Fortunes Told

Some new business cards that also tell your fortune. 100% accuracy guaranteed.

And here are some sketches...

Chickens

Fellow SCAD grad Sam Bryer asked several artists who work in many different media to submit work for her thesis piece. On the surface, it's a book about chickens. Underneath, it's a book about crossovers between fine art and applied arts. You can preview and order the full book here. Thanks for asking me to participate, Sam!

If you're in Savannah, stop by Sam's thesis show tomorrow at the Non-Fiction Gallery at 1522 Bull Street. You have to see her anthropomorphic chairs in person. They're incredible.

Here's the piece I submitted about chickens' excellent color vision.

And here...

Ike's Incredible Ink!

A little piece of me is at the Frankfurter Buchmesse. Ike's Incredible Ink comes out with Candlewick Press in August 2013!

Drawing While Vegging: Damages

Season 4 of Damages is now on Netflix and Glenn Close is on my computer. And in my sketchbook! And oH GOD HER HAND IS BACKWARD. That's what you get for multitasking.

New Homepage

I just updated my website and it reminded me how much I love Other Peoples Pixels, the template site I use. I went to the ICON 7 illustration conference this weekend (more on that later) and it was VERY inspiring and has me thinking I should learn to code??? Until I do, OPP is great and Jenny and Brian, the couple that started it, are fantastic. Check it out. And check out Jenny's art here.

The new home page with little ol' OPP in the corner.

How to Poach an Egg

Is this a food blog? Why no, it's not a food blog. But I learned how to poach an egg from this guy on YouTube and it worked so well I need to re-post it. It seems so intimidating and fancy! Whenever I've tried before they end up looking like an octopus! But it turns out the hardest part is the part at the end--the part where you have to wait ten minutes. A watched egg never poaches.

New York Times Weekend Arts

This past Friday I had the very great pleasure of working with Richard Aloisio at the New York Times to make the cover of the Weekend Arts section. Here is an awesome photo taken with my telephoto professional camera, the iPhone.

The assignment was for a summer book review. Richard gave me a general direction (summer, the joy of reading, beach reads) and let me totter off. I started with many many very rough sketches. I drew a lot of cliche ideas. As the night wore on, I drew some bizarre ideas. Here are some sketches that I hope fell somewhere in the middle.

The idea I liked best was to use bright, summer colors in semi-translucent paper droplets to represent the different summer books, and a person in a field of these book-droplets who gets to pick their favorite one. Luckily that was the one that was picked! I was thinking about a collage from an earlier project. Here are two more finished sketches that came next:

 Richard suggested I add a sun and a beach to add a bit of context and make the scene more summery. He also had the idea to use pages from the actual books that were being reviewed. Here is a bit of process work. I think I saved it at this point because this was when I thought, these damn paper droplet thingy-s are tiny and this is taking forever arrrrrrg oh god I better save this file. Now you know my secret art-making process!

Drawing While Vegging: West Wing

A friend of mine lent me West Wing on DVD. It started as something to watch while I was working on my computer since I can't draw on my computer and watch TV on it at the same time. But then it turned into something I draw while vegging.  Oh, West Wing, you've wormed your way into my heart.

It mostly means I get a lot of practice drawing suits.  Which I like.

 

Also, guess who's on an episode? A young Ron Swanson.

Luchadores L'Amores

Happy Valentine's Day, from the Luchadores L'Amores Valentines Day Fighters. Three more to come!

Mrs. Dr. Brianne Farley, Illustrator, Esq.

Yesterday I finished designing my business card. Doing the sketches for it made me feel like that little girl who has a crush on a boy and writes her future married name over and over in her notebook. Except I have a crush on myself. Brianne Farley, Mrs. Brianne Farley, Mr. and Mrs. Brianne Farley, Dr. and Dr. Farley, Brianne and Brianne Farley, BHF + BHF 4 EVR, I <3 ME *sigh*

Drawing While Vegging: Castle and Pan Am

I'll have you know that I have really excellent taste. But I also love Castle and Pan Am. Here are some sketch book doodles I made yesterday and today while watching TV. (Apologies to John Hendrix's Drawing in Church.) 

Ezra Jack Keats

Collage and paint on board
10 x 20 in. (25.4 x 50.8 cm)
Ezra Jack Keats Papers, de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection, McCain Library and Archives, The University of Southern Mississippi

There's a wonderful exhibition up at The Jewish Museum right now featuring the work of Ezra Jack Keats. It was really incredible to see his original work up close--that guy knew how to create some made texture. I also loved that they paired some of his reference shots with his finished work.  Makes me look at Brooklyn with fresh eyes. Thanks, Ezra. (And thanks, Krishna, for taking me!)