Yule Ball

Back in early December, our local Barnes & Noble store hosted a Harry Potter-themed Yule Ball event. Being the geeks that we are, we got excited… There was a casual mention of perhaps helping a friend with her baby’s costume. By the end of the week, I had whipped up costumes for the entire family of three… as I do.

The baby (9 months) was the cutest Hedwig you’ve ever seen. Mom dressed as a Cage, as she’d primarily be holding the baby bird all evening. I was only half-joking when I suggested that dad dress as a broom. He objected at first, but after we described how the sleek, aerodynamic Nimbus 2000 was the top-of-the-line in flying technology and the real MVP of the action, he was totally on board.

Costume photos after the jump… 

Puffer Reef

I enjoy the pufferfish. This here is the porcupine variety, which is an actual thing. The sea floor is made from giftwrap, printed boxes, and a magazine. I made it not really knowing it was a sea floor I was making. Then I saw these fish in my sketchbook and I knew exactly where they should live. A little Photoshop later, and voila!

They look rather happy don’t they?

We might see them again later in other projects…

Why Cats Drink: Furnando

 

Respect the craft, man. I put a lot of work into being this fluffy.

Mapmento of San Francisco

About a month ago, I went to visit some friends in San Francisco and I had an absolute blast. Ever since I returned, I’ve been laboring over this 3D mapmento of my trip’s highlights.

There’s the Botanical Park in Golden Gate Park in the lower left, with the bridge and blanket of fog above, with Haight-Ashbury and a few of the “Painted Ladies” — the characteristic Victorian townhouses SF is known for—near the center of the map. In the bottom right are a few of the stops I made on my solo adventure day, the high point of which was the Comic Art Museum. In the top right, wine country — featuring the Fremont Diner, home of the World’s Best Chicken-n-WafflesOMG and the vineyards of Chateau St. Jean, where we stopped for a tasting and tour.

There’s so, so much of San Francisco that I didn’t see… Can’t wait to go back, and I actually wouldn’t mind living there for a bit. SF, you’ve been added to my Bucket List of Residency.

…And this map has been posted on They Draw and Travel. Woot.

 

Top 10 places to sit & purr really, really loud

Keeping with the theme of yesterday’s post, here’s a doodle page from my sketchbook entitled “The Best Places to Sit & Purr Really, Really Loud… or just nap“. (Author’s Note: I only have two cats. Not like, eleven. Also, the “someone” upon whose shoulders a particular cat likes to drape herself is –surprise– me. I do not own a yellow towel though. Everything else herein depicted is 100% true.) 

Jenkins and the Incredible Sit

While you’re waiting for me to finish the elaborate 3D map of my trip to San Francisco last month, here’s a drawing of my cat from late last year. Jenkins likes to sit in the red chair. It’s pretty much her main activity when she’s not …sitting somewhere else. Watercolor and pen.

Map coming soon. Really, really soon.

Eyeballing Goals

It’s been a big week in AngieLand. The long-awaited compilation book by Dawn DeVries Sokol entitled A World of Artist Journal Pages, finally hit the shelves. My copy arrived Friday, and I’ll be spending some quality time with it ASAP. I’m super-stoked to see my work in such great company.

Also this week, the lovely folks at They Draw & Cook featured my Garlic~Rosemary~Parmesan Bread recipe in the jumbotron collection on the home page. I’ve got about 2.5 illustrated recipes in various stages of completion that I really need to get finished and submitted. That’s one of my goals this year—more illustrated recipes and maps for Salli and Nate.

And rounding out my exciting week, this morning I popped in to the Blessing of the Fleet festival to judge the Mt. Pleasant Artist Guild’s show. I chose 8 winners from among 120 pieces, and it was just as difficult/fun as I thought it would be. I think I did well though, and selected a broad range of work.

Pictured: fabric, paper, paint, ink and hand-embroidered thread. I’d like to get back to sewing and do more work like this piece, created more than a year ago. Mostly though I’ve been playing with paper mache, drawing silly pictures of my friends, and wishing I had a kiln.

Art Journal: Book Release

In celebration of the upcoming release of Dawn Devries Sokol’s A World of Artist Journal Pages, in which my work inhabits pages 168–169, right in the middle of 1000+ images by 230 talented artists from around the world, here is a new page from my art journal. The book is available for pre-order on Amazon, and will be released April 21. Super excited to get my copy.

When cat naps go meta

So there I was, *trapped* on the couch unable to move, a hostage of the snoozebeast quietly snoring betwixt my sweatpanted legs. We were there for quite a while, as it was cold and rainy out. Luckily my sketchbook was within reach, so I was able to do more than just sit and watch her sleep, creeper style.

I added a bit of watercolor afterward and then monkeyed around in Photoshop with a brush set on overlay mode.

The hand may look a little wonky because a.) I hold my pencil funny; b.) to draw the hand that is drawing the hand creates a paradox loop (see also Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle); and c.)  I was already dealing with infinity in the bottom left corner, and that is *way too much science* for one drawing of a sleeping cat.

Rollercoaster through Space!

I went to St. Louis last weekend on a lark. We spent much of the first day at the Art Museum, gawking at Nick Cave’s Soundsuits (see weird humanoid shapes above, far left.) On the second day, we found the mile-long graffiti wall on the riverbank and took a gazillion photos– I’ve incorporated a few details from those photos in my collage. Theride up to the top of the Arch was rather anticlimatic (it was too foggy to enjoy the view), but then we took a 10-minute ride on a motion simulator at the Planetarium. And *that* my friends, was the high point of the trip– a freakin’ rollercoaster through space is just as awesome as it sounds.

St. Louis is pretty cool and has a lot of fun stuff to do. I’ll definitely stop there again to see more of it next time I’m on my way to somewhere else.

Posted on They Draw and Travel.