Feather N Stitch stationery

I have some really neat news!  Blend licensed my Feather N Stitch collection to use for a stationery and bag line.  It was pretty surreal to go and take pics of it at the recent AmericasMart here in Atlanta.  The collection will be traveling to the National Stationery show in New York and some other conventions to shop to buyers.  I can't wait to see it out in stores.  I am using swear words of happiness in my head right now;)  This, the the fabric collection and wanting to show at Surtex are the series of events that prompted me to quit my job last March.  The non-compete clauses can be tough to work with if you have a full time gig in the same industry as your personal work.  I knew I wanted freelance in the long run, and these events sort of made the decision easier. Luckily I had just enough work to do it.

As you can tell I am all over the place with what I like to do with my art.  Creepy illustrations and friendly stationery all in one brain, haha.  Whatever tickles your fancy, right?  You don't have to be cornered into one area, as long as it feels like one person created it!  Anyway, thank you to Anna Griffin and the others that worked on this line.  I am pretty excited.  I loved the vintage elements in the display, right up my alley.  

Full display:

Journal close up:

I dig this little heart diecut that shows the pages inside:

Sticky note pads:

travelin' man

This is a commission that I just finished up for a guy named Dan.  Dan is a traveling man.  He is a TV show producer that Scott and I met about six months ago.  He asked me to make a piece about him and his life for his office.  Part of Dan's personality is that he moves a lot, sort of a wanderlust, and he seems to be making a circle around the country hitting up all the big cities.  His next stop is either Miami or Austin.  It's a neat  lifestyle because his TV shows flies him out to the location and his home base is more of a pit stop for relaxing and meeting new people when he's not on set.  The show he's producing next is Hardcore Pawn, haha, I am a sucker for those kind of shows.  Anyway, I am grateful to have met the nomadic Dan, and my art will go with him to each new destination.  This piece is about 4 feet wide and will be a giclee print framed in weathered wood, I'll get him to send me the finish later so I can share.  Pretty epic.  There are little hidden icons based on parts of his personality.  Dan and Scott also compete each week for a Golden Tee championship trophy at the bar next to our place.  It seems to be what they live for.  I love Atlanta and it's array of people.  We are a fast growing film city, so we meet a lot of those types.  Most of my friends are video and photo folk.  It's an awesome mix to have.



Some zooms:

new fuzzy work

A few new pieces that I am hoping kick off a new narrative series for me.  For kids(chicken nuggets) and such.  I need to build my younger selection.  You would think that after 3 years of working on kids apparel I'd have that covered by now!  Haha.  I prefer more sophisticated or subdued color when it comes to kid's stuff.  Hopefully they don't get bored.  I hear babies like black and white visually.  I need to tap into that realm.

The tree animal pieces are from my sketchbook when I went to Costa Rica for my honeymoon with Scott.  It was so awesome to see those animals in real life!  And the steam punk fox is for a group promo project for Red Fox Literary. Hope you dig.  More to come soon!

White-Faced or Capuchin Monkey: Lives in packs, smart, uses tools, not completely vegetarian, cute.


Three Toed Sloth: Only poops once a week in a hole and buries it(modest young fellow), green tint is from algae in it's hair, has slow metabolism, not laziness(yeah right), cute.


Steampunk Fox: Um, likes to follow underground trend of a surreal universe consisting of cowboys and the future mashed together.  Likes to watch Firefly over and over again with his friend Mouseface, pulls out broken pocket watch periodically to pick up women.

Brodieeee(book cover for Penguin UK)

I wanted to start the new year with good news.  I got the okay to show this pre-production.  I was so stoked to get an email from Penguin UK.  I love the Essentials collection they put out, which had some of my favorite illustrators featured, and they contacted me to do a cover for the next batch!  Nuts I say, nuts.  So after a couple months of working with the awesome Lee Motley, I present to you the cover for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark, a classic novel revamp.  It was a dream job for me.  Do whatever I think is best to fit the story well, using my fashion inspired work, and hand letter the type.  Miss Jean Brodie is awesome, she was a revolution.  The writing was witty and fun.  The movie made based on this book is great too!  Maggie Smith was exceptional;)  Here is the Wikipedia entry that tells what the story is about if you are interested.

Final image(I will share with you the final with the logo and added text when it is printed):

Sketches and some of the reference I pulled(we went with the first sketch but with a more slender dress):

A good way to start the year.  Hope you enjoy!

I made some stuff

Hey readers.  This past week I finally got to make some stuff out of my Feather N Stitch collection that I wanted to share with you.

Owl lamp!  Whoa!! Here is the link to the demo with a fox if you want to make your own:
http://matsutakeblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/electrified-fox-lamp-tutorial-and.html

And a stuffed fish.  Haha, me is fish.

