Proud Lions

The spring printing spree I've been on hasn't slowed yet. I made another new card design! This time, a pride of lions is lounging lazily under a tree. My favorite is the lioness in the tree all flopped out. The life!

This print marks the first time I've mixed my own custom color ink for a print. Gocco inks come in such an array that I've never needed to stray from using ink straight from the tube. This time I had a very specific idea of what I was going for. I wanted a 60s/70s cream and copper and goldenrod color scheme so I mixed an ink with 3 parts fancy sparkle gold, 1 part red and a touch of dark brown. I like it!

This card is available in my Etsy shop (as if you didn't know that was what I was getting at).

pssst

A few years ago I put out a gocco print edition that featured three colorful and boldly patterned snakes. I thought they looked good but I had that edition collect dust on Etsy for two whole years without selling a single one! I remember vowing never to try to sell something with a snake on it again because they don't seem to have any commercial appeal.

Too bad I love snakes. Yes, even the really big ones, the ones that hang from tree branches all creepy and the ones with venomous fangs. So, I broke the promise to my practical self and started printing up another snake design. This one features a harmless green snake with a secret and has just slithered into the shop.

My friend Liz suggested that the snake cards may be an unexpected success since that famous adventurer, the Bronx Zoo Cobra, has used his charm to gain tons of Twitter followers and has surely done a lot for the popularity of snakekind.

Work Makes Work

I've been in a slump waiting for my next bit of inspiration to strike and (I should know by now) that never works. Sloth begets sloth and work begets work. I am so thankful that Jenn came over today and worked with me because I was forced to actually make something. We ended up completing even more than I'd hoped for! We printed, signed, stamped and packaged over 150 prints in three brand new designs! A burst like this practically makes up for having spent the past two weeks "thinking".

I'm eager to share all three new prints but I'll try to restrain myself and space things out a bit.

I'll show my favorite one first. "Sweet Surprise" depicts a familiar scene in my home. I seem to be a big fan of buying a sweet potato and then forgetting about it until it grows eyes. Well, out of curiosity, I have let a few potatoes continue in their natural progression to sprout forests. Justin thinks they are disgusting, but I really think they have some lovely qualities. The stems that shoot up are often a pale violet transitioning into burgundy color with tiny dark green leaves at the top. I never would have expected such dramatic and colorful growth to come out of an old potato.

These prints are on a beautifully textured pale pink paper and printed in a rich rust ink. Available in my shop for $12. I'm excited about them.

Two new prints to share!

I've been surprisingly efficient these past two days despite having a really miserable cold. I rarely moved from the couch but since drawing and printing are not very strenuous tasks, I created two new things!

The first print I made is surely the simplest design I've ever created but It's also my new favorite. This print is my illustration of a bunny's nose and mouth but it also looks like it could be a symbol of some sort. I'm trying to be more mysterious. This print will be available in my shop later this evening (unless I fall asleep on the couch instead).

The next little print is of a snail on a log and these will be used as my thank you notes included with orders. I like that they match my snail mailers.

Well, I'm still not feeling better so I expect I'll have some new designs to share tomorrow. Funny how I'm more productive when I should be resting.

Oh, I also gave myself a new hairdo. Here is the before and after.

Turns out, socks on a rooster isn't all that cool.

So, as promised, I spent last night attempting to make a new design featuring a besocked rooster. It ends up that it was one of those ideas that seems like a winner but doesn't really pan out. Maybe I'll try again but I'm not sure the concept is worth the effort. At first I started with the simplest approach of a rooster standing calmly while wearing socks in a portrait style. I wasn't amused enough by it so I tried to invent a scenario where I thought a rooster would enjoy wearing socks. I thought the only way a proud rooster would wear a pair of silly socks was if it helped him impress a hen. So, somehow I developed the scene above where he is rubbing his socks on the rug to generate static and have a laugh with his hen friend. Yeah, it became a little too convoluted.

I wish I had made this a couple weeks ago when the theme for Illustration Friday was "Electricity".

What do you call those armadillo-like bugs?

It is rare for me to have the time and inspiration to take an idea that just pops into my head to full completion in a single day. I did today though with this little bug cluster! I've always sort of liked these peculiarly armored creatures.

Justin and I once got in a hot debate over their names. He thought they were called roly-polies and I thought they were called sow bugs. We tried to figure out who was right (because that is all important) by asking around and everyone seemed to have a different nickname for them. So far I've heard them called, sowbug, pillbug, potato bug, doodle bug, roly-poly, isopod and woodlouse! I'm sure there are different species being named here or something but if it is just one creature than I suspect it has the most dramatic ratio of names to body size.

My print (found here) is of a group of them clustered sweetly on scalloped paper with their nicknames (or misnomers) beside them.

Elephant shoes

I went to the mall the other day (a remarkable statement in itself) to find a new spring jacket. Of course that is too much to ask and the retail world is already selling bikinis and such. Booo! The whole trip was made worthwhile by a mega-score I found when I was in J.Crew. I'd been admiring their rain boots for ages but since they were over fifty dollars they were too much of a splurge since I already own a pair of (hideous) rain shoes. I stopped in again and to my utter delight they'd been marked down to sixteen dollars! Yes!

