Saturday, December 31, 2011

Strongbox Magazine


This past November I was contacted by Strongbox Magazine asking if I'd like to illustrate a two page spread for their upcoming issue. The project was adorable (the Editor-in-Chief's sister-in-law found a story she had written in the 4th grade about her friendship with her pencil) and I'm honored they asked me to contribute!

The magazine just went up and my work can be found on pages 38 and 39. They were a pleasure to work with so I wanted to share their publication. ♥ Thanks Strongbox!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Snake Necklaces


Christmas presents! Three of my best friends rent a house together and are all snake owners. Since I knit them headbands of their cats last year, I wanted to do something involving their pet snakes this time. I used pliers to bend little wire frames, covered each with Sculpey, and painted them to look like their “kids”. The snakes themselves range from 0.5” to 0.75” in size.

From top to bottom, left to right, their names are: Leviathan, Ninjin, Ziti, Boston, Glinda, Casanova, and Elphaba. ♥

Friday, November 4, 2011

Michael Morse


A commission for my friend Carrie ♥

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Homemade Harvest


Whew! I’ve been busy all week sewing plush keychains to sell at the Homemade Harvest today (I tried to make a few Halloween ones for the season too!) But now that the event over, it’s time to start working on commissions :)

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Eel Gijinka


I’m waaaaay late to the party but I wanted to make an eel gijinka too :) Her outfit is based on my very favorite in FRUiTS

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Beautiful Darkness


I finished Beautiful Darkness (by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl) last week and now I’m excitedly waiting for the release of Beautiful Chaos later this month. So here’s a sketchbook doodle of Reece, Ridley, Ryan, Lena, and Ethan.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Magical Girl Title Generator


I tried that awesome Magical Girl Title Generator and was given “Fall Sorceress Lyse”

… it’s like it knows my life encompassing obsession with autumn haha. Since my excitement could not be contained, I decided to join the magical girl drawing fun.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Monsieur Owl


Monsieur Owl! It was the birthday of my library-coworker-who’s-also-my-good-friend this week so I wanted to make her something special. We’re both knitters and she loves owls, so making the little guy seemed appropriate.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Clockwork Angel



I’m two weeks late, but that’s better than never I suppose. So here’s my submission for the first Weekly Art Challenge. I finished Cassandra Clare’s Clockwork Angel not too long ago and absolutely loved it, so I decided to use it for the first prompt.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Divergent

Thanks to recommendations from my patrons and coworkers, I've been plowing through various Young Adult book series. After enjoying The Hunger Games I was told about Divergent and ended up finishing it in one night. I enjoyed it a lot and did some drawings afterwards.

Tris and (a drunk, not blushing) Four.



Tris, Al, Christina, and Will.


And finally Four, Tris, and Eric.

Please feel free to send me a message if you've read any other great YA series that you think I might enjoy. :)

Friday, August 12, 2011

SRC Cityscape

After the character illustrations I drew, Northern Tier Regional Library asked me if I would be willing to do one additional project. At the end of the seven week "One World, Many Stories" program the children's librarian would be showing The Red Balloon.

She asked if I could sketch a quick "iconic" cityscape of the seven countries studied. The children would then dip their thumbs in red ink and dot their thumbprint balloons across the sky to symbolize their travels through summer reading. She gave me a few examples of what landscapes she specifically had in mind, handed me a massive roll of paper, and told me to go to town.

There weren't many supplies available so I borrowed two sharpies and free hand sketched the mural onto a 3 foot by 10.5 foot piece of roll-paper.






Also! I apologize for the horrible photo quality. I hadn't thought to bring my camera so I snapped these photos with my ancient cell phone. Hopefully the images are still readable, though. :)

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Pris


A coworker commissioned me for a fun painting of their sassy, big ol’ brown tabby girl named Pris. And since I’m not so secretly a crazy old cat lady, I blurted “YES” before she could finish her request. I just can’t help myself.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Wedding Invitations


Wedding invitations: done!

Friday, June 24, 2011

Wedding Sketch


(engagement photo credit to thegoodness.com)

I was recently asked to draw a fun wedding invitation for a friend. They’re both active swing dancers, so I wanted to incorporate that in.

I sent the bride my color sketches last night and while both her and I enjoyed this particular one, her fiance really liked another. Tia’s an awesome girl and since she chose to commission me for the invitations, she’s letting him pick the design I’ll take to final. So since this drawing was cut I thought I’d post it here because it’s still a fun doodle of them. ♥

Saturday, June 11, 2011

SRC Products

I wanted to post a final update regarding my last Summer Reading Club commission. The finished products have started going up and it's so exciting! I wanted to share with everyone since my portion is done and the library was kind enough to let me take a few photos.

