The Difference Between Life & Death

Weapons of Minor Destruction

I'm drawing a complete blank.

Mary made me my own thought bubble ... anyone care to contribute? I love it Mary, thanks! I still can't think of anything super clever to put in my own thought bubble. It's completely blank up there. Cue a rustling hollow wind sound.

The past is calling - in progress

I thought I'd post a little progress shot of what I'm doing with Mike's collaboration in Andrea's book. That's me, my mother, and my grandmother. I just found a photo of my great-grandmother, so I'm hoping to fit it in there somehow.

Check out those crazy octagonal glasses my mom was wearing! She used to be so trendy - in the 1970's! LOL

In the pocket

3 Terry Pratchett audio books. I really like those.

Experiment

One of the things I tried to do on this book is to create a continuity between the pages, I only got it half way right, and mostly toward the end, but it was pretty cool to try.

If you press the image, you can see it larger on flickr.

pages 7 and a half in Micheal's book

Yes, I know I did more pages then I was supposed to, but since it is a coated paper book, I know there are still enough pages for everyone...

Wintersmith is another one of the Diskworld books, and the poem is from that book, Though usually it's spelled much better then the way it is here. I made a lot of mistake, even more then I usually do.

pages 5 and 6 in Micheal's book

Went on with the Diskworld theme of the previous 2 pages, and drew characters from one of my favorite books in the series Wee free men.

It sucks that I'm still sick, and this took me so much longer then it usually would... though - today was the first time I went out since last Sunday! Ned and I went out for coffee and a visit to the pharmacy (how exciting...)

Art by Train

Did these on the train between Philadelphia PA & Brattleboro VT on Tuesday. Aya & Anders, I went thru Penn Station, did you see me waving?

Top image: Bananas on blueberries, mixed media (acrylic, black marker, Prismacolor pencils).

Bottom image: This is a collab with Andrea. She drew the woman at left. Tucked in the blank pages of Mary's book, I found the photo she worked from (yes?), so I did the pencil portrait on the right & glued the photo between our 2 sketches.

The Diskworld - Done

Still sick and haven't left the apartment since Sunday... spend most of this time in bed brooding ad feeling sorry for myself. But in the few hours of somewhat sanity yesterday, I finished this one and started on the next double spread.

Steve's book is on the way to Ash

Steve's book is off to Ash, I mailed it yesterday morning. This isn't the best of photos, sorry. I was trying to do a dual purpose image that I could use for posting on http://fuckyeahmoleskines.tumblr.com/ too. That is why my ugly mug is on there.

The money in the brown shirt's bubble says: "When I grow up I want to be a glove."

The green shirted monkey is thinking: "I'm afraid of the dryer."

The Blue Shirted monkey: "I always wanted to be M.J.'s monkey, but now it is too late."

WIP

I woke up sick this morning, then slept most of the day, and then stayed up late cause I can't fall asleep again.
On the upside, I put in quite a few hours on the next 2 pages in Micheal's book. It's Terry Pratchett Diskworld. took this photo with my phone, so, better image of this tomorrow when it's done.

oops.... what ever happened to the image?! OK, I think I fixed it now.

funny train story

I got Micheal's book from Heidi a couple of days ago, in the middle of fashion week. Ned and I were shooting some of the shows, and at the same time, I was also working on the biggest illustration project I nailed since moving to NY (it's secret, so I can't talk about it...) basically, no sleep and just work for about a week.

On Thursday it was basically all over, and I was left with a lot of errands I had no time to do over the week. So, I went on a long ride to IKEA to get some cheap dishes for a paint on porcelain class I'm teaching next month. Since it's about 45 minutes on the train, I took Micheal's book to start working on it.

I started drawings and one stop after me this cool looking girl came on the train and sat by me - she started asking about my drawings and said she just moved to a new apartment and it trying to find the right art for her bedroom and I gave her my card and we went on chatting. Then, right before she took off, I realized that all this time what she really liked on the page was Heidi's garlic on the other side of the page!

So Heidi - if you are getting an e-mail from an excited new Yorker looking to buy some paintings, that's how she found you...

today was the first rest day after everything was over and so, I finished my first double spread on Micheal book.

