New Business Cards!

In preparation for this year's Take A Walk in Her Shoes Fashion Show, (which I am providing illustrations for again) I wanted to order some extra business cards.

I love Moo.

I've used them for my last 5 - 6 print projects and I am consistently pleased with their quality. This time I tried their new business card stock; the Luxe. This card features Mohawk Superfine paper sandwiched around a middle of several possible colors. The cards are thick, velvety and exactly what I was hoping for.

Also, the packaging is superb. Opening the box was positively glee-inducing!

Sketch from drawing session

I've been pretty busy this week.

I'm right in the middle of a huge, 2-3 month long project for work and have about 3 or 4 other project deadlines all falling within the month of April.

I've made lists, calendars, and to-do's; pulling out every organizational trick in my book to try and keep me ontop of the jumble of projects. Some days I feel like its working, other days I feel like I am still so far behind. Needless to say, I haven't had a lot of time to just sit and draw recently. This is one of the many reasons I am so grateful for the life drawing session that I stumbled on down at the beach.

3 hours of uninterrupted drawing with a model, in a group of 8 - 10 other artists. This block of time gives me no other options -- just draw.

This is one of the sketches from last night.

Sketching with the Wacom Inkling

I finally remembered to take the Inkling to my figure drawing session this week.

When I first started using the Inkling I was a bit disappointed with the troublesome accuracy of the sensor, as many reviewers have noted. However, as I continued to use it I found situations where the inkling excelled.

I had originally tested it with simple one or two line drawings where accuracy is everything, and found a lot of issues in the placement of the inkling-recorded lines. As I grew more accustomed to the pen, I realized that singular lines aren't really how I sketch anyway. I use shaky, searching marks to quickly define a shape. In the latter mode - the inkling is a really neat tool.

I've been meaning to test it out at my figure drawing session for awhile now and finally remembered to bring it along last Wednesday. Towards the end of the 3 hour mark, I usually need to take a break from the full figure, so for this portrait sketch I decided to give the inkling a whirl.

This was the resulting image on paper using the inkling pen.

And this is the inkling-recorded image.

There are some trouble areas for sure, but overall I kind of like the messier inkling version. It feels a bit more chaotic and less planned. My favorite part of the inkling system (especially when applied to a figure drawing) is the video playback of your sketch. I know I am easily impressed, but watching the desktop program actually play your sketching process back to you, is pretty neat. I was able to watch myself make mistakes that I didn't notice during the actual session. Overall, very fun tool :)

Key Deer and Pelicans

I spent a better part of today going through the vacation pictures we took in Key West.

It's about 95% pelicans.

Oh sure, there are a few family pictures, one or two of a beach, the quintessential food picture, an occasional blurry rooster and a few shots of the 'Caution, Key Deer" signs... but the rest are just pelicans.

The pictures of the 'key deer' warning signs got me thinking however. I've never seen a key deer and I was curious what one might look like. Google responded with the cutest mini-deer you could imagine.

Sadly, they are a very endangered subspecies of the white-tailed deer that is so common in Michigan. Habitat destruction and human encroachment have taken their population down to roughly 400 - 500 deer left in the wild and this is why there are so many signs on the approach to Key West.

After looking at the collection of key deer images, I decided to make my next frame project a drawing of said deer. I have quite a few blank frames sitting around at this point, but felt particularly drawn to using a small ceramic white frame that I found on clearance at Target. It needed a key deer to be happy.

I'm happy with it, though I may end up shrinking the image inside the frame just a bit so the whole circle is visible.
I think after that, I have to do something with Pelicans. I have way, way too many pictures of the birds to not draw them.

Something Different

I've been experimenting.

Occasionally if I find myself getting too comfortable with what I'm working on, I like to step off the trail for a bit and wander down in the woods to see what I find. On such a jaunt earlier last week, I came back to path with a notion stuck my head.

Objects.

I started to think about my work as an object and not a watercolor, print or illustration. Spurred on by my love of the folkart movement, I spent a few days thinking about boxes, frames and diorama-type creations.

And then I went to a thrift shop down the street.

Bad decision in terms of fiscal responsibility, good decision in that I stumbled upon something new to play with.

I found that frame (originally a scuffed ivory/white) and it felt like it needed a rabbit in it, so made a quick sketch with pens/watercolors. All the sudden, it wasn't an illustration of a rabbit - it was an object. I came home with a few more frames that needed a bit of love, so I started printing other work and painting/staining the frames to match.

Overall, fun experiment indeed.

Also I may, or may not have brought home 4 more frames from Target this morning to continue said experiments...

Target was a bit expensive, but the thrift store required a good bit of fix-up (broken glass, missing wall-hangers...etc)

Any thoughts on where I might find intact inexpensive frames?