Mermaids, Eels, Dragons, Robbers, Gifs

Bonus stuff-- seamless pages + work in progress gifs:









My friends, I was gone for a long time but I am back now.

Old Forgotten Things

Here are some things that I forgot to post! They are all precisely one million years old.

First up is the forgotten monster that I painted years ago along with the other characters of this flickr set.
I somehow I managed to overlook him, poor thing.
Next are two color studies for the Telephone Series. I love them, they are as loose as it gets.
Then is an old but not too old page of colors from the messbook for the Tarot Journal notebook cover.
And last is the painting of a trio of goldfish, which is probably one of the first paintings that I made upon rediscovering gouache, ever so many years ago.
So many old things. My, how time flies.
And there are newer things to come.

Drawing Lines in my Sleep

Click for big.

I keep a journal by my bed to jot down my thoughts, and sometimes to record my dreams when I wake. In the back of the journal, I draw patterns and lines, mostly to calm my mind or to occupy my hands and eyes while I listen to an audiobook, podcast, or some music before bed. I find making this kind of freehand drawing very rhythmic and soothing.

The first page above is a collection of a few snippets from my late night drawing sessions by lamp light, cut and arranged to fit my neatbook. I thought it was a lovely coincidence that the sheet music matched the color and feel of the drawings.

The bottom image is of a neatbook page that I'd begun ages ago, just wavy lines and wobbly diamonds in orangey red, and I never knew what to do with it. It recently occurred to me that it might make a nice abstract nature backdrop, and that is how the goldfish came to live there.

Some Long Overdue Neatbookings

Here are a few pages from my neatbook that I have been meaning to share for some time now.
Click to view larger!

Speaking of the neatbook— forever ago, Miss Mel Chao of To Boldly Fold, who made this book for me, took some lovely photos of it while I was in Boston this June. Take a look at her blog post about it here.

I realize that it has been 5 months since my last post. Will you ever forgive me? I hope you will. I am making things all the time, and have more to show, as well as some projects in the works, I promise you.

I just need to be better at sharing.

Because sharing is caring.

And I care, I swear.

xoxo

In Circles

Another from the neatbook, portraits in circles. The bear and the freckled girl in the upper right are my favorites. Click the image to enlarge.

Lads with Long Locks

Have a look at these lads with their long luxurious locks!

This neatbook page has been coming around little by little for ages-- a botched and dirty free-style watercolor page that I adopted as a place for mindless doodling of tons of gloriously flowing hair.

So, I went the whole month of July with out updating this blog, but not for lack of art-ing. July was pretty great: There was the starting of a full time temp job, a house guest, an amusement park trip, my birthday, and various other fun distractions. Because of all that goodness, I have just plain been neglecting the internet. I am working on so many things at once right now so it may be some time before I have anything finished to post, but I will attempt to update here more often.

Up next (in a few short moments, actually), a new painting to finish an old series. Stick around.

Circus Folk No.2

 More circus characters, I couldn't resist!

Sherbet Boy and Girl

A pair of youngsters in warm and sherbetty colors.

Something Simple

Simple and sweet in red and magenta, that is all there is to it, really.

The Messbook

Sketchbooks! I love them. I have a lot of them, and I use them for a lot of different things. I assume some people wonder why all my sketchbook work is so neat and tidy, and if I ever doodle or actually sketch or anything like that. Of course I do!

I have a few different kinds of sketchbooks, and the ones I'm especially fond of and work in regularly are the ones I call my messbooks and neatbooks.

The kind of sketchbook pages that I've shown thus far have been from my neatbooks, where the goal is to get each page to a finished state, to practice working in different media, and to be spontaneous and well thought out at the same time, in varying degrees. It's an exercise/experiment/workout/practice sketchbook, and everything is pretty tidy. Hence the name, neatbook.

Now, what most people would call a sketchbook, I call a messbook, because I go wild and make a mess. In it, I plan out illustrations and compositions, draw ideas and plans for toys and puppets, write, draw from observation, and of course, doodle endlessly. If I like something in there enough, it becomes the starting point for a new neatbook page, a painting, a plush toy, etc.

So, here is a little sampling from my messbook sketchbooks, just to give you an idea of what I mean.






















So! There you have it. I've made a new collection on flickr called Sketchbooks, and in it are the sets for my Messbook and Neatbooks No.1 & No.2. Well, from here on out, I'll be posting sketchbook images both neat and messy!

Brand New Sketchbook

It's about time I posted some new things, yes?
Well, here are a few of the first pages from my new sketchbook.
Click 'em to view larger :)







It's a very different feel working on this paper, in this new sketchbook. The first few pages have all been joyously done up in watercolor. Watercolor behaves very differently here than it does on watercolor paper, but the paper is so heavy and it takes the color so nicely, so I love it.

Paper!

I've been in a collage kind of a mood lately.
Here are some paper pictures from my sketchbook.

This guy is based on a sketch I did for a puppet -


And a pair of singing sirens -


I can barely close my sketchbook now. Almost time to start a new one!

Tiger Babies

Ballpoint Parade

Some more sketchbookin'.

This one's new. I think everyone feels like this sometimes.

These are old/new, drawn little by little over time.
I've decided to finally just polish them up and post them.

Drawings from observation, pieced together from various pages.


And some animals.

Ballpoint pens are useful in a pinch when you've got nothing else on you. Plus, since they're mad cheap, they are just great for mindless doodling.

This is For You

To all of my friends in faraway places (and you all know who you are) :
I love you, I miss you, I'm thinking of you, and I wish you were here!

Happy March

I decided it was high time for a little bit of monster painting! Besides, March was made for monsters. Did you know?



I have a habit of naming almost every creature I draw or paint or sew. This sea monster is named Cyril and he has found a new toy. He reminds me a bit of my One a Day Sketchbook from ever so long ago.

Moving Right Along

Good Morning!

I'm up way early with some more sketchbookin's! Like I said, it never ends.

More mimes, with so many things to say:


A little lady playing ukulele for a school of snapper:


And some musical frogs and friends:


(If you want more information on these, or just about any of the images posted on my blog, you can just click on them and it'll take you to the flickr page, where I've written a few little blurbs.)

I'm going to make an effort to post more often, instead of throwing a ton of things up at once and then disappearing for weeks and weeks. Hey, there will even be some new things and (a few old ones) other than sketchbook pages in the posts to come.

I've also updated my website with a few things that you've already seen on this blog. I've given the website a tiny redesign, so while it looks almost exactly the same, it's got a bit of a cleaner look now, which makes me happy.

Anyway, I think it's time to kick things up a bit, right? Here we go!

Neverending Sketchbooking

Holy smokes, I was featured on Drawn! Many thanks! To show my appreciation, let me share with you a few of my most recent sketchbook pages.













As always, in my sketchbook, I don't give myself any rules when it comes to style and media. Mostly, it's all experiments and play.

Oh! And thank you, thank you very muchly for your comments, I really appreciate them!