Happy Halloween!

from my art in Ellen's Mole.

Have a GREAT HALLOWEEN!

Willie's Mix

Here is a link to the mix I made for Willie, it has an October theme.

http://www.filesanywhere.com/fs/v.aspx?v=896e698e606672b8b2aa

The password is spooky.

I hope you enjoy it!

My work in Willie's Moleskine

This is my collaboration page with Willie. He had drawn that green square on a page, so I worked around it. I wasn't sure you intended this to be a collab page Willie, so I hope you are okay with it.

I know Willie likes quotes, so I did this on pages 2 and 3.

Some typical me work on pages 3 and 4. :)

All I have left to do is a half collab page for Ash and then off to the post office. I plan to send it priority Ash, since it took an eternity last time. Is there such a thing as Canadian priority?

Also, last round I included a Polaroid in the pocket for everyone, this round I have decided it will be a mixed cd. I have Willie's all planned out I just need to burn it and make a case. Once I do that I will upload it somewhere so y'all can download it if you want, and so Willie can hear it before next year.

Cheers friends and have a Happy Halloweeny!

My first (last) piece in Ellen's Mole

This is a collaborative piece for Mike Kline--I hope, Mike, that you like it better than the flowers. :-D

One last thing...

Last entry in a long series of entries...
A little ACO in a paper envelope for Ashes' moleskin pocket.

Pages 3, 4 and a 1/2

I had a really frustrating and horrible day yesterday - everything just went wrong! eventually me and Ned found our way home, and decided to just hide till the day is done... So we hid, Ned was retouching some photos from a shoot and I was working on Ashes' moleskin. And really enjoying myself, for the first time that day.

I finished the last half page this morning in a cafe while waiting for a friend to come over (she was an hour and a half late)!

Two things that I decided after finishing this:

The first is that I really need a watercolor folio moleskin for myself, even if I haven't finished my 8X5.5 by now, I actually went to the book store on my way home fron the cafe, but they were out, now I'm torn between ordering it online right now or waiting for the next shipping at the bookstore.

The second is thinking of my new moleskin as one work of art and not just a collection of different artworks, in this book I gave a lot of thoughts to the progression from one page to the other which is something I don't usually do, also, I really liked working on double spreads and not on one page at a time.

I'm going on a trip on November 17, and probably mail this before the 15th to get it off my list of things to do before the trip.

page 1 and 2 in Ashes' moleskin

I'm not quite sure what is it about this moleskin exchange thing that makes me want to dump every project, including paid design gigs that I'm way behind, some etsy orders and just about anything, and get this done before anything else. It was very frustrating to not be able to get any paint in it today, cause I was in a shoot, then actually getting some work done...

I've finished those 2 pages last night and I'm so happy with them, it's going to be really hard to say goodbye to the little mermaid and send this book on it's way once I'm done.

First Half page in Ashes' moleskin

This is the half page I did yesterday, I love Heidi's colors on the pumpkin, scan really doesn't do it justice. I started the second page this morning, drawing in my coffee shop which was very crowded and pretty chilly. I'm going to finish it now.

Not again...

But yes, I have again staid up till 4:00 AM!


and did the first half page on Ashes' moleskin. I'm really excited about how it came out and now wonder if maybe it's not such a bad idea to stay up a little more and start the next page after the paint dries, though i know I have an important work meeting tomorrow and a shoot the next day...

Look what came in the mail today!

Ashes' moleskin! It looks beautiful so far and I can't wait to start working on it!

ballookey - The Moleskine Ships Priority Tomorrow...

Last one is drying "YIKES" I am soooo late

Bye bye Steve's Mole

I took this on my front steps yesterday before I mailed it--didn't
dare toss it up in the air! Yikes! I enjoyed its visit immensely!
Now I am looking forward to the next one. I love that monster
face--the birds are great too--whats the shiny stuff painted on it,
Steve--on all of them?

Half page

Oops, almost forgot... half-page in Ash's Mole for Aya...

Top image: Liked the tuna so well from the collab page, I did a tuna stand-alone. Used just 2 markers & water. Gotta love those cheap Crayola markers. They bleed like all get out :-)
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Middle image: 4 sketches done on a late September train ride. Decided to mount them as a story, since I did do them during the time I would have had Ash's Mole... if the darn post office from Canada to NH wasn't so slow!

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Bottom image: A journal-style entry, inspired by Edith Holden's The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady (1906), which I recently reviewed as an example of nature journaling for a workshop I led this month. Wow, those ladybugs were a time sink. Thinking of Andrea suddenly... her Mole wants an entire page of ladybugs, me thinks...

post office fun!

