Losing Teeth: A Weird Right of Passage

The years I spent with Playgroup in Chicago were a hoot, every day was a new adventure. One of the many extra curricular activities that went along with the teaching position, which regularly crossed over with my art, design and craft life, were the tooth boxes, which I have written about before.  So, let us retread this old territory together, and try not to look too bored. 

The initial sketches become drawings which are then inked, very run of the mill. The only real challenge of this project is the format - these are measured to fit inside the boxes, and thus are a scant two inches wide by just over one inch tall. 

After the drawing is all cleaned up, the watercolor comes into play, and after allowing for the tiny paintings to dry thoroughly, I use mod-lodge to stick them in and lacquer them over. 

The letters and teeth on the top are paper cut, and I hit them with the mod-lodge as well. The look is clean, vibrant, and is hopefully will help releive the children of their natural reactions to their teeth falling right out of their heads.  

Building Character, I guess.

Things are again on the make! Take a look at what has been keeping me indoors 

through this beautiful (erratic) Kansas spring! 

With a few spring and summer art and craft events coming up, I ducked into the screen printing studio for a few days, and produced some new cuddle buds. I was half way through the Yoda design when I realized that he had the rare benefit of being two designs in one. It wasn't the first time I had considered an alternate color, limited edition type of thing, but Yoda famously appears in the original trilogy in two distinct color patterns: green and brown (alive and well), and blue and white (ghostly apparition)! "Viola!" Cried I, as I had heard it in a movie once, and got back to work. The outcome was great, and the scheme worked. Now, to be clear, none of the characters you see here are Yoda (©), but original characters, 'living master' and 'ghost master'. For serious guys... copyrights, and whatnot. 

This spunky little robot is still getting figured out. My regular pattern
doesn't work for characters of the non-humanoid persuasion. 

Look at that! That, friend, is what a week at the sewing machine looks like. 

 

Next came a custom job, for a friend who has a lovely son who LOVES the king: Elvis himselvis!

Reports indicate that he was a hit...
Though, I wasn't that worried, he's ELVIS.
The man does not disappoint. 

Along came the next order, this time for puppets of a mom and dad
for their joint birthday from their two adult children. 

  

 Here are the sketches and the photo provided by the client...

... aaand the finished product! The kids said they loved them, which was backed up
by a lovely and flattering e-mail sent by the pretty lady on the right!

After that I went outside to absorb some beautiful and ominous Kansas weather,
before getting to the next bit.

SPARK! The latest play by Adventure Stage, ended up with some spooky,
cool artwork, after many  sketches, drafts, restarts and edits. Totally worth it,
I love working with them - a wonderful, creative bunch. 

Next came a t-shirt order from a friend, who produces shirts as give-aways for the True False film festival in Missouri. He had the vision, just needed it put down in pencil and ink, and then screened onto about forty shirts. This was the largest product order I had done, so it was 

the wonderful combination of challenging and fun. 

I straight up can't recall if I have previously posted this little mouse trophy, 

but it sold, and I miss it, and need to make one for my house soon. 

Little mouse heads are particularly cute when mounted as a trophy! 

I spent some goofing around time and some serious art time honing my linoleum skills and cutting some nice stamps. For a long time i THOUGHT that I preferred the soft, white easy-cut material, but this stamp done crumbled after fifteen prints, so now I'm going with the pink, 

more-sturdy-but-still-speedy-cut material from speedball. 

The serious prints will, of course, be relegated to real linoleum, so they'll last forever and print strong, bold prints. Below is an example of a more serious print - another skull, yes (I do skulls when I don't have an idea), but the level of detail in the print is markedly higher than the other materials (aside form wood, which is classic, lovely, and a pain in the proverbial backside). 

SPOOKY! Two patches, no title. 

A photoshop job came along, and I took it! The above will be printed as t-shirts for a character series (character pictured above). 

Next came a return to old comforts - The Felt Show poster design! I love a good parody, and I loooves me some Twilight Zone, so this was a delightful and quick job. Paul was happy, 

and put on maybe the best show I've seen him put on. 

My brother got married! I gained a cool new sister-type-of-person! I... Got suckered into a whole bunch of work! JOKE! joke, it was a pleasure and an honor. The stamp is for the popcorn bags (charming) the wood is for the cake topper (finished product pictured below). 

Save your breath: It's a Rifle Paper Co. stylistic rip-off - I've always 

admired their work, and it fit the occasion. 

My brother Mikey asked me to help him build a bar, then became conspicuously unavailable the day of the wedding (joke, again). At a loss, I pulled my dad and brother Charles in, as well as another groomsman or two. In a scant three hours, we made this beauty, and it was HEAVY! 

But sturdy, handsom and rustic, so let's call it a win. 

And now my dad has a bar in his shop, so everyone wins, haha. 

Thanks for reading! Hit me up in the comments if you really, truly love me! 

CAT PORTRAIT!

It's been a while (maybe three years or more) since I had made anything with oil paint, even longer since I used them on canvas. That said, when I received a query for a 'regal cat portrait' from a close friend, I was equal parts excited and nervous. 

I started with a rough pencil sketch, and then set down to painting. I used to 'lose' the underpainting when I overworked the layers and covered things up, so I would take digital snaps of each major step. These days, what with good cameras in our phones, it was easier than ever to insure myself against any major missteps. 

Much like riding a bicycle, oil painting technique is kind of hard to forget, it seems, as I didn't run into many major struggles, aside form patience in allowing layers to dry (always my number one hiccup). 

