, my loves. I hope it finds you and everything you love, healthy, happy and ready to pop the cork on a bright new future. Let's see what the next ten years brings us, shall we?

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day." ~Edith Lovejoy Pierce

listening to right this second: "run" -- snow patrol