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