Giveaway

Okay, here's the deal. Doing this Sketchbook thingy has just about wiped out my brain. I have sort of come to a creative dead-end, so to speak. Or maybe it's just that I'm tired, and Secret Agent Man has been out of town all week doing Secret Agent things and I'm just out of my routine. I don't know.
But whatever it is, I'm drawing a blank (pun definitely intended) as to where to go next with this. I realize I don't have to have 40 pages of art, but I'd like to have more than 14.

Anyway...here's what I'm thinking: I'm going to have a contest. Submit to me your idea for an illustration and if I like it and I pick it I will send you a numbered and signed print of the drawing. (Numbered because at some point I'm going to offer some of them as a limited edition of prints, I think.)

Please keep in mind that
1) my theme is "Submersibles and Dirigibles";
2) nothing naughty, please;
and 3) it needs to be able to fit into a 5.5 in by 8.5 in drawing space.

Um....let's see - deadline 1 week from today, so Nov 5th. How's that sound?

She Has No Time

Another drawing based on a song on my iPod. I'm not quite sure I like it, and I'm not quite sure I'm done with it, but I suspect I need to quit messing with it for now!



From Keane's "She Has No Time"

You think your days are uneventful
And no one ever thinks about you
She goes her own way
She goes her own way
You think your days are ordinary
And no one ever thinks about you
But we're all the same
And she can hardly breathe without you

She says she has no time
For you now
She says she has no time

Mine

Do you ever look at ceiling tiles or floor tiles, or anything else that has a texture, and see a picture in the pattern? Like a face, or an animal or Michael Jackson, the Virgin Mary or something?
If you have, you know what I'm talking about. If not, you think I'm nuts, and I'm fine with that, too.

I see pictures in and on stuff all the time. Usually faces. And last week I saw a picture in the bathroom tile at work. I couldn't get the image out of my mind, so I drew a picture of my own, based on the tile pattern - more or less.

"Mine"

It's different from my usual stuff, but I kinda like it. Maybe I need to spend more time in the bathroom at work...

The Princess and the Pea

Eat Me

Oh, come on. That's not what I meant and you know it!

The latest Alice picture.

Zombie vs Ninja

This was done based on a conversation with my new friend Spuds at Carrying a Cat By the Tail.  He was a winner of one of my little girl pictures and he commented that he had shown his kids and his twins wanted to know if I drew zombies.  He stated he didn't know if there was such a thing as a "cute zombie". 

I took that as a personal challenge. 



So while I'm working on my next Alice, I thought I'd share my zombie picture. Just for fun. 

No One Likes a Perky Goth pt 2

So I have decided to re-do some of my old artwork in my new style... some of the ones I was not particularly happy with the first time around.

This is from a couple years ago:



...which is okay...but not quite what I pictured.

This one I finished today. I think I like it better.



...but then, I'm kinda partial to my new girls.
Whadda you think?

(update: I've had a couple people say they missed the flowers, so I added some in.)

Wicked

Yes, she is.

My steampunked version of the Wicked Witch of the West.

Chicken Nugget Lemon Tooty pt 2 and 3

*** Go check out Chicken Nugget Lemon Tooty. Yes, right now! All the "fan art" has been posted and it's wicked cool! There are so many talented people who responded to the call for art. What a fun, fun thing! ***

My second selection for the CNLT project was Gracie's spy girl. Again - right up my alley, no? Her dad called it "Saving the World and Looking Snazzy". Love it!

Here's Gracie's. I love that her hair is blowing in the wind and that even her gun is color coordinated!
And here's my version:
I was going to call it a day after finishing up the spy girl, but then I remembered that the deadline was today!! So I stayed up late and started/finished Isaac's monster under the bed called "Wide Awake". Finally got it done around 1 am.

I love the look on the monster's face, like "Wait a minute! I know that bed was here a minute ago!"

Chicken Nugget Lemon Tooty

One of the sites I visit regularly is Pascal Campion. His artwork is fun and lovely and a great inspiration. He recently had a post that linked to a site called, you guessed it, Chicken Nugget Lemon Tooty.

CNLT is a blog that is done by three kids, Isaac (10), Grace (9), and Lily (6). They draw, review books, and make their own drawings of art they like from the books they read. They have been doing this for 3 years, according to their site.

Their dad has decided, in honor of their 250 posts and 400 drawings (holy cow!), to invite artists who read their blog to do their own versions of the kids' drawings, like the kids do of their favorite artists.

I thought this sounded like a lot of fun! So I perused their site and found a drawing done by each of the kids. Drawing #1 is a Bunny Pirate Captain done by Lily.


We all know I like pirates! I couldn't resist!
Here's my version of Lily's pirate:

Over the next couple days I will be doing one for Isaac and Grace as well. It's a nice little exercise for me and a lot of fun. I encourage any of you who like to draw or doodle to join in, what a fun thing for those kids!