Big gray galoshes with tiny pink elephants scattered about are now mine! Just in time too because we had a big rainstorm today. I wore them out around town and felt quite giddy in with my bright blue umbrella and gray raincoat.

I was thinking about how a pair of fun rain boots can really take the gloom off a drizzly day. I imagined I'd like to be a rain boot designer since I'm always imagining crazy niche jobs that would be fun. I made a few quick rainboot designs for you to laugh at. I would probably wear all of them except number three. Number three is really obnoxious even if I found some spectacular fonts.

1. Scallop trim boot top is part of a cloud. There are lots of raindrops falling from the cloud. These should be lime green with ice blue droplets and a white cloud.

2. These are ridiculous and supposed to look like someone stuck their feet into a fishbowl. I fully embrace the tackiness.

3. Splish! Splash! I hate these boots and I'm mad that they came from my brain. They remind me of those terrible Jordache tees that have script handwriting on them and a rose on a piano and all the words are "love" in different languages. Bleugh!

4. Tiny red mushrooms releasing a cloud of spores. Kawaii!

5. Angry tiger faces shooting lightning bolts up the leg. I heard cats don't like to get wet.

6. Earthworms. I don't care if it's gross; rain begets big bloated earthworms. I think I'd like the worms to glow in the dark.

7. Rope and tassels. For those living the nautical lifestyle.

Dramatic card set

I made these designs earlier this week but I held out on the printing until my Paper-Source order came in. I am pleased to present this dramatic duo of euphoric goat and despairing hippopotamus cards. This is the first time that I've made a design for cards and they please me. They are blank inside so they are very versatile and I've already had the opportunity to use a couple. I used the noooo hippo as an apology card for completely forgetting about breakfast plans with friends (shame!) and I'm intending to send the yes goat to my cousin because he and his wife just had a new baby.

I have been having fun brainstorming possible situations where the cards would be appropriate.

Some NOooo card suggestions:

- Disbelief... "Nooo! I am shocked that you got dumped/ fired/ injured/ pwned"
- A very emphatic written response to a question... "Nooo! I will sadly be missing your very important social gathering."
- Denial..."Nooo! I would never share that exceptionally juicy secret!"
- Despair... "Nooooo! I made a terrible mistake!"

Here are a few suggestions for the YES card:

- Congratulations on the new...baby/ lover/ job/ home/ tooth
- Generally excited thank-you card... "yes! I can't believe you brought me the guinea pig of my dreams!"
- Proud type card... "Yes! I'm so glad you got that sweet trophy."
- Gloating... "Yes! Never forget that I reign as Boggle champion!"

I am wondering if these would be inappropriate for more serious correspondences like death or divorce because they are pretty silly. I think their lightheartedness could be welcome but I am not officially endorsing the idea because it is pretty risky. I'm listing them on Etsy tomorrow because I'm too sleepy to complete the mission right now.

I welcome any more card message suggestions to add to my listing.

A great ark of popular imagery

I have a job other than my bakery job that I work at only one night per week. This job is at a small cafe that is painfully short on customers. We sell coffee, tea, juice and four kinds of pie. After I've made the coffee and sliced the pie, there is not much to do except sit and wait. I get a little lonely but never bored because I bring my sketchbook. Many of my designs were formed while sitting on an uncomfortable stool and staring at four kinds of pie illuminated in a florescent case.

Last time I was there, I drew out a scene of a great ark floating away with all the recent trends I could fit in. I must admit that I am often asking myself, "am I being too trendy with my drawings?". Perhaps. But I decided that I shouldn't worry about that question anymore and just make what I like. Well, apparently I'd been suppressing my desire to draw squid, cupcakes and nesting dolls because they all came out at once in this drawing.

I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out and I learned a lot while making it. I drew the whole thing out in ink, scanned the drawing and then digitally colored everything in. I have never tried to do much with Photoshop before so I took a long time to finish the whole thing. I paintbucketed my bum off. Now I need to find a place to do a high quality print for me. I'm hoping to be able to have this for sale on Etsy in a week or so.

Here is the rundown of all the popular things I managed to fit in the ark:
one giant squid
two jellyfish
one anchor
a pirate flag
one retro-colored owl
one giant anthropomorphic cupcake
a unicorn and a rainbow
a deer
one little grey squirrel
a sad bunny
two matryoshka nesting dolls
a raincloud with lightning
a large yetti
an umbrella
one cactus
a sentimental robot
little red mushrooms on a stump
a gold tooth
a snail
a diamond
paper airplanes
a ninja (which of course you couldn't notice due to his skills in disguise)
a handlebar moustache
Last but not least I'd like to point out that the ark is not made of wood. it is faux bois.

Wigs and monkeys

While Justin and his friends played an intense game of "Tumblin' Monkeys", I got busy printing my newest drawing. I played for two rounds but my monkey aversion got the best of me so I went back to printing and being antisocial. I did give them a brief Gocco demo but I don't think they were blown away.