Splotch Monsters featured on io9

Way to go, Steve! I just saw our very own Steve Loya's splotch monsters featured on the huge sci fi blog, io9! That's hitting the big time!

Still no Moley

Steve...I have nothing to send again this month. Hopefully we will be back on tract soon!!!

Ash on Andrea in Ellen by Heidi

Ellen's book has arrived in NH! In her haste to send it, Ash forgot to photograph her work, so I got her permission to do so & post something. This was the collab she did with Andrea's photo. That's one unusual child, HA!

First 2 pages in Steve's book.

Less is More ~ 9/12/10

I am almost finished with pages 3 & 4, I hope to get this book in the mail by Friday.

Books Wide Open

Back when Aya was airing some fears about going to an A3-size, while others offered tips & encouragement... that got me thinking about working BIG, which I never do. It certainly did sound intimidating, to use big space in full. You know, big art says loud & proud? The bigger we work, the more exposed we are? Yikes!

Since I have all large Moleskines in house lately, I am trying one double-page spread in everyone's to force bigger art into my regular repertiore. Ballookey's book was my first try, that 2-pg. Monarch butterfly. That went OK, but filling that much space was daunting for sure. Mike got this frog, which went a little easier. It's more about background textures than the frog itself, but hey, it's BIG so I think I'm building confidence. I used glitter again, so this frog is loud, trust me.

Oh, and I photographed this on a bed of tomatoes... cuz I had to work the garden into it somehow, HA!

More in Mike's Big Book

Top image: "Potatoes wishing for more expressive eyes." Really, they do, you know :-)

Bottom image: More garlic & a potato. What can I say? The garden is almost over, I swear. But while it consumes my life, it permeates my art...

Both are acrylic paint, colored pencil, Crayola (kids) marker & black Pilot pen. I am going hog wild with acrylics lately, as part of my mixed media stuff. Much as I love water soluable pens for water washes, they bleed thru Moleskine paper something fierce while acrylic does not. So I'm trying to use the water soluable washes very sparingly, while I compensate with acrylics.

Collabs, Coming & Going

Top image: I added a little Capt. Ahab Moby Dick Pepper Sauce to Andrea's whale bones. Mmm, now those are some serious ribs, HA!

Bottom image: Aya's getting homegrown garlic. There's a lot of it in Mike's book now. Hope he likes garlic! Click here to see what I made for his pocket. I posted it once already, with description, as part of my "Creative Every Day" participation & don't feel like uploading again, so please forgive my lazy diversion :-)

New Moleskine (long story!)

A few months ago, I had a really inspiring conversation with a friend who was visiting NY, she said how she decided that every birthday she'll do one thing she's scared of. I thought it was a damn good idea and decided to try it as well.

This year I decided to finally get started on the A3 moleskin that I got almost a year before but were to afraid to deal with, it's much much bigger then the size I'm comfortable drawing on.

So, on my birthday, I took the book out to Blackbird parlour and started working on it. Ned came to pick me up and we walked into a store or two then headed home. The next day, I wanted to take the book with me again, and - it was gone! I couldn't find it anywhere...

I went to the stores and the cafe, and turned the apartment upside down, and - nothing! no book! and it's not an easy thing to not see, I mean it is about 12"X16".

After 2 days of searching I decided it was simply gone. I decided to take it as a sign and come to terms with it. I ordered 2 new books online, an A4 and an 8"X5", and waited for them to show up so I can go back to drawing. After 2 days I got so angry and decided to ignore the stupid sign. I went to the book store and got a new A3, and started it right away.

2 days after that, I was drawing in Blackbird parlour again, and the waitress came over and asked "did you loose a big moleskin?!" turned out, she found it, and was afraid if she'll leave it in the cafe, someone will spill something on it, so she took it home with her till she see me again! how nice was that?!

So now I have enough moleskines for a couple of years... and I'm slowly getting use to the huge A3.

Collaboration with Ballookey "Retro Cell Phone"

Black Crow

Controversy "Big-Apple" Mosque

Snake & Skull Collaboration w/ Mary Stebbins-Taitt

The "ALBUCREEPY" Trolley Tour

Distracted Driver

Further information on Distracted Drivers can be found here.

*Sorry about the bleed through!

It's all you need