Miss Twiggs

I haven't updated my blog in quite some time! In fact I wonder even if I still have followers...if anyone out there is still tuning in, thank you!

The past few months have been pretty crazy, Doug and I relocated to the D.C. area. There has been many firsts for me....My first heavy jacket...my first pair of boots..scarf...and of course first time seeing snow. I'll admit that I never really thought of D.C. being a hip place to live, but there really is so much to explore. I still haven't gotten sick of the free museums or the zoo, and theres so many great places to eat!

In other news. I've still been working on pattern collections. The online boutique Shabbyapple.com is carrying a collection of my prints. I'm also enjoying working on illustrations for a new children's book called The Adventure of Miss Twiggs and Company. The story is about a trio of mice that travel the English country side meeting new people. Here are some of the illustrations so far.

another print

I'm still working on prints and patterns, trying to experiment with colors and bringing textures into illustrator. Here's one for back to school!

New Pattern, with barn animals!

Patterns.

A while ago I posted that I was beginning to teach myself (and with the help of an awesome friend) how to make repeating patterns. I took a break for a while to work on other things but I'm getting back into it. When I first started playing around with patterns I felt like they had to be crisp, clean, vectorized, and shiny. When I worked in illustrator, I hate to sound cliche, but I would lose my "style". So I've been experimenting with sharpies, live tracing, and drawing with the pencil tool straight on the tablet to get the hand drawn quality that I'm looking for. So far I'm loving the results and very excited to get better with pattern making.

rawr.

mythological creatures celebrate birthdays too!

Sock Designs

My friend Gail told me about this contest. Sock it to Me in Oregon is having a global sock design competetion. They're going to take 25 designs and have people vote for them on facebook. If by some wonderful miracle I make the cut...I will be bugging all of my dear friends and any of you out there that follow me to vote on March 7th. If I don't make the cut I still had a blast designing them, and learned a lot about patterns. Here's my designs...I crammed them all into my one day off!

Happy new year and all that jazz

My new year resolutions pretty much all revolve around art...well art and the classic "i'm going to eat so much healthier" one. Unfortunately I've never met a cookie I didn't like. Mainly I want my etsy store and portfolio to evolve and grow dramatically. I'm trying to market myself for as many illustration "fields" that I can. The next few months I'll be working on getting a collection of greeting cards together, and some pattern designs...and from there I'LL TAKE OVER THE WORLD.....and maybe make some wallpaper.

Now for some color. A friend of mine commissioned me for a present to give her boyfriend this christmas. He loves superheroes....well who doesn't...but she wanted them in my quirky Arrolynness style. I had free reign....so naturally I thought about what a superhero's day off would be like. I think it involves, ice cream cones, dog walking, book reading, and flirting with the ladies.

and yes, that's batman and robin on a bicycle for two.

Popsicles

OK. So I have a new obsession. It's serious. It's popsicles.

For my birthday my husband got me this nifty popsicle maker....it makes them in 7 minutes!!! SEVEN. It really is awesome. The main part is the base, which is filled with freezing liquid. You pop the sucker in the freezer for 24 hrs. and it's ready to go. Any time you get a craving for a popsicle you just whip it out, put in the special stick, and pour in your favorite juice. I've made more popsicles in two weeks than I have in my lifetime. So far I've made....watermelon, cantaloupe, orange juice, fudgesicle, peach, banana-blueberry yogurt swirl, cranberry-orange, chai, and coffee. Every time a new one comes out I give it to Doug to do the taste test...I'm starting to think he bought this to benefit himself.

Inspired by my recent popsicle craze I thought a new illustration was needed.

map paintings

I feel so ashamed. I've failed as a blogger. Once upon a time I posted many times a week...adding new images and exciting news....well ok, somewhat interesting news...but at least I posted! So for those of you who haven't given up on me I promise to post more regularly.

