We had a snow storm...

But it's okay now.

Merry Christmas to me

So now that most of the chaos has died down (don't tell me you had a quiet Christmas. No one has a quiet Christmas. Seriously.) how was your Christmas? Ours was great, with both my family and Secret Agent Man's family here (no, they're not spies, either). It was only partly hectic. Mostly it was fun.
I tried my hand at a prime rib for the first time ever. For 12 people! I forgot to take pictures, or I'd show you.
Oh, wait! I did take one before it was cooked:


I'm pretty sure it looked like this afterward:



No, really, just like that. Ok, it was close. Maybe better. Mostly it was yummy. And a good time was had by all.

Anyway, it was a very nice week.

But the real reason I'm blogging today is because I promised my new friend at MoseyDog on Etsy that I would blog about her lovely, lovely jewelry.

I have purchased a bazillion many rings from her over the past month. Her jewelry mostly consists of her hand-painted baubles that she then makes into rings, necklaces and earrings. She has a few other things here and there, and also soem really cute prints.

The best thing about her stuff is it's really frickin' cheap very affordable.

Here's a selection of what I've received:


The middle one was a custom one she made for me. Gorg-eous pink to peach!
I'm sure she now thinks I'm stalking her. But I just can't help myself. In fact, I'm going to have to buy another one to replace the one I gave away to my brother's girlfriend after she kept asking me about it.

The best Christmas present I got, though, is from you all. Yes, you all. Sometime over the past couple weeks I got about 20 new followers, and it has bumped me right up over 100! Yea!
So, to celebrate - I'm having a giveaway.

Here's the deal:
Everyone who leaves a comment on this post will be assigned a number (in the order you comment) and next Tuesday, that would be January 4th, 2011 (you believe that?) 'cause it's my day off, I will pick a winner via Random.org. Said winner will receive one of MoseyDog's lovely pieces of jewelry! Because I love you.
So take a look at her stuff and tell me what you want in the comment section of this post.

You can blog about it, tweet it, Facebook it, whatever, but I don't really care, so there's no extra entries for that.
I know, I'm evil that way.

So have fun looking.
More art to follow in a day or two.
When I'm done shopping...

Take a Look

For the Sketchbook, but also for fun.

In-dirigible

If you have not been to my friend Brian Miller's blog, Waystation One, you are missing out. I know some of you read his lovely word-pictures, because that's how I found him (through comments on your blogs).

Anyway, I recently commented on one of his poems, that it made me want to draw a picture (I'm slowly working on it, around all my Christmas and Sketchbook stuff). He responded that he would like that, and if I wanted him to, he would write about one of my drawings. I told him to feel free. He chose this one (remember this one?):




His lovely poem:

in-dirigible

perhaps this is it,

someone's last hope

dumped overboard

washed upon shore

waiting to be found,

still learning to fly,

only so high inside,

dreaming beyond

these invisible walls, i.

quick, find a rock, break

the glass, release me

once more to dance

among the clouds until

a gentle breeze carries

me across horizon's line

- Brian Miller

Snow Day

Which we're not having here, but Secret Agent Man is wishing we were. Meh. I'm okay with it.

Anyway, this one was a "just because" and an exercise in doing art with Adobe Illustrator and Corel Painter.

Maybe I can use it for Illustration Friday's "Phenomenon"...as in, "The snow was a phenomenon they both enjoyed."

Sure - why not?

Oscar

Oscar the octopus loves his orange balloon.

A Pirate Dreams of Flying

For the Sketchbook Project.

Back to the Sketchbook

This is a companion piece for the Blimperfly. Or Butterballoon. Or...what would you call it?
Anyway, for the "Dreams More Beautiful" piece. It's one of my favorite songs from when I was a kid, from one of my favorite "fairy tale" movies - Dr. Doolittle. (Not the crappy Eddie Murphy version.)

New in my Etsy shop

Just in time for Christmas! For all your zombie loving friends.
In my Alice's Secrets shop.

Christmas, a little early

I took a break from drawing for the Thanksgiving week as we had a lot of family time and other stuff going on, not to mention I still had to work every day. Plus it snowed like crazy, and that's a distraction of another kind.

