Illustration Friday : : Ocean

This is a 3-panel spread I did in a Japanese Moleskine journal group. This artists theme was "underwater" and she has a thing for sock monkeys :)

Illustration Friday : Carry

This week's topic is "carry". What better thing to carry than food? This is an illustrated recipe card for a trade at Illustrated ATCs - an art trading site - lots of fun, check it out. The recipe is on the back :)

Hibernate : : Illustration Friday

Sure felt like hibernating yesterday.

Basically I did. Made stew. Made art. Read The Night Circus - what a wonderful book - one of those books that you want to read forever so I make myself stop so it will last longer. I'm a huge fan of anything old-time circus and magic.

Was going for a magical feel here, hope it works for you!

IF "Influence"

When my friend Jen and I go shopping we are each a bad influence on each other.

"You deserve it"

"You need those"

"They're calling your name"

"It was meant to be"

"You've been working really hard on your _________, you should treat yourself"

Sorry 'bout your face Jennifer, sometimes I nail things, other times not so much!

Obsession

Obsession on this week's Illustration Friday. I must have an obsession for crazy pink-haired women since I'm always drawing them. I definitely have an obsession with food, LOVE cooking. The eating part is fun too. And I'm kind of obsessed with doing a recipe for one of my favourite sites, They Draw and Cook. And now I'm on there, woot!!!!!

Perennial or Happy 39th Birthday! Again.

This week's Illustration Friday topic is perennial. What could be more perennial than a birthday?

This will be my 8th year of being 39! Just kidding, age really doesn't bother me.

Stay

It was soooooo difficult to stay on her diet...

Midsummer Night

Not my favourite Illustration Friday topic by any stretch. So I just did a quick, disgruntled fairy.

Launch

Have I said how much I love Illustration Friday? This week the topic is "launch". I wonder who the little wanker is going to launch those peas at...

A huge thank you to Christine; I won - yes, I know, I never win anything!!! - a copy of her book from her blog, and I am so excited because she is so talented. Now if the postal strike would end asap I can actually get the book.

Illustration Friday Swept

Whew, just made it this week. Hope you like!

Shadow

"Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you." Maori Proverb

Always liked that quote. I remember it as "Turn your face toward the sun and smile and all your shadows will fall behind you" which I like better but who am I to mess with Maori?

For this week's Illustration Friday; hope you like it.

Asleep

This was for a children's book about a girl named Lily who was afraid to go to sleep. Seemed quite fitted to this week's Illustration Friday subject - asleep. Except, that well, she can't.

Illustration Friday "safari"

Not your typical safari but then they aren't a typical couple.

Lesson...

She never learned the lesson, if you want to stay up and party with the girls you still have to get up and work with the women.

Journey for Illustration Friday

This week's word is 'journey" and I thought I could go all "life's a journey blah blah blah" but that isn't me so just this simple little illo of a conundrum...

Bottled...

...for this week's Illustration Friday.

Toy for Illustration Friday

Oh my god, where to start? More importantly where to finish?! I love toys. I have far too many, especially retro ones, robots, heck even hot wheels. These two pics were for a clown theme but they're still toys. I'm sure I'll have to do at least one new image before the week is out.

Cultivate

What a perfect choice of topic for this week's Illustration Friday. Remember in grade one or two when you planted a seed in a plastic cup with a wet paper towel? It was so cool - magic even - to seem them start to sprout. I've been away for Illustration Friday for far too long so now I'm back!

They Draw and Cook

I really, really, really want to do a recipe to submit to this fabulous project.

Just browsing through the stuff already there is inspiring enough but I want to play too. So, this week I will make a recipe to submit. I swear. Here's a recipe I can't submit unless I make it in a different size. Plus they want spreads and all my recipes thus far are two-sided.



Now what to make...

The illos for the alphabet book are all finished with only 2 revisions out of 27 so I'm pretty happy 'bout that. I'll post some when I'm allowed - hush hush and all that.

I'll leave you with two little ATCs of the Boob Faerie. She visits girls in their early teens. She visited both my sisters and ran out by the time she got to me. As time goes by it looks like she visited my brother too!

Equipment

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "equipment" so I of course thought dirty and a guy "checking his equipment"! This is actually an ATC (artist trading card) that was created for a swap with the theme blind-drawn faces. So this little dude's face was drawn with my eyes closed - can you tell???! LOL

I may do another equipment entry before friday if I can.

Focused

This week's Illustration Friday theme is "focused" and I first thought of my eyeglasses which no doubt need to be made stronger and then I decided on yoga which requires a good bit of focus. I haven't been to a Bodyflow class in well over a month... maybe today?

Elephants Rule!