Also if you want to buy the fabric, here are a few links on where you can purchase:

Hawthorne Threads 

Fabric Worm

Fabric.com

  

new drawing

I've been playing with adding little quips to drawings.  Trying to bring back my Sunday Funnies in my current work.  Hope everyone is having a good holiday season!

Bag designs and Pop-Up Shop

This year the awesome people at I.C.E. are teaming up with Criminal Records for their holiday Pop Up shop.  I was lucky to be commissioned to design the tote bags this year.  Originally it was just going to be one design, but then they had the brilliant idea to have a girl and guy version.  So here are my designs, and the info for the show.  The first 100 people there get one of these bags!  Come support everyone's favorite local record shop in Atlanta and buy handmade awesomeness for gifts! My prints will be there too.

BEST BEST two week trip ever (and I'm married now:D)

Okay, it would take about 20 pages of a post to explain how amazingly awesome the two week vacation I just came back from was.  It was one of those time where everything got planned at the same time by accident/happenstance.  I decided to create a run-on sentence of it's amazingness starting now:


It started when I went to Quilt Market to see my fabric collection Feather N Stitch launch with Blend Fabrics which was super freaking cool and I met a ton of awesome people there and want to go back every year now then I came home form that and flew to Las Vegas the next day to see my best bud get married which was awesome crazy lights and love later I got to see an old friend I haven't seen in a long time and got so inspired by all the grandeur THEN while in Vegas Scott and I spontaneously got married and that was super cool we finally after 9 years together summed it up with a nice eloping that was insanely fun and crazy and wore cowboy and cowgirl outfits and it was stress-free and I was so friggen happy and I cried and we laughed and then we drove to Florida and I went to Ringling to do Trustee work with the Board of Trustees and a presentation for the Illustration department and I got super inspired by all the students and how much I missed my teachers and I also saw a bunch of old friends then Scott and I went and celebrated our wedding with both families and that was amazing and then we went on a honeymoon in Costa Rica that was the best trip of my life because Scott and I went through a lot to stay together with school and long distance and craziness and that trip was the best summary of what we have built together and what is to come. Costa Rica is awesome!




That was the two week trip in a nut shell.  All my close ones heard the extended version.  Mind blowing life altering awesomeness and I feel so happy now.  Costa Rica will be a post on it's own, I just need to get the pics together.

Feather N Stitch

eloping attire:D

page from sketchbook during the madness

As far as current life, it is time for me to get back to work and get cranking.  I have a lot of work to do to go to Surtex next year and start some new projects.  What a good refresher before a few months of working in the bat cave nonstop, lol.  Hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving!

Feather-N-Stitch release this month

I was excited to get these promo photos in from Anna Griffin showing my fabric collection!  I will be going to the Quilt Market at the end of the month in Houston to see it's release with some good friends that have fabric there too.  So, this is what I do aside from drawing skulls, ha!

If you are interested in buying wholesale, just email me and I can direct you to the right people.

New patterns

Here is a new little collection I did this weekend.  I am slowly preparing for my show at Surtex in May next year.  I need to come up with a name for this one.  I envision it on kitchen accessories, so maybe I need to add a few more designs with utensils.

Tea Time with Tick Man

I went to Netherworld this weekend with some friends and I was so inspired by the insane costumes and animatronics(and spookiness).  This image popped in my head after seeing one of the beasts, so I had to draw it.  Halloween time is when people get to be who or whatever they want without anyone questioning it.  

The Uninvited Guests

I've always wanted to try a spinoff piece of the mad hatter tea party.  I did this earlier this year and just never shared it.  Probably because I couldn't figure out how to finish it, since color just wasn't working. I found it today and figured I would just leave it as a drawing.

So here is "Alice's Tea Party, The Uninvited Guests."  Haha.  The mad hatter is inspired by this homeless guy that use to walk around our neighborhood when I lived in Florida.  He seemed overly happy all the time.  Given the circumstances, it made his madness more obvious.  Then for the guests you got a pig who is a picky eater, the bear who hogs the honey, and so on.

I hope everyone has started wearing their costumes for the month;)

Bearrsss (and contest winners)

I love bears.   I have a few more bear drawings I have going.  I wish I had the guts to get another tattoo, it would be a bear. This week has been fun.  Scott and I have been filming a studio tour video, I get to read one of my best bud's YA manuscript, and I'm working on the Cavendish story that I love so much.  Yeah!! 

Anyway I also wanted to share the winners of my giveaway that I announced Monday.  

