Yay 2011!

Happy New Year to all!
I'm a little late catching up with my blogging—2011 has already been off to a very fast-paced, busy start!

I'm full of inspiration and exciting new ideas for this year including some plans to begin to sell some products and prints featuring my art, as well as branch out to some new markets with both my design and illustration work. But—first project in the works: relaunching my website with a brand-new look! Keep an eye out for that soon.

In the meantime, I've been working with some new publishing clients on some book cover projects. I can't share those for awhile, but it's been great to start the year with some new relationships.

I also finished up my sketchbook for the Arthouse Co-op's The Sketchbook Project. The touring national exhibit begins next month at The Brooklyn Art Library in Williamsburg, with a reception on February 19th. From there, the sketchbook collection will exhibit in 9 different US cities through July of this year, including stops in Chicago, Austin, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and more! Over 28,000 artist participated in this project so definitely keep an eye out for the exhibit in a city near you! (Schedule is on the Arthouse Co-op website)

Here are a few of my last pages from "Great hopes and Massive Failures" (a.k.a. a visual diary of my years as a single woman in New York City's sometimes vicious, sometimes hilarious, dating scene!)  I had a blast with this project, and even found myself inspired to keep some other ongoing theme-based sketchbooks...which I'll share some of soon!

Happy Holidays!

I'm very excited that I had the opportunity to illustrate and design Puffin Books' holiday card. It was a fun little piece that also allowed for some hand-lettering, and will be sent to many of the talent artists and authors who work with Penguin.

I'm off for an amazing holiday adventure to Colorado and Hawaii--so sure to have lots of inspiration to start off a new, productive year! In the meantime,   

Happy holidays to everyone, and all the best for a happy and healthy 2011!

Another sketch...

Just have to share one more from the sketchbook project...this one is one of my faves so far

New painting

I'm getting the BEST Christmas gift this year--my boyfriend is taking me on an amazing trip—first to Colorado, then to Hawaii to ring in the new year! Either I've been REALLY good, or he's just the best boyfriend ever. (I'm pretty sure it's the latter!)
Anyway--really hard to match a gift like that--especially because his birthday is also on Christmas day! So, I decided to make him a painting. I was a little unsure if it would make a good gift for hanging in his bachelor pad since my style is so feminine...but I used the inspiration of our upcoming hawaiian adventure and created this image.

....and, he loved it!! :)

More Sketchbook Project

Just sharing more of my progress with the Sketchbook Project.

My theme is "Great Hopes and Massive Failures" and this title is, for me, an opportunity to tell some of the funny (well, mostly funny!) stories from my past life in the NYC singles/dating world.
I'm really enjoying just getting to experiment a bit with composition & design—and lots of hand-lettering—to tell the stories and represent these characters from my life in interesting ways.

Blog Illustrations for "Secret Lives of the Unemployed"

I was recently asked to illustrate a fun story on a cool short-fiction blog, by writer Elizabeth Bartucci, that chronicles three Brooklyn neighbors, who after a year of being unemployed stop looking for work and embrace their lives of permanent hooky.

I created 3 pieces to accompany the post "Strap of a Jock", a humorous glimpse of a neurotic woman's traumatic wash-n-fold laundry experience. This entry made me laugh out loud, and I really had fun making the art! Here are the finished images, and the full story can be read at Secret Lives of the Unemployed.

The Fire Eater

 

Just finished a little personal piece, inspired by the sketch I made for this year's Halloween costume: A sideshow/circus fire-eater! 

 AND-it just so happens to fit this week's Illustration Friday theme: BURNING

After having such a blast creating the vintage sideshow-style costumes for Coney Island's Mermaid Parade this past summer, friends and I were inspired to revisit the sideshow theme for Halloween. I decided to make a fire-eater costume....of course with a gory spin on things--I had "real" flaming torches and a disgusting burn on my face!

Before diving into the costume-making, I sketched out my ideas as usual....and couldn't resist revisiting those—now that my Halloween fun is over—to make a nice little illustration. I also realized this makes a nice companion piece to the "Acrobat" image I made for Illustration Friday a few months ago. Looking at these together, I'm also feeling inspired to expand this into more of a series—and potentially apply to notecards, journals, etc. (for sale in my future etsy shop!). I really love this whole vintage-circus theme and feel like I could come up with endless characters.

Here's a glimpse at how my costume looked  :)