Finger Monsters

I've got to be honest, I'm learning new things every day in Adobe Photoshop. It's one of those programs that I use again and again and again, but still always discover something new, especially when my boyfriend is looking over my shoulder. A good example would be that the other day he taught me how to draw straight lines while pressing shift. That could have come in handy so many times in the past...

Anywhoo, I was playing around with Photoshop tonight, and I came up with this little drawing. It's fairly simple, but I like it. I've got a soft spot for finger monsters, and I have a number of them in a little jar in my studio. Tonight they proved even more useful than just putting them on ones' fingers.

Happy Birthday!

Today is my little brother's birthday. I'm sorry that I can't be home for it, but I know he will have a great day nonetheless. He turns 18! Huzzah, now he can vote.

So this post is for all those people having birthdays...Or for those of you who aren't having a Birthday today, "Happy UN-Birthday!"
I was just searching through my computer today, and I found these old drawings. They are designs for birthday card invitations and thank-you notes. Originally done for a surprise birthday party, they could be tailored for any sort of birthday (party).

Each card (above AND below) is from a pen and ink drawing, and can range from slightly larger than postcard size down to 1/4th of a Letter-sized piece of paper (folded as quarters into a card).

And here is the Thank-you card:

Again, happy birthday to those who are celebrating. To those who aren't...
Remember: you only have 364 Un-Birthdays.

More Screen Printing!

Here are a few more photos of my current print on my screen printing press. Here is the print after applying 3rd and 4th (of 5) colors.

Can you guess what's wrong with this print?

That's right! There's a cat paw print on it! Ferdinand decided it would be a good idea to "help" me with my work by sitting on it. ...I had a lot of fun following his little blue paw prints around the apartment. I'm really glad I put a drop cloth on the floor of my carpeted studio.

Screen Printing

I love my screen printing press.

It was gifted to me last Christmas, and I must say I've neglected it a little bit. I could make excuses, but I don't want to bore anybody. I'm finally getting in the groove of printing, and it's just so lovely. Keep a look-out for many, many more prints from me.

Here is what I've been working on the last couple days (normally this would take me one day, but it's been a little humid, my inks are thick, and I started printing late the first day. :-)

I'll post more pictures soon!

Japan

Now, I know everyone who's anyone knows about the crisis in Japan.

I love Japan, and I can't imagine what it must be like to be in one of the troubled areas right now. I know I can't really be much help all by my lonesome. I would love to go over and help everyone, but I don't even know where I would start. My little bit of help that I am doing right now is that I am donating a portion of all sales from my Etsy shop to the Red Cross International. If you would like to purchase an original screen print from me, at least 50% of the sale will be donated to help tsunami and earthquake victims.

If you are looking for other ways to make a donation, many other shops on Etsy are having similar sales. Do some good and get some art too!

R.I.P Scanner

Today my scanner died. It's a sad day. I tried a number of "trouble shooting" options on the little bugger, but the thing just has problems. It turns on and connects, but it only gets about halfway thru a "warm-up" and then it dies. Oh well. It was an old scanner anyways.

Funny thing is that my boyfriend brought home a scanner that he had lying around at work. That one didn't work either. Same sort of problem, although this one didn't even try to warm up before it decided to give up.

I am now in the market for a new scanner. I've been thinking about getting a printer anyway (my boyfriend's old printer only prints blue now). We'll see what I can find in the way of printer-scanner-copiers. I've usually had pretty good luck with them in the past. I just couldn't bring my old one out to CA with me as it was too large.

Now, a moment of silence for all the printers and scanners that have kicked it.

Trees, Please

It's been really, really rainy this week. When it rains in Southern California, it POURS! The sky has been gray, the wind has been blowing, and trees keep falling over and/or losing their branches because of these California storms. Today at work I saw a truck carting away the pieces of a large tree that had been cut down. It made me a little sad, so I decided to draw some trees in its honor.

Trees are one of my favorite things to draw. I think I'd like to turn this into a print or a card, or something... I think it would make a nice 2 or 3 color screen print. Maybe with a red sun/starburst behind (sort of like I have penciled in right now)? Thoughts?

"New" Computer

I've been out of commission for a while. A couple weeks ago I took my computer in to the APPLE store to have it cleaned. It seems cat hair inside your computer makes it run much slower that it is supposed to. While it was being cleaned, the guys at APPLE decided that my hard-drive was "faulty" and would likely crash. A new hard-drive was highly suggested.

Since I haven't been working on any important design projects, I decided that it would be a good idea to have the drive swapped out now instead of when it's really a problem. Good thing I backed up my hard-drive with TIME MACHINE before hand. After over a week of work, I finally got my computer back yesterday. Thank heavens for TIME MACHINE, that was really a great idea for MAC computers. Instead of having to find my discs (which I am pretty sure I DON'T have any more) and all of my licenses for programs, I just needed to plug in my external hard-drive, and my computer did all the work! Thumbs up for APPLE on that one.

In addition to all of my computer issues, my sister came in to town last week, so most of my time was spent hanging out with her, driving around Los Angeles, and enjoying the week with family. Now I'm back, and I really need to start creating! I've felt like I am in such a creative funk lately.

Dragon?

This drawing was born while my boyfriend played some weird new game. I think it was killzone or deadzone three or two, or something...I wasn't really paying attention because I was keeping myself rather busy with drawing.

Anyway, I really like this creature. It is something of a dragon, something of a forest beast and something of a dandelion flower. I imagine it flying out in front of stormy weather.

He would have bad breath despite good hygiene.