The winners were Stephanie Fay Bodden, Starr Hoffman and April Solberg.  Congrats! I will be sending those art prints out at the end of the week.  Thanks for everyone who participated!!

The Snake Queen-Art Print GIVEAWAY

Hello readers!

As a thank you to all the people that enjoy Wattsalot, I am holding a giveaway of my Snake Queen Print.  But not just one, three prints will go out!

All you have to do is "Like" my new Facebook Fan page.  So flippin' simple you could do it drunk on your laptop while hyenas are after you.  My fan page will be a place for me to share my inspiration, updates and other things TBD.

If you have already liked my page, your name will automatically be entered.  I will put all the names in a randomizer, and pick three.  I will be picking these three on October 3rd, that is one week from today!  I will then ask for your address, and send the print, signed, to your house.  The print is 11x17 and I sell them on my Etsy for $20 so you get that for free if you win;)  I will be doing this more often, so if you don't win, don't be sad.

A little background on The Snake Queen:  I chose the snake queen to giveaway because in the past it has been one of my most popular prints in local shops and online.  The story behind it is a childhood fantasy I use to have.  When I was little I had a pet snake, an iguana, and a weird black lizard that changed colors.  I would carry them around and pretend that I could communicate with all reptiles.  I wore the snake around my neck like a boa, and that is where the inspiration stemmed from!  True story.  Haha.  

Blend Fabrics press release

I meant to post this sooner but here is the press release for the new division of Anna Griffin that I have been working with for my fabric collections.  October the Blend team and designers, including myself, will be at the fall 2011 International Quilt Market in Houston launching our collections and the company will be launching as well.   They have been such a great team to work with and I look forward to hangin' and meeting everyone.

(click image to read)

Cavendish and Ice

Good morning Friday! I just wanted to share a couple of things before the weekend.  I can officially announce that I will be illustrating the middle grade novel called The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls written by Claire Legrand.  It will be published by Simon and Schuster in Fall 2012.  The story is awesome, and it is a creepy one!!  I love it, and the characters are really great.  I can't wait to share it next year.  If you are on Twitter, follow @ClaireLegrand.  She holds contests, is really funny, and has an inspiration Tumblr account that I really like.

Also, the image above is for  I.C.E. Atlanta's second anunal Pop-Up Shop.  They commissioned me to design their bag.  Since I am on a knitting crush again this winter, I went with that theme. 

finished Vegas suite

Hello!  I wanted to share the finished wedding suite that my best bud Angela hired me to do for her and Grif's wedding in Vegas this year.    It was a joy to work on this since Angela and I have a lot for the same tastes. Her and Grif are awesome.  I will be going to their wedding, and it's going to get crazy!

Invite:

Save the Date(also in a previous post): 

Two options for the RSVP:

      

New drawings

So all of my work starts as a black and white drawing, and I often just want to leave it at that.  The show I had last year had some black and white work in it, which seemed to go over better with the crowd than the paintings.  I suppose it is just preference.   Anyway, here are some recent drawings I did for myself for fun.  Also, hope you enjoyed the website update from the other day, and Scott's kick ass photos.

Food Trucks, new website updates

Finally! Scott and I were on the same time schedule yesterday where he could photograph my Food Trucks while it was still daylight.  We wanted to use natural light with a touch of his other lighting. 

He did a beautiful job, and I now have him promised to take photos of other things that I have coming to my website, haha.  I will definitely take advantage of being with a photographer.

About the Food Trucks:  I was commissioned by Teenspeed Press, an imprint of Random House, to illustrate the maps for this book.  This was by far the most challenging project I have had, and very rewarding.  I was given google maps, photos, and other info, and from that I basically created scenes that we did not have photos of, and did the lettering which I always love.  It was really cool to see them come together.  The ones that were just arial view maps weren't as tough.  This was really neat and now I can draw any kind of Food Truck from memory, haha.  I think I counted on my computer that originally there were around 40 mini truck drawings done, but they were edited out for space sake.  

Betsy Stromberg was the designer/art director.  And Heather Shouse wrote it.  The photos were mostly taken from Heather's adventures compiling this book together.  I hope she makes a second one.  It was so neat because when I went to Austin I went to one of the trucks in this book. 

Well anyway, if you would like to buy this book you can find it on the Random House site, Amazon, and they are also in major bookstores and some Urban Outfitters.  My friend found a display of them at UO in Manhattan.  

Betsy added color to the images to tie it together with the color palette.  I think it looks really cool.

And I just wanted to share this picture Scott took of The Tilting House book and the pic for the front page to my website.  I updated a few sections on my site with new pics.  There are some in the book section, the wedding section, and pattern.  I 'm really happy with them, thanks Scoot:D

Photo courtesies: Scott Cormack