Karaoke game

Here's another sketch for the catalog I worked on previously, a holiday issue with lots of toys. This was a karaoke game, and this mini-mob of girls seem to be enjoying their own home-grown concert!

Illustration Friday - Ocean

I'm a wee bit late in submitting my painting to Illustration Friday's weekly topic, but here it is. Better late than never, as my dear old Grandpa used to day. The theme of the week is "ocean". This is one of a series of paintings I did based on my dreams. I love my dreams - they are such good starting points for surreal paintings! I usually enhance the paintings with added details, using my "artistic license". This is an old painting. You can tell because the woman is talking on a land phone - ha!

Cootie

Another layout for the catalog - remember that old game called Cootie? It's still around and still just as much fun.

Vintage Hair Dryers

I'm going to be sketching a retro-style illustration of one of my Fashionistas sitting under a hairdryer, so off to the Internet I went in search of inspiration and reference. I discovered these great photos and many more on Le Blog de SoVeNa here.  Do check out this blog for some amazing photos of what we ladies used to do to torture our hair in the name of LOOKING GOOD!

 Closer to my time is this sparkly red chair with attached plastic dryer in BasementBlastoff's online Etsy shop: here.

I do remember my high school days, sitting on the edge of my bed wearing a bonnet similar to the one below found in another Etsy shop ForEclecticSouls here.

Today we have many more gizmos and gadgets to make our hair do what it ultimately doesn't want to do. Some things never change!

2013 Begins

So....did you have a nice New Year's Day? Or Party Animal that you are, did you spend it lying on the couch recuperating? I had a very short list of fun things that I wanted to do on New Year's Day - (1) sort through some old photos in the basement, and (2) make a family tree, and somehow I never got around to doing either thing. So much for New Year's resolutions, I can't even get through the very first day of the year without breaking them!

Season's Greetings

Wishing you peace and happiness and all good things for the New Year!

The First Snowfall

It was snowing like crazy when I snapped this photo, but you can't see the flakes. My backyard gate has a quilt of wet snow covering it. Just in time for the holidays, we got plastered with a storm that left between 10 to 15 inches of snow in Minneapolis, depending what part of the state you live. It started around eight o'clock on Friday night, and snowed steadily for almost 24 hours straight! Over a thousand cars slid off the roads throughout the day, and the usual fender benders occurred. I was so happy I didn't need to leave the house yesterday. I am not so happy today because I DO have to leave the house. SHOVEL SHOVEL SHOVEL!

Catalog Sketches 3

 

This is quite an elaborate play setting for our little princesses, one of which has just read the fairy tale about an enchanted frog who turned into prince with a kiss. This fairy tale has sent a lot of girls into couples therapy when they grow up. A frog is a frog no matter how many kisses you give it.

Catalog sketches 2

Another preliminary page of the catalog, sketched out in black and white. The treasure chest and other toy in the background mysteriously vanished in the colored version. What is that girl on the right doing?? ......IT'S NOT HER TURN! Do kids still play hopscotch? They must, since I was instructed to illustrate it.

Catalog sketches

Catalog Cover (rough layout)

PAGE 6 sketch

Page 6 mock-up

Now that we are through digesting the turkey, the December holidays are fast approaching. I decided that I would get a jump on my usual New Year's resolution to clean up my act, and began sorting through old papers, sketches and the general collection of ad layouts that I keep until I'm sure I won't be needing them anymore. I guess I can throw out this 2005 layout for a catalog I did for a very familiar company headquartered here in Minneapolis. After 8 years, I suppose they won't be needing any revisions - hah! These sketches were for a Christmas catalog advertising toys, and I (and many other artists) contributed the preliminary black & white sketches for product placement purposes. I absolutely love sketching kids. The world needs more cute! So this assignment was my cup of tea! This is page 6, and I'll be showing you some additional pages in the next posts.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a lovely day and gave thanks, no matter what your situation.  It's a day of relaxation and a time to embrace your relatives, friends and other blessings!  I'd love to credit the photographer of this photo but it was forwarded to me in an email without a credit.

ART ATTACK 2012

Peace and love, who could ask for more?

Well, OK, I'll ask for a little more. Come visit me during the big Art Attack Open Studios event! The festival starts this coming Friday and proceeds right through Sunday. My building will be open to the public, and since there are over 250 artists, you can spend all weekend immersed in a wide variety of arts and crafts on display! Free parking, food trucks, who could ask for more?

Well, OK, I'll ask for more - how about a little Peace and Love!  

ART ATTACK

Friday, November 2 – 5:00 to 10:00 p.m.
Saturday, November 3 – Noon to 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, November 4 – Noon to 5:00 p.m.

STUDIO 350
1500 Jackson Street NE
Minneapolis, MN   55413

Sketches

I'm working on another Mod Girl illustration, and the background is going to be a tribute to the great 60's psychedelic poster artists, including Wes Wilson and Bonnie MacLean. I've abandoned my sketchbook to doodle on pieces of tissue paper, so I can rework and rework (and rework) my images by laying the paper over the previous image. Above are some of the scraps of paper I found laying about, depicting the wrestling I did with the imagery of a dove, fox and bunny. The piece is entitled "Peace and Love" but I was not very tranquil as I reworked the sketches!

Fall's Arrival

 

A blackbird thinking things over in my ash tree.

I'm thinking I need to get out my rake.

The day after I took this photo, all the leaves fell off the tree in one day, floating down like bits of yellow rain.

Illustration Friday - Water

This week's theme in Illustration Friday brought to mind this painting I created years ago, entitled "Moving Day". It pretty much sums up the confusion in a transition, and the deer with the blindfold came from a dream. I think it symbolized myself, as I was feeling "blindsided" (like a deer in the headlights) by the move I was making from one part of the country to another.

Armadillo Girl

I haven't worked on any collages lately, so when I ran across this collage that I created a few years back, I got all nostalgic! Where are my scissors? Where's the glue? Let's head for that strange world of collage where anything can happen!

Autumn garden

Autumn is one of the most spectacular seasons for color in the Midwest. I remember planting this tall grass "Miscanthus" in the spring when I first moved into my house 15 years ago. It was a plug of dirt with a tiny 4 inch wisp of grass. "Don't plant it too early", said the garden center expert, "it hates the cold and is slow to root." Well, it has certainly adapted and thrived, and I love the variety of color it provides. It stays this color all winter long, and if a blizzard buries it under a blanket of snow, the plumes will struggle until they stand upright again. A little weird if you ask me, but you gotta love a plant with such spirit! The pink sedum attracts bees and butterflies, and it's one of my favorite varieties of plants.

Farewell dear flowers

As fall is approaching, I might as well say goodbye to the flowers, and hello to falling leaves - another motif to explore!

Bucket purse pattern

Remember this Mod Fashionista that I created a while back?

Since I'm experimenting with designing patterns, I thought I would create a pattern to go along with this illustration. A pattern that might look good as a companion illustration (I'm thinking about the licensing market) and a simpler version than my previous attempt.  I love simple shapes and bright colors, so I came up with this. It really was a fun and interesting project! HOWEVER now that I see the two illustrations together, maybe a flower motif would have been better. Well there you go, I've just decided on my next experiment, a flower motif.

Assorted Purses Pattern

 

Every Fashionista needs the right purse for every occasion, so here's a pattern to satisfy her need for variety.