"Epic Do" is a massively stylin' bit of hair sculpture printed in red and orange ink on the palest pink cardstock. I'm putting this Gocco print up for sale today in my shop. This print marks the first time I've bravely mixed inks on one screen without using foam dividers. It worked just fine and I'm trying to think up a new drawing where I can mix lots of colors on one screen for another time.

Gocco is for lovers

Kayla's drawing and Justin's Wii obsession have inspired me to create these two lovey designs for Valentine's Day. I have to admit that I usually don't do much for that holiday since it falls between our anniversary and Justin's birthday so I'm pretty sure Justin will be excited and surprised when he sees these. I'm giving him the "Wii belong together" print for a valentine and the "You're my Hero" print as a fan letter when he gets good enough to play Slayer on expert level.

I'm selling these in my shop for less than I normally charge for my drawings. Pricing really is the toughest part of selling art! These were sort of spur of the moment drawings and will be an open edition so I felt like they should be less. Tough call though.

My hero...

I spent the weekend with Kayla (my new mini sister-in-law) and she made this awesome guitar hero picture. Justin couldn't be prouder to be influencing his little sister to be a Nintendo enthusiast and I'm excited that she is really into drawing and craft projects.

We also did some interior design and she helped me stick a flock of birds to the formerly boring bedroom wall. I got the decals from One Up Designs and I think they look boss. Our bedroom is the most hated room in our apartment. We hate the size, wall color, brick wall-facing window and hospital light fixture. We're not happy about the bunny turd box in the corner either. So, I've been really trying hard to make it special in hopes that I will be encouraged to be tidy and stop leaving my clothing strewn about. The wall decals, new duvet, curtain and small rug so far have made a big difference. Our room was previously all different shades of dirty tan but the bold orange color and patterns are livening up what we previously called "the cave".

Scarf bunny!

I've decided that scarf bunny will be my unofficial Argyle Whale Etsy shop mascot. I have made it my avatar and added two scarf bunny listings to the shop. I printed the bunny on a Moleskine journal a few times and that is now up for sale. I also made a new gocco print of a bunch of floating scarf bunny heads. I'm pretty excited about this new print because I added yellow hand-colored elements so each print is really different and special.

I made the new print because I drew so many sketches of scarf bunny to get her right that my notebook became populated with bunny heads. I ended up liking the way a cluster of floating bunny faces looked even more than one perfect bunny. I printed 16 and have made 15 available here.

Holy Hawtness!

Sparkling silver and gold, jazzy jewels and trendy slang are combined in this drawing that I made with Paris Hilton in mind. I have to admit that I really love Hawt with a "W"!

I found that printing on the shiny silver and gold paper was tricky with the Gocco. I don't recommend it. I think the ink had trouble clinging to a less porous surface so I got lots of sad sad smudgery. I made 50 printing attempts and only made 15 prints that were good enough to sell. Boooo!

Oh well, I know now that I'm no match for the shimmer. I would do it all over again though because this design just wouldn't be the same on regular paper. I felt I needed to go for extra glamour with this one.

I have thirteen up for sale on Etsy now.

Also, I'm excited to announce that I sold my first print at ArgyleWhale.Etsy the other day! Yes!

Fiesta Snakes

Three amigos with snazzy skin are available at argylewhale.etsy.com.

Infinite Lemmings

Newly added Gocco print to the ol' Argyle Whale shop. I really enjoyed making this drawing. I had the idea before I really knew what a lemming looked like so I spent a long time looking at pictures of their striped little bodies. Oh they are so cute!

This drawing was based on the idea of lemmings following their leaders off cliffs to their doom. I arranged them so they could all follow and graze peacefully forever. It may not be any help to real lemmings but at least my imagination feels better. This drawing made me wish I knew how to do animation. I'd really love to watch the lemmings bustling around and around in a figure eight.

Bam! Bam!

I just put up two new Gocco prints for sale on Etsy. I'm trying to get lots of items up to make my shop look nice and plump and also so I can get going on new things. I have so many ideas! Today's new releases are "Dripping with Jewels" and "P U S S Y".

"P U S S Y" will probably get lots of attention but it may have to be a special rare someone who buys it to hang in their house. It is a little naughty. Perhaps I should give one to my mother for her birthday and make her blush. Pussy willows are my favorite plant. We had a huge pussy willow plant in our back yard when I was a kid and I would often fill my pockets with the fuzzy buds to enjoy them wherever I went. A few years ago, I found a tiny windbreaker jacket at my parents house that used to be mine. Every pocket (even the little chest one) was stuffed with pussy willow buds! I have always been into little textural joys. My mother says I was a very tactile child obsessed with softness. No wonder I love my bunnies so much!

"Dripping With Jewels" also depicts one of my favorite things from childhood. I loved chandeliers and I wanted to have one in my bedroom very badly. A big one! That was probably around the same time as I was obsessed with having a canopy bed and satin sheets. Sadly, I still have a taste for the finer things. Again, I quote my mother who says I've got, "champagne tastes on a beer budget". "Dripping with jewels" is just such a sumptuous phrase. I wish I could use it more often. I probably made this whole piece just for the title.