From my sketchbook: The Letter F

I am dreaming of creating an alphabet made up of animals... the finished product could be a poster where every animal is colored with only black and red. (After many sketches I came up with this sample, F for Fox.) I love when illustrators are super stingy with their color.

A great hero for me who maximizes minimal color is Maurice Sendak.  In his illustrations for 'Little Bear', he manages to get away with using only brown and blue.   The final result is so soothing and dreamy.  Also it allows me to focus on the beautiful lines.

Fish Wife

Find out how Puppy and his Fish Wife escaped from the briny underwater lair!  With a little help from their friends...

Portrait of the artist as a young (?) woman

Today my husband and I celebrated a special occasion by going to the Museum of Modern Art, buying a membership, taking in the exhibits and eating at the cafe.  He gave me a beautiful handmade card with this portrait of me drawn on the front.  I love how he included my mole, which he insists is a beauty mark.  That is why I love him.  And the nose is just a little teeny dot, his explanation is that I have a perfect teeny nose.  The 'Twiggy' lower lashes he explains by grinning and wiggling his fingers under his eyes, pretending they are spider legs.  I really like the funny trail of dotted lines where he plotted out his course before he drew it.  His message inside was so heartfelt and beautiful I got little tears in my eyes and couldn't read the whole thing out loud, but that could also have been all the cheese I was eating talking... I had ordered a meat and cheese board and was struggling to get all the gorgonzola down without breaking my diet and spreading it over some flatbread :-)
I am truly feeling the magic of this season and the love of all my friends and family.  Thank you!

Cuckoo Craze

There is a mysterious broken cuckoo clock sitting over my work table.  I always imagine painting it's light brown exterior in white with accents of pastel pink, blue, and minty greens.  Finally after years of staring at it dreamily, I started googling cuckoo clocks online and to create a series of small paintings of clocks on paper. The first few were enthusiastically painted...

   I don't have a lot of acryllic paint but I do have a little left over from when I painted Puppy's rosy cheeks and blue pants.  Just perfect!!! The next have become a little more refined...(click for enlargement) My husband suggested a teeny brush might heighten the charm...

and I soon realized I could capitalize on this nostalgic feeling to encompass other objects like say this phonograph...

I am really looking forward to some quiet time tomorrow to listen to 'Heidi' on tape and make as many more as I can before leaving for Christmas when the cuckoo spell may be broken.

Meet the little Princess

In yesterday's Puppy comic, Puppy goes down below the ice to meet a beautiful creature... Princess Winkelfinn!  Find out how they came together and meet the lovely little lady I designed to look like an aquatic ice cream cone :-)

Click HERE for the comic....

A visitor from the past

I came across this little sketch I did today and it gave me a little chuckle... what was I thinking??? Who is this gent and what is he reading?  The price of coal?  Or the gossip about the latest theatrical production?  His pointy shoes and nicely arranged coiffure are so silly...

Martha Stewart Craft Show Inspiration

I was lucky enough to attend the Martha Stewart Craft Show on Saturday with Kah Leong.  It felt like a church function.  They even had a cake walk and ornament making station.  All the ladies and men who demonstrated were so chatty and proud of their wares!  These are the staff of Martha Stewart from all departments who wanted to show the crafts they made outside of their job.  I thought that was neat!  
There was a man there who had an amazing black and white composition of his doodles of creatures, all arranged in a circle and printed out on posters.  I loved it!  I made one inspired by his- mine is on a rustic holiday theme.  Click for a larger image.

Zoo flask by Sister Arrow

This gorgeous print 'Zoo Flask' was given to me from a friend this week. (click image for bigger view). I love it for the trippy colors and ironic precision.  It's one of only 20 and was made by a British artist 'Sister Arrow'.  We got it at the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics festival in Brooklyn where all my favorite comic and zine publishers had tables set up with enticing wares.  I was also thrilled to meet my secret zine-crush, Noah Lyon and his wife.  Noah's work goes by the name of 'Retard Riot', I have blogged about his awesome zines before.  I also saw brain-melting 3-D comics, a zine the size of my pinky nail, got my portrait painted in a minute for a dollar (it was good!), and heard Lynda Barry speak.  Brooklyn is my Oyster!

From my sketchbook: Stationery ideas 1

Here is a part of a pattern I designed using Puppy's face as a pattern, he has unlimited expressions and was a pleasure to work with.  All I did was snap the camera as he just talked away, making the most curious faces!  You can see that it could be incorporated into this stationery idea below.  All thanks goes to my friend K. for the great idea!

