stuff about artstuff.

I Think I May Have Forgotten How to Draw...

...without help.

You see, this is how I have drawn pretty much every single thing to come out of this studio for the past 13 years.

 

We'll see if I'm actually able to remember how I did it before, after Surtex.  Until then, my schedule is completely filled with non-drawing last-minute-preparations - which I seem to be managing alright in this tiny and crowded yet cavernously empty Flossie-free room.

Oh, and - fun fact: in my sorry sentimental state, I have been physically unable unwilling to remove cat hairs from all the new art I have scanned in the past 2 weeks (a side effect of this type of assistance is ubelievable amounts of little hairs stuck in the paint or seemlingly woven into the tooth of the paper) so I guess you could say it's a new look I'm debuting at the show: mixed media designs with a rich, organic texture.  "Value added" artwork.  Yes, that's it.

And thanks again to everyone who said such nice things on Flossie's blog and on Facebook, it really has meant a lot to us and if you didn't see this when it was posted, this is for you.

xo

Pink and Spring and Other Nice Things.

Pink follows grey so nicely.  After months and months of seeing only every shade of grey possible, my neighborhood bursts out in a million shades of pink.

Daily dog-walks this time of year are usually excercises in counting pink trees.  How many are on this street or that one, how many blocks are lined entirely with them, which ones bloom sooner or last longer after a heavy rain or spring snow.

I think I trip on cracks in the sidewalk more often than other times of year because I am staring up into the pink.  It's a perfect antidote to a long, dull winter.

Happy weekend, happy spring, happy pink, and Happy Easter, everyone!

This design is brand new, but it's already been licensed for products coming out in Spring 2014.  I'll keep you posted when I can share more!

(What the Card Says)

...organizing my box of cards and tags before putting them all away, I came across this one:

Possibly my very first handmade holiday card, circa 1970.  Credit for the scissor-work on the candles should probably go to Mrs. Pascal from Jackson Park Elementary School.  Anyway, the sentiment still holds, so this is for all of you!

Hope you are enjoying the season with the ones you love.

xo

Studio Day

Today, HRH Flossie is guest-posting here on Stuff About Artstuff.  Enjoy.

My favorite days are ones where Person stays in the studio all day.

I help her draw

but it gets tiring

and eventually I need a nap.

I like watching the drawings up on the monitor

but that gets tiring, too

and another nap is necessary.

She couldn't do this without me, for that I am certain.

If you haven't visited Flossie before, you can find her here and here, and even here.

 

 

Season of Giving

This is the time of year many of us reflect on things we are thankful for.  I know, this should really be something we do every day anyway - but most of us require gentle reminders, or in cases like mine, a bonk on the head with a giant cartoon-style rubber mallet, to really sit back and appreciate the little things (and the big ones) that we are blessed with every day.

I am thankful that I am given the opportunity to make my living doing something I love.  I am thankful that I have a home and a place to work. I am thankful that it is warm and secure; that there is a roof attached to that place.  That my work tools, treasured belongings, and funny little family are safe under that roof.

Yeah, you can probably tell where I'm going with this.  I have been overwhelmed with emotion the last few weeks seeing the homes, neighborhoods, entire towns where this is not the case.  Recovering from and rebuilding after a loss of this magnitude is something my little brain just can't seem to wrap itself around.  I wish I could do some little thing . . . and well, I am thankful that I can.

I've recently reopened my long-neglected Etsy shop and have been adding items little by little.  And I will continue to do so throughout the holiday season: I've been inventorying my fabric stash to make sure I have everything I'm offering (!), I've been painting some new original pieces, and will be having quite a few new art-prints available soon.

And between now and the end of the year, I will donate 50% of all sales in my Etsy shop (excluding postage charges) to the Red Cross for Disaster Relief.

At the end of each week I will tally up my sales and make a donation, and will keep you updated as to our progress.  Yes, it's our progress that we will be making together, because it's your purchases that will make each donation happen! 

