I'm late, I'm late for a very important date

My collaboration with Aya, in Andrea's book. Inspired by real life where I posted a photo of my latest purple and pink hair to Facebook with the caption "Don't hate me because I'm colorful".

Sorry that I'm terribly late on this - I'm overwhelmed with work and I knew I would be. I almost didn't do this round of the exchange because I knew I would get this busy - it happens every year. But I did a lot of work in Andrea's book while at work, in the form of little doodles and vignettes. I'll post them throughout the weekend as I finish touching them up or pasting them in.

Ballookey in Roma's

I don't know where my brain is - I totally space-cadet forgot to post pictures of my drawings in Roma's book. I just downloaded the photos off my phone and saw them, so here they are.

An owl wearing a bunny hood:

A bunny wearing an owl hood:

And a spirit creature wearing a hooded sweatshirt:

I'm most happy with the last one and I'm going to keep trying at these - I love drawing in white on black! :)

Moons in Gretchen's Book

I couldn't make up my mind how to approach one piece I wanted to do in Gretchen's book, so I decided not to decide and create the moon, three ways.

Title page - I wish I'd made the word "ways" a little more bold.

This astronaut was the first piece started, and the last one finished. I spray painted the background using vinyl I had left over from Mary's Round 2 book to create the purple pattern. Then I stalled on it until this weekend when I added the astronaut and finished painting it. I added the Finnish postage stamp at the bottom because I know Gretchen's family hails from Finland. By the way, Finland has THE COOLEST STAMPS. I enclosed the rest of the sheet in the book in case Andrea or anyone else wants to use one - or Gretchen can just have them. The art is so cute, and they're often die-cut in unusual shapes like these birds on branches. How cool would it be to get a letter with one of these on it?

I started this one with a copy of this vintage photo, then added all the engraved elements. The moon has a door, and if you look inside, you'll see the man in the moon. (It's Sherlock from the recent BBC TV series because that's what I've been watching recently - awesome, awesome show)

I created this pixellated moon from squares cut out of paint chips - it's kind of fun going to the hardware store and walking out with my craft supplies for free.

And continued the pixels onto the next page for Andrea to interact with.

Here's the collaboration I completed with Molly. She created the creature on the left, and I added the rest to tie it in with my theme.

Molly's book

Sorry for the tardiness of my post. I was delayed by a couple of days due to work, and as I was about to assemble this post on Friday my poor sweet laptop crapped out on me. So I had to wait until I got to work this morning to scan these in.

I wasn't 100% sure if Claudia intended the following page to be a collaboration, but typical for me, I collaborated on it anyway. (You guys, if you don't want me to draw on something, an electrical fence is not a bad idea. Or post a guard dog.) She mounted four rough cardboard frames on the page and inserted the photo in the bottom right of the feet. Her caption says "Something that has no meaning". I added my own photos to the rest of the frames and captioned them. Then I couldn't leave those frames alone so I let my inner 80's punk/new wave teen out for some air.

This is the collaboration I started for Andrea. I wanted to try something with inked lines that she might work in, but I didn't know when to call it quits so I brought forward a little bit from the other collab so they bookend my pages in the book. And now that I've found this packet of tiny envelopes I've been hoarding for like, a decade, I plan on using more of them in the next book... :)

PS, the good news is I think my laptop will be OK. Bless the Internet, I learned that it's probably a known issue and Apple is repairing them for free even if it's beyond warrantee and Apple Care. hope!

I'm back in Stephanie's book!

First up, yes, the books are a little out of order as of me. I'll sum up a bit at the end.

Page 1 & 2 in Stephanie's: I really wanted to play with hand-lettering more in this round of the Exchange because I used to really like doodling with letters, words, and phrases, but I never thought about making it the central piece of art until recently. So this is very experimental on my part. Is page two a religious flyer delivered to my door one Saturday morning? Yes. I was raised in that cult, so I took a little therapy out on that flyer and thought it went with the first quote I lettered, "You have all the weapons you need, now fight" (from Sucker Punch). I doodled a bunny because there's a cool mecha bunny in that movie, so it sort of linked the two together.

"Sometimes I believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast" from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland.

Don't even get me started on "Keep your head" (on the bunny's ear). Ugh. I know full well that the line from the Jefferson Airplane song is "Feed your head", but I was reading the full lyrics to see if there was more material I wanted to work with. I decided to stick with "Feed your head", which I originally planned, but the lyrics I was reading printed it incorrectly and I transcribed it without thinking. In the end, keeping one's head is good advice too.

Closeups. Originally I did four pieces that were all lines from movies, but I swapped two of them out because I thought it was nice to have some relief from all the lettering.

Completed collaboration with Molly. I didn't see that she posted a photo anywhere else and I forgot to photograph it before filling it in. She started the piece with the red shape descending from the top and the green shape reaching up to receive it from the bottom. I liked the shapes and just filled in with more, which reminded me of a dream I had once of drifting between planets, so there's a little of that too.

I included a little watercolor test sketch in Stephanie's pocket. No photo, but it was a test for the phoenix birds I did in the last book.