Long ago I experimented with making collage paintings. Well I've gotten back into that, but this time it's with old road maps! My family has collected a ton through the years, we traveled mucho. We were that family that sang corny songs and played cheesy games along the way. And it was fun. So I asked my dad to dig them out of the attic so I could cut them apart and give them a use once more. I'm using these map paintings to play with colors,, shapes, and textures that I don't usually use. Sometimes I plan ahead, or sometimes I just begin making shapes according to the lines already on the map. If you want to keep up with them I'm selling the originals in my etsy store.

In other news I now have artist representation from Advocate art in London. I'm excited to see where that relationship will take me, hopefully it will open new doors in illustration. Also the book I illustrated, No Girl's Allowed by Tyndale, is now officially published! I'll admit that I haven't picked up a copy yet....such a slacker.

Enough chit-chat...here are some pictures

Growing up my family and I would always go on summer camping trips. They are still some of my favorite memories. I wish I had a camper like this....

This is for a book idea that's been brewing in my head. Thank you for visiting!

Mermaid Party

My friend is having an under the sea themed birthday party, SO I thought it was about time to venture down the path of mermaid illustrations. Thank you for visiting :)

I feel like it's been a while since I've done art just for fun. So I'm spending some time each day to do neat pictures of neat things all while playing with color and techniques. I'm also going to kill two birds with one stone...I'm going to use this experimentation time to knock out the flood of birthdays that there are in the next couple months. So here was a card for someone who likes music and a phone because old phones are neat. Thank you for visiting :)

A friend of mine had a tea party themed birthday. It was the cutest idea for a party. When we got there we made big frilly hats and decorated them. I was just impressed by the variety of things she had laying around the house to decorate the hat with. Then we had all kinds of tea, snacks, and yummies. It's always good to get a bunch of girls together and catch up and reminisce. For her present, I thought it was a good time to do a tea party illustration! As always, thanks for stopping by!

Etsy

So I've finally gotten around to open an Etsy shop! It's called Tophat Society, if you're bored...check it out! http://www.etsy.com/shop/Arrolynn Right now I've been playing around with sculpey doing magnets and such. Every once in a while it's nice to create something just for fun. I'm going to have characters on there from my sketchbook and soon I'll put up some prints. First I need a nice printer....or know someone that has a nice printer...and now some penguins!

Hello!

It feels like it's been five years since I've posted! It's been a busy year. I got married and had a book deal with Tyndale House Publishers for 120 illustrations all around the same time.

The book is called "No Girls Allowed" and will be published this fall. The illustrations are going to be 3x3 and most if not all will be converted to grayscale. I've posted some below. I thought posting all 120 would be annoying and boring to you. Soon I'll be working on another children's book, but I can't give out any details yet! The other picture I posted is a box I painted for the wedding. If someone brought us envelopes to the wedding (probably full of money) they could slip it in here so it wouldn't get lost. Because seriously no one wants to loose money. As always thank you for visiting!

There are fishies and coral on the sides!

My manager at work is having another baby any day soon! I took this chance to paint something cute and smultzy.

A card for Gail.

Patterns and Ohger

finished the clock print today!



WHAT!??? Arrolynn is posting! I'm sorry to all three of you that follow my blog...it's been ages since I've posted anything. The things that I've been working on I'm either not allowed to show them, or they're just really boring. No one wants to see my mailing list. One thing I have been doing lately is working on prints and patterns. I'm starting to experiment with them to open the field of work. It's really exciting if you think of it....there's greeting card companies...wallpaper, stationary, clothes.. so many people need patterns! So here is my first attempt at a repetitive pattern. Oye. I really had some issues when it came to repeating the tile...but I did learn alot and I had a blast. I drew it with pen and scanned it in and then colored in photoshop, but I am also going to paint one. right now I'm just playing around... Next I'm working on one with clocks. In other news! The guys over a Drawger.com contacted me a little over a month ago with the exciting news that they're starting a new site but for up and coming illustrators. If your familiar with Drawger it's a place to showcase illustrators working today, but it's invitation only. Ohger is going to be a place for new talent that art directors and editors and whatnot can visit. It runs just like Drawger... it's by invitation or applying and it's only open to current students or recent graduates. So go check it out! I promise I'll post more.