Take Your Mark!

I feel like I started my race two weeks ago. However, I went away and lost track of much that I need to be working on. Tonight I take my mark on all the projects I need to get done and want to get done. One being the sketchbook project. I have decided in between my spread pages I want to draw Matt in one of his power poses. Anyone who has witnessed him scale something they have probably seen him do one of these. Upon finishing a climb or just before he jumps up to climb and he will pause for a moment. Like he is posing for a camera. Matt clearly knows he is staring as the super hero in his own life.

Tonight was a rough drawing night. You can tell in this scan, I ripped my sketchbook trying to erase. Getting back in the swing of things was tough tonight. I have been working during all the time I was away but, mainly in sculpey and InDesign. Your hands and eyes take a minute to remember the other way they are supposed to work. Bringing me back to a work zone, headphones on, shutting out the rest of the world-except for a little twitter, well you know when Cory Godbey is having a FIRE SALE I am paying attention!-with some Gorillaz Demon Days. After struggling to draw a snow mobile for 2 hours I got it! I just don’t really know what those look like, I didn’t grow up in the snow. I still haven’t skied or snowboarded. I hear going on one of these adventures with Matt is dangerous. Come back to hear that story, I mean STORIES!

Hopeful for a productive day tomorrow. I know it ends with my critique group! Woot!

Happy Holidays!

As of October I started putting items up for sale on my Etsy shop.

Now I have my Christmas ornaments for sale! Now I hate to leave people out, so, these snowmen do sit flat. Therefore, if you don’t need them for a tree ornament you can sit them on a table for winter decoration too.

All the best this Holiday season!!

Unicorns and Thanksgiving

Well I am terribly late with my post today. I hope you all understand with the holidays I am a little behind. Just glad we are settled for the Holiday and can relax without anymore stress! Looking forward to eating some yummy food tomorrow! Hope you all enjoy the Holiday! Happy Thanksgiving!

So for animal Wednesday I am sharing my sketch that I had hoped to upload to a
Sketchaholic contest today. Unfortunately I missed the deadline, but it was still fun. This site is wonderful. It brings lots of amazingly talented people together. It is a great spark for ideas to draw too.

Here is what my entry would have been:

Taking Leaps

Having a kid was taking a leap. Before we had to go through labor we talked about how much fun having a kid would be. Part of having a kid is fun, but boy that process of bringing them into the world. . . the is a good reason they call it labor!

More stories from my life with Matt. Watching the sunrise as Matt tries to calm me down at only 3cm.

Another leap is the blog layout has had some work done. The sketches of design detail are now my own creations and I have added some buttons and links for my store and groups I am currently participating in, PiBoldMo and The Sketchbook Project. Check them out!

My other leaps have to do with preparing for the holidays, cards, ornaments and presents! I have been going at 110% for too long, as I am dropping off sitting at my computer. Need to keep going for a day and a half more! Then I am hoping I can really take Thursday off; eat some food and sleep the rest of that day.

The Beginning

Today is the last day to sign up for my giveaway. Go to my post 100! and leave a comment by 11:59pm tonight and you will be in! I will announce the winner tomorrow morning with a sneak peak of the new Snow Dreamer piece I am working on. Unfortunately due to a cold the post will most likely not go live till the morning. So, any night owls that will be watching my blog tonight around midnight will have to wait!

I like dreaming about snow. . . and that I have anxiously awaiting blog readers.

Husband’s Choice! Today I am changing things up with my Tuesday posts. Instead of ideas from Matt I am going to be posting Sketchbook Project pages which, are about Matt. My husband is a crazy-acrobatic-wild man. I think we get invited to most parties just so the other guests can see what ridiculous stunt Matt will pull.

Today’s is one of my first experiences with Matt. We went to Dryden NY for the Halloween Party and visited the neighboring gorges. The gorge we went to had a trail that was 100s of stairs leading straight up to the top. Matt being in fabulous shape ran up these steps full out. Given that this was our 5th date I thought it would be a good idea to try to keep up. We fell behind everyone because I had to rest for 20 minutes after getting half way up and nearly puking from overexerting myself. Although, then we did have a magical hike all alone.

