Tag Archives for illustration

Flower Face… and recent obsessions

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January so far has been half-full of specific commission work (super exciting stuff that I’ll have to wait and share with you later!), and half-full of creating whatever I’d like for some shows coming up. This is the hardest part; coming up with content – ideas that feel good enough to soil a piece of lovely cream Stonehenge paper (so soft and creamy! I love it so). When I’m stuck for ideas I pore through old sketchbooks to remind myself of things I once thought were interesting. This is always kind of weird because it feels like they’re someone else’s drawings, like hearing your voice recorded and played back to you (do I really sounds like that? In my head my voice is much for confident and butch. Hmm). By mid-march I will be creating new work for two separate month-long Artwalk shows -

Saturday, March 9th                5000 20th Ave NW, Seattle

Thursday, March 14th
4210 SW Oregon St., Seattle
6-9pm

So, I’m trying out some new things, like acrylic on Stonehenge paper in conjunction with pencil and ink. It’s weird – I feel like these drawings are showing up and someone else made them. Not that that’s bad or good, just weird. Thinking of: flowers and lace and blood and weeds, black velvet and portraiture and napping.

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Alright! Enough talk about art! Here’s what else is on my mind:

Current obsessions

  • our new bread machine (thanks, Grandma!!)
  • Die Antwoord
  • wearing lipstick and perfume and, a bra once in a while – generally acting like a girl
  • our space heater, and making makeshift kotatsus
  • ID documentaries, specifically Wicked Attractions and Missing

What’s on your mind?

3/4 Tattoo Sleeve design!

I know tattoo artists design these all the time, but for me this was a first, and a huge deal!! I was recently contacted to design a 3/4 sleeve, in the style of William Morris – a woodblock-print botanical. Here are some photos of the process:brendans sleeve inking

Using my little light table to trace, with a brush and ink, from the original life-size pencil drawing.brendans sleeve inking 02

Midway through shadingbrendans sleeve sketch 04

Working on the pencil drawing, and below, the first version of the whole design:brendans sleeve sketch 01-2 brendans sleeve sketch 01 brendans sleeve inking 04 brendans sleeve inking 03

Yay! So much fun! I can’t wait to see how the design looks in its final form.

I just got back from a week-long trip to Montana, to visit family – and it was a much needed break, spent playing board games, visiting friends, watching TV, baking and eating as much as I could cram down my gullet. My family takes such good care of me!! Ahh, yes. Now it’s back to work.

How is your new year so far?? What plans do you have? :)

A special tattoo design

I love when I’m approached to help design a tattoo. It’s such an intimate and special request that I work very hard to make sure it’s perfect. The plan for this one was for a blackwork design of a raven holding a fern in either its beak or its claws.

One of the best parts about these projects is the research, and the sketching, trying to figure out the right composition for where the tattoo will end up being inked on the body. It reminds me that I need to spend more time outside with a camera taking pictures of everything, because you never know when you’ll need a picture of… a raven, a fern, who knows what next?

Here is the sketch we settled on, and the finished drawing. Broke out the microns for this one!!

Happy November, you all!

Percolating… finally, an ode to coffee!

It’s been brought to my attention recently that, though I’ve done quite a few tea-themed drawings, I still hadn’t made anything devoted to coffee (my true love, but don’t tell the tea!). So, here she is (thanks, Nichol!)!!

I know, I know  – anyone who owns a percolator knows that it is impossible to bathe in it, if only because of the pesky spout that lets water travel from the bottom to the top and makes it possible for coffee-creation to occur. Sadly. But by the magic of drawing, there! It’s happening! Coffee bath in a percolator!

I prefer the french press, but putting a girl in there sounded pretty sadistic, not to mention claustrophobic.

Also, I have a new printer!! After much procrastination and nailbiting, I decided on an Epson, for its ultrachromatic inks and large format. I can now print up to 13″ wide and virtually unlimitedly long (have to buy a roll of paper for something like that, though). Yay! 11×14″ prints will soon become standard in my shop, where you can pick up little coffee girl now!

Anywho. It’s time to make dinner – a hot pot, I think, full of meat and mushrooms and whatever veggies are hiding in the bottom of the fridge. Then I believe it’ll be time for another pot of coffee and a Borderlands 2 marathon. Hmmmm. Yes.