Then I took a break from the Sketchbook Project and spent my drawing time working on a Christmas card for this year, which I then decided to have Moo print up instead of trying to do it myself.

Tomorrow is my printing day (finally!) for other projects and then, alas, back to work. And Sketching! That, at least, is a "yea"!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope that you all are having a great Thanksgiving, with lots to be thankful for. We are having a big family dinner with everyone from my side of the family in attendance, which is fantastic for a variety of reasons!
Christmas will be mostly Secret Agent Man's family, I think, so we'll get to spread the love around then!

Anyway, I hope all differences can be put aside, all blessings counted, and a fun time had by all.
See you in a day or two!

Blimp in a Bottle

Drumroll please...

No? Ok. That's fine. I'll just toot my own horn instead.

Ha!

Seriously though, I have finished (more or less) the two winning ideas from my giveaway last week.
First up, Otin's idea: I could picture a sad little girl holding a dirigible tied to a string. she is sad because she wanted a shiny red balloon and not a drab, gray dirigible.



I love her sad little face...although, truth be told, she has that look like she might pitch a royal temper tantrum any second now!




I also had picked an idea presented by Ellie: Either an super eel monorail, or an octopus hot air balloon.
I may, at some time, visit the super eel monorail idea, but I loved the octopus hot air balloon idea.
And here he is:


You may ask, "why Japanese lanterns?" To which I will reply, "why not?" I dunno, I just thought they'd look pretty. I have a weird imagination, I will admit.

So anyway, Otin and Ellie, I will have prints off to you as soon as I am able to get down in the dungeon basement and print them out for you! Yea!

And the Winners are...

That's right: "Winners". Plural.

First, though, I want to thank everyone who participated. Some of the ideas you put forth were really fun. You all are a pretty creative bunch!
Based on the over all theme of my Sketchbook, the constraints of the page sizes, and what I know of my own drawing skills, I have chosen:

Ellie Belen said...

Either an super eel monorail, or an octopus hot air balloon ('cause how on earth can I resist that?)

and

otin said...

I could picture a sad little girl holding a dirigible tied to a string. she is sad because she wanted a shiny red balloon and not a drab, gray dirigible. (Because I think that is just funny, in a weird sort of way, and it reminds me of "The Red Balloon" - which I loved, yet found creepy, as a kid.)

So, you two, send me your mailing addresses, and once I get the images done, I will send you both signed, numbered copies! Yea!

Giveaway

Okay, here's the deal. Doing this Sketchbook thingy has just about wiped out my brain. I have sort of come to a creative dead-end, so to speak. Or maybe it's just that I'm tired, and Secret Agent Man has been out of town all week doing Secret Agent things and I'm just out of my routine. I don't know.
But whatever it is, I'm drawing a blank (pun definitely intended) as to where to go next with this. I realize I don't have to have 40 pages of art, but I'd like to have more than 14.

Anyway...here's what I'm thinking: I'm going to have a contest. Submit to me your idea for an illustration and if I like it and I pick it I will send you a numbered and signed print of the drawing. (Numbered because at some point I'm going to offer some of them as a limited edition of prints, I think.)

Please keep in mind that
1) my theme is "Submersibles and Dirigibles";
2) nothing naughty, please;
and 3) it needs to be able to fit into a 5.5 in by 8.5 in drawing space.

Um....let's see - deadline 1 week from today, so Nov 5th. How's that sound?

Moondream

My new favorite song is "Moon and Moon" by Bat for Lashes (sorry I couldn't find a better video...)

This song inspired this latest illo for the Sketchbook Project:

Moondream

Dreams More Beautiful...

...than this are something I can only hope for.

Dreams More Beautiful

And Now For Something Completely Different

Well, okay, not "completely"...it's still art stuff.

I thought I'd share a little project I did for the lovely lady blogger over at Under the Roof of a Great House.
She wanted a portrait for her younger daughter's birthday, so working from a photo she sent me:

It was fun and challenging all at the same time (getting faces to actually look like a "real" somebody is hard!), but she had great input and eventually we got to this:

I hope she likes it, and that she had a really happy birthday!

Mouse Takes a Vacation

But he'll send you a letter real soon!



I thought I was doing pretty good with my illustrations, until I counted them up today and realized I only have 12! There are 40 pages in this book!!!