And to continue the Season of Giving theme, I will be having weekly giveaways here on my blog through the month of December, because I am thankful for you, my awesome loyal blog-readers!

I'll also be sharing other ways we can all help, here and on my Facebook Page - there are so many great people and organizations out there doing a lot of amazing things right now, it warms my heart to see it.  And hopefully I can pass along a little bit of that heart-warmth to the rest of you.

Thank you for visiting, and I hope you all have a beautiful week appreciating all for which you are thankful!

xo

 

PS:

Just a reminder (nudge, nudge) to visit all the amazing blog-hop hostesses each day of the Henry Glass Holiday Party if you haven't already - a full list with links to everyone's great stories, recipes, and free project downloads can be found here.

There's still time to enter my drawing for a 21-fat-quarter bundle of One Crazy Christmas Eve, see the post below this one for details and how to enter.  There's also still time to enter the big Henry Glass Holiday Party drawing where you'll win a big fabric bundle + separate gifts from each of the 16 designers participating in the hop!  Wow! 

You have until Sunday the 25th to enter the Henry Glass contest, and until Thanksgiving to enter mine here.  I've had so much fun reading your entries/comments here so far, your stories of Jello are running the gamut from cracking me up, grossing me out, and making me hungry!  You are all so awesome!

Made Stuff.

Our vacation this summer was as perfect as a couple weeks at the beach should be.

There were bright foggy mornings

and soft, pink sunsets;

bright blue mornings
that turned into golden afternoons

and fiery golden sunsets.

There were blue skies
and lazy afternoons;

and once my brain finally came around and fell into "lazy afternoon" mode, that's when it was turned off just enough to start making stuff.  For fun.  Not because I have to make a living.  But because I have to make.

I did sort of have a making-stuff agenda, a small one: there was a wedding gift I wanted to make, and I had something very specific in mind.  But the rest was completely random.

So what do you get when you pull out the Paperclay while you're munching on pistachios?
Hungry baby birds, of course.
Duh.
I actually giggled out loud while these took shape.  I can't really take credit for what they look like, I mean they sort of made themselves.
And they totally made me giggle, the whole time.  I couldn't help it.

There were still pistachio shells on my plate.  Why not, a sea monster with pistachio scales.  His head was pretty heavy while he was wet, so I propped it up with a little seashell until he dried.
Nerd alert: yes, that's the Millenium Falcon hovering over my freshly-made sea monster.  Yeah, so?  Doesn't everyone have that?

There was this float on the table outside with sticks jammed into it; I'd been thinking it reminded me of a bird's body, and, well, there were babies to feed, so...
Meet Flotsam the Crow.
Another float became the perfect sturdy little skull 0n which to build her clay beak.
In spite of her Western name, Flotsam is, apparently, a Japanese crow.
Her existing stick-tail seemed a little thin, so a few other flotsamy jetsomy pieces of rope and fishing net scraps filled it out a bit.
Since she was already outside for her first photo shoot, she joined us for Happy Hour.

Then on to the wedding present.  This was to be a specific bird that the recipients know personally, but I wanted her to have a piece of our beach incorporated somehow.  So she got a scallop-shell tail.

A couple days later they all got their first coats of paint.

And the sea monster got sparkles
and seashells and barnacles.

The hungry babies got a shell nest to live in.

I won't mention how bad Flossie was when she got mad that we were outside on the deck without her.  How she knocked the babies out of the nest and played with them on the floor, breaking one's beak off.  Oh wait, I did just mention that.  Not that I am usually in the habit of shaming my pets on the interwebs, it's just - well - she so did this out of spite, it was pretty obvious.  I only wish I'd have seen what fun she must have had while we were outside with our backs to the windows; those poor little birds were spread all over the place behind us.  And the beak was easily fixed . . . so all was forgiven.

Again with how these things make themselves: Flotsam turned herself into the happiest crow ever.
Maybe it's because she has such a cute family.
And they all get to live there at the beach cabin together forever and ever.
I guess that would make me smile like this, too.