My theme is “It will be fun I swear”

Sketch Break

The past two weeks have been endless hours spent on my computer, designing, emailing, twittering, etc. My eyes are getting tired of looking at the screen! To fix this I took a sketch break.

I have joined Sketchoholic for quick ideas on what to draw and PiBoldMo started by Tara Lazar to get my brain going on story ideas. These are two sketches inspired by them:

Buddies:

Story idea for Nov 10th Whale Riders from the Sea City:

Snow Dreams

More sketches of these two. They are similar but, I like the subtle differences between the two images. Hoping Snow Dreamer is looking more like himself. My next sketch will show a different angle of him. It’s nearly impossible to not be influenced by other people’s work. Many flying side kicks were thought of when drawing Snow Dreamer; Appa, Falcor, Haku, and the Canada Lynx from the Zoo. While I actually drew him I only looked at pictures of Lynx.

And go back a page to post 100 for the give away!

100!

My 100th post. I have been so nervous since I realized I had hit this mile marker. I wanted to be sure I posted something good. The pressure has been on! Although, stars aligned and a few things came together. 1. my husband had given me the prompt “where do dreams come from” 2. my winter card needed to be finished this week so I can mail it off before Thanksgiving so everyone has my new address 3. I think my style is showing itself

I like to draw and draw and draw and muddle over a piece forever. It’s why I enjoy burnishing. However, I also feel something about that method restrains me from another part of myself. Over the summer I played with all the materials sitting on my desk trying new things and watched all the talented people I have found through twitter and conferences. You all have been so inspiring and encouraging. Thank you. For any who have been following along and watching my progress thanks for coming along with me on this journey. I think a corner has been turned!

I am going to do a giveaway for this event, a print of this piece, 11 x 14. Leave a comment by next Tuesday 11:59pm and I will announce a winner Wednesday, the 17th.

Worm

Just before I had my son I got horribly addicted, as in 6 to 8 hours a day, to one of the facebook apps, PackRat (a game where you gather card collections). To end my addiction to the game I forced myself to play while I was having serious morning sickness which, worsened when I sat at a computer. It worked, a little too well. Even looking at the illustrations that I did inspired by the game makes me a little queasy.

During the times I was playing the most, trying to quell Matt’s frustration with my time spent on the game, I made a couple sets of my own cards. The cards came out well, it developed another illustration style from me. I have actually sent them out several times as examples to get work.

Here is the worm from my garden collection:

The creators of PackRat produced beautiful illustrations, the Aztec set were particularly stunning. To play was just too much of a time suck for me. I am happy to report I spend my free time drawing now.

Halloween’s Choice

Boy, what a week! I feel like after last Sunday, the 24th, I fell into the tracks of preparing, going, and being at the Halloween party. Finally tonight, after wrapping up a few last loose ends, I feel like I am coming back to my senses.

The Halloween party is a yearly friend reunion. Most of the group went to RIT, however, not all at the same time. Through school reunions, CSH(Computer Science House), and finding each other through other various means we have all come together.

I find the event to be refreshing. We meet in Dryden NY where fall and sometimes winter is setting in. The area is gorgeous, like the saying goes, and the people are all creative in very different ways than I am. This year we had a beautiful led wall, set up by Giles Hall. Code was used to create patterns of alternating colors. After additional collaboration between Jessica and Smiley on the code enhancing the patterns and some quick thinking by Jeremiah with dixie cups to soften the lights; we had a center piece that transfixed us all.

This was my first year to meet Smiley. For most of the party he wore a chicken hat. At some point someone made a comment about how they could imagine him as a warrior leaving a destroyed village with a dead chicken on his head and it was too glorious an image to leave undrawn.

Sadly I left the party with only this sketch. I tried to draw some celtic knots and my brain started oozing. Then I modpodged a bunch more leaves. Hopefully in a short while I will be getting to the projects that all this tedious work is for and will have something more to show. I do have some paying work at the moment-hooray-but, that could keep my personal projects in the background for a little bit more too. We will see how this week goes.

Happy Halloween!