Lastly, the books are out of order a bit at this point. I haven't received Aya's or Molly's from Claudia. Molly sent me Ellen's and Stephanie's directly. Since I wanted to send a book on to Andrea as soon as possible, I used the material I had prepared for Molly's book in Stephanie's. Ellen's should have been next (sorry!) but in looking through the two books, the dark pieces with bold colors suited Stephanie's more, so I took the liberty of putting that one ahead. I'll try to keep making pieces however I can and when I get Molly's and Aya's, I'll make those the top priority.

Pocket Treats

I finished Claudia's Moleskine this weekend and I'll post it here as soon as I organize and write up what I was thinking. You can get a sneak peak if you check out my Flickr stream.

In the mean time, here's the default set of pocket treats I'm putting in everyone's books:



The trading cards and some of the stickers are the same as last year, so it's a good thing that there's plenty of new people in the exchange this year. I've added a new owl sticker that's super nice quality - it's weatherproof too, so if you want to put it on your mailbox or car or whatever. Also, you might recognize that owl from the last books in Round 2 ;)

I added a few new black & white stickers featuring my favorites, Carl Sagan & Isaac Asimov. And lastly, I had my friend James screen print my artwork onto the cover of some Field Notes books. The drawing of two birds on donut break is from a little tiny Moleskine I was working in.

steve's art in ballookey's book + +

Whew, sorry it's been so long since I've participated here. I finally got some work in Ballookey's book and it's ready to send out. I ended up gluing in some of my drawings/paintings after a major messed up attempt at painting on these pages, intended for drawing. So, this was the only way I could fix the situation at hand. I threw a mix CD and a Splotch Monster in your gift pocket as well Ballookey, so I hope you enjoy 'em.  Mary, I also started a drawing for you to collaborate on as well in there! It's been a lot of fun doing round 2 and I wish I could participate in 3, but new responsibilities and priorities have come my way this time around. Thanks to everyone for their wonderful art, inspiration and encouragement. Thanks especially to you Andrea, for getting the ball rolling and keeping it alive!

Andrea's book - off to Michelle

My, it's taken me a while, but Andrea's book is finally on it's way to Michelle. I posted a sneak peak back in September of this first drawing of my grandmother, mother and I. I finally finished it off with a photo of my great-grandmother.

When I originally started this book, my husband's aunt went into the hospital for about the fourth time in the last few months. Each time she went in, she came back a bit weaker and weaker, and at 91 years old, I was deeply concerned about her well-being. I originally thought to make this drawing about her, but then I changed my mind, realizing that I've never done a drawing of my own family members.

After doing this drawing, I got utterly swamped by what were supposed to be out-of-town house guests. They ended up canceling on me at the last minute, but I spent most of October doing renovations on our house to get it ready, only to find I needn't have rushed. Even though the houseguests never materialized, near the end of the month of October, my husband and I met one of our musical heroes in a whirlwind weekend full of missed sleep, concerts, old old friends not seen in decades, new friends just met and lots of drinking and dancing all around.

Then, my husband's aunt passed away on October 30th. Even though I expected it, we were still greatly saddened by her going. We live in her house and have seen all the remnants of her great wild life.

In the mean time, my own mother went into the hospital for a relatively mild problem. She had some minor surgery, and after five days, she went home. I was concerned about her anyway, because she has a history of not seeking out medical help. Even though she was a Registered Nurse in her day, she had what I thought was a foolish affinity for all kinds of new-age nonsense and routinely rejected sound medical science. I was afraid that one of these times, she'd put off seeking medical help until it was far too late, and that would be the end of her.

I had already started the drawing for the next piece in Andrea's book, and it felt more appropriate than ever.

On November 20th, I finally got a break from the aunt's funeral preparations and aftermath and I finally finished the skulls shown above.

At 5:30 am the next day, my sister called me in tears because we had lost our mother. When I saw the completed drawings in the book still open on my desk, I couldn't believe the subject matter I'd chosen for Andrea's book.

So I went to Colorado to help my dad & sis' cope with all that funeral stuff again. I had already done a drawing for the next two pages in Andrea's book, but as I was flying back home to California, I had a whole new idea and so this entry was very last minute.

I'm not sure if I actually believe the above sentiments, but it captures the emotional essence of my trip back home to deal with my mother's passing pretty accurately.

And lastly, what I had been planning all along for the collaboration page: My husband's aunt collected an incredible number of stamps over her career as a bookkeeper for Union Pacific railroad, and then later at some engineering company. In both occupations, she sorted the inbound mail from an astonishing number of countries and compulsively saved all the stamps.

I've personally only spared one huge box of stamps. Her sister took the other boxes and books and sold them to a stamp dealer - which is probably good considering the inordinate amount of time I spend looking at them any time I start going through them. I can't keep this hoard around forever, though, so in going through them I'm setting aside only my favorites. The rest are designated for use in art projects.

I included several large blocks of stamps still stuck to corners of envelopes for Michelle or whoever might like to use them in some way.