I like the idea of making a Puppy stationery that uses a pale blue polka dot basis and a pretty rope bow, with a scalloped edge.  When you open it the pattern could be reversed with blue dots, or they could be little bones instead of Puppy heads... just messing around at this point...what do you think?  I think the stationary set MUST include stickers of puppy, hearts, pencils and bones etc.  I love the Sukie stationary set, I know many of you own it!  The little sticker sets that accompany the Sukie and Jill Bliss sets from Chronicle books are an inspiration!
                                                                           SUKIE

                                                                         JILL BLISS              
         

Puppy and the Hypotrochoid

Hi!  I miss you guys!  Just wanted to share some little ideas I had for a wrapping paper pattern... this one is just a draft but it has the energy I wanted...My goal was for a very doodly claustrophobic print integrating the lines of a notebook with Puppy faces and hearts.  I used the 'Hypotrochoid' or spiral maker that I just bought as a birthday gift for my little sister... spilled the beans Caroline!  I'll get you a new one!  These puzzling devices from yesteryear are popping up around town in gift shops... so much fun, wow!  When I was little it was a mystery how they worked and after a few hours of playing with one I still can't really figure it out!  I love mysteries...  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mr. Turkey has something sinister on his mind this Thanksgiving...One lucky commenter to this week's puppy comic 'Busy Birdy' http://www.fredflare.com/blog/?p=6747, wins the Thanksgiving sketch below! 

On a Rainy Day Everything is for Sale

I just did a wonderful artist residency in Mt. Tremper, New York. The setting was beautiful but rainy, nestled into the Catskill mountains a few miles from Woodstock. Because of the weather I stayed in and mostly spent my time drawing a catalog of every item in the entire house. One of the items featured on this spread is the owl cookie jar my friends recently acquired.  They must have told me four times 'It has eyes in the back of it's head!!!'  I hope it wasn't too much an invasion of my hosts' privacy to optically ransack their place! I did stay out of the drawers and cupboards...Here is a spread from the kitchen portion of the catalog. It's entitled 'On a rainy day everything is for sale' and has 15 pages.  I think it's a great time capsule of my friends' lives from an unusual viewpoint:  their posessions.

(Click image to enlarge)

A Day of Life

I created these animations for a photography website that treats a client's ordinary day with the same care that would be given to a birthday or wedding. In my animations, I focused on simple pleasures of life and gave them a nostalgic feel. I was inspired by homegoods store 'John Derian' here in NYC and by a postcard of flowers by Andy Warhol, which influences one of the opening scenes. Joshua Williams composed the music which was captured on a rickety eighties voice recorder. Which do you like best?

It's HEEEERE!!!!! Annie Poon aka 'mc Paper Cut'

So excited to share with you my rap video! Thanks so much to Gonna Get Got for the Production help... This video is for an exhibit at Brigham Young University this October.

Boy did this piece have growing pains! It started out as cats cut out of felt moving around on a chalkboard. The final product draws directly from both personal experience and favorite stories. It is intentionally rough and raw, like my favorite youtube videos of rappers shot on their computer cameras... I got to try something new (rapping) and found out how much I love it! Is that okay for a nerdy 32 year old white girl? I think so...

http://natureandnurture2010.blogspot.com. Some of my favorite mormon artists are also in the show, so check it out if you are in the area this October!

Puppy Comic: Express Yourself

Things are getting dicey in Puppyland! In this week's comic, Miss Duck quite unexpectedly shows up at Puppy's door after a long and mysterious absence. Will long lost lovers be reunited or will Puppy give her the cold shoulder? While Puppy decides, he observes her making the following expressions through the peephole... Click HERE to read this week's comic!

Darting Devils

One of my sisters has been staying over, sleeping in my studio, and she enjoys looking at the ephemera from the movie making process that you miss in the finished product. She asked that I start posting some of it online.

Here is an image I am enjoying till I have to cut it to pieces in two minutes... it's a gang of devils that will fly across a colorful background. The way I have colored it outside the lines in the interest of speed makes it graphically appealing to me.

For the devils robes I was inspired by lighting bolts falling from the sky.

In the spirit of the times, here is a video of me on my very first day of kindergarten. My twin Katie and I had to hang big signs from our necks so that the bus drivers and teachers could identify us. I am the one in the blue dress, surprisingly acting shy! I don't know where that came from, I think I've always been an attention HOG, just ask my sisters who complain that I constantly try to steal their friends... My kindergarten teacher was Mrs. Danoff. I still remember what she looked like... A softspoken but confident woman in her 60's with short sandy hair. She made the classroom feel like a delight by decorating it with seasonal pictures. I was so excited because the first assignment came as soon as we sat at our desks. We had to copy a sentence off the board to this effect: 'Today is September 4th, it is Wednesday, and the weather is sunny." I was VERY impressed by this challenging assignment, which was repeated every day. I had never actually WRITTEN so many words before, was I even comfortable with all the letters? But I had a feeling she wanted to throw us all for a loop and just get us out of our comfort zone to be ready for any and all challenges! It worked, I loved her and did anything she wished. I honed and polished my brown nosing skills in that class, and put them to work regularly now!!!

