Art Aprons

I love these art aprons.  I'm already thinking ahead for Christmas gifts for my nieces and nephews - I have quite a collection of relatives in the under 9 year old range!

Of course I'd have to stuff those pockets full of art supplies - crayons, paints, tiny pads of paper, colored pencils, markers.  All the good stuff to make a creative adventure.

I could also see them used for a tiny gardener - add a few pint sized gardening tools, seed packets and gloves into the pockets.  Or for your mini-chef add in small cooking utensils, cookie cutters and a kid's cookbook!

Zazzle has a 40% off all aprons as part of a big sale this week.  Use coupon code: MEMORIALSALE

Humblearts' Aprons

Threadless Design

I created this design for the Threadless Loves Coffee contest.  Just something sweet and simple.  The contest is based on voting.  If you could take a moment to rate my design on the Threadless website, I'd be one happy camper.  Now I think I need a cup of tea and to steal away a few minutes for daydreaming.

The contest ends June 6th, so if you are feeling coffee inspired submit your design too!

Tiny Lands

A little diversion from the old to-do list. Do you do this - there are deadlines and project you know you should be working on, but then an idea pops in your head and darn if you don't suddenly have a little extra time to fit that in too?  Maybe that's just me.  I like to call it procrastination inspiration. 

My Process

I thought I'd share a little behind the scenes of what goes into my illustrations. 

Everything starts as a sketch, usually a pretty small one, that is scanned, enlarged and flipped in Photoshop.  The printmaking process is in reverse, so to save my sanity I simply flip it backwards in Photoshop and print it out to transfer to my blocks.  It can be a little tricky wrapping my brain around the reserve image, as you'll see later!

Some prints I carve everything on one block and print the entire block.  For this image, I decided to create the image in a series of 'stamps'.  For the background, I cut a little square and used a stencil of the owl.  After that I created belly stencil and did the flower print.  The owl and words were also created with as stamps and printed on the image. 

Here you can see the print before the owl.  If you missed the print, you can see it here:

Now, printmaking may see like a scary process - but there is an 'undo' button.  If I make a mistake I simply carve out the part and make a stamp that replaces it.  As in the 'a' that I carved the wrong way. So there you have, one way I make my artwork. 

Taking Chances

I ordered postcards from Vista Print last week and unfortunately they printed a little too dark.  And after holding them in my hands I realized the smaller postcards just didn't have a big enough impact with this quieter image.  Good to know for future campaigns.

So I went back to the drawing board (photoshop) and created the design for the front in the larger postcard size.  And then I was just playing around with the back and the large owl in the middle of the postcard struck me as a little brave.  And I liked that.  It's kind of nice not playing it safe.  I took a chance, we'll see if I get any response.

I need to get better at sending out postcards, my last one was in November.  The goal is to send one out every 3 months, so I'll aim for that again!  Now to work on polishing up the ol' mailing list.  And await another delivery - until then I will keep telling myself...

Fortune Favors the Brave

Question Everything

New piece I worked up today.  4 color blockprint.  Liking this new stuff.  I'll show more of the process later this weekend - I took photos!

Illustration Friday: Equipment

 Equipment needed for the best smelling laundry ever:

1. clothesline

2. clothespins

3. gentle breeze (use country air for best results)

4. sunshine

5. a few hours

My entry for this week's Illustration Friday.

Mono print and block print with some hand-coloring.