I think the wallpapered page looks pretty cool, and I suspect I'll do this again. ;)

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

Collaboration with Ballookey "Retro Cell Phone"

Also in Ballookey's Book

Yay, I remember how to post! Here's the balance of my work in Ballookey's book...

Top: I mentioned some volunteer work in my last post. One of the things I had to do was a poster for a local stage co.'s production of Alice in Wonderland, so I was playing with Cheshire Cat imagery. I know Ballookey likes cats, so I used her book for some feline painting practice.

Middle: We're in the throes of garden harvest. I spend part of each day picking not only these things, but a lot more. Ballookey got beans, cherry tomatoes, squash, jalapenos & corn. I sure hope Mike likes garlic, onions & potatoes, HA! (I already started his book.)

Bottom: A 2-page spread with an adult Monarch butterfly (I tipped it in, so the wings can "flutter" a bit). I'm all into watching the life cycle on the Monarch lately. We have them all over the yard. I slideshowed the transformation from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly on my blog, if you've never seen it. I even made Ballookey a Monarch caterpillar "finger puppet" from the amputated finger of a rubber glove. It has Sharpie marker stripes & black embroidery floss for antennas, HA!

Ballookey's Book Goes to NYC

I figured I'd better post today, or no one will believe that Ballookey's book exists. It's on its way to Aya finally, but I am just now getting the photos uploaded. Cripes, I think I forget how to post to Blogger? Above is a collab I did with Andrea, who provided the black-outlined "spatula" shapes. If this post works, I'll do the rest as a chaser.

I received Ballook's book on July 8 & was hoping to finish in less than my allotted month, but that didn't happen. I'd been so long without a book that I had moved on to all kinds of other creative commitments for summer, including teaching a drawing class, joining Creative Every Day, and doing some volunteer work locally. On top of my job, of course... which got surprisingly busy in the last 6 weeks.

Regardless, it appears I'm back on my feet after a jam-packed July -- and flush with creative projects, cash & personal fulfillment, no less! "Hope that lasts," she laughs ;-)

Ash's Book

Collaboration with Michelle:



I'm not really happy with this one. I think it's the long neck bones - I should have found another way to do those. I thought they were good until everything was assembled and glued down and then I hated them but it was too late to change.

Ash's book is going into the mail tomorrow, and in addition to the usual pocket stuffings, I'm including one of my preliminary sketches for the paper collage piece and a test print of the lino block that I did on top of a water-color test for the watercolor piece.

Graveyard

"Completed" collaboration with Mike in Ash's book. I had hoped the lino prints would be more clear, but after the first one was down, there really wasn't any turning back. :)

Ash's in progress

Nothing much to report except that I'm working on Ash's book. I think I'll wrap it up this weekend. I'm a little slow on this one for a really dumb reason. I know there's a big lag coming up before I'll see the last couple of books, and not much seems to be shifting*, so I sort of got a little down and thought, oh why hurry? But then I realized I didn't want to be "that guy" ;) and got to work.



*But I absolutely LOVE LOVE all the work I have been seeing in the books that are out there.

Collab with Mike in Heidi's book

I locked myself up in my office all weekend to work on Heidi's book, and only came out this evening with her book and a white paint marker in hand so I could work on this while watching TV with my husband.

The rest isn't quite done yet, but only needs a few more days to finish - I'll post that when I'm done.

I'm not sure why this song came to mind, but as I started doodling, I worked it into the doodles. The lyrics referenced in the art are from 'Test Tube Baby' by Morphine. I'll burn it to disc to go into the pocket, but you can catch a good sample on iTunes (note: clicking the link will launch iTunes if you have it).

Makin' Money - also in Aya's book

Ever since I saw an article about the prop money created for the long-since cancelled TV show Firefly, I've wanted to design my own currency. These were my first effort, printed on 16lb vellum, and I've started including them in the book pockets along with the stickers and trading cards.

Aya's book - going out at last!

MY BAD. I'm terribly late with Aya's book. The first two weeks I had it, I couldn't work on it at all because of all the work I had, so well, that's that.

Bubble Party, a recreation of an actual event (some names have been changed):



Archer: I just really wanted to draw this character. It goes with the Bubble party, but probably in a really esoteric way that only makes sense to me. I had several ideas, but in the end I went with a more enigmatic image because it's not my book:



I used markers on the left side, which I tested on lighter-weight watercolor paper than is actually used in the Moleskines. On the test, the markers didn't bleed, but in the Moleskine they did, which made me very cranky. That's why there's poppies painted with acrylics in the foreground of the Bubble Party - to cover up some of the bleed-through. So having learned that lesson, I went back to watercolors on the right side.

The beginning of a collaboration with Milo (with lyric by Buck 65):


The completion of the collaboration with Mike:

Raindrops, Spider, and Lemons

Whew! I've been so busy at work, I just come home and drop to sleep. In the middle of the IT Crowd and everything! But I finally had a chance to see which of my photos were focused (hardly any) and post them.

I have a sort of an idea brewing, but none of these represent the whole idea. These are various stages of the idea, and variations it went through. In the end, I thought featuring the parts would make an interesting series. These are very inspired by the spring weather around these parts.






(In the lemon tree? Why would I do that?)