I was pretty happy with her scraggly tail
but then my brother found a crow's feather while weed-eating the yard, and he was right: it was just what she needed.

And finally, this is White Wing - she is all ready to go to her new home.

 

Thanks for visiting; and if you haven't yet, go to the next post where I'm having a fabric giveaway! You have until Sunday morning to enter the drawing, good luck!

A Closer Look at Buttercup Babies (and a Fat-Quarter Bundle Giveaway!)

By now, if you know me, I'm sure you've seen or heard something about Buttercup Babies.
I may have mentioned it once or twice; either here on my blog
or on my Facebook page
or maybe you saw my interview on the Henry Glass blog
or have even seen it in your favorite local quilt shop
or you could have been here at the house and noticed that my fabric samples are still taking up space in the middle of the living room
(oh wait, I probably could have gotten away without telling you that one, I'm pretty sure most of you haven't been here this week).

 

Well, however it is that you figured it out, yes.  Buttercup Babies is here.

And so, I figure it's time for a fat-quarter bundle giveaway.  It's been a really, really, really, really long time since I've done that, so I figure we're overdue.
To enter, leave a comment on this post and tell me what your favorite baby animal is.  If you read my studio interview in the Henry Glass blog, you already know about my inspiration for these designs and probably have a pretty good idea what my favorite is.  Well, at least one of mine.  But what's yours?  If you can't possibly think of or pick a favorite, you might find something that will help you with that here.
The winner will get a bundle of this softie-softie flannel fabric that includes a full 18" panel and 8 fat-quarter coordinates; you choose whether you'd prefer the girly colorway
or the boy-y colorway.

So again, just leave a comment here on this post telling me your favorite baby animal and you're entered to win.
You have until Sunday morning October 7th - I'll put all entries into a hat at 9am Pacific Time Sunday morning for a random drawing, and will announce the winner on Monday October 8th.
Good luck and thanks for visiting!

 

UPDATE:  it's Monday the 8th today; entries closed yesterday morning and a winner was announced today, you can see it right here.  Thanks again, everyone, for entering - we will have to do this again soon!

Thanks...

...for stopping by.

Nothing monumental today, I just wanted to share with you one of my own personal favorite things I drew last year. "I'll Be Your Umbrella", just a funny little drawing; sort of a love-note to Miss You-Know-Who.  Right now you can find this sweet little thank-you card at your local Trader Joe's store (thanks, Husband Guy, for snapping this today, not to mention the groceries).
Come to think of it, the Divine Miss Flossie has been pretty consistenly well-represented in the Trader Joe's greeting card racks for a couple years now - they just keep choosing card designs with her fluffy little white mug on them, and I just keep drawing more - I hope they don't tire of the designs, because I sure don't tire of drawing her.

This is a Public Service Announcement.

Or maybe just a friendly reminder.
So maybe it's a reminder specific to myself
but on the other hand, doodling does feel good.
And we should all do more things that feel good.  So I'll say that this is for you, too.
It may seem silly that I need to remind myself to do something that has always brought me so much joy, and on which my entire livelihood is based.
You might be thinking, "whatever, Drama Queen.  Isn't drawing what you do for a living?"  Well, technically, yes.
But you know how Real Life is.
Too often we forget to just do stuff that's good for us
or that simply makes us happy
for no other reason
than because it makes us happy.
And that, I suppose, is why this is a public service announcement.  I am reminding you to do that.  So doodling or drawing isn't your thing?  What is it from your past and simpler life that you used to do every day after school, every weekend, every moment you weren't busy with something else?  Go do that.  Even a little bit.  Every day.
For me, that thing was drawing.  And it always will be.  But here in Real Life, I often need to remind myself to do it.  And that's what I'm going to go do right now.  My little sketchbook is calling...

