Housing Project 365

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Every time I see an artist doing one of those "make something everyday" projects I think I ought to try that too. Then I get lazy and distracted and kind of forget. The other day I read this article which reminded me and I decided that this might be a good time to actually do it, being a new year and all. I decided on houses as my theme. I plan to post every week (probably Sunday) and hopefully this will help me hold myself accountable so I'll actually do it. All of this was decided yesterday and I did the first eight to catch up. So far I think this is going to be a lot of fun, I'm excited to see where it goes!

(above image) #1- across the street house. I expect this particular one may be showing up a lot.

















#2 & 3. These are all done in a little sketchbook.

















#4- Fire house, #5- Aftermath house


































#6- Paper house

















#7- Star house, #8- Storm house






















#9- Pixie house

If you guys know any good examples of other people doing 365 projects, leave a link in the comments. Wish me luck!

New plaques

New stuff in the shop !





















Owl Nap






















Cat Nap

Hazards of Love

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This was for a commission I completed last month. The fellow who commissioned it requested I create a piece based on the the Decemberists album "The Hazards of Love". From that I put together a series of mounted prints of the art, which he gave out as Christmas gifts. The album tells a continuous story, here's a summary if you are interested.
This was a fun project to work on. The subject matter was fairly good fit for me (forests, vengeful fairy queen, music, infanticide... what could be better?). As I have mentioned before, I do love commissions. So if you want something special just drop me a line!
The original is still available for sale, btw. The dimensions are 12-something inches by some other measurement. It's all the way in the other room and I don't feel like getting out from under this warm blanket to measure it. I can, however, assure you that it is larger than a breadbox.






















One of the mounted prints, available in my Etsy shop! Most likely would fit inside your average breadbox.






















Initial sketch






















Sloppy color study






















Wood+ink sans stain

First post of 2011, Happy New Year everyone!

Gift season

Made this watercolor painting as a birthday gift for my former illustration professor, Joel Priddy






















This was a wedding present for a relative. They were engaged in Peru, so I used that as the theme and included native flora, fauna, and textile designs.

Southern Culture Show

These are for a show I'm participating in this Saturday-
"Southern Culture Lowbrow Extravaganza Part II" at 1330 Dickerson Pike, Nashville TN; Saturday, November 20 · 6:00pm - 10:00pm. One night only, come on out Nashville folks!

"Once again, visual artists and musicians come together for a night of satirical celebration of all things southern. Artists will share their own unique and comedic relationships visually set against an amazing soundtrack provided by Decatur, Alabama's Barnstormers!

Topics of interest include: Southern food, slang, music, hot rods, southern iconography, stereotypes and everything else that makes the south "The South". Works will be presented in a wide variety of media, including everything from photography, traditional paintings and illustration to sculpture and design. The Southern Satire show is back with more artists, more art and new music!"

































































My Opossum story was inspired by a few sketches I'd done for these pieces, hence the similarities.

The initial thumbnail skritchy scratchy sketches-





















A few more developed little sketches

















Plaque with ink, pre-stain






















The workspace with inky plaques and sketchy sketches

Opossum progress

A page from my "Ramshackle Wilderness" story painted up in watercolors. I've thumbnailed/written the remaining pages of the story, and it looks like it will be 24 pages if I don't change my mind. Drawings shall be done soon-ish and posted accordingly. Whether all 24 pages end up as fully fleshed-out watercolor paintings is yet to be determined. Stay tuned!

Pins for sale!

Finally got my pins in the 'ol Etsy shop! There is even a special offer when you buy a group of three. Thanks for checking it out :)

Ramshackle Wilderness: pt. 2

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Sketches for pages 15-18 of the story I started as a 24-hour comic. See the first part here.
So it looks as though Beelu's opossum compatriots are likely to die after all. Or maybe not. In any case, they have been the architects of their own destruction since the beginning, so Beelu cannot really be blamed. This sort of thing was bound to happen eventually.

Any critique so far, dear readers and art buddies? I think I'm going to use ink and watercolor on the finals. I may shoot for 24 pages, we'll see how long it takes before this story decides to wrap itself up.

*Read part 3 (finale)

24-hour comic no.2

I once again attempted the 24-hour comic challenge this year, and got about as far as I did last year. I like how it turned out though, and hopefully I'll get around to finishing it sometime in the near future.
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In the last page we see the opossum heading back to his town atop the snake, I haven't decided what should happen when they get there. Maybe he'll ferry everyone back to the kudzu-overgrown churches so they'll have a new place to live. Either that, or the snake will eat all of them. Depends on my mood that day.

Read part 2
and part 3!

"Meet Your Maker" show

The showcase of local Etsy sellers I was a part of this weekend, titled "Meet Your Maker", turned out to be a great success! I sold a fair bit, and got to talk with lots of people who were excited about my work. All the other sellers had great looking booths and items, and the food from Goodnight Gracie Specialty Foods was fantastic. The turnout was really good too, had the joint hopping all night. I rarely had a moment to stray from my table because the traffic was so steady!
I didn't manage to take any decent photos, so my special thanks go out to Christine Cook Jones, a seller at the show, for taking the time to beautifully document the event. (all photos in this post, excluding that last one of the pins, by Christine Cook Jones. Click to enlarge!)
Very special thanks also to Papatya Curtis of Bluer than Blue and Melissa Bridgman of Bridgman Pottery for putting the whole thing together!























































































I started making these pins. They were a popular item at my table and I'm going to be making a lot more for my Etsy shop soon.

Etsy show

On Friday Sept. 24 I will be joining a group of local Etsy sellers for a one-night event here in Memphis. Come by and say hi if you are in the area, it should be a cool show and a good time!






















From the press release-
"They may sell their handmade art, functional items and accessories all over the world on Etsy [www.etsy.com], but these 14 Memphis artisans are appearing “live” to host Meet Your Maker, a one-day showcase on Friday, September 24. Etsy is the world’s largest online marketplace for handcrafted goods, with 400,000 vendors currently listing 6 million items. This local sale by some Memphis Etsy sellers will be held at the Jack Robinson Gallery, 44 Huling Avenue, between Front Street and South Main.
“While selling our work on Etsy gives us all a steady revenue base, we rarely meet our customers in person, and people want to know where, and who, their goods come from,” said knitter Papatya Curtis, who is co-organizing Meet Your Maker with potter Melissa Bridgman. “We can’t meet everyone, but at least we can spend a little time with our local customers.”
The Memphis “makers” produce and collect fine art, fiber art, sewn crafts, jewelry, pottery,stationery and home accessories. Meet Your Maker will include items such as organza flower pins, hairclips, and other accessories; aprons, baby carriers (slings) and fabric baby shoes; fine art and fine art photography; handspun yarn; vintage items and vintage-inspired Halloween assemblages; as well as art nouveau-inspired fine art prints. Free shoppers’ snacks will be provided by Goodnight Gracie Specialty Foods."

Project Sketchbook

My submission for this year's Project Sketchbook. I wasn't sure if I would be done on time (didn't start until thursday night, oops) but I managed to put this together over the weekend. I had fun making it!













































































































The cover. This was drawn with a colored pencil, everything else is watercolor.