Illustration Friday: Glamour

Meet Macy. Macy liked to experiment with different hair colors
to see if they made her feel like a different person. One day
she heard in the news that colored bubbles had been made,
so she stayed up all night and cracked the code. Her new invention?
A potion to make the colored bubbles match her patterned outfits.

Macy will be turned into a gocco print tonight,
with many glamorous colors.

She was painted in india ink on 6"x4" paper.
Come back soon and check up on Macy to see how
her colored bubble match her outfit!

Previous Illustration Friday entries:
cats
e is for
sea
flavor
holiday
imagine

Colin Meloy Sings.

Last night's Colin Meloy show at the Birchmere was great. I'd never been to the Birchmere before but it was quite an interesting place, and not too far from dc. My only complaint would be that most people hardly moved! Was it because of the cameras? I think the girl in front of me and I were the only ones with a little bounce in our toes! If you missed it, npr recorded it and you can download it on Monday from this link.

He played some decemberists, some new tunes, and one from his new ep. Yes, there is a new 'shirley collins' ep out, which I of course had to buy. They were only being sold on the tour, and the only place to find it now is through mr. ebay. The new stuff sounded great...can't wait till I get to listen to them over and over on my ipod. For now I guess I'll have to listen to it over and over again on npr. Thank you npr!

Oh, no carson ellis backdrops, but the new ep has her artwork on it....oh, and check out the decemberists shop for new baby onesies she illustrated. too cute.

On another music related subject, back to a few weeks ago, ipod dj night at saint-ex was fun. Basically, anyone with an ipod gets 12 minutes of play, and then the playlist is posted at www.ipodjukebox.com. Next event is Feb. 15.

Also, I'm a new fan of e.music. Give it a try! You get 50/100 free downloads to start off, then its $10/month for 40 and you can cancel anytime. Kind of like netflix, but you own the music once its over.

Artist(s): Limon Four

While going through links on illustrationfriday.com, I found another group of collaborative artists: Limon Four [M.Limon, S.Limon, J.Limon and N.Limon. Yes, they're brothers]. They sometimes work on the same page, and sometimes on different pages and combine them. On their work & progression page, you get to see what each artist did, in what order, as well as the final 'finished' piece, like this:


What I like best about collaborative work is that it really is a lot of fun. There is something special about starting something and having another person transform it to something totally different and unexpected. It sort of makes you let go of the need to make it 'perfect' from the beginning, cause someone else is gonna jump right in and change it. Spontaneity. That's the word.

Ok, I'm not a quote person, but I found this quite relevant. So, before I change my mind about it, I'll post it. And yes, make it italic: "Creativity arises out of the tension between spontaneity and limitations, the latter (like the river banks) forcing the spontaneity into the various forms which are essential to the work of art or poem." Rollo May, The Courage to Create, 1975.

Illustration Friday: Cats

And in this exhibit we have some cat tags:



Ink, watercolor, colored pencil on cardstock.
Size of top left cat tag is 1" x 1.75."
Previous Illustration Friday entries:
e is for
sea
flavor
holiday
imagine

work in progress.

Here is the state of a commissioned portrait I'm currently working on:

carbon ink.

I took a little walk over to Utrecht and bought carbon ink and carbon pencils to do some freestyle print gocco work. With the ink and pencils I'll be able to draw/write/ink/paint my designs on paper, then shoot a screen directly from it. The ways I've tried so far are:

:: Photocopies :: excellent. My usual gocco screenmaking process is to draw/paint/print something, scan it in, mess around with it in photoshop/quark to make it the right size and composition, print it out, photocopy it, and maybe photocopy the copy for interesting marks and textures. Definitely a winner.

:: Riso carbon pen :: a 0.3mm pen was used (the one that comes with the PG/B6). It worked well in the areas that had a lot of coverage, but not so great with the finer lines. Will try this out again.

My next print gocco experiments are going to be with the carbon:

:: Wolff's Carbon Pencils :: 4 different levels of hardness, and
:: Speedball Super Black India Ink [100º carbon black, no pigments] ::

Once I try it out I'll post some results.

pomegranate martinis.

yum.

Yes, Stitch'n'bitch was lots of fun. Besides the knitting, lunching, and pomegranate martini drinking, we took a little trip to visit all about yarn in columbia, md. Every inch of the shop was packed with yarn goodness so we spent quite a bit of time inspecting everything. I made it through with not too much of a dent; I got the latest Rowan magazine and some kidspray haze for a little hat I started.

Bonus: we all walked away with gifts of yarn from the hostess, and homemade cookies from the martini goddess. yay!

Tonight is collaborative art Monday, and instead of working in one of our studios, we're taking it out to a bar.

I don't have the recipe for the pomegranate martinis on me, nor the cookies, but I'll leave you with a recipe of the previously mentioned Long Island Champagne:

all top shelf:
3/4 oz tequila
3/4 oz rum
3/4 oz gin
3/4 oz vodka
3/4 oz triple sec
3 oz champagne
2 fresh black cherries

Shake liquors. Pour in short glass. Add champagne and garnish with two fresh black cherries.

I have no idea where the Long Island Champagne comes from. All I know is that it is on the menu at Lila Braun and Pacifico in Beirut, and now here.

Illustration Friday: E is for

Exhausted Erin.

Meet Erin. Erin is not a happy camper. She is exhausted.
She spent all day swimming around and still can't find
what she's looking for. Maybe she'll find the light at the end
of the next pipe.



