Pajama Weather

Now that the weather is chilling out, I thought about these flannel pajamas today, as they were quite cozy. I created these illustrations, as well as many more, for a pajama company years ago. Unfortunately they are no longer on the market, but as I recall, they were very cozy pajamas! Here's another one for the food lovers, with signature meals of countries worldwide:

As I recall, it was a thrill for me to sleep in my illustrations!

Birds and More Birds

Here's another pattern that I was commissioned to create by Sublime Stitching, the contemporary embroidery company I mentioned in my last posting. This assignment might have been simple for most artists, but for some reason, it gave me a real run for the money. I find birds to be a challenging subject matter. They are so streamlined and uncomplicated in shapes, and yet I wrestle with them as if I were drawing the blueprint of a submarine. You can view and/or purchase this pattern "Songbirds" on Sublime Stitching's website here.

Because I tend to always overcomplicate things, I am a big fan of the illustrator Charley Harper. His knack of simplifying his subject matter and rendering it with graphic boldness and often sweet humor is brilliant. Check out these great images, courtesy of Audubon.org:

"Green Jay, 1956"

"Cardinal", 1960

"Red-eyed Vireo", 1959

"Eskimo Curlew", 1957

"Baltimore Oriole", 1959

"Water Turkey", 1958

I find it really amusing, as well as inspiring, to know that these simple designs and graphic clean lines came out of this chaotic studio...it makes me feel a whole lot better about my own messy studio!

Charley Harper

Housing Development

I mentioned a while back that I created some illustrations for a fabulous contemporary embroidery company, SublimeStitching.com. I think my favorite was the Atomic 50's ranch house...or maybe the fairy tale cottage, both sketches featured above. You can view and/or purchase the final pattern on Sublime's website here: HOUSES.