Sketchbook Tour in Seattle This Weekend!

At the form/space atelier!

Now that Secret Agent Man is feeling better (thanks for all your prayers and well wishes) we are headed over for the weekend.  I'm excited to see my Sketchbook again, along with the others on exhibit. I'm hoping they will let me take some pictures, which, if they do - I can post here next week.

And speaking of Sketchbooks... I have been working a little at a time, when I can steal a minute or two, trying to get my first page done of the 2012 book, Fill Me With Stories. I think I'm finally happy with it. Although, I've been known to obsessively tweak stuff from time to time!

Thanks again to Brian Miller for his poem:

Nobody sees the Unicorn

So she is lonely and bored at the ball.

Sketchbook 2012

I just signed up for the new Sketchbook Project for 2012!
I had so much fun with the last one, I thought it would be good for me to participate again. Plus this time I will have twice the time to do my drawings (maybe three times as much!) so I should be able to include more artwork. I'm thinking I may have some new contests as well, for ideas and so on.

The theme I picked this time is "Fill me with stories". Should be fun! Now if I can just find a short poem for my opening page...anyone got any suggestions?


Random, unrelated picture:

I changed my mind

Which is not surprising. I do that a lot.
So, what did I change my mind about? Well, it has to do with the 100 Illustrations book that I'm going to be part of.

Initially I was going to go with this little guy:

Then I found out I could submit a second piece! So I decided to go with this one:

 

I liked the contrast between cute and sketchy looking (the picture looks more like a sketch, not that the mouse is "sketchy".  Silly.) and the more  moody look of the rain one. 

Then I drew the kitties. And I just really like the one with the little dragonflies. So Buddy is going to replace the little mouse guy, which I'll just use for something else. Yay, Buddy!

He's thrilled about getting published. And by thrilled I mean he blinked at me, yawned, and then proceeded to clean his back left foot. Oh well. That's a cat for you! 

Cafe des Petits Amis

How's my French?

So here's where this came from... After the last blog post, with Mouse juggling his cocktail olives, I got this lovely comment from Martine-Alison:

martinealison said...

Adorable que cette petite souris...
Une fois je me trouvais assise à la terrasse d'un café à Mougins dans le sud de la France. En face de moi, plus loin, se trouvait un monsieur qui avait sur son épaule son animal de compagnie, un rat blanc. Parfois il lui tendait son verre pour que celui-ci boive... j'étais très surprise de ce duo de choc!
Gros bisous à vous Tera.

Um, okay...it looked nice... (and it was!)
Luckily Secret Agent Man has some understanding of French so he translated for me:
"This adorable little mouse... One time, I was sitting at a sidewalk cafe in Mougins in the south of France. In front of me later (further?), was a gentleman who had his pet white rat on his shoulder. Sometimes he held out his glass to drink it... I was very surprised by this pair! Big kisses to you Tera."

This made me want to draw a picture.
So I did.
Thanks Martine-Alison!

Mouse goes to Book Land

Based on an almost overwhelming vote for Mouse, I chose him to represent me for the "100 Illustrations" book. I was also leaning that direction as I thought he had a more universal appeal. I changed it up just a tad to fit the layout better.
I just hope he had his drink after he was done piloting his little ship and not before!

Thanks to everyone who provided input!

Spam & Art

Dear Loser Spam Commenter,
While I actually like Spam and eggs...I do not like your recent attempts to use my blog as a re-direct to your stupid shoe advertisement blog. You have now done this twice with my last blog post. Your comments, which I have deleted, don't even make sense. So knock it off. I have reported your sorry ass as well, and while I appreciate your right to have a advertisement blog, I do not appreciate your lame-ass attempt at directing traffic there via my site. So piss off.

Dear Actual Readers,
Sorry for the rant. To make up for it I have a new piece of art to share! And a question to ask of you.

I have been asked to participate in the "100 Illustrations" book being published later this year. I am thinking of submitting one of the recent works from here and here. In addition, keeping to the same general feeling of the recent pieces, I finished this one yesterday:



My question is this - I can submit one piece of artwork of my choice. Should I submit one of these? Something from the Sketchbook? Something entirely different?

I was also thinking about this one:


I just don't know!
I think I've blown a brain fuse... :)

Going Home

Another piece based on an idea I had in my head. Again - not really even close to what I pictured, but it came out okay.

We had a snow storm...

But it's okay now.

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?

...and then we found the jellies

Transportation

For Illustration Friday.

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.

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.

The Princess and the Pea

Eat Me

Oh, come on. That's not what I meant and you know it!

The latest Alice picture.

Mad Hatter's Tea Party

You're no bunny til...

...some bunny loves you!