In the end, the only element I'm wasn't 100% on board with were the stars, but they looked good enough for deadline! 

My résumé has since been updated to include 'regal pet portraiture'.

A Coon's Age

Just to be clear, I looked it up, and I'm 99% it's not a pejorative idiom. Apparently there's an old folk belief that raccoons live a long time... Turns out they just all look alike. Now that, that is a pretty risky statement, but I'm 99% sure no raccoons read this blog, so I think we're good here. 

Now that that's out of the way, let's get down to business and address the fact that I haven't posted in a really long time. I've been busy! Here's what I've made since... October?

The preschool job is going pretty well; Nice coworkers, lots of fun kids, good lunches, so I rewarded them by making this spooky puzzle during our 'body' unit. It's white paper all exacto'd and scissored and glued onto black, then laminated and cut out again. It's so cool having access to a laminator - now when I make stuff out of paper, they don't destroy is quite as quickly! The kids liked it a lot - our class is particularly good at puzzles.

Next up I got a commission for a set of nesting dolls that were to be a gift for a fellow finishing up his masters in English. Thus: writer dolls, all of his supposed favorites, many of whom I had to google for a likeness. Serious, who knows what Robert Frost looks like? Not me. Shakespeare is obvious, but Whitman? No idea.

Whitman, apparently. Good looking guy, looks like a fighter.

Hallowe'en snuck up on me, and the few nights leading up to our annual party were late ones. If you don't know what I am supposed to be, it's a Dementor from the Harry Potter series. I was taller than Martha for once, but getting in and out of the thing wasn't easy. My face is in the chest, peering through a few layers of gauzy black fabric. It was really fun to get to see people's reactions without them knowing just how tall this spooky guy really was.

Along came a puppet order, and I filled it. This dorky looking guy was really fun to design, and I used the little plastic eyes again. I'm thinking about going with them full time, they add some life to the puppet.

As soon as he was in the mail, it was time to get-a-making for the upcoming art fairs, one on Black Friday, the other in mid December. I started with some block printed tags, which can do double duty as paper Christmas tree ornaments.

Next I made this little mousy, who sold quick (the mice seem to, as they are less expensive and very cute). My favorite mouse so far, no contest.

I added a few new signs to the mix, along with one for Martha, who had been hard at work on her newly designed clutches, and who had her own table for the first time at the Sip & Shop in December.

My buddy Phil approached me in the thick of show prep to ask about a caricature of the Postman who has served his time in the downtown area long enough to become an icon. Jerry was retiring, and Phil had a vision!

After I sent him a sketch, he approved, and I got to work.

In the end it turned out great, and we made it out to his retirement party, where I met the man himself. He seemed to really like the portrait. Fun stuff!

Smokie tends to be very involved on the work I do around the house, and he cuddle-tested this stack of cuddle-buds for me.

Martha was across me at the Sip & Shop, a which was fun and lucrative for the both of us. Look at those cool clutches!

My table was pretty crowded, but it thinned out as I sold off a handful of prints and cuddle-buds.

The new flannels I got for the back sided were classy and comfy. I instagrammed the next photo, but thought it was cool enough to re-post here.

After the fairs I listed the four buds on my etsy, which, er, you should check out, fine reader.

Here's a closer look at the Fuzzy Buddy redesign - the fuzz-ball was my first fabric printing project, and i thought he would benefit from an upgrade. I'm very happy with the new look, and people have responded well. 

I then moved on to Christmas commissions - starting with a big order of ten nesting dolls, ordered from Illinois and shipped out to sunny LA. There was some pretty detailed stuff on these dolls, and all with very pretty hair.

The largest doll was double sided, showing off the happy, gift-receiving couple. Their hair was a trick to figure out, but it turned out great.

Here's a clear shot of grandma, but I'm guessing they all call her something like Gigi or, um, Sharon or something.

Details, details - this one loves her iphone, or so I was told, so I included it.

Next up: a puppet! My third order from Illinois this season, which struck me as funny, having just left the place.

From sketch to reality in two-hundred-and-thirty-seven easy steps!

Jenny, a friend of mine in Chicago, had me design and order these vinyl stickers for her husbands home-brew. Jim has a mighty mustache, and now, so do his beers.

Next in line was a one-day art camp with a handful of my regular art camp kids. For Christmas I was granted a stamp press and some linoleum cutting and printing supplies, so I encouraged the kids to venture into printmaking, and they went for it. 

I don't know what a Divergent is, But Rhiddi carefully produced fifteen four-color prints, inspired by the cover of the book. Very impressive work!

Our resident Brony made a bunch of cool My Little Pony inspired metallic prints. Good stuff. 

A rush order came from Adventure Stage in Chicago - they needed the next poster/image for their new original play on the rush, and after five mock-ups and a whole boat load of tweaks over the course of two weeks, this image came along and we all agreed that it was great, and accurately captured the intrigue and mystery they were going for. 

Lastly (for now), I got to settle down one night and put in some time with the new wood-carving tools my dad and brother gave me for Christmas. I carved a quick and simple design and made a handful of prints. Working with wood instead of rubber or lino is a fun challenge, and it will take some getting used to, but the first prints were cool, and I can't wait to do some more. 

Whew - BUSY! But happy. On top of all of this I finished a super-secret contract last week that was for my biggest client yet, and I'm not allowed to show it, or to discuss it... so... there! Keep warm!