Want a totally unique, one-of-a-kind sketchbook or journal?  My go-to journal and sketchbook buying spot is this great Etsy shop; I love seeing what Cindy has been up to, and end up visitng every time my current sketchbook starts to get filled up.  And the supercool little journal pictured above was one of two I received as best-ever stocking-stuffers last Christmas.  They're made by this awesome company in Portland, and I'm pretty sure Husband Guy picked them up at this favoritist coolest bestest ever shop here in Seattle.

Product Review: Daniel Smith Watercolor Ground

Those of you who were at Surtex may remember the giant cupcake tree in my booth.

A few months before the show, I wrote this post about its ever so humble beginnings, but in my pre-show frenzy I forgot to post it right away, and eventually forgot I wrote it (!).  I just found it again and figure I should post it now before something shiny catches my eye (again) . . . so here you go:

Drawing without thinking.

This can be a really amazing thing - when truly uninhibited creativity springs forth from the Universal Consciousness in magical ways.

Or, this can just be a really stupid thing. Thoughtlessly putting lines where you don't mean for them to be. Drawing things crooked or misshapen but not in a clever, artistic way - just in a crooked or misshapen way.

It happens a lot around here. Thanks to Photoshop, it's not quite as devastating as it used to be, but now and then I do something so stupid it's not worth fixing and I'll simply start the piece over. Especially if a piece is at a very early stage, it doesn't feel worth to the time and effort to mask or work around an ugly mistake. I feel like the design will have better energy in general if I feel good about it from the beginning.

That would have been the case recently, when I had just started laying out a little picture of a cupcake tree (did she really just say "cupcake tree"?). Yeah, anyway...

So without thinking I blasted some lines across each cupcake where the frosting would meet the paper, and suddenly hated everything about it.  I re-drew the lines where I really wanted them, but the badly-placed ones were still there also, in ink.

I briefly considered frosting the cupcakes with dark chocolate which would have hidden the lines, but was really in more of a buttercream mood for this batch. I thought about Photoshop, but it was almost every cupcake, and it was right where I wanted to add subtle shading; too much trouble. Since the only time-and-effort investment I had in this piece was those initial lines, I would have normally tossed the paper aside and started over. But then I remembered this:

A few months ago I saw this and thought, "wow, undo-button in a jar!" and bought it immediately, but hadn't yet broken the seal. I thought this would be a perfect test-project, since I wouldn't risk ruining something on which I'd already spent hours or days.

The product feels like acrylic paint when wet, but dries more chalky and velvety. Not really like matte-acrylics, not really like gouache or tempera; this stuff is it's own unique animal. Interesting. But after the first couple coats, I was not very hopeful.
It lifted the grey ink (the lines had been drawn with alcohol-based Pantone markers) and smudged it pretty badly. I let each coat dry to the touch (this happens pretty quickly) and just kept adding more.

And more. And more.  And more.

Eventually, the little lines and smudges disappeared beneath the coats.

The instructions say to allow it to dry for 24 to 48 hours before using watercolor on it. I gave it pretty close to 24.

I imagine that it might have been a nice extra step to gently sand it down a bit at this point, as each of my many coats had gone on lumpier than the last. But you might remember from my household DIY projects that I really suck at thoughtful and tidy details like sanding between layers. I could not wait to get my paint on.

On went some super-watery yellow paint. And to my surprise, it went onto the lumpy little mess like watercolor goes on paper. There seemed to be no difference between the way it was soaking in or sitting on the covered parts and the surrounding paper.

(mandatory cat-petting break)

I know, I know. Small, lightly-tinted and mostly solid areas of paint vaguely depicting cartoony little blobs of buttercream frosting does not indicate how this product will perform on a serious watercolor painting.

But I'm pleased enough with the result that I will definitely consider it a good option next time - and there will be a next time, that much is guaranteed - I spill. Or splash. Or swipe. Or smudge. Or simply draw without thinking.

And the cupcake tree? Maybe not my magnum opus, it did turn out pretty much like I pictured it.  And that's good enough for me.

And I'm happy to report that the cupcake tree was picked up by some of my lovely licensing partners at the show and will be showing up on several new products in the coming year - I will keep you posted when I am able to share the details!