not-so-scary creatures

Elephantom and Frankenstein's rabbit.

Jennifer Beauvais, protagonist of my graphic novel-in-progress.  I debated posting this, mostly because I feared stupid comments, but honestly, this is about as racy as a J.C. Penney circular, so I don't wanna hear it.

brand new bag

Recently I bought a canvas shoulder bag, and last week I decided to spruce it up by painting a lion skeleton on it.  I had planned to take pictures at the end of each of the three stages, but realized halfway through the third stage that I hadn't taken a picture of the second one.  Oh well.  Anyway, the end result looks a bit like an illustration from a grade school textbook to me.  Maybe because I read all those Zoobooks as a kid...

Stage 1:  After finding a good photo (thanks, Google image search!) and printing it off, I used it to cut out a stencil from a magazine page (the glossy paper is less permeable).  I painted the back of the stencil with a layer of rubber cement and let it dry, then stuck it to the flap of the bag.  After taping up the sides of the flap, I went to town with a stencil brush and some black fabric paint, then peeled off the stencil before the paint was dry, so it wouldn't stick too much.  In stage 2 (not shown), I used a small brush and more black fabric paint to add in details, referring to the photo as my guide.

Stage 3: Using the same small brush as in stage 2, I added in highlights with opaque white fabric paint, then heat set as per the instructions on the paint jar.  This caused the plastic backing on the lower part of the flap to warp a little, but whatcha gonna do?

happy anniversary

I just realized today that it has been more than a year since I started this blog (the first entry appeared in November of 2010), and I let the anniversary date slip by unnoticed.  Not that I'm going to do anything particularly special here to mark my year-plus of blogging, but I thought I should make a note and try to feel a little bit accomplished.  Anyway, here are a couple of recent drawings, both of which took far longer than they had any right to.

Jared Warren and Coady Willis of Big Business, from a photo I found on the internets.  Somehow, that super-ugly splatter-painted bandana sort of grew on me while I was working on this.

Victorian couple, also from a photo found on the internet.  The thing that struck me most about these people is that they looked so wary, as though they had been through a lot and no longer expected too much from life, though I'm not sure this comes across so clearly in the drawing.

radio radio

Recently I was asked to do an illustration for an unusual project; our pal Carlos is trying to put together a benefit album, due to come out for Christmas of 2012, to raise money for homeless youth.  He wanted a visual to include in his materials for recruiting musicians, and basically gave me carte blanche to do whatever.  This is what I came up with.

New Year Sudoku

Morgan doing Sudoku puzzles on New Year's Day.  I would have gotten his writing hand in there, but I was tired and needed to get to bed.

So, yeah, it's been a while, but I am finally back in action, now that the holidays are officially over.  Huzzah!

back in the day

These are based on photos from the same book as was the lady from "a lady, a gentleman, and a monster,"  Victorian and Edwardian Fashion: a Photographic Survey by Alison Gernsheim.  I haven't really read the book -- mostly I've just looked at the pictures -- but I have learned some things, namely that once upon a time, there were many varieties of men's neckties, some of them bizarre and/or comical.

It's hard to believe, the getups people used to play sports in.  This lady was pictured with other "tennis club" members, and the men were in suits and big bowlers.  Huh.  The fact that they all held their rackets and everyone's outfits matched led me to believe they actually played in these clothes, but maybe I'm wrong.

it's all relative

Graphic novel characters, again.  While I was working on this at Short Run, another exhibitor at my table asked if the guy in glasses was a well-known, non-local cartoonist, whom I will refer to as "Andrew Peck."  When I answered rather testily that it was not, it was because my fellow exhibitor clearly thought I was the type of dork fangirl who would draw a picture of another cartoonist I don't know just because I'm, like, so crushed on him.  From the brief exchange that followed, I now realize that, worse yet, this guy thought I was annoyed because, like, he didn't know what my hero Andrew Peck really looks like!  Ugh, barves. 

Inspired by a recent conversation.