Spooks and Kooks

Howdy friends! Just posting about some costumes I have for sale as of a moment ago in my etsy shop! My hand-made costumes form the last two Hallow's Eve's are listed for sale, and if you need something to wear this October, take a look!

The terrifying cuddle monster (last year)

And, of course, good old Oscar! This was my 2010 selection. 

Because you are a devoted reader of this here blog, you can use the coupon code SPOOKY for a terrifying 13% off anything in the shop now through Hallowe'en! 

Thanks for looking, more soon!

Tee Time!

I don't golf. Tee time for me is either of the mint or cinnamon variety (tea, that is), or of the shirt persuasion. In this case, we are talking garment. I designed a shirt for a Threadless! contest, and would be very grateful if you would click over and throw me a vote, preferably a five. Here is my design, and you can click here to be whisked away to a dreamland of voting! Consider it practice for this November!

As always, thanks for checking in!

 

Notes from Chicago Renegade Craft Fair, 2012

Well, that was a blast! Renegade Craft Fair is behind us, which is one part relief, one part sadness, as it is the biggest event of the year for we lucky crafts-persons who make the cut and get to be a part of the magic. My phone has an app that forecasts the weather with cute little ideograms (crazy, I know, but hear me out), and the week leading up to renegade had two happy little storm clouds floating over the days in question, Saturday and Sunday, the eighth and ninth of September. Those little jerks just kept smiling and raining, right up to the day before the day before Renegade. Then, everything was awesome. The cold front coming North didn't cause thunderstorms, as we feared, but brought the first brisk winds and the lovely chill of autumn mornings. Sweater weather! The most wonderful time of year! It warmed up in the afternoons, but never got too hot, and only rained after everyone had loaded out Saturday night. Perfect craft fair weather!

Here is the left side of my booth, complete with little animals (who, as it happens, don't do so well in the wind) and the wonderful print display shelves my pal Stephen built for me the day before the fair. Saved me on that one. THANKS STEVE!

Here is a slightly better look at the menagerie. People really liked the little animals, but as usual, the nerd art was my biggest draw. Who knew people liked Star Wars and Doctor Who so much? Who knew?! I knew, that's who! Mwa-ha-ha-ha! That's me, laughing all the way to the bank (joke).

I had a lot of help preparing for this one. My good friend Paul took on transportation, giving up his valuable weekend time to help me set up and tear down, and I can't convey how grateful I am. He's got a gift coming his way... Or a foot rub, or, well, maybe just the gift. Thanks to Martha and Mary for spending an evening stamping and stringing tags and these cute autumn garlands! I took a surprising number of compliments on my booth decor, and it simply wouldn't have been ready without your help. Josh and Patty came over and gave me their Friday night (and some beer, too!) and matted and bagged something like two hundred prints, allowing me to get a few hours of sleep the night before the big event. I have the best friends and family, seriously, thanks everybody!

One thing I learned at C2E2 this year is that it pays to have an 'under $10' item, especially if it is functional. With that in mind, I whipped up a bunch of these little critter masks, and boy did they ever sell! They're durable, cute, and being offered within about a month-and-a-half of Hallowe'en. A bit of extra trivia: the felt I use is made of 100% recycled plastic bottles. They were my best hook and my top seller. Go, critters!

Paul's daughter (and my good buddy) Bella did some viral marketing for me. Thanks, Bella!

They are great for kids of all ages. I was genuinely surprised at the number of aduts who stopped and looked and bought for themselves. I'm not saying they aren't for adults, I just hadn't thought of them that way. Cute!

Our pals Oliver and Julian came to see us on Saturday, and picked up a few prints. Thanks, guys!

Here is a closer look at the ostrich that I finished in the last days before the fair. He'll be listed along with all of the prints and available paintings on Etsy this weekend, so swing by and have a look-see!

Again, I say thank you to everyone who helped out or came by to say 'hey' at the fair. It was a truly lovely and exhausting weekend. Thanks!

 

Fair and Square

It's coming! It's almost here! I'M NOT READY! Er, um, that is to say, heeeeey guys! If it smells like sweat, paint, saw dust and polyurethane, it's only because Renegade Craft Fair 2012 is on its way to Chicago, and I'm making stuff!

The last time I partook in Chicago's largest craft fair was back in the year of twenty-and-ten, and it was the first of its kind for me. I learned a lot that weekend, and since then have done a few more craft fairs and C2E2, which is similar, but worlds different. Renegade is outside, along Division Avenue, between Damen and Paulina. If you happen to talk to a cloud in the next week or so, please ask them to keep the rain at bay that weekend. Last time we started off wet and ended things on a boil. Hopefully this year will be all-together mild.

