Color me wild! Funky animal prints!

Hi Everyone! Its been a while since I made an art related post. I've been very busy working on lots of things and will be sharing them in the coming weeks! Hooray!

One of my recent projects was really fun. I was working with a client who wanted animal prints and funky patterns for young girls. They didn't give me a lot of instructions, which in this case is an artist's dream. This means that I am free to create anything. I snuck in colors that they normally wouldn't allow me to use for girls apparel. I used colors like black, teal, and mustard yellow! This may not seem like a big deal to the casual observer, but in the design world I've seen people get into heated arguments over colors. Testing the waters is a lot like a criminal act!

I'm pretty happy with the results. And even happier that my client was pleased. A win/win situation!

Giraffes appear in my work often because they are my favorite!

Jaguars are pretty cool especially if they are neon!

I like to experiment with color and a lot of the time my ideas get shot down, but I never get truly upset. Along the way there may be two thousand bad ideas before you get a good one. I'm happy that I can continue to push boundaries throughout all the experiments and mistakes. As an artist, its important to stay fresh and original. Its very easy to fall into the uncomfortable position of making work for others for the sake of getting praise rather than creating personal work that will allow you to grow in more ways that you can imagine. I remind myself of this every now and again.

I need to somehow incorporate this funky stuff into my wardrobe without looking like a tacky stripper. ha! That's all for now. I'm hungry....

The Elephant Parade

Hello lovely bloggateers!

Life has been very busy. I have to admit that I have been feeling so guilty about not blogging as much. I really enjoy this community. I feel a tiny bit selfish and unfair that I have been enjoying reading everyone else's blogs and not updating my own. Its about time for me to start participating again :)

Work keeps me very busy, but the days go by quickly because on the lucky days I am asked to draw giraffes, elephants, and bears all day!

You're welcome to join the Elephant Parade!

I like the little one at the end!

And sometimes when elephants are feeling really happy (or drunk) they can do tricks!

Dinosaurs and Rockets!

Hello everyone! Its been a while and for good reason. Its been noticeably quiet on my blog because... I got a job! I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to talk about it, but in a nutshell, I am currently a clothing designer. Hooray!

I have other exciting art-related things that I am currently involved with too. I will elaborate on that later when the time is right.

I have been working on a few things. My current obsession is repeating patterns! I love it! I recently worked things outside of my comfort zone. Its a long and epic quest to become more versatile while evolving my artwork into a style that screams: "Hey! I made this!"


This went through about eight different versions before I came up with this. This was mostly because I couldn't decide where to place the dinosaurs! All too often a dinosaur ended "humping" another dinosaur. And in another version, one poor critter ended up in between two tyrannosaurus rex. I couldn't have that! The least I could do was give the little guy a fighting chance!




The news is abuzz with the launch of the Endeavor at Kennedy Space center. To celebrate I drew some rocket ships and alien space crafts! I was looking at a lot of retro rockets and wanted to make a space pattern with a 1950's vibe with a 1980's twist. Was I successful? After finishing this, I think I should've made additional color choices. Although, I do like how colorful it is :)

I have a lot more patterns to show you, but they aren't quite ready yet! I'm happy to be back in the blogsphere!

Doodle cats and hot dogs

I've been working on some more illustrations for fun :) I polished up some of the drawings from my sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project. I think its pretty neat to give an old drawing a second chance.



This is what the finished illustration looks like:


And here is the sketch:

(Can you find the cats that I used?)

Red Riding Hood

I've been working on a lot of personal work recently. After The Sketchbook Project, I missed working digitally so I made a few illustrations for fun. I love illustrating versions of children's tales because everyone is familiar with them and there are so many interpretations. This is my version of Red Riding Hood:

I learned how to make desktop wallpaper!

Hello Blogateers! Its been a long week and its only Wednesday! With hard work comes triumph! I learned something new and its something that I've been wanting to learn how to do for a long time. This week I studied how to make repeating pattern wallpaper. I had no idea how easy it was! And the best part is that virtually any image can be turned into a pattern. Nifty!

I found this very helpful tutorial. It explains how repeating patterns work and shows step-by-step on how to make your own.

For my first attempt at a wallpaper, I wanted to work with something easy. I chose to make an argyle pattern since its symmetrical and I came up with this:

Its good to be busy

Hey Everyone! The past week and a half have been so crazy! I'm up to the wazoo with fun personal projects. Some of them are secret! But this is what I can share.

Halloween week was nuts because I had some illustrations that I left for the last minute. Dock from www.deadpanda.com hosted his [annual?] Halloween costume artwork exchange for his friends. I've wanted to do this for years and years but the timing was never right. I'm was so happy that I actually had time to do it this year! I finished my illustration four days early too! The result is Dock's transformation if he ever encountered a Mahou Mahou Panda Power Wand!!!



I had a lot of fun with the magical girl parody! But oh man... I was a bit cruel with the concept sketch. Instead of a skirt, Dock was originally wearing frilly panda panties!



He drew a really awesome illustration of me as an Animal Crossing character! Its my favorite simulation game for Nintendo Game Cube, Nintendo DS lite, and Wii. I love this game so much, I've played all three versions. I <3 that he drew me in a plaid dress of my favorite color!

I've been working with my pal J0mzzz on Deviantart. We're both pretty new to the DA scene. His strength is pencils and my strength is colors. So we figured we should combine our powers for maximum awesomeness! I'm not sure if this is safe for work so click at your own risk. The link will lead you to some bikini-clad comic girls.

I don't mind coloring this genre, but I hope he decides to draw something else for me to color. He's pretty good at drawing monsters and robots too.

I spent Halloween with my boyfriend. We walked around NYC to catch the parade, which was fun until it rained. You know the saying, "Hate to rain on your parade?". Its true! Watching a parade in the rain sucks. We wanted to be in it... but there was some sort of human traffic jam and between the rain and the cold, we decided to leave NYC. The next best thing was to hope on a train back to Jersey and eat tasty Vietnamese food. We were so hungry we didn't even really look or talk to each other. It was like... survival mode.

Some of my favorite costumes of the night: (sorry no pictures, I knew there was a chance of rain so I didn't bring my camera)

• The Muppets Band
• Winnie the Pooh with the Donnie Darko bunny mask
• Cupcake girl (I need to draw this!)
• Ghetto pizza box costume (I need to draw this too!)
• 7 ft. Spartan. (How does anyone grow so tall?!)

Strangest costume.... well, let's just say, I saw some dude's hairy testicles. haha! The things you see NYC...
Actually... I'm not sure if "birthday suit" counts as a costume. That's very little effort in my opinion.

And finally... I was DYING when I saw this Weezer promo!!!