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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....