805

In Mary's.

Seed Orders, Angry Birds & Angry Drunks

Other things I do when I'm sick: order spring garden seeds, yay! Wonder what's all the fuss over Angry Birds. I also read inconsequential magazines... in which I spied an article about people's varied reactions to overconsumption. Am I an angry drunk? Nope. A friendly drunk? Well, sort of, but I'm friendly when I'm sober. Munchy-then-sleepy drunk? BINGO :-) ...and I can barely remember that, since I haven't been more than just "tipsy" in oh, 13 years or so? HA!

Abstracts for Anders (Round 2)

I think I finally did something completely abstract! I started with a blank page & blank mind (that's a first). I made... wavy lines of some kind? I'm not sure the time expended on this outcome was worthwhile to me. But the neat thing was that producing this degree of flowing visual repetition gave me a kind of hallucinogenic experience. Really! Black pen, then acrylic washes, then white Prismacolor pencil... and that's that.

Beers for Aya (Round 2 Collab)

Hey Aya, have a beer with me? If you don't like beer, no worries, I'll drink yours... but please enjoy drawing something on this page first ;-)

Heidi Ships Anders to Aya (Round 2)

Anders gets a 3-tea sampler in his pocket from me, to ward off head colds, HA! Here's my collaborative art in his book, with Ash, who gave me "blaaahh!" to work with. It's me as a sick raccoon, tucked in bed with my current favorite tea. I used black pen & some gray acrylic wash to align with Ash's style... except the tea wrapper & hangtag, which are glued in as collage.

Heads up, Aya: I mailed Anders book to you today. I'm not sure if I should apologize for lateness or not? I was working on your book, but then happily switched to Anders' when it arrived, since the original plan was that our own books should come home at the end of Round 2, not in the middle of it? I hope that seems like a reasonable judgement call. Somehow, the shipping order got twisted. The only book (besides my own) that has not come to me yet is Steve's, and I expect it should arrive soon.

I'm curious to know who is actually done with Round 2 & has their book back? Anyone?

Snack and draw...

Working on the one before last page in Ellen's book while Ned's in a meeting.

In Gretchen's pocket, with apologies to Aya

I was up a good part of the night with insomnia and made several art pieces, always a bad idea to work when I am tired and without references. But in spite of all that, I liked this piece enough to make a small print for Gretchen's pocket.

It's called "Crash and Burn."

confession....

I have THREE books.

I'm so very sorry.

Don't file a missing persons report quite yet.

Mary In Mary And A Shared Page

Mary was brave enough to add photo references or herself in her moleskine which I took great liberties with.

Our shared page that started out here.

Collab w/ Aya in Aya's book

I don't know if I'll add more to the white space or not... I think I like it as is. Aya's drawing was so lovely, I hated adding anything at all!

At last -- Roma's Moley Ships

This past two weeks was one of emotional ups and downs, and the Moleskine got put on the back burner. I was lacking a collaboration page, which I only finished tonight. The sketchbook is in an envelope, ready to take to the post office tomorrow and ship to Gretchen. Sorry you're getting it almost two weeks late!!

Looking forward to working in other people's books. What a great group of artists. I'm so happy to be a part of this.

803

In Mary's (round 2).

Sorry this is taking so long. Everything I feel like drawing these days involves too many hours per page. I need to develop a less time-consuming style.

Mike's Round Three Book is off to Roma

Ellen's book pages 3 and 4

The frog Ellen's drew inspired me to make this book about the story of the Prince Frog.

Ellen's book pages 1 and 2

WIP in Ellen's book

Pages 1 and 2 are done, pages 3 and 4 are almost done

WIP

In Ellen's book

My book is on the way to Mike, late and lackluster.

I had the hardest time starting my Round 3 Moly. Why? What is wrong with me?

Here is the front inside page of my book, I am in no way insinuating that I am the star of Reno, just love that sign. I didn't draw it very well though.

I like to have a page in the beginning of my book that everyone contributes to. So design your sticker, add to the border - whatever you choose. Nothing is off limits.

This is the collab page that I left for Mike.

Take this book and make magic in it friends!