Birds On a Wire

Don't Be Scared

Last week Illustration Friday did "Spooky" as their theme. As you know, I've been working a lot on the Sketchbook Project, so I'm a little behind the 8-ball for IF. But I'm getting my spooky out there for Halloween anyway.
A while back (June? July?) I posted these little guys:

Fear of Broken Hearts

Fear of Spiders

I had also done these two, which for some reason I never got around to posting, so I'll post them for "Spooky" even though I'm late.

Fear of Ghosts

Fear of Cats

Happy Little Puffer-Sub

For the Sketchbook Project.

Wind Dancers

The first from the "Dirigible" part of the Sketchbook.

...and then we found the jellies

Transportation

For Illustration Friday.

Whale Song

For the Sketchbook Project.

Most Awesomest Etsy Treasury Ever

Well, okay, I might be a little biased, but really, it is awfully awesome!

Zombigurumi (whose shop is also pretty awesome) made a B-Movie treasury, just in time for Halloween! I love B-Movies. Especially ones like this:

(Army of Darkness, in case you didn't already know)

and this:



and this:



Okay, I guess I have a thing for Bruce Campbell. But really, who doesn't?

Anyway, here's Zombigurumi's B-Movie treasury. Go check it out. (Did you notice who's first?!)

Award-sies

One of my very favorite kinds of recognition is from other artists. Especially ones I admire. This morning I found that Leen Christens, who I recently "discovered" through Illustration Friday, left me a wonderful award at her blog.


Apparently, the way this works is that now I have to list 15 of my favorite "lovely" blogs. This is actually a great way to introduce those who are interested to several fantastic artists, so I have no problem with taking a little time to do so! Go check out Leen's blog as well as Jenny's, Enchanted Moon Illustration, who gave this award to Leen before she passed it on!
She has a list of very talented artists, too. I could spend all day looking from list to list if only I didn't have to work! Arg...

So here's my list to pass on, just in case you haven't already checked out my reading list over there. You don't have to pass it on if you don't want to. And if I didn't mention you, don't worry, I still love you, but it would take all day to post all my favorites!

Diana Evans

Abigail Halpin - Illustration

Bella Sinclair Doodlespot

Beth's Artworx

cori dantini makes...

dori the giant

Ice-Cream Monster Toon Cafe

kathy hare illustration

Lisa Snellings

Rebekah Leigh

Sandygrafik

Shirley's Illustrations

The Crooked Stamper

Woodstock Lily

white octopus illustration

Enjoy!

Turtle Sundae

So these guys -
are currently advertising something called a Turtle Sundae in our area. They say it's soft serve ice cream, caramel, fudge, and salted pecans. Meh. I'm not much for pecans.


Anyway, when I saw the sign at an A&W near my house my instant reaction was this:





I like mine better.

Octopus Tango

La Mer

This song has been stuck in my head for days, and thus is the inspiration for this latest drawing.

I will most likely include it in my Sketchbook.

The Ship

Somewhere beneath the sea the fish are singing...

The Sketchbook Project

So there's this thing called the Sketchbook Project.



It's sponsored by Art House Co-op. They have all these lovely little projects that are designed to get art to the masses and to provide a sort of gallery for anyone who fancies themselves to be an artist. They believe anyone can create art.

Art House hosts a number of projects at any given time. I had been seeing buttons for the Sketchbook Project on a number of the art blogs I visit so I decided to see what it was all about.
The simplified gist of it is for $25 you get a sketchbook which you have a limited time to fill up with drawings -or whatever your artistic forte is - based on a theme you pick from a list they provide (or they'll assign you one at random if you like). Then you send the book back to them and it goes on tour.
Like a rock star!

Once the tour is complete all work will go on permanent collection at the Brooklyn Art Library.

Here's a neat video that shows some of the sketchbooks from last year. And a PBS article.

Anyway, I thought it sounded like fun and a good challenge for me. So I chose a little blue sketchbook and the theme "Dirigibles and submersibles". I haven't got the sketchbook yet, but I'm starting on some drawings anyway.
Here's my cover idea and first page:

Lollypus

This one was done "just because". I suspect he is a not-so-distant cousin of Winston's.

Acrobat

For Illustration Friday.