Happy Friday the 13th. Hope you all have better luck today than Erin!

Erin was painted in watercolor and ink on
2.75"x3.75" amalfi cotton rag paper.
You can access my previous illo friday entries here:
sea
flavor
holiday
imagine

knit stuff, finally.

This Saturday my friend is hosting a Stitch'n'Bitch, so nows about a good time to post some knitting related stuff, right? Here are some recent knits:













The olive green man hat was knit with 'araucania nature wool chunky', 'mistralee farm studio' lace weight charcoal grey alpaca (from the last MD sheep & wool festival), and 'alpaca cloud moss' lace weight baby alpaca from knitpicks, all held together. I really like the random coloring that holding 3 different yarns together created, and have ideas swimming in my head to do this again on my next project. The pattern is called 'kim's hats' from the 'last minute knit gifts' book but I changed it slightly by doing a moss stitch instead of ribbing/garter, and also made it a couple of rows 'taller' than called for. This way it can be worn looser off the head, or folded down and tighter. Oh, and I should mention this hat is super warm. Here is a detail:









The bulky thick/thin purple hat was knit with a silk/merino yarn I bought last February from Asheville, NC. I had started knitting in January, so by February I was yarn crazy. I was in NC with the Washington Glass School taking a glassblowing class at Penland, and on the last day we all took a trip to Asheville to check out some art galleries. And thats where I found a great little yarn store. I can't think of the name, but when I find it, I'll post it. This yarn looks like colinette but is much softer and was spun in NC. Another detail:









The Stitch'n'Bitch umbilical cord hat was knit with 'blue sky cotton' and the umbilical cord part was finished off with some knitpicks moss alpaca.

Also, here are some things I got from my friends shop Sarah's Bag in Beirut. If you happen to be planning a trip there anytime soon, I highly recommend you stop by! Their stuff is awesome, and their packaging rocks. Lookie here:










On the left (and bursting out on the right) are two stuffed bobble crochet scarves, then clockwise to the right a brown and red crochet scarf, a belt purse, and in the foreground a pair of crochet mary jane baby booties (for a friend). They are packaged in tulle drawstring bags, with shiny sequence swimming around the rim. Delicious!

line o'tags.

These guys have yet to be named and turned into tags/cards.
Hmm...the kid in the middle looks like a 'fred'. What do you say?

thoughts asea.

This week's illustration friday 'sea' theme got me thinking
about the mediterranean sea. During my visit to Beirut
in December the weather was strangely warm, bright,
sunny, 70º. Perfect weather. There was only one, maybe two
days where the weather changed and it rained a little.
And for those one, maybe two days, the sea turned crazy.

Here is a photo of the sea during a calm, warm, winters day
(and how it looked most of the time I was there):


Now a photo of the sea during a rainy, windy winters day.
Looks like a bad day, doesn't it? I couldn't get out on the
balcony to get a better shot because it was so windy:


And here is the sea view from the sidewalk of the 'corniche'
during the same rainy, windy, winters day:


The sidewalk is a couple of meters wide and a popular place
to hang out at most times of the day. Its kind of like a
concrete boardwalk with many mobile vendors with food, coffee,
renting chi-chas and offering shoe shines. What I like best
about the corniche is that when its really windy and rainy,
the water crashes so hard against the rocks that it sprays
everyone on the sidewalk.

Illustration Friday : Sea

Meet Antoinette. Antoinette watched Jaws one too many
times. As hard as she tries to relax and have a good time,
she can't help thinking about what lies beneath as she
stands in the water. She is terrified. And when she feels
that way, her eyes do something funny.























Antoinette was painted in watercolor and ink on
2.75"x3.75" amalfi cotton rag paper.
You can access my previous illo friday entries here:
flavor
holiday
imagine

Artist: Carson Ellis

Life is sweet when you manage to buy tickets before
dcist posts it or OC plays it and they are sold out.
Life is even sweeter when your favorite music comes
with fabulous artwork.

Why yes, I have tickets to the Jan 28 Colin Meloy
solo show. yay! I love the Decemberists.

Through their website, album artwork, stage drops,
and tshirts, I learned about the fabulous artist behind it all:
Carson Ellis. Her lines, hand lettering, and use of color
create such thoughtful, expressive, and moody works of art.

Here are some details of her watercolor work:





















And my personal favorites, her flyers:



















Her work rocks. You can see more of her work and
details at carsonellis.com and on the decemberists' website.

one down.

Yay! I've almost completed one of my New Year's missions:
participate in more art shows. Today Scenic Artisan
and I dropped off artwork at the Montpelier Arts Center!
The show opens this Friday. Thats only two days away.
Less than one week into the New Year. Now thats crazy fast.

Now my next mission is to keep this pace up for the rest
of the Year.

the crazy course of life.

Buy it, use it, break it, fix it,
trash it, change it, melt - upgrade it,
charge it, pawn it, zoom it, press it,
snap it, work it, quick - erase it,
write it, get it, paste it, save it,
load it, check it, quick - rewrite it,
plug it, play it, burn it, rip it,
drag and drop it, zip - unzip it,
lock it, fill it, curl it, find it,
view it, curl it, jam - unlock it,
surf it, scroll it, pose it, click it,
cross it, crack it, twitch - update it,
name it, read it, tune it, print it,
scan it, send it, fax - rename it,
touch it, bring it, obey it, watch it,
turn it, leave it, stop - format it.


[lyrics from daft punk's 'technologic']