Instagram, snippet of 2014

In 2014 I got peer pressured into Instagram. Something along the lines of "You don't instagram, what kind of designer/photographer are you?". So I made an effort to post more than my usual quota: one image a year.

I am not a fan of a lot of the filters, and even when I apply one, I manually tweak all the settings. I am however a sucker for the tilt shift since it creates that faux depth of field that I miss with "real camera" photography. Also the square format always reminds me of 120 film which I miss dearly. I take thousands of iphone photos but for some reason instagraming and tagging them does not come naturally to me. Perhaps because most of the pictures on my phone are cat ones and I think the internet has enough cats for now.

I included the last one as a self portrait mostly because I like the grungy look of the background. Odd how a selfie really is just a self portrait, but that term somehow cheapens it. Don't get me wrong there are lots of pros to cellphone photography, but I miss my actual camera. Even more so, I miss film. I do like the ease of taking out your phone and capturing something on the spot, like for example a sleeping bird you find on a fire hydrant (pic. 1). There is no longer that "Oh, No! I don't have my camera on me!". But I do miss a real lens and I will have to make it a point to take out my actual camera and take some photos this year.

    

Be merry and bright!

Happy holidays!

Coming to the end of this series. It's possible this will become a holiday set of 10 cards for next year, so there might be two more additions at some point, although it's hard to work on things offseason since you need the holiday spirit.

Winter Birds

Making cardinals look cute was a bit of a challenge, since they are just naturally angry looking. I should've gone with chickadees, since I've always loved them. I remember when I was little I always felt bad for the poor chickadees freezing out in the cold and was so confused why they didn't migrate with the rest of the birds. I thought maybe they were really smart and stayed behind so they could have all the crumbs to themselves without sharing.

Holiday cheer

Here are some cute deer tangled up in lights.

Time to get a Xmas tree

Yes, yes... I like foxes. And they like Christmas :)

Polar Bear Monday

Just some polar bears having fun in the snow.

Caroling Chipmunks

Here's a family of caroling chipmunks for you... and before Thanksgiving? How dare they! The sketch had 5 of them, since I love groups of 5, but I'm an only child and I decided to make it my family of chipmunks.

Sketch. The other two from that will have to make it in a different illustration.

Skating penguins

I don't send holiday cards anymore, but if I did, this would be it.
Some fancy figure skating penguins.

Winter fun

Winter themed illustrations continue: Snow bunnies.

Bundle up

It's that season, of scarves and accessories. when the cold is setting in...
Quickly colored in a doodle from the other day, trying some new brushes and a looser style.

Fashion Week

Last week's drawing theme: designer collections from Paris fashion week. I love polka dots, but the Valentino one gave me a headache. I keep seeing the collection everywhere in magazines, or maybe it just stands out more. There's only so much pattern I can take. I am a sucker for Elie Saab, Dior remains one of my favorites, and I can always find something from Galliano that I love. I did not do the Versace fabrics justice, and Gaultier will always be Gaultier (I would wear the short Union Jack dress). Sometimes I do miss the fashion design days, and the hours of FTV.

Purple elephant

From a while back, a little guy from my coloring book that I had to color in. Spread below.

Birds of a Feather

After my week of drawing birds I wanted to do an illustration of some sort of bird characters. I thought a punk rock band make would be funny so here they are "Birds of a Feather". Lead singer the hoopoe, blue heron on bass, a rocking woodpecker and the American kestrel on drums. I tried to pick wild birds that had natural mohawks or nutty "hair" :) The kestrel was definitely fun to draw with his pattern in the uplifted wings, but probably the most time consuming one. Originally I was going to do something more stylized, but completely forgot when I went to color them, so they are more realistic with quite a bit of detail. The woodpecker is probably my favorite.

Tuscany Rooftops

One more from last week's rooftops. Lots of earth tones in Tuscany.

Foxes II

The last two drawing of foxes for a while. Quickly colored in one of them since I liked the tooth sticking out. Definitely a proper sly fox grin.

  ... Couldn't resist coloring the second one.

Polar Bears

Theme No. 14 | Animals

Currently drawing animals for a second week, so there's lots more to come. Since it snowed yesterday in Minneapolis (in April.. gasp!), here's a relevant one - studies of polar bears.

The Coat

Ink on paper, digitally colored.

With a background in fashion, clothes are still some of my favorite subjects for illustrations. It's time for me to update my winter coat, so I have coats on the brain. This year I am thinking camel coat, a moto jacket, and a classic peacoat in a non-classic color.

Collections

Happy Halloween Cards

totem pole