Little jellies

I've been very busy with week 2 of Illustrator 102. So in love with live paint and clipping masks. And about a million other things. It tempts me to call in sick to work, just about everyday. 

I got super exciting feedback on my little foxy drawing:

Alma Loveland wrote:  Excellent!! Love this! Excellent, excellent job!!I don't know that I would change a thing! could be fun on a colored background, but I love it on the white, too!

So that made my day! 

I've been playing with a zebra graphic, created from one of my gazillion zebra pictures. 

I have millions of other ideas swirling in my mind...so more to share soon! 

Hitting the ground running

Last Monday I got back from Africa at midnight. The next morning I had to be at work, get over my jetlag, get back on the right time zone, get used to reality, and catch up on my Illustrator 102 class that started on Sunday.

So it was a busy week. But crazy good.

I have tons of African inspired ideas going on right now.

This weekend, all my free creative time was spent working on this weeks homework and lesson. It was amazing to spend so much time in illustrator again. And I'm in love with live paint. And creating pattern swatches.

These are what I spent most of my time working on this weekend, as part of this weeks homework. 

an african journal

 

I wanted a messy little notebook to take with me on my trip. I used the tutorial from this amazing blog http://valentinaramos.blogspot.com/ on how she creates her canvases, to make the cover for my notebook. Instead of layering paper pieces on canvas, I layered it on this thin fabric I had. In the end, it ended up cracking a bit, it didn't have as much give as it needs I guess. But I wanted it to be a messy little book.
 

I added my paint and doodles, and here it is. I  may add some words on the front cover, but I havent quite decided. Inside is a mixture of papers with a couple of envelopes and pouches for sticking notes and little papers collected along the way.




It turned out even messier than was expected, but I'm good with that.

freewriting and drawing

I was working on something tonight, and all of a sudden, there was just a burst of free writing on the back of a pizza box cardboard that originally had a to-do list on it. There were random tree drawings. And there is what was going to be a giraffe in the bottom corner. And one of the trees is going the wrong way.

But it was just what I needed.

dancing honu's and other doodles

Happy 2012!
Most of my free time lately has been spent getting ready for the big Africa Adventure. Only four more sleeps. This morning I did a pre-pack, and it went really well. So I took a bit of time to paint some honu's (Hawaiian word for turtle).

I had watercolor painted this background when we were in Hawaii, and I knew I wanted to add some little swimming honu's, but didn't have the supplies with me.


So I painted some quick turtle shapes with white acrylic paint




Then added some paint accents in blues and greens.



And some sharpie lines.


I've also been working on some other watercolor doodles, with some awesome new watercolor brush pens I got for christmas.

I've been playing with something else, trying to get it done before I leave, but its not really going as planned...we'll see what becomes of that. 

(Apologies for the assortment of photos, much of my camera equipment is already packed, so I was struggling through today using my cellphone and different lenses for my photos). 

Inspired wrapping

I decided to try some Alisa Burke inspired wrapping paper. I painted watercolor circles of different sizes on a piece of brown paper. 

Then added some quick snowflake doodles.


 And added a bit of white acrylic paint. Love this.




Wish I had time to wrap all my presents like this. Maybe next year. Too much time spent on one silly thing at a busy time of year? Yes, definitely. But I had so much fun doing it, and I know the recipient will love it. And that's what Christmas is all about.

finally finished...an elephant quartet

Wow, I don't know where the time has gone since I've been back from Hawaii. Mostly into Christmas I suppose. And getting ready for my African adventure. I've had zero creating time lately, and can feel myself going a bit crazy.

I sold out of my elephants pretty quick at the craft fair last month, so I committed myself to making another four before Christmas for someone. I figured that would be easy. Not so. I am so not in the making-stuff-to-sell-and needs-to-be-done-by-a-certain-date mode. It was tedious. But finally tonight. They are finished. And they are cute.

Hopefully over the next (less than)three weeks until I leave, I can now do some fun creative things.