Happy Halloween Everyone!

So, I don't have a book right now, but I missed posting here, so I'm going to post some images of my Halloween costume. I don't like dressing up, but this year I was invited to a halloween party at Etsy, so it had to be good...

I hate the idea of spending money on something that get thrown out the day after, so I decided to make a costume from stuff I had at home and not spend any money on it, I tea dyed an old white dress and an old shirt Ned and I bought years ago for a shoot. Then painted on it with liquid acrylic paint. I made the mask from a cardboard box and found a branch to hold it.






Ned hates dressing up even more then me, he wear the same outfit every day (dark blue jeans, black t-shirt, sneakers) but I made him a crow mask, so he can wear his regular cloths and still be in costume.

Drawing Attention to our Figures

In art related news, Mary & I spent all yesterday afternoon & evening at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA). Instead of taking our Moles there for sketching, we took advantage of a Members Drawing in the Gallery class. Last night, the assigned "drawing studio" was the Greco-Roman art gallery. The DIA provides seating, boards, large paper of decent quality & graphite pencils. It was really fun & we were both pleased with our work, considering that neither of us has done any figure drawing in many years.

Back from the Dead @ Halloween

I'm greatly relieved to finally be posting again. I'm visiting Mary in Detroit, sitting here at her kitchen table on my laptop. I just mailed a Round 2 (wince) Mole to Aya & feel I should post my work online before she receives it. Since I am the dead weight on Round 2, I'm at a loss of what to say... not to mention I barely remember how to post to Blogger, since I haven't done so in over 4 months.

Staring at my blank screen, I lamented aloud, "What on earth am I going to say?" Mary replied, "Just say the truth." She's refreshingly simple, wise & comforting that way :-)

So here's the truth: Round 2 drug out so long that at the very end of it, having only 2 books to complete, I lost my focus on the art exchange. Other things took my priority attention. Some not urgent but others very much so. Things like work, marriage & physical/emotional health. Then I lost something else: Steve's book. After 2 months, I finally found it 2 weeks ago -- in my piano bench, where it had been hurriedly tossed in a flurry of clean-up before houseguests.

So that's the truth. My public & sincere apologies to the Round 2 group of folks affected by my poor performance, especially Steve, Aya & my poor, sweet Andrea.

Now, on with the show & tell. The onions above are graphite w/watercolor wash. Steve's book was a watercolor one. Mmm, love that paper! The Picasso-like woman is what I did with Andrea's collaborative art. Andrea's circles made me think of bubblebaths, which I love. I'm a fragmented woman before a bath, which is what made me think of Picasso. Baths restore me.

The next image is two jellyfish. The one at left is a refrigerator magnet for Steve's pocket, made from chipboard, acrylic paint, colored pencil & ribbon. The one at right, done primarily in watercolor & nail polish, is on a mostly blank page because it is a collaboration page for Aya.

I was on a jellyfish kick this past summer. The ones I saw washed up on the beach in Florida last May really affected me. I was Googling them for further study & admiration. These jellies below have glued-in yarn tentacles, meant to dangle when you hold the book open vertically as shown.

First two pages in Ammon's book.

Hairy: Last painting of mine in Ballookey's Round 3 Mole

Here is my scan of the Hairy Woodpecker painting I just completed, 5 x 8, in Ballookey's Moleskine.  It completes my set of paintings in her mole, but I will not be able to mail until Monday at the earliest, since it's past postal hours on a Saturday.

Hairy Woodpecker, by Mary Taitt

Here is the double page spread, paired with the red-headed woodpecker:

Click the images above to enlarge.

I made a digitally altered watercolor painting as a pocket item:

This was originally a watercolor painting

And I printed 1 picture from my trip to Maine, a picture of the cover for the novel I am going to write during the month of November for NaNoWriMo (first draft of a cover idea) and three pix of people from the Renaissance Festival.  I am including prints, but didn't want to fill up the whole, so I amde them into a collage for the post:

Maine Reflection, Renaissance Festival and Death Angel cover, all by Mary Taitt

Ellen's Moleskine is on its way to Roma!

In Ammon's

I tried something a little different with Ammon's book. Rather than work on all the pages as a theme, I just kept it open on my desk and drew whatever I felt like when I had the time. So these four pages don't have much to do with each other. They're pretty simple and there's not much to say about them except they're a little time capsule of the month for me.

Beginning of a collaboration with Andrea:

And this is how I finished a page that Molly left (I think she did, anyway!)

Red-headed Woodpecker in Ballookey's Mole

Red-headed Woodpecker, Watercolor

I guess I am on a woodpecker kick.  Water color, 5 x 8.  Click image to view larger.

Ivory Bill in Balookey's

I've been traveling and unfortunately, too busy to do art on the road, but I'm home now and just completed the Ivory bill. Below is the two-page spread.  Watercolor, micron pen.  (Click images to view larger.)

Aya's book is on the way to Mike.

This is my collab with Ballookey. I should have left more room to show more ass. Wait, what?

The collab start I left for Mike.

I hope y'all have shipped or are shipping soon. You know the drill, if there is a hold up let the person you are shipping to know. Feel free to contact me if anyone needs anything.

Stephanie In Andrea's Book

Collab piece with Ammon

Acrylic and pen mandala with quote from Paulo Cohelo quote: "A search always starts with beginner's luck and ends with the Test of The Conqueror."

Fierce warrior goddesses.

This is a collab piece for Ellen :o) the purple tape is because I accidentally ripped the page when the pain on the other side was wet. Oops!

2nd Set in Aya's book.

First 2 Page Spread in Aya's Book

Small project, turns into big project, turns into HUGE project...

I really enjoyed making the fashion week summery in Roma's book, and was sad when I run out of pages. so I thought that it would be a nice idea to make a little book for the pocket with some more fashion week drawing.

At first I thought I'd make a 16 pages book, then i had an idea that a paper doll should be a part of the book which meant less pages cause they have to be one sides. So, that somehow grew into a 32 pages book with a paper doll in 4 of the ages.

Then I though - I already have the illustrations, so I might as well be making some postcards as well, and then thought that the whole thing would look cool in a kit, and since a book and postcards are really not enough to make a kit, I made a black and white book, a color book, a fashion week ACOs, some clay charms and postcards...










So now, it's all finally finished and I can pack Roma's book and hand it over to Molly on Monday.