Elephant Envelope for Mike

elephant envelope front
Mary Stebbins Taitt
to Mike Kline
acrylic on padded envelope
addresses cloned out

elephant envelope back
Mary Stebbins Taitt
to Mike Kline
acrylic on padded envelope

I have painted an envelope to send my Mole back to Mike who has offered to finish his work directly in the Moleskine.  YAY

Last gasp in Mike's

Everyone cheered to watch racers run
"final?"
by me, Mary Stebbins Taitt

I am finally finished with Mike's Moleskine, and will mail it ASAP on hopefully Monday or Tuesday.
*The paper is getting progressively thicker!  Below is the prior version.  Since then I have repaired the head of the last wolf, opened Frankie's eyes, changed the color of the grass and added detail.  This was the hold-up. I kept fiddling with it, trying to get it right.

"Had Races and Won"

Acrylic on thin Moleskine paper*

4th coat

Because I had it so long, I did some additional pieces:

Biker Buddy
by Mary Taitt

At the end of a long day
By Mary Taitt
markers, Copic, Faber-Castell pigment artist pigment markers,

The Nature Conservancy wants to publish 20,000 elephant pictures, so I am trying to help them out.

Old Bull
collab for Mike

And a new pocket item--with elephants:

Dusk
card by Mary Taitt for Mike's pocket

Mike's pocket items

Biker Buddy

I am sending Mike his pocket items separately, as they are thick and risk bending the cover or spine.  This is the envelop.  The book will follow "shortly."

Envelope, pocket item in Mike's

I still have Mike's Mole.  I have painted an envelope for it and am including 2 of my first-ever woodblock prints as "pocket items."  Sorry these are kind of crappy cell phone pix--may later post scans.   Also, I will have to send my own Mole back to Mike to finish up.

Click images to view larger.  Also, not that my gmail account is all full and I cannot send or receive messages!  :(

Ballookey in Andrea's

It looks like everyone's book is back home except Andrea's. So far I've gotten the following three pages done. I just started re-doing some of my favorite pieces in watercolor, which I've been practicing with recently.

I still intend to add another full page at least, and I have to finish the collaboration with Aya. In the mean time I just wanted to show that it's in progress...

Mary's Mole came home!

I've got my Moleskine back and I want to thank you all for your lovely art.  So fun looking through this.  When I finish the blank pages, of which there aren't many, we'll hopefully post a video.

I still have Mike's Mole, I'm nearly done with it, just painting the envelope and a couple small touch-ups.

In Ballookey's pocket

Butterfly paper mask! I'm a little obsessed with those recently. 

Half page in Ballookey's

Officially, I am the last person on this book, but there are some more pages, so just in case Ballookey want's to finish it, this is my half page.

Ballokey's book pages 5-6

One of my all times favorite quotes.

Ballookey's book, pages 3-4

I don't think I've ever had a book from Moleskine exchange that took me this long to finish! I got interrupted by a flu, a pulled back and some other virus, then work got in the way, but finally, it was done, and a couple of days ago, send out.

Kept with the imaginary fairy tales theme.

Mary's book is on the way home to her!!

Here are some snippets of my work in Mary's book.  I'm so excited for it to get home to her!!  We made it y'all.  It wasn't speedy or very organized by your leader, but thank you all so much for taking time out of your busy lives and contributing to each other's books.

Pocket item for Mike: Block print card

Dining Out
A Block print card for Mike by Mary

I worked on this for three weeks--Duh, couldn't get it right.  I wanted to make Mike a block print because I like his highly graphic work and I wanted to give him something that honored that. I would do it over, because it isn't quite right, but I think it's time to finish up and send this on home.

Ballookey in Mary's

First was this collaboration page with Aya. She did the work on the left, and I did the right. I taped "Funk to Funky" over her original sign to turn it into a David Bowie reference.

Next was a collaboration page for Andrea to finish. I sketched some paper gems I'd made that were sitting on my table. (these are made with templates from Mini eco, in case you want to make your own)

Paper gems made following directions at Mini-Eco. The large pink one is a separate tutorial from the rest and a bit more fiendish - lots of tiny flaps to cut and glue. I'm rich?! #minieco #papercraft

A photo posted by Ballookey (@ballookey) on Dec 27, 2014 at 7:39pm PST

I should have done this next one in watercolor, but I didn't pick them up again until after I'd already done it. It's a phrase from one of my favorite TV shows, Doctor Who.

NOW I start playing with watercolors again. I wanted to practice some techniques that I'd seen done on YouTube, so I sketched out four roses to start with. I took a time-lapse video while I painted them.

Four Roses from Ballookey Klugeypop on Vimeo.

Next page: Four more roses, which I like better. Practice, practice, practice.

One of those roses is based on a photo I took at Huntington Gardens:

A photo posted by Ballookey (@ballookey) on Jan 20, 2015 at 8:46pm PST

I tried a couple of anemonies, but they're going to take a lot more practice.

Lastly there was a collaboration page flagged by Mary for me to complete, so I turned her dragon into a two-headed monster of some kind.

Mary in Mike's (slow progress)

This is from a book of digitally produced designs, which I colored,
not terribly skillfully.  My hands aren't steady enough,
click this or any image to view larger.

I included a copy of this same design, blank, in case Mike wants to try coloring it (or pass it on to someone who might?)

the first three shots show some of the steps coloring the page
the last one is the first one inverted.

Tiny oil pastel painting in piece of scrap paper (may not be finished)
for pocket

Running along the Grass River
this was digitally made from a digitally altered scan
of the above image
for pocket

3rd draft of plan for block print
black pen ran out of ink

I wanted to make a couple new block-print cards for the pocket, but haven't completed the PLAN yet, never mind carving and printing.