ballad of the long-distance muralist

my friend karen recently opened up a coffeeshop in our fine hometown of willimantic, ct. in preparation for said coffeeshop, karen asked me to draw a few things for her.

there is a long history of me drawing things for karen, in fact we first became friends when she was directing a production of "alice in wonderland" at my high school, and i was working on sets and costumes. "i need a tree bleeding color," she said, "i saw the tree in a dream, and that's what it needs to look like. can you make that?" and i did. there were other drawings, and projects, after that.

this project was a little bit different (no bleeding trees involved), we wanted to make a mural that would be a little bit new yorker cartoon, but in color, but not realistic color, and incorporate the eastern perk logo: a steaming cup of the day's brew. here's what i came up with:





and! the window murals have gone over VERY well with the shop's visitors, so there may be more of these guys in the future. i've been sent back to boston with a roll of kraft paper and license to draw even more colorful coffeeshop patrons.

inspiration: how to make a repeating pattern

as seen on http://www.designspongeonline.com/

how to make a repeating pattern

inspiration! so i won't forget.

the artist as an organ grinder in the distant past

pencil, then ink, then watercolor in sepia-like tones. just because.

( pard in the parlor )

i am lucky to have a wonderful handmade journal/sketchbook from superdilettante, featuring all different kinds of paper including this yellowed page from an old dictionary. i decided to use it as a drawing prompt, and made a single illustration with images based on the words and definitions on this one page. can you figure out what all the references are? i think i highlighted most of them in red for you.

coffee and banana

process sketches from an illustration project for a friend. proposal began with a cell phone conversation:

"hey, remember when you drew a picture of a hot dog for me?"

". . . a hot dog?"

"yeah, a hot dog."

"oh. wait, was it a dancing hot dog?"

"yes!"

"okay! i remember that."

"right. so do you have time to draw me a banana? and maybe a cup of coffee?"

news flash: i buy stuff

this month it felt like i was getting a lot of packages delivered to work. i felt important.

defense!

an oldie, from the vaults. this was a one-off card i made for a friend years ago, wishing her luck on her thesis defense:



the blonde-haired girls are both me, with different hairstyles.

shirtless guy with his chest painted is my favorite, though!

new stuff soon...