Happy Hour

On Fridays at 5pm I am particularly benevolent.

TGIF!

Hippo to the Jive-o

Hippos are the job-job word of the week.

So I drew some, all sciency/cartoony.

Cause and Effects and hippo facts!

um... but this one is bonus, and um... not directly related to job-job.

A Change of Pace

What do you do when you lose your creative thread? Do you stop and take a breather? Do you reevaluate? I feel like my creative energy is my life force, when it wains I'm left without much breath to take a breather.

Luckily years at fancy art school, and then years at job-job and various other 'live or die' gigs have taught me that sometimes a dip in creativity is flat out not an option. I've learned that for me, the best thing when I'm just not feeling it is to do something else. As long as I'm being creative, the dip will usually right itself of its own accord.

This week I've been working on some new layouts, new texture maps and new life paths. Did you know we're staring down the barrel at 11 weeks 'til Christmas? I can't quite think about it with my full brain, because it's hard for me to think about snow. Who wants snow?! If you say you do I'm using my favorite modified GLEE phrase of all time. "Snow!?! KILL YOURSELF!"

Incidentally you're looking at barrettes I've been crocheting for one of my favorite fans, albeit one of my littlest.

I'm counting down the holidays by being more resourceful and more Little Woman-like' than I've had the leisure to do as of late. Nicest side effect, other than having some cutesy barrettes ready to wrap, is that I'm itching to get back to my other gigs, the ones that require my 2D skills ;)

What do you do to get back your 'creative mojo' when you feel it packing for holiday?

From Here to There

When I was a kid. I adored this funny book about a mouse who is trying to get home or to his grandmothers, it's a bit of a haze. He starts by driving, and then the tires get worn down. So he takes his bike out and rides his bike and then the tires get worn down, then he gets out his skates and tries to skate there - but you guessed it, the wheels get worn down. Finally, he sets out walking.

THEN HIS FEET GET WORN DOWN SO HE TAKES THEM OFF TOO!

Man, what a gem. If anyone knows what that book was called, 100 points and a hug. I'd love to have it here in my library of books for people under eight. I remember it being skinny and paperback and full of other ridiculous stories about this mouse. The illustrations were tiny and detailed and oh man, I hope someone knows what I'm talking about.

As a kid, when I used to dream about the best way of travel, and when I dream now of the best way to travel, I always dream of the sea.

Here are a few quick sketches (like 5 minutes worth) of transportation ideas this morning.

I'm going to refine them and put them up again here at She Sure is Sketchy, later this week.

As with everything I do lately, they scream surface design to me.

Happy FRIDAY!!!! WOOT!

Chillax!

Today I Drew A Whale

What did you do?

Napkin Nudity

Lots of times when I doodle I start with a circle. I adore circles. They speak of such limitless opportunity as an artist, you just know they're going to lead to something great when you start with a circle.



I feel the same way about napkins and ballpoint pens.  What perfect medium!
Today I was doodling, in that absent minded way.  My coworker interrupted, 'Dude, do you know you are drawing boobs?"  I looked down and realized she was right. In pure sketchy fashion decided to just go with it. 


I guess someone needs to get herself to life drawing...

Texture-al Relationship

Today I thought about texture.
.
.
.
This is what happened while I thought.

(some macro-photography of a decomposing leaf I took yesterday.
I cross sectioned, vectorized and turned it into some surface design)


(A mirco view of the weave in my skirt. I'm going to vector ink and then watercolor it and see what I get.)


(Straw and blush and a slow shutter speed, sliced and turned into surface matter.)

So yeah, today I thought about texture.

Old Fashioned

I love it when I can get my Illustration Friday posts to cross check. My design BFFs, Breanne and Jeremiah of BreJer fame, are having a baby girl next month! This morning I schlepped to the Upper West Side for a baby shower with grand views and un-lame games and apple cider that was somehow also orange juice.

Breanne is half Mexican too. Were both built like Victoria's Secret models and we both love running. Haha. Ok, well one of those similarities is true. I often think that if I could live life the Breanne way, things would just be better and even if they weren't they would seem better.

Since Breanne and Jeremiah and I are design friends, and even more than that, now we're licensing friends, there seemed no way to buy a baby shower card. So I hit the drawing board, the old fashioned way.

Here were some sketch ideas.



Then I really liked this little bit:

I spent a nice long time painting it digitally and getting it all purdy. Then my printer ran out of ink. So I had to make it by HAND. WHAT?! OLD FASHIONED STYLE.

So double win, because after all, it doesn't get much more old fashioned than the stork.

I used glue on this baby! Did you hear me?! GLUE. Like PASTE. OLD SCHOOL.

Balancing Acts and General Acrobatics

This week has taken a lot of tightrope walking.  So much to do.

Luckily most of it is fun and the things that are not are worth it ;)

Hallow Ween

My favorite part of digiStamping is test driving our new babies.

All of the clearStamps, iPaper and digis I design start as sketches in my book.

I use digital ink to refine them and give each image a zippy bold line. We want energy in these here digis!

Today I'm coloring one of our new Hallow Ween Kiddos.