Goldilocks

Here is a last minute contribution to the Illustration Friday topic of the week: alphabet.

Sketchvolution

Here is a great example of how most ideas for pieces are generated. While working on a commission, I chanced to look up at the light fixture above me, and saw it had a neat pattern of lines radiating from its center, and I wanted to draw the pattern (you can just barely see it in the scan). After I drew that I thought it would be fun to draw one of those old-fashioned circular mouldings. Then I thought I'd make it into a full room and draw the tops of walls. I thought the effect of looking up so steeply was interesting and drew a face looking down, then immediately thought it felt like lying on the floor. So I thought I'd draw the person lying on the floor.

It would be nice if I could just pick an idea straight out of my head, but most of they time they come from this type of meandering doodling. Even when I feel like an idea pops out from nowhere, I can usually trace it back from mental "doodling". Making pictures for me is usually a lot like a free-association game.

Cats in my pencils

It's funny, I'm more of a dog person really, but I absolutely love drawing cats. They are just about the most fun thing to sketch. If I feel like drawing but don't really have anything specific I want to draw, I'll usually end up drawing a cat. They just seem to come out of my pencils on their own.

So here's my cat for the day. He's a bit ugly and fat, and I bet he's a drooler, but he was fun to make. Tabby cats are the best for drawing; the lines really help define their bodies, and you've got to love that eye-liner look they so often have.

Illustration Friday: Captain

I think this captain is a freelancer, brave enough to captain and man his own ship, albeit a small and possibly leaky one.

Todd

I'm working on a set of illustrations for an easy reader book about a boy named Todd. The book will be from the Core Knowledge Foundation, a non-profit educational materials company. It's a really fun project. Here Todd is getting ready for a yard sale.

New Mexico, Canada, Hawaii and the Big Day

It's been awhile between posts. On June 15 I was married to David Kwan, and since then we've been in a frenzy of traveling. It has been very exciting and I've gotten to see a lot of places I'd never seen before. Most recently we visited my family in New Mexico where I did a very little drawing. Now that we're home I hope I can start catching up with some of the things that have gone neglected in the past month and a half.

Illustration Friday: Your Paradise

This isn't me, but when I sit it my chair and scratch my cat: paradise found.

Bo Peep

Here is an illustration I just did for the Core Knowledge Foundation to illustrate the poem Little Bo Peep. As you can see, it is based on a drawing I made in March.
Link

Gardening on my mind

Someday I will make a painting of this girl in her immense, garden-hat.

Community Gardens

I recently finished this piece for The Park Slope Reader. The article is about community gardens and food co-ops in different areas of New York.

Cat in the Sink

My cat Vinnie likes to sleep in the bathroom sink. He even sleeps in there if the faucet is dripping; his back gets all wet. It seems like whenever I'm brushing my teeth he wants in.

Here is my obligatory procrastination sketch. Now to start painting.

Sketching in the Park

This last weekend David and I went to Pioneer Park to have lunch and sketch or read or whatever. There are the most amazing trees at Pioneer Park; they have wonderfully gnarled and exposed roots. I wanted to draw them from close up, but we sat too far away. Oh brother. We'll have to go back.

David graciously let me sketch him, and held relatively still too. I thought he looked a bit like a communist in this one (he is a Canadian after all, haha), and we decided it was the combination of the way his hat and collar looked. So we thought the sickle, hammer, and star would be a nice finishing touch.
Do you think he looks a little like a cow in this one? I do.

Cat

Awhile back I had some fun making these drawings of a cat. Yesterday my boyfriend came across them on the computer and thought I should post them, so here they are.

Toxoplasmosis

Bidding has opened on Toxoplasmosis! It is a lovely watercolor diptych, and it's hot off the desk.
Bid on E-bay

Thunderstorm

Bo Peep

Illustration Friday: Hide (Tiger Girl)

Posted this yesterday, but I thought it would work very well for this week's Illustration Friday theme: hide. Tiger hide. So just a sketch this week.

Procrastination Station

And now back to work.

Leda and the Swan

More sketching fun. I think that when I have a deadline approaching, I tend to sketch more often and more elaborately, as a procrastination technique. I don't know if that is good or bad.