Design for FXdoctor!

I was recently comissioned to create an illustration for fxdoctor.com, a Boston, MA based custom guitar pedal and effects company with great taste in artists 🙂

They are a growing company and have a kickstarter project going here with excellent prizes including t-shirts with my design! I had a lot of fun with the design brief, and lots of creative freedom (thanks, Josh!). Here are some layout sketches:

We ended up going with the first layout, though I really like the fourth one with the girl sitting down. This may become a finished drawing in the future. And here is the finished design, in its four variations:

Yay! Plus, now I know way more about guitar accoutrements than I did just a few weeks ago!

Recent blog header design for Justyn

I recently was invited to redesign the blog header for Dunia Duara, the personal blog of photographer Justyn Strother. I was given free creative range (thank you Justyn!), with the aim of illustrating the adventurous lifestyle of a wide-traveling, car-less, homeschooled and adventurous family of seven (if you include the puppy).

Initial sketch:

Finished header:

This was so much fun to do! I tried to pack the little space with little details about the children and to subtly reference some of their loves: speaking Arabic and French, Japan and origami, old childeren’s literature, legos and travel. I used reference photos, which were plentiful, of course, Justyn being an amazing photographer. You can see her flickr here. The family has traveled to, among other places, East Africa, London, Ireland, Wales, Amsterdam and Paris, and have wonderful photographic documentation of their journeys. I was honored to try and encapsulate some of this wonderful lifestyle in a little drawing. 🙂

Custom drawings for someone special

A while back I received a box from Hawaii containing seven beautiful little pewter frames, and a request for some custom artwork to fill them, with full creative freedom. Yay!! The frames have been laying around the studio, waiting to be used, and just this week I got around to creating work for five of them:

And here they are in their wonderful frames:

I do custom artwork on occasion, but this project has been loads of fun because of the freedom I was given in choosing the subject matter. This quaint little lady is someone’s gangster granny:

This girl and her chameleon are going to elope one day: they’re so happy together!

And this little princess is super stubborn: arms and legs crossed. She’s surrounded with juniper berries, because she loves the smell of gin.

This is a great exercise for coming up with things to draw: have a frame empty and waiting, preferably and old and interesting one, and draw up the first idea you have, and fill it. It’s very fun, and very fulfilling. Give it a try! Oh, and thank you, thank you, Anne.

Of papercutting

It’s about time I elaborate on an artist who’s been one of my biggest inspirations lately: another Seattle based artist, Ania of PaperCutWorks creates beautiful, intricate and personalized papercut works, in both of her two shops: First, her papercutting and art shop, PaperCutWorks: her papercut hearts are crafted out of outdated, vintage, repurposed and otherwise lonely maps, dictionaries, sheet music turned-wonderful, heart (fist)-sized personal works of art.

I especially enjoy her overlapping pieces, veins running through (up till now) as many as three separate hearts:

I also love the way she lovingly photographs her weapon of choice:

She also does hand-pulled block prints: one of which I hang proudly in my studio!

Her jewelry shop, Baltica, is full of these incredibly delicate and precious pieces featuring her mad blade-weilding skills:

Heart Secret Locket Papercut Necklace

In another vein, Ania also creates these awesome Writer’s spear. vintage pen nib. one-of-a-kind reclaimed necklaces. I wear jewelry so rarely, but I would proudly hang one of these around my neck, probably every day, if I ever get my hands on one.

For more of her work and process details, be sure to check out her blog: http://papercuthearts.wordpress.com/

And Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrzaszcz/

Commissioned Pelvis Painting!

This is my most recent painting, a request for a bone doctor! It is currently in transit to New Brunswick. It measures 36″x36″, and is stretched over a hand-built ash frame, drawn/painted in charcoal and sumi ink. I love the subtle variations ink takes when applied to ungessoed canvas.