A few weeks ago I made a few prototype cut-out-animals, which were made of cardboard. Cardboard has always been one of my favorite materials to fiddle with. I can't say why, exactly, but I'm sure it has something to do with the industrial, everyday-ness of it, that makes it a thrill to transform into something exciting. Also, it's cheap. I'm sure that contributes to its charm, for me, at least.

For these animals, with the thin legs of the giraffes and the delicate scallops of their manes, the cardboard was a little too rough around the edges, and would split, fray or bend unexpectedly. I went to the art supply store, and made the switch to Bass wood, which is like balsa wood, but quite a bit stronger, and harder to accidentally break, but still soft enough to cut with a craft knife or razor blade, and sands very easily.

The paint takes to it just like paper, once it's all sanded and ready to go, and the texture of the wood allows for some really pleasing dry-brush textures.

After the giraffe was ready to go, I recreated the elephant in the thinnest of the wood panels I bought. I have to say, the 1/4 inch panel, though harder to cut, makes a much more stable animal.

Once I had the process down, it was only a matter of time until I made a beautiful, enchanted unicorn.

So very magical!

Renegade Craft Fair is such a HUGE event, that I wanted to think of something I could make to catch eyes of passerbys, and draw them into my little tent. I had some 3/4 inch plywood panels left over from another project, and used a jigsaw to cut out another giraffe, this one just shy of a meter high, once slotted together. Martha is going to help me get him painted yellow this week, then I'll do the details.

Side note: if you have a REDICULOUS amount of work to do in three weeks' do not, under any circumstance of nerd-thusiasm or plain curiosity, DO NOT download the free Jurassic Park 'park management' games for ios. It's fun. And obsessive. And very distracting. Back to art!

This was my next creature' and my new favorite. He has quite a lot more detail than the others, and such a winning smile!

As Renegade draws closer, I've been trying to stay ahead of the potential stress storm closing in, and trying to keep moving along my list of little details like tags, signage, and a display plan. I decided to design a tag logo, and after wasting a night attempting (and failing) to carve a linoleum stamp with text as sharp as I wanted, gave up and turned to the professionals at Lakeview Rubber Stamp Co.

The stamp cost about $23, took two days to make, and achieves the exact look I was going for. these will serve a double purpose of title/price tag and website advert. Great!

 

That's where I'll be, down about Division and Paulina, in booth 156. I'm close to a DJ and a beer booth, so come party at my spot! There are a bunch, nay, a ton of talented artists involved with this thing, so come for the Ben, stay for the them! See you in about two weeks!

Come see me and all of the other Renegade crafters and artists at Chicago's Tenth Annual Renegade Craft Fair, September 8 and 9!

 

 

Boxing Teeth

Three or four days a week, I dry off my paintbrushes, store my pencils, and go to work as one of the three teachers at a preschool co-op playgroup, here in Chicago. Every August we have a special ceremony to see our oldest and boldest off into the wild territory of kindergarten and, appropriately, have a graduation ceremony.

My fellow teachers and I make a yearbook and help the kids fill out questionnaires, print hand and foot prints, and scribble on the 'autograph page' in the weeks leading up to graduation. For my personal bit, I give the parents an option of ordering a tooth box - a tradition that was active in this community before I was involved, but was handed off to me when they realized I was an artist.

This year I made nine, and took some photos to share here. They turned out pretty cute, and the kids and parents (who received them at graduation today) loved them. Mission accomplished!

 

Busy, like a, whataya call it? That rat thing with the flat tail. Like's trees. Buck teeth. Busy like one of those.

       By George and Bob-howdy, I have been keeping busy! You won't hear me complain (unless I'm complaining, that is), but man ALIVE! Here are the highlights from the last eight-to-ten weeks. 

       My good friend Joel was lucky enough to marry a lovely wife, who later brought along a sweet daughter. With Joel's birthday and Father's day fast approaching, Erin asked me to make this, which turned out lovely. That's Grace up on his shoulders, and everything was going great until I mailed it. 

       See, all of the zip codes in Lawrence, Kansas (where I used to live) go 606**, whereas all of the Chicago zips go 660**. I'm a feeble-minded young man, so I'll leave you to put the puzzle together and guess how I DERAILED a nice gifting experience. It took about two months to straighten itself out, and happened to get delivered while I was having a beer with Joel himself, in Kansas, just a few miles from his home. I could have biked it there faster! But it got there, and he loved it. FTW!

       Then, of course, there is this one. I'll keep it short: He hated it. End of story. 