I love elephants. Love drawing them. Love reading about them. Love watching them.

Proust Questionnaire #20

I'm hosting a mail art project where the end product is a journal with illustrated pages of the ubiquitous Proust questionnaire made famous - infamous? - by Vanity Fair. It is 35 questions total so I've broken it down into 7 groups of 5 from which each participant illustrates one question in each group. In the end they will receive a coil-bound journal with the entire questionnaire, designed pages to answer the questions, doodle, pontificate etc as well as 7 incredibly illustrated pages from 7 incredibly talented illustrators! Don't worry if it doesn't make sense... I'll post more of the project as it progresses. This is my illustration for question # 20: "If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?"

I've been busy!

Isn't it fun? I need another project like I need a hole in the head. So this is a cookie stand. Or appetizers, etc. The ceramic marker is baked on and it and the glue are actually dishwasher safe! Space is getting pretty full of products for the holidays. I'll post more soon. I'm not going to bother listing on etsy until after the Stitch and Kitsch show on December 5th.

If the Barbie shoe fits

I honestly thought this would be easier. About a year ago I started looking for little Barbie-size pumps to use in altered art stuff. I have scoured Goodwill/Salvation Army/Vintage-ish stores, asked friends with daughters and even looked at Toy R "We... NO SHOES. Where the hell are the shoes? I find little parts of playmobile and lego everywhere in my house. I assumed it would be the same with Barbie shoes. Little things. They end up under beds, dressers, piles of laundry. But no.

I have finally ordered shoes from the Philippines. The seller has many, many, many, Barbie shoes. I don't need to check to know that there is a Mattel factory in the Philippines.

Playing with dolls

I've been making these dolls to send to art directors. Just click on one to see it larger. They all have some method of hanging, mainly at the back and I'll attach bead chain, ribbon or something that coordinates with the theme. I'm not so sure about the ones with no arms. They look like, hmmmm, like they're missing something. I'm also in a few doll swaps with my mail art buds. Hope you like them. Have a favourite?

Contagious

Click on the pic - there are 3 MORE kids!

My friend's son just had a bad case of chicken pox and it's one of those illnesses that rips through the school. Luckily mine have had them previously so they were safe.

This was drawn by hand and coloured digitally. I may add more in terms of shading and details but I really like it with just the three colours and their tones.

Hierarchy

Slipping in at the last minute for this week's Illustration Friday topic. I didn't have time for a new piece but I thought that this coat/leash/whip (!?) hook was perfect for the topic! This one has sold but lots more goodies at my etsy shop - just click on the link over there -------->

These were so much fun to make. They are for a small swap at a super-duper secret trading site. In my perfect world I would just be allowed to make stuff ALL day and get paid. I'm not greedy (well, yeah, I am) but just enough $$ to remain in the style to which I have become accustomed! And a wee bit more. 

Instinct?

The theme at Illustration Friday this week is "instinct". I think most of us have a certain amount of empathy and compassion - so more than others - and I also think that we instinctively want to help others if we see that they are in need. Also happening this week (and continuing ...) is a special etsy shop set up by compassionate artists to raise money to help people who lost their homes and so much more in the Aussie bush fires. Please visit the store here. All proceeds go to the Australian Red Cross. To date they have raised $15,000! All art is donated and all shipping costs paid by the donating artists so please check it out. An etsy team that I belong to - metsy, mixed media etsy artists - are donating houses that we decorate each in our own unique style. 

The front is above. This is the back:

And this is a close-up:

C e l e b r a t e !!!

I celebrate the fact that I get to do a lot of mostly fun stuff for my work. I work at home. I make my own schedule for the most part. Lucky me! Certain people can't understand that and just think that drawing and networking is playing. Hmphh!

Two weeks in a row, yikes!!!

Okay, I need to build up my stock images so I've come back to Illustration Friday because having the topic every week helps me focus a bit better. So this week's theme is "time". Hope you like it!

I'm still here!

I haven't participated in Illustration Friday in ages. Too busy doing stuff for Etsy and shows and of course my gripping addiction to ATCs and mail art!

This is for IF topic "Flawed". A flawed cupcake tastes just as good as a perfect cupcake!

Busy busy busy!

So in addition to it being summer and kids at home I've been making stuff for a table we took at our Saturday morning Farmer's Market. I'm selling journal/notebooks that I make and journals that I make out of old hardcover books - I like Hardy Boys and Donna Parker books the best because I use the illustrations from the book and bind them in with the blank pages. 

Also selling funky hooks and Lego earrings. Terry is selling our screen printed Ts as well as some thermal-print Ts with old B movie poster images etc. It's going well so far. Won't retire on it by any stretch!