Egrets

I finally finished this illustration, inspired by egrets and other wading birds I saw on the beaches in Naples, FL. I've been working on it for almost a year, and had put it aside when I had artists block.

One of the best bits of advice I got in art school, step away from your art, think about it for a few days, look at it from different distances. I have this printout on the wall, to live with it for a few days. As you can see i've made some editing notes on it.

Loons Illustration

The haunting cry of two loons echos over a still mountain lake.

This is an illustration I've been working on over the last week, of a pair of loons. I love the graphic black and white of these birds, and the red eye is a nice pop of color.
I'm not sure if this is finished yet, I'm thinking of experimenting with the color of the sky, or maybe adding a mountain ridge in the background. What do you think?

Block Printing

While I was on vacation, I got to go to a real art store, and since it was vacation I bought myselft a new toy, a little block printing kit.
Here is my illustration drawn and ready to be carved. I was worried that the detail wouldn't come out very well, but it did.

Some practice prints, and a messed up print. I really love this color paper, but it had a texture that didn't work great for block printing. fortunately I was able to find another light blue paper in my office.

My finished prints! This was fun, I can't wait to make more of them.

Projects!

For the last week I've been working alot, so no pretty pictures of nature, pretty projects though.
31/365: My crocheted Nudibranch, I wrote the pattern for this myself. I've been wanting to make one of these for awhile. Not scientifically accurate, but fun!

32/365: A quick sketch I did in illustrator. I wanted to draw this by hand, but started by tracing a printout of this sketch, to keep everything balanced and symmetrical.

33-35/365: Working on the outline of my illustration



38/365: Finished! My January Christmas present (I'm trying to make 1 a month), only 7 days late. This scarf will probably be for my grandmother.
This is a free pattern, by Elisa Purnell, available here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/feather-and-fan-scarf-10

40/365: One of the notebooks I made today.

16/365: Finally a nice day

18/365: A first version on an illustration. I wasn't happy with this, but I liked the ideas.

19/365: Full moon

20/365: A bear sculpture in the woods at Northwest River Park. This actually made me paranoid that there were real bears in the woods.

21/365: The second version of the illustration I threw out a few days ago. I drew this by hand with pen and ink, scanned it using my new printer, and printed it onto pink cardstock to make Valentines.

City Park

I finally finished my new holiday illustration. I've been working on this for weeks, for some reason progress on this was really slow. My inspiration was parks in urban spaces in general, and specifically Fredrick Law Olmstead's "Gothic Bridge" in Central Park.
At first I though I should fill the lower right corner, but I think I'm happy with it. What do you think?

Screen Printing is Fun!

I'm not sure why, but I seem to go through a creative funk in the summer. But last weekend I did try something new, which has definitely inspired me: Screen Printing. The image above is my "Queen Anne" illustration, simplified into 2 colors. I really like to create things by hand sometimes, instead of just working on digital illustrations, and this technique is a great combination of the two. I can't wait to try more of this.

More Project 365

I couldn't post all my photos for project 365 yesterday, because blogger only allows 5 photos per post. So here are the rest of my photos to get caught up.
44/365: Today I have an illustration to share, not a photo. This is my "Lunar Moth" illustration, which I started on Friday and finished Saturday

45/365: Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. One of the trails leading to the beach.

46/365: I should have posted this on Valentines' Day, but I'll post it today instead. I love the red color, so bright and cheerful. I asked my boyfriend not to get me roses, and he didn't. He got my this potted tulip instead. I think its much nicer, it won't die in a week.

47/365: Its an Apple Cozy! I'm not the type to cove everything I own in crocheted cozys, but these are seriously cute.

Project 365

I didn't manage to get my photos for last week posted, so here is the first of a 2 part post to get caught up with project 365. I also plan to photo and blog some knitted items I finished recently, and a new illustration of a lunar moth, so check back often this week!
39/365: This week I've been working on adding new items to my shop, including this pendant.

40/365: My boyfriend and dogs heolped with this photo, by chasing the seagullls so the flock took off for my picture. He pretends to think I'm silly to take a photo everyday, but I can tell he really enjoys helping me.

41/365: Some marsh grasses. I'm happier with this photo than I thought I would be. I wasn't very happy with my pictures for the day, and this one definitely got some help from the black and white.

42/365: More new stuff for my shop. My "Chickadee" illustration as a note card.

Medusae

Jellyfish are quite beautiful and interesting to look at, I just don't particularly like swimming with them.
This is an illustration I started a very long time ago, and just finished last week. I had difficulty with the background, and I'm still not completely sure about it. I tried seaweed and a few other things, but wasn't quite happy with it. Then I added several other jellyfish, because they are usually found in schools.

And I have a fun free project too! I designed these valentines made with cut paper for Cut Card Stock. You can find my tutorial on their blog.

LOVE

Check out my new Valentines!

These were inspired mostly by one of Amy Butler's nature based patterns. Amazing how the end result is so different than my starting point. I actually began these last winter but was unable to finish them in time for Valentines Day 2009, so I put this design aside for awhile. Then I finished it after the holidays and got them printed, photographed and listed a few weeks ago. These were definitely time consuming, and I had my doubts about whether I would be happy with them. Even though I was able to copy and paste to fill in areas I still had to adjust the shapes to make everything fit together nicely. I also was unsure if the word "love" would be clearly visible.

