Save the Date

greetings from the future: I scheduled this post not thinking about when it would go up. Though it feels weird to leave it here, I'd rather celebrate things I love and artists doing cool things in a small way. I'll also be donating $10 for every calendar sold to the Southern Poverty Law Center!

Greetings blog! I have some fun news for you - I've got two illustrations in Studio on Fire's 2017 desktop calendar!! This was a super fun project for me, and also a big honor. Ever since college I've followed and really admired Studio on Fire's work. Now I get to be a part of this great annual project, along with quite a few other talented illustrators and designers. SO COOL SO COOL!

I'm going to be selling these calendars in a little "pop up shop" I opened just for this great product. Did someone say Christmas present???? GUYS IT'S PERFECT FOR EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST.

(pssst... want free shipping? Just enter code HELLOBLOG when you check out!)

Here are some more photos, including both my illustrations and examples of the different accent colors on the stand (you can pick between silver and black).

here's the silver accent

and here's the shiny black accent!

young americans

 Hello hello! I come to you, oh interwebs, with an offering of FUN! I recently worked with American girl to whip up a set of illustrations revolving around a super rad summer kick off party! I read American Girl as a kid and it was a complete and total dream to get to work on my first piece for them.

Here's another little snippet from the article! Go find it at your local bookstore to see all the pieces I did - there's quite a few! Oh, and I illustrated a fortune teller (you may know it as a cootie catcher) insert that is so dang cute I can't even handle it.

In other April/May news:

-My extra talented husband has been working on a monthly Spotify playlist project, which are SO GOOD seriously. Follow him, you will not regret it. Here's a link to May's playlist, how handy. He also makes cover art for each one, those you can find on his instagram. 

-I participated in another Light Grey Art Lab show - Botanica! I chose to illustrate the blackthorn, because it has some sweet witchy connotations. You can buy a print of my piece here.

bloody brilliant

A few important facts about my Ideal Bloody Mary:

-The mix itself should be spicy & substantial, but you can still taste the tomato. Also not a lot of horse radish.

-The add-ons need to be more than just a celery stalk, but not insane. We're talking cheese cubes, not cheeseburgers.

-Definitely need a pickle.

-BEER BACKS. Seems to be something I saw more in Minnesota than out west, but I'm convinced that they are a necessary balance for the bloody. 

It's been a lot of radio silence on the blog, which I think is something I mention in every post... so this will be the last mention of it! I feel like a lot of the things I'd normally reserve for blogging end up on Instagram now... has anyone else noticed this? I'd like to keep up with the blog, but it may be round ups of my goings on instead of more regular weekly posts. You can still follow me on instagram for the silly stuff though!

Ideally I should have a handful of things to show off in the near future though... stay tuned!

bagel & talks

New year, new blog!

I'd like to try to do some process posts again this year - specifically showing my process for pattern and animated gif making. Obviously I am no animation master, but personally I love seeing people's process... even if it's way different from mine.

Here's the most recent sparkle food I made! I had BAGELS ON THE BRAIN... specifically bagels from Bagel Broker, but perhaps only because that's the only place I've had bagels since we moved to LA. But they're GOOD BAGELS. REALLY GOOD.

In other news: Lisa and I have a new pin! Okay this is sort of old news if you follow our instagram account. SORRY, I'm bad at blog updating etc etc etc.

But anyway, this new little bebe is based on Medjed. What, you haven't heard of this obscure Egyptian god who's mentioned only one time in the Book of the Dead? WEIRD. JK, I hadn't heard of him until Lisa brought him to my attention. Apparently he's experienced somewhat of a revival thanks to Japan and the internet. Know Your Meme explains it better than me.

We'd love to make more pins and OTHER FUN THINGS in the future too. If there's something you'd like to see let us know! We're friendly, I promise.

365

In the last couple days, thanks to some much needed encouragement from Bryan, I started working on a little experiment to see where I could take my art and technique next year. Since this is a pretty big challenge for me (I get pretty set in my ways) I decided to make it something FUN and draw my girls Sailor Moon and Luna having a heart to heart.

Do you want those tattoos now? I do. Anyway, I'm happy with how this turned out and it's making me feel like I can start the year off fresh and new.

Yesterday I was lying in bed, thinking about the year that just passed by and realized that maybe it seemed so quick because SO MUCH STUFF HAPPENED. We had visitors, we made visits, we planned a wedding, I turned 30, I got a new job, I worked my butt off on freelance, I saw Coach Taylor on the street, etc etc etc

(the Kyle Chandler sighting was, seriously, the highlight of my year. Sorry, new husband, you'll be replaced soon with America's Favorite Coach Dad Police Officer)

Here, have a giant dump of photos of Things that Happened This Year.

discovered my new favorite donut spot / made valentines stickers

visited the getty / started trying on wedding dresses

traveled to Minnesota for the wedding, reunited with favorite people & places & beers

Marriage'd!!! Go check out our photographer, Jonny Edwin

saw so many lovely friends & family in from out of town that I lost count

went on lots of LA adventures. LAdventures?

 spent a lot of time making masks and gifs for Halloween

Saw the releases of a couple books with illustrations by me: Crocodile's Burp, Leopard's Snore &  How to Break A Heart

Celebrated Thanksgiving in Ohio &  Michigan. Celebrated Christmas in Minnesota.

Celebrated 30 inside of a photobooth at the Little Tokyo shopping center with some of my special babies.

spaceballs

In my head I have a popular talk show called "Weirdly Specific Things I Have Googled" in which a rotating cast of celebrity guests and myself talk about that time we googled "how long is a baguette" or "how to spell a wookie sound".

The former I did for this VERY ILLUSTRATION, in celebration of that space wars movie or whatever that's out today I guess. JK GUYS, I'm no die-hard Star Wars fan but I do really love the movies and all the stupid dinky droids that live in the universe (MSE-series anyone?). Although I haven't seen the new movie yet I'm reeeeaaaalllyyyy hoping that it's just a buddy cop comedy film staring Chewbacca and BB-8. 

p.s. in case you were curious, my Jedi name is Emmrt Brann... according to the internet.

boston magazine

A recent map I worked on for Boston Magazine. Such a fun assignment - I could draw ice cream and fancy cocktails ALL. DAY.

In a more seasonal vein I did this fun little illustration of a family (maybe or maybe not slightly inspired by Crosby & Jasmine from Parenthood) taking a walk by their winter cabin. Someone bring me that dog NOW.