So I went to send Heidi's sketchbook to Anders on the 16th, and the guy at the post office said that his computer doesn't recognize the address, went home, checked it again, and went back today. The girl at the counter said the same thing, when I said that I send out a similar package last week to the same exact address, she said she'll google the address.

Don't know what she did, but she couldn't find it, she called the other guy. which was the first guy from the 16th, and he tried to mail it and failed, then he said he'll google it, and failed.

The he tried switching numbers around, and failed again.

Right before I was about to start banging him over the head (another advantage of the folio size moleskin) he switch the numbers back to where they started, and lo and behold! it worked!

So, my book is on it's way and that was way too much excitement for me before the first cup of morning coffee...

halloween collab with ellen

Here's my collaboration with Ellen, from her A4 Moleskine. I'm not big on doing holiday art, but her jack-o-lantern sketches were too irresistible. So, I added color and a ghost - I couldn't help myself!

Last one in Steve's

I painted this last night while my out-of-town company sat and talked to BB, PB and me. Since I was at home and not at the studio, I painted the entire thing with one of those tiny pocket palette boxes (Windsor Newton). I didn't have my proper brushes, either. And I couldn't get a fine enough line with the masking fluid for the lightning. Oh well, here it is. It's a storm over a barn in Baldwinsville, NY, where I had to run and run to try to escape the coming storm. I will NOW package and mail the mole to Mike, I hope. Today is BB's birthday and I have a poetry class tonight and the girls (my daughters) just left a little while ago, so it will be tight. But I will try!

Candy Collab & Pocket Goodies

Top image: Ash drew the octopus in black & white only.

I colored his fangs as candy corn, then drew his undersea Halloween friends. Candy corn fangs for everyone!

Bottom image: Candy corn "paper dolls" for Ash's Moleskine pocket.

The rest of my effort to be posted soon... still tweaking a few of my entries. I love the watercolor Moles, paper is great! But I confess to being anxious about the latter artists getting shorted pages. The sheet count is so scant in the WC books. I used both sides of the paper, to consolidate my page usage.

Ander's Book

I am fascinated with cultural art. This salmon has an Eskimo flair. I actually sponged AND stippled this!

A fall pen and ink is the first of full my art addition.

This crayfish took longer than I thought.
This is the collaborative piece...still working on this.

Fallen and Fading: Half a Sketch

Here's my half a sketch for this this round, done in water color. One more to go and then I can mail. My daughters will be here 'til Monday, will do it ASAP! (But don't want to rush it, either.)

These, this set, are the last moles in this "year-round" that everyone will see in person.

Almost Done!

Mailing out on Monday.

Did this piece a while ago. Still love it!!
Steve...I will mail out Ander's book on Monday. I got a little carried away and created a piece that needs a few more minutes to finish.

rehydration

I had a weird experience that I have NEVER had before painting the rabbit. The black on the butterfly on the other side of the same page rehydrated and got all wet--and I wasn't even painting that part of the page. It smeared slightly in spite of my care--I was very upset. Only the black rehydrated and I have now repainted it with gouache (it was watercolor black).

Autumn Dusk; One More done, one and a half to go

Autumn Dusk. I painted the rabbit and its surroundings in water color
and then used block-printing ink and leaves I picked up in the yard to
add the camouflage leaves around the rabbit. I used the 2010 one year
calendar to roll out the paint and leaves. (Now I have a big mess to
clean before my company arrives.)

I know today is the day to mail, but I just got back from a writing workshop and retreat and have out of town company coming and my son's homecoming is this weekend and he has his girlfriend coming from out of town. So I will be mailing late. I may not be able to do any more until next week. So sorry.

My pages in Aya's Moleskine

My completion of Aya's half page:



The little sparrow is based off one that my girlfriend rescued off the street last spring that we hand-fed and raised and eventually released. It would ride around on my head, or on the back of her pet dove.

Two full-page spreads:





Too big to fit the whole thing on the scanner so I had to stitch them together (poorly).

Finally, the half-page for Ellen to complete, and I'm ready to mail it along.

Skulls and birds full circle in Mike's book

Finished! Shakespeare and Carl Sagan inspired me to play with the skulls and birds from Mike's previous work in his book. Now just to start a collaboration and throw some treats in the pocket! SO MUCH FUN!

In Progress

I was hoping to have the four pieces I've been working on in Mike's book done today so that I could post them, but I'm still working on the fourth, so I'll just content myself by posting a little "teaser" shot. You can see my laptop open as I work: I've started scanning my sketches and coloring them in the computer before working them out on paper. I don't always get the best idea for colors until I've been playing with something for a while, so I like that I can work it out in the computer before committing.

Two of these birds are going to be nicknamed Blixa & Nick because my husband has been playing The Bad Seeds all afternoon and I can't look at them without their songs going through my head. Maybe the third can be Kylie Minogue...