Project 365 (or 353?)

Earlier this week I decided to do Project 365 this year. Only because I started late I don't have photos for the first 12 days of the year. Every Sunday I'll post my photos for the week here and on my flickr.

13/365: My mom's birthday socks. I wanted to blog these as soon as I finished them, but I had to wait until she opened them. I used the Chouwa pattern from "Knitted Socks: East and West" and the yarn is Paton's Kroy Socks in Bronzed Berry.

14/365: One of the Pendant necklaces I made this week by altering store bought pendants to include miniature versions of my illustrations and photos.

15/365: Photographing into the sun is generally considered a "don't" but sometimes it can get great results when its done deliberately. I took this in a stand of bamboo in a park near my house, then desaturated it and upped the contrast.

16/365: I don't have a photo for yesterday; instead I have an illustration. I drew this Chickadee sitting in Winterberries yesterday afternoon, and it went surprisingly quick. Its rare for me to do an entire illustration in one sitting, but this one only took 3 hours. And I love it!!

17/365: Some seagluss at the boat launch in First landing State Park. Today was foggy and rainy, but sometimes bad weather presents great photo opps. no harsh shadows and interesting depth of field.

My "Peace" Illustration

I'm back from my unintentional leave of absence from this blog. December was crazy busy for me, with my first craft fair, some good business including a special order in my Scarlett Made Etsy shop, and the usual last minute finishing of my Christmas gifts. I was literally wrapping gifts for my boyfriend's family in the fedex parking lot to ship 2 days before Christmas. I didn't even get my tree up until Christmas Eve this year. We had a great Christmas, very low key, just us, our dogs, and a visiting friend and great food. And I've taken time off since then to relax and refocus. It feels good to be back "at work" today.

Even though the holidays are over, I wanted to share my "Peace" illustration. This is a folk art inspired design that I actually started last year, but put aside because I didn't know quite where to start, and probably scrapped the illustration at least a few times. No doubt because I was over thinking things. I finally settled on a branching botanic motif, inspired by a book on German folk art. I think that the final illustration is both modern and definitely vintage inspired in appearance, and fits well with my style.

I was so happy with this design I made ornaments, using felt, adhesive, iron on tranfers, and monofilament for a hanger. These were great at my craft fair, because they added some color to my tree.

Halloween Illustration

For a few years I've had an idea to create an illustration inspired by old gravestones, specifically gravestones with the skull and wings design on them. I first saw these years ago, when visiting Salem, MA around Halloween. But apparently, they can be found in many graveyards around New England that date back to Puritan times.
Here are some photos I took in August, in the King's Chapel graveyard in Boston. I know they aren't great photos, but I've enhanced them to better show the carvings.


And here is the illustration I drew. I did this by hand, instead of in illustrator, because I wanted it to be imperfect, with slightly wonky lines, like a real gravestone would be. I especially love the tree. I'm really happy with it.

There is also a great article about these gravestone in the October issue of Martha Sterwart Living, but I couldn't find a link to it online.

"Autumn" Illustration

I just added some new cards and art prints of an illustration I made last fall. I'm really happy with the finished result, so I wanted to share my process.

I began with the photo above. I took this 3 years ago hiking on one of my favorite trails in the White Mountain National Forest, NH. I have always loved the composition of this photo, but I've never been happy with the colors and exposure. Using the same technique I used here, I traced the photo.

I was very happy with the black and white line drawing, but I wanted to try adding color. So I traced my line drawing (I didn't want to ruin it) and began coloring it with markers. At first I thought I hated to color version, but as I got closer to finishing it I decided I actually love it. And I've had the original hanging on my bedroom door since I completed sometime last fall.

Two Illustrations

Today I want to share some of my illustrations.
The first is a digital illustration I made years go in Art School, and I've always loved it. The assignment was to take a subject from one photo, and a background from another photo, and merge the two in an original illustration. I think I worked on this every afternoon for a few weeks, but it was worth the effort. I think this is the first drawing I made using the Illustrator program that I was really happy with.

Right now I have this available a fine art print in my etsy, but I'm planning on making it into greeting cards as well.
The next illustration is one that I'm currently working on.

This one is a hand drawn ink illustration. So far I'm pleased with it, but its taking a long time, and I keep having to buy new pens because they die on me. . Sometimes I hit mental block, because I'm not sure what to fill the space with. I want to keep with the celestial theme and fill the entire space.
It was inspired by Ephrain Mose Lilien's Illustration to Genesis, done in 1908. I know many people don't like Art Nouveau, but I love all the curve-linear lines and nature inspired themes.

Works in Progress

I've been fairly productive lately, and added several new items to my Scarlett Design Etsy shop, including some pocket mirrors, photos and these "Canine" greeting cards:
I've also been working on this illustration of some fern fronds that is almost finished. I just need to tweak the colors and decide which paper and envelope I'm going to use for the completed product.

I'm planning to overhaul my Scarlett Made Etsy shop as well. I think it wasn't successful this winter because I jumped o the chunky knits bandwagon, and didn't really love all the items I offered. So I've been giving some thought to what I really want, and I've decided to offer unique crocheted items. Including this free form scarf I'm working on right now.

For fun I have a few knitting/crocheting wips. I expect to post about my completed Marlene socks by the end of the week, and I'm also working on a hexagon throw.