Fairies and fires and callers, oh my!

I had a sale! Yea!



This was for one of my favorite little fairies. I did this one completely in Corel Painter, and it's a really fun art program because you can totally make stuff look like it's hand painted. (Ok, what the hell is it with me and the word "totally"?! I totally use it way too much!) I need to play around in it some more, and probably get the newer version, because my computer doesn't like the old one very well (I think it's 3 years old now).
I also have a good start on my jewelry. It's been fun making stuff again. Hopefully I will have some pictures to post on Monday. Maybe tomorrow if I really get my butt in gear.

I am kind of frustrated I haven't posted for a while. Been working a lot. We've had some mandatory overtime because a lot of people have been sick, some on vacation and one of our gals fell off a ladder and fractured her spine. (ouch!) And then Thursday we had a HUGE storm here. Lots of thunder and lightening and grass fires. That's always fun in a 911 center. (Not!) Then right in the middle of everything we (or the ground right next to the building) got hit by lightening! Everybody yelped and jumped in their seats. Luckily our computers are well protected, but sheriff's radio lost all theirs for a bit. It was pretty nuts for a while. Thank goodness it started to rain right after so hopefully that put out all the grass fires that got started.

Ah, summer!

It's been what we call "stupid busy" around here. Domestic violence calls have doubled:


Assaults have doubled (The new thing here seems to be stabbings. Good grief!):


Our "special" callers are calling 20 times a day, some of them (seriously), and they all seem to be coming out of the woodwork:


The heat, and now the full moon, are making people ca-ray-zee! We have discussed plans to get a crop duster to spread Prozac around town. If anyone can help with that I'd appreciate a call!



Have a great weekend!

What I've Been Working On

I have a friend here at work whose husband is being re-deployed to Iraq for, I think, the 3rd time. (sucks) They (his unit) decided they wanted t-shirts to help out a little with morale/camaraderie.
The original design was developed by one of the guys in the unit, but it was determined to be too busy, and too many colors for a t-shirt print.
So she came to me and asked if I could help out. For our troops, I was happy to.
Below are the original and the re-design. I knew I was on the right track when S.A.M. actually recognized the plane I used! :)

For those who care, they were done as vector art in Adobe Illustrator.


Next up, I have several special custom projects/portraits, thanks to Midlife Slices! (Yea!) Hopefully she will share as I get them done!

What Were They Thinking??

I've been seeing a lot of stuff lately about celebrities obsessed with youth. So many of them are getting this procedure or that injection...half of them no longer look like themselves.

I understand the desire to remain youthful. I wouldn't mind taking 10 years off, myself. But I draw the line at having my face sliced open or some toxic substance injected into my face. (Although, ask me again in 10 years and maybe I'll have changed my mind...!)

However...

I have become somewhat obsessed, myself, with finding the perfect plumping lip gloss! I don't have particularly thin lips, but I like them to look a little fuller. Not a lot. Just a little. And I totally understand the desire of many actresses to have a plumper pout because thinning lips really do age you (as do crows feet and frown lines. But I don't have any of those. No I don't! Prove it!) What I don't understand is a) why do actresses under the age of 45 feel they need to "fix" anything with their faces, and b) what on God's green Earth makes anyone think that having duck lips makes them in any way, shape, or form attractive!?!?

These two seem to have managed some restraint, and I think they look fine. In fact, I think Courtney Cox looks better, actually. Aniston looked fine to begin with, but her new upper lip is kinda cute.

These wack jobs actresses obviously have issues:

Me, on the other hand, I think I've finally found the perfect lip gloss! What do you think? Is it too much? You can be honest.

Trying something new

So today is my day off from work (yea!) and I'm just hanging out at home. The Hubs has come home early today, too, and when I asked what he wanted to do with the day he said he was going to do taxes.
Joy.
I am going to work on art, big surprise. I am in the process of trying to redo my Etsy shop because I'm just not getting the sales I want. I am going to try several different things.
One is I'm going to not aim my art at children's stuff, which I kind of initially did with my alphabet series. I still like the fantasy/fairy tale stuff and will probably continue some of that. One other new thing I'm trying is a series of pop art animals like Frenchy up there.
I think I will work up a few critters I like and then offer to do commission work of people's pets.

I am also going to start doing some framed work, trying various small pieces, 6x6 and 8x8, that you can mix and match to create a grouping. I see some other shops are doing pretty well with that type of thing.
We (me and Hubs) are going to work on getting the olive hue designs website up and running also. He's much better with that sort of thing than I am, thank goodness!
And I'll try to start posting here more. It's hard when I work a 10 hour day, and when I'm trying to draw as much as I can. But I'm getting there!

Wishes Granted

My newest fairy...

Fairy Queen

A woodland fairy queen I've been working on a little at a time for a while. I think she's finally done...