When everything was said and done I ended up illustrating the characters for each week (including various versions; some with textures, some with flags behind them), hand written text, vectored images for the plastic bags, and drew/designed the folder itself.

Northern Tier Regional Library used the illustrations for their newsletter, pamphlets, book-recording folders, plastic bags, t-shirts, stickers, 2 by 3 foot promotional signs for around the township, and a massive 3 by 8 foot banner for across the entrance to the children's department.

(I should note I was not responsible for any of the design layouts other than the folder. I provided the illustrations and hand-written text, and they had someone else take care of all the various placements for each product.)

Anyway, onto the photos!



Stickers! (My favorite, but only because I've been a sticker collector since I was a kid haha.)



The t-shirt(s).



The 3 by 8 foot banner across the department.



An example of the signs that have been put around the area! (Cars driving by probably thought I was crazy for crouching in the grass taking photos haha.)



And finally, the folders! I designed them so the text appears sideways, but when opened up and displayed vertically it can be a poster. I was told a lot of the kids liked to keep theirs from previous years, so I thought it would be a neat idea to compliment that.


Everything turned out great and I was so happy to see the final prints. In a way, it's wild being able to watch a project from start to finish.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Charlie


A family friend’s Golden was recently diagnosed with cancer, which saddened us all. I was commissioned to paint a quick portrait of Charlie so it can be given as a gift sometime soon.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Summer Time


Summer! (and a new drawing~) I haven’t been to the beach since I was nine but I’ll be going in a few weeks so I’m super excited!

Friday, May 20, 2011

Summer Reading Club 2011

Once a year the libraries of Allegheny County (Pennsylvania) have a Summer Reading Club program to promote reading and education to kids. There's a new theme every year, but this summer's is "One World, Many Stories” where a different country will be focused on each week.

Traditionally Allegheny county hires a graphic designer or illustrator to do the promotional artwork, then allows the individual libraries to buy various products of their choice from them. But Northern Tier Regional, my local library, contacted me to see if I'd be interested in designing new illustrations specifically for them and this year's theme. They thought it would be more unique, fun, and a chance to promote a local illustrator. I was excited!

Since every week focuses on a different country, Northern Tier's children’s librarian wrote a one sentence scenario for each and I worked my illustrations around them using the country’s national animal as the main character. The sentences given to me were:



"If you go to India, DO NOT get eaten by a tiger but DO ride an elephant." (national animal: Bengal Tiger)



"If you go to Australia, DO NOT get in a boxing match with a kangaroo but DO keep walking even if a crocodile smiles at you." (national animal: Kangaroo)



"If you go to Japan, DO NOT challenge a ninja but DO stop to see the cherry blossoms." (national animal: Tanuki)



"If you go to Brazil, DO NOT pick up a poison dart frog but DO check out the rain forests." (national animal: Jaguar)



"If you go to Ireland, DO NOT steal a leprechaun's gold but DO visit the Giant's Causeway." (national animal: Red Deer)



"If you go to France, DO NOT get lost in the underground catacombs but DO take a walk through Monet's garden." (national animal: Gallic Rooster)



"If you go to Russia, DO NOT go en pointe without lots of practice but DO see a show at the Bolshoi Theatre." (national animal: Russian Brown Bear)



I also illustrated, designed, and did the text for the folder that is given to each participating child to record their book titles into. I'm already so excited and can't wait to see everything printed! I'll be sure to share a few photos when the products begin to arrive.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Summer Reading Club sketch


All I have left for my current commission is to layout the folder and hand write the text, so here are some of the final color scribbles sketches I turned in before starting the finals.

Animals, countries and libraries ~ oh my!

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Ovechkin


A commission for my awesome hockey-loving pal, Yen_san. ♥

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Papercut Magazine Design




A few sketches and a quick color study for a collaboration project Nicole, Meg, Erica, and I are working on.

Erica, Meg and I created designs based on a mood board Nicole sent each of us, then Meg lovingly sewed (from scratch!) all three of the outfits that each of us designed. Afterwards Nicole picked models and scouted a location to photograph everything in. The final product will be featured in Papercut Magazine sometime soon; I can't wait to see the results!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Ice Skating


I found myself pretty sick with a mega sinus infection last weekend. My Gram thoughtfully mailed me a get well card but made sure I took note of the sticker she included. It was of these two girls ice skating, and for some reason I felt compelled to doodle them.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Whisper


A little thank you for Whisper's Mom.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Traveling


A doodle for a meme that’s been going around. ”Find the meaning of your character’s name, go here, type that meaning in, then draw it.” Vee apparently means “traveling” and the first outfit to come up was oddly fitting.