Couple of things:

• Updated my portfolio with some illustrations of Cleopatra for Junior Scholastic! I thought I’d share a page of the character design I came up with for her. Had so much fun working on historical character design— I need to do more of this!
• Just finished sketches for the book I’m working on, and boy are my hands tired!
• My shop is replenished with some goodies, including Hello Llama pillows and some open-stock notepads and jotters. I’m aiming to get more going in the next couple of months, including an Alice letterpress print! Please let me know if there’s anything you’d like to see from me in the future.
• Tomorrow is going to be fun. Visiting Bite Studio, and a drink and draw event later in the afternoon.
• I’m looking into the possibility of hosting workshops/teaching. The class I was excited to teach fell through, so now I need to brainstorm other options! I could use your help/opinions of the sorts of things I could teach. 
• Still looking about Portland for job opportunities. Surely there’s a place needing an eager illustrator-type, right? Keep me in mind.

Splashes of color this time— I decided to play with cut painted and inked paper, which I found intriguing as an alternate thing to explore. The main downside is I don’t seem to have a good glue solution yet (any ideas?).

I’m thinking about switching this to be less scans of my sketchbook and more carefully considered images that I come up with. We’ll see how that goes though.

Six thoughts I’m thinking of…

1. In five years… What will I be making? How childish will the work I make now look in comparison? (Answer: probably ridiculously so. I eagerly await.)
2. Pets. Brainstorming literal and metaphorical pets for a collaborative project. The life of my dog, past pets I’ve owned, life and death.
3. Collaboration. Teaming up with people I don’t know yet to make magic. Hopeful discussions in the future with people I want to know better.
4. What statements do I want to make as a creative?
5. Making time to do the things that I’m not making yet. I get a little sad at the thought that I’m not getting hired to make the kind of work I know I’m capable of— but at the same time I need to show the world that I can. Prototypes.
6. Getting away. The move is coming sort of quick, and I’m behind. Part of me just wants to hide in a corner, but I know there’s lots to do. I’m a little anxious (new situation! But what if it was the wrong move? What about grad school? What if my friends don’t like me? What if I can’t find a job? Etc, etc.) but hopefully it’ll be replaced by some semblance of excitement again.

I wrote a long post in here, but Tumblr ate it. I’m going to rewrite it from memory, but needless to say it was much nicer before.

Long story short- Frank wrote something, then Kate, then Crystal, now me. I’m going to try and keep it up weekly, since I’m already posting on Fridays with sketches. 

1. Ritual. It’s been something I’ve kind of missed since coming out here. Holidays and rituals just sort of slip away; most recently I’ve been reading The Creative Habit after reading about it on 43 Folders and really enjoying it. My schedule is always erratic at best, but I’ve been wanting to try and get better. Starting the workday with a ritual seems handy enough. Right now my ritual is to get dressed, feed the dog, check email, then go for a walk with her and let my mind wander about the day and life and all that. (It’s a sadly short one lately, but I’ll rectify that in the fall) Then I go up to my studio, turn on some music, and write out a to-do list for that day. I also reread yesterday’s, and reflect on why thing A didn’t get done, etc. It’s a good way to stay mindful and keep accountable.
2. Monsoons. Finally the heat’s breaking a little, though I know it’s short lived. Still, seeing the sky blanketed with dark clouds and the impending smack of rain makes me happy. Doesn’t hurt that it’s a signifier of change too.
3. The concept of work. Hard work, working together, coworking, work arounds. But mostly the idea of working because it’s what nourishes you vs. the idea of working to get rich or survive, punching a timecard, toiling, and wishing for that day you retire. Partially brought up by that Mike Rowe talk I liked, partially from my own current experience, and partially from talking with older people near retiring or already retired. I admit part of me admires those who put in their lives doing ‘dirty jobs’, but I can’t personally picture working away in a job that I don’t feel passionate about, or worse hate, just to retire someday. Me, I hope I’m working long after I’m old and gray, just like my illustration idols. But who knows what the world will look like then, and if there’ll be any use for me at that point?
4. The future. Unsurprising; this is a near daily thought for me. But in addition to all the awesome people I’ll hopefully spend time with, and the opportunity to spend countless hours in the library and walking all over my new town, I’m also thinking about the friendships that have gotten less tight, how I want to volunteer, and how to be kinder. While people tell me otherwise, I feel very self-involved and I want to help and love and share and give to people. 
5. Animation. After seeing some concepts of mine animated for a commercial, it’s like crazy voodoo. I need to investigate this further.
6. Learning vs. Teaching. I’ve been rewriting my resume to apply for a teaching position, and it’s honestly nervewracking trying to explain why I’d develop into a good teacher despite having no experience. But in my head, learning’s not so different from teaching. Just another skill to learn, and I feel like my zeal for learning and experimentation is a good preparation. I feel like there are good nuggets in my head for students to learn, and coupled with passion, enthusiasm and caring it could work well in the future. If this doesn’t work out, I suspect teaching in some form, be it volunteering or running a workshop (screenprinting workshop? yes please!) might be in my future at some point.

A little behind on my sketching time this week (intense projects going on), so I’m pulling from my ‘archives.’ More new sketches to come next week!

One thing’s for sure— I draw about 10,000 faces, eyes, etc in my sketchbook. In the efforts of blogging more, sketching more, practicing more with ink and wash, and getting ideas readied (and yes, trying to draw more than just faces), I’m going to start posting pages from my sketchbook every Friday. Next week, I’ll post some Alice themed sketches since my new post for Picture Book Report goes up on Monday! 

Have a great weekend, my friends! I’ll be drawing most of it.

I don’t garden (though I sort of want to!), but I do like food, so more opportunities to practice drawing it is a-okay with me! Working with the lovely Adrienne Pitts again over at Jamie Magazine— not even the wrath of Eyjafjallajokull could stop us from getting some fun artwork together! (Seriously, bad timing when you’re working on deadlines. Shame on you, Volcano.) Anyhow, this may be a sort of recurring assignment for me— which I am psyched for, because drawing plants surprisingly can be a lot of fun. And I’ve never been great at it so I’m glad for the opportunity to up my skills! There were five spots all in all for each subject. 

This one was all about the varieties of salad greens— I’ve decided I vastly prefer the British terms to ours. We don’t get to eat rocket! Crying shame in my book.

A little spot of broad beans and ladybugs. There was one point while working late that I drew a Mameshiba on a bean. The things we do to amuse ourselves, friends!

The unfortunately named water butt.

How to hoe your garden.

And lastly, picking potatoes.

Since I’ve been bad on sharing process, also attaching some of the sketches I came up with for them. I haven’t had to come up with a lot of multiple sketches for these, so they don’t really change too much from start to finish. 

And here’s how they look like on the page. I hope you enjoy!