There is one more spread that I started and didn't finish in there too. You will all get to see it when it comes 'round. I couldn't even finish it. Yuk. Maybe I'll be inspired when it comes back to me in a year.

Sorry for the crappy phone pics too.

*sigh*

The Escaping Tooth and Other Tales

Ellen's book arrived 2 days ago

Ned and I were shooting Fashion week till Wednesday, then editing since... in he middle there was a very odd day in which we let a friend use our space to change outfits for a performance while shooting some half erotic images from a friend's website. Today I models for the first time to 2 friends, then they modeled for me and Ned.

I'm so so tired, and though I've tired to get myself productive in the evening in finally completing some etsy orders, I didn't do a thing aside for a long walk to try and find Ginger's food after the store we usually go to was closed. So I decided to finally open the book, look at what's inside and maybe get some work done on that.

Holy Moley!

Here we are in the next round and I am still working on the last one. It is a challenge but I am loving every minute of it!
This exchange has been a fantastic way for me to try new styles and mediums. I really enjoy looking at all the work as it passes through my studio.

The art above is the art in my new Moley that I mailed out to Aya last week. I am finishing up Mike's Moley from the last round so I can get it in the mail to Steve. I am excited to see my book when it finally returns!
The pencil sketch frog is my collaborative piece for Aya...I can't wait to see what you do with it!

Collaboration with Gretchen

Dragonfly Symbiosis

A Story for Gretchen

Once upon a time, there was a girl who loved to go out in the woods and meditate. One of her favorite places to sit in ZaZen was Lycopodium Knoll, a small rise in the sandy woods above Blue Heron Lagoon. The knoll was covered with lycopodia, and the girl would sit with her back to a red maple and her middle finger touching her thumb and her hands resting on her knees. And sit.

One day, however, her serenity was disturbed by deerfly. The deerflies buzzed nosily around and kept landing on the girl’s arms and shoulders. They were trying to bite her.

Suddenly, there was a much larger, louder buzzing and a huge insect landed on her knee. In its mandibles was a deer fly. The dragonfly noisily chomped down the deerfly and a moment later, zipped out and snagged another. When it had eaten that one, it snagged a third, and continued until it had eaten the entire platoon

Then the dragonfly sat calmly on the girl’s knee waiting. Each time another deerfly or mosquito homed in on the girl, the dragonfly captured it and ate it. The girl acted as a food magnet for the dragonfly and the dragonfly protected the girl from insect bites. And this is a true story. Mary Stebbins Taitt (Click image to view larger.)

Gretchen's Mole came ringing

YAY! The first not-my moley arrived in the mail today! Woohoo! Looks great, Gretchen. YIKES!

I forgot that some people have smaller moles and will have to trim my portrait of BB so it will fit in the pocket.

LATER:  for some reason, this image in no longer visible, but if you click on it, it's still there.

And we all had cooties...Ballookey's Round 3

I admit I was a little rushed on the first few pages in my book, so I'm not quite done with them, and I did one less page, but I didn't want to start off Round 3 on the wrong foot. Starting with one less page isn't the worst thing, though: it doesn't hurt to leave have a spare page in these watercolor books - the space is pretty tight. Plus, doing it the way I did gives Andrea two full two-page spreads to work on.



I used slide-off water transfer again for the large photo in the background. I didn't actually take the photo - my coworker did. I was doing the processing and touch up on a bunch of beauty shots for him this past week. A project which had a lot of drama involved and may turn out to be a fiasco. But I have nothing to do with all that, so I thought it would be interesting to use one of the photos in the beginning of my book, and then when I get the book back, will I even remember the nonsense surrounding this project?

I purposely left the edges wrinkled, but I'm not sure how well it will continue to hold, since the edges aren't well sealed. We'll see! Feel free to add glue, tape, staples, stitches, etc... as needed if it starts coming apart too much!





I definitely need to work on this page a bit more, especially the banner, but it was going to take an extra evening, so I figure I can come back to it later.



And it turns into a collaboration page for Andrea to finish...



All right, now that I'm caught up, I'm ready for round 3!