30 days of Bowie

I’m doing a thing—one of those 30 day challenges everyone goes on about, but I’ve never been able to complete. This time, however, I think I’ve got it—I have an accountabil-a-buddy, a co-challenger with which to share, brainstorm, and critique. And that’s important.

It all started when we went to hear illustrator Sarah Lawrence speak about the project that made her famous, Draw Shit Everyday, in which she handlettered the same four-letter word every day for a year.

So, for the month of July, while Kristin explores ampersands, I’m doing #30daysofBowie. Each day, I choose a song from David Bowie’s vast repertoire and I spend anywhere from 15 minutes to 8 hours drawing out the title or a line from the song. My goal is to generate a big ol’ pile of sketches and ideas that I can further develop and refine into final pieces  next month. And I’m experimenting with lettering styles and techniques as well, and also  (happily) becoming increasingly obsessed with The Man in the process.

Check out the project so far.

 

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A.K.A.: Names I call my cats

I only have two cats, but I call them by 1,000 different names.Their legal names, Vivi and Jenkins, are only used when I’m talking *about* them, or when they’re in trouble.

Notable monikers missing from this drawing include such gems as OogaBooga, PandaMonkey, and FuzzyPants.

Hand-lettered Wedding

Me: “So you know how it says “…invite you to bear witness?” … Can I put a little bear peeking around the tree, witnessing?”  
Bride: “Absolutely.”

Two very dear friends of mine are getting married in a few months under a big old walnut tree in North Carolina. I was honored when the bride asked me to design the invitation suite, and thrilled when she told me what she had in mind. I was even more excited when she requested that all the text be hand-lettered as well. We had a really tight deadline, so I spent several evenings on sketches and an entire weekend painting and digitizing the files to be print-ready.

Mads sent me these shots of the final product back from the printer. Love the paper choice—looks like it’s got a nice, toothy texture. This was a really fun project and I hope I get the chance to do more work like this soon.

Currently in the pipeline, I’ve got a big website update coming… eventually, and a new travel illustration—Amsterdam, Bavaria and Northern France, oh my!