Snaps from the editing room

Me rapping, and a bomb about to explode!  Both are stills from 'Scripture Skits'... Coming in September!!!

Loving the RAINBOW!!!!

I was looking through 'Ninja', a book by colorful doodle virtuoso Brian Chippendale, and felt inspired to take one of my scenes from drab to fab via the power of rainbow!!! I used my favorite highlighters to create this fun plaid pattern.
This was going to be a simple scene of two staircases, one going up and one going down, with characters marching on each one. But thanks to inspiration from Ninja, the whole thing freed itself and went nutso! The characters just sort of meander in the general direction they need to go, but I love the loss of structure and even the permission I gave myself to have fun with nonsensical character design...

Snapshot from the studio...

Re-shooting the beginning of the animation 'Scripture Skits'. Thought I'd share this snap from today's work... In this scene we are introduced to the three main characters in my music video who can't seem to grow up and get a grip.
Aesthetically I'm trying to walk that delicate line between homemade looking and slick... where to stop and nit pick? Where to leave things as they looked at the very first try? Finally I decided that LIGHTING was not one of those areas I wanted to leave to chance, so I went out and finally bought some great professional lights. After almost burning myself and having to wear sunglasses while I worked, my good husband came in and used his genius move of turning the light away from my face and making it bounce at the ceiling. Aaah! No more melting hair and camera! Thanks Kah Leong!

MC Chris - Nrrrd Grrrl music video

Okay everybody!!! So I made my first rap song for a soundtrack of an animation I'm making. My friend Mike G, who also produced my 'Tis the Night of Halloween'soundtrack, helped me record my song and added a little somethin' special with his beats and flava'... and now I'm so obsessed with writing rhymes!!! The day after we recorded, my dance workshop teacher introduced me to hip hop dance and challenged us all to write our own 'swagga' rhymes, statements about how AWESOME we all are... so now my week has been a big cloud of rhyming and booty shaking... Felt a bit self conscious at first, but my friends clued me in that I'm not the first nerdy white girl to embark into this journey of hip hop...Now I've been looking around the internet for some more examples of 'nerd rap'... I've seen housewives audition tapes, tween homework assignments, and some very rare and surprising stuff... Here's one I'm posting just cause it's clean and fun... stay tuned for my song which will I will post a clip of within the month when the music video is ready!!!

xoxo
Annie
aka
Paper Cut

These performers at BYU use every part of the piano to create their song. The technique is called 'bowed piano' because of they use strings of rosin to create 'bows' that they draw across the strings inside the gut of the instrument. Their use of the whole piano reminds me of Chinese cooking. Such an eerie song, it sounds to me like the change of seasons from summer to fall...

Mercibeaucoup!!!!

Was in a magazine shop and saw some designs by japanese designer MERCIBEAUCOUP on the cover, fell to pieces in bliss! So silly, so fun, would love to look great in every one!
Their statement is to 'everyday cherish the precious feeling of appreciation and thank.'

Teen Agent Mystery!

My character Miss Periwinkle, the artist and psychic on the Fred Flare 'Teen Agent' campaign was invited to create a series of watercolors of keys for use as backdrops to this mysterious story... I love how they look sprinkled in the background of these photos. These watercolors are inspired by old skeleton keys. Actually to be more truthful they are inspired by the one key I have held in my mind's eye from the book 'The Secret Garden', which fascinated me as a child. Now I have a walled garden out my window and I always imagine what it is like inside, I am just like the little girl in the book! To make these watercolors I took simple designs and added curlies and fanciful twisty tendrils to my heart's delight! Overworked? Absolutely. And for sale I might add! I created about 25, here are some examples...

Tweet!

Just wanted to post a few images from my sketchbook. Always have loved birds, the way a little ball of fluff and feathers can be arranged... these are a collection from over the years....

Simple Pleasures

Here are some shots from an animation I just finished for a friend... It focuses on the simple beauties of everyday life. Looking at them warms my heart and makes me either want to go cuddle up with a blankie and a book or go to an antique store, I can't decide. Much inspiration comes from one of my new favorite stores, John Derian. Although this animation is much more rough and simple in its approach than the other version I made, it conveys the message with more clarity and represents the product in a better way. I loved the finished product and the approach, and plan to use the exact same look for an animation I have coming up about memories of animals I have loved...