       I never heard if he went through with using these dolls as a vehicle for a marriage proposal, which was their intent. Custom artwork can be tricky, and I am more than pleased to say this is my second (#2) dissatisfied customer EVER. In the end, his dissatisfaction had to do with the likeness, in that they looked old and fat, which, you see, nesting dolls, their general shape is... Oh, well.

        Back to happy! These kids turned out to love their portrait, all suited up to fight crime. It was a gift for the oldest childs' birthday (he's batman, there in the middle). The parents and kids were all very happy with it, I am pleased to share. 

       Next came the singularly most random and fun-to-paint wedding invitation OF ALL TIME. What you see here is the result of a request for a wedding invitation image that was to encompass, and I am quoting here, "mummies, sarcophagi, a T-Rex named Ivan, shrunken heads, the Berlin wall, something from the Revolutionary and Civil Wars,  the two grooms, and (their) cat, Carrie Fisher."

       Basically, awesome. They loved it, and I wish them a long and happy marriage! You may recognize the fellows and their cat from a previous post, in which they were made into little, adorable peg people.

        MUNCHIE! He's into adventures, apparently, which are chronicled verbally by my friend John and his wife, for whom this was a gift. We are all curious, John, and when the time comes, I expect to be considered for the illustration half of the award winning children's book. 

       MASKS! On toddlers! So very cute.

        These were commissioned as take-away party favors for a very special fourth birthday party. They were a hit!

        There was also a fox mask, which I somehow managed not to photograph. So cute!

       I made this elephant last night! I think I'll be pumping a few out to try to unload at Renegade Craft Fair, which I will again be participating in! Oh, boy, so much to do. 

       This giraffe happened today, and they are great friends, he and the elephant. I know because they TOLD ME. I need to sleep.

       Oh no they're CONSPIRING AGAINST ME!  Sorry for the 'instagramminess' of some of these photos, I try not to use them outside of the 'gram itself, but it had to happen if I wanted to get this up tonight. 

       As always, thanks for reading!

ART CAMP 2012!

       Before I get started, let me say, right out here in the open, that this post is admittedly about six weeks late. I wanted to get this on record the week I returned to sunny Chicagoland, but things happen to happen the way they happen, and sometimes that means all at once, in an unrelenting spiral of chaos and productivity. But that isn't always a bad thing!

       To Art Camp! This was the fourth year of camp and the group, while ever-changing, stayed mostly the same. The age range of the group has expanded further each year, with our youngest being seven, and this year the oldest was fourteen.

        We managed to all work well together, and the kids turned out some amazing work. The return of fiber arts and hand-sewn felt craft is evident here, with Drew looking TERRIFYING in his fox mask.

       One of the new mediums explored this year was animation. Here you can see Jackson hard at work in the animation corner, which we jokingly dubbed 'Pixar Jr.'

       On the last day, we invited parents to come see what we had been up to all week, and each of the campers had a table of their own to showcase their thirty-plus hours of work finished in the five days we met. Aidin had a lot to show, even though it seemed like that cupcake pillow might take the whole week to finish!

        It's worth mentioning that the real Pixar movie, Brave, opened a few days before we started our week, and so, showed up in some of the projects, most notably the family tapestry that Aidin recreated.

       All of that embroidery, those poor little fingers! And on the back?

         CUPCAKE!!!

       Eliot had a lot of fun sewing, painting and drawing, and helped maintain the 'geek-cred' we established in previous years by making Minecraft themed pillows.

       Payton and Julia, hard, hard at work. Sometimes you have to tear them away and remind them that they are children, and should enjoy life! (joke)

       Payton's body of work, complete with hand sewn puppet.

       Drew's table, thick with illustrative work - nice mixed media, too!

       Riddhi and her little brother Dhruv displayed together, initially, then had to use two tables when they realized how many pieces they had completed.

       Riddhi started to make a chicken plush, and ended up making three left-facing chickens (the feathers all on the same side), before she was able to focus and make an opposing side, to complete the stuffed bird.

       The extra lefties weren't a complete wash, though! She ended up with a beautifully embellished chicken pillow.

       Dhruv kept the video game theme alive in his awesomely retro Pac Man pillow.

       Macy worked hard all week honing her different interests like sewing, working toward a better grasp on drawing people with proper proportions, and wet-media. On day four, though, she found her calling...

       MARSHMALLOWS! So cute. Good job, Macy.

       It was a great week, and I was lucky and happy to spend it with such talented, focused kids. Great work, everyone! See you next summer. Until then, bask in the glory of the complete Art Camp 2012 Animation Collection: Volume 1!