Daily Sketchbook

As a personal quest, I've decided I'm going to spend 1-3 hours a day doing a daily sketch, just to stay in shape. It started as a 3-part quick sketch cartoon for my boyfriend to make him smile during exams, and evolved from there. I've decided for the rest ofDecember I'll be drawing, naturally, the 12 Days of Christmas, developing my character design skills and working on my understanding of space and composition.

For your viewing pleasure, here are

the first two days of Christmas!

My idea behind the Partridge is that, alone in his pear tree, he has started to take notice of the fact that he and the pears have the same shape, and due to sheer lack of company, had

fallen in love with a certain pear. Anything to keep him company on cold winter nights.

My concept behind the doves is summed up very beautifully by a friend of mine. He says it looks like he has a "drunk, Japanese-businessman-esque quality", while another friend finishes, " 'I'm a bond trader and after that glass of wine, you're comin' with me' And she's actually considering it!"

I want to give these drawings as playful an air as possible, stretching my skills of face and body expressions further than I have before. I hope you enjoy! More to come!

Busy Bee

I got a good response on my "Sweet Georgia Summer" book. I haven't sold it yet, but I did get a commission to make one in different colors for my boyfriend's mom. Which gave me the insane idea of making a series of these beaded books with different designs and colors on the covers.

I was talking to a friend of mine last night about the new design I had come up with, and he asked me why I insisted on being so crazy with my designs. I thought for a moment, then came up with the best answer I could: Blending the line between genius and crazy tends to allow for some of my better and more uni

que ideas (we'll take my porcupine/cactus/needle book for instance).

So last night I designed #3 in a set of goodness knows how many. I haven't bound it yet, because quite frankly I'm exhausted from beading and I REALLY don't want to go to Walmart right now to find ribbon. But here is the cover

design anyway, because I'm very excited about it, and I want to hear your thoughts, comments, praises, or declarations of my insanity!

The cover is bound in ice-white linen bookcloth and will be bound with blue or green satin ribbon, in the same corset bind of "Sweet Georgia Summer".

The fish is hand-beaded with silver, green, blue, orangey-purple, light purple, black and gold beads (sead, bugle, large), and detailed with black sewing thread. The bubbles and red details on the side of the fish are blue and red Swarovski crystals.

This is available for purchase upon completion, so if anyone wants dibs, please say so! Thanks guys!

(sorry, the image is small. here's a link to a full-sized image!)