lagertha

In honor of the return of Vikings tonight, here is Lagertha, baddest of asses. She is hands down my favorite part of the entire series.

illustration friday: exotic

Vampires are exotic, right? I didn't intend this to be my IF piece, but it works.

illustration friday: disguise

A last minute IF drawing, and my first post of the new year!

sexy atari controller

Happy Halloween! I had intended for this series to span quite a lot more than 4 illustrations, but here we are on October 31st and I just barely managed to squeak out this one. Alas. Sexy Tampon, Sexy ZZ Top, Sexy Grilled Cheese... maybe you will see the light of day eventually. But until then, I give you Sexy Atari Controller. Someone please make this costume a reality.

sexy fish on top mermaid

Sexy Fish on Top Mermaid: Because no matter how hard you try, you can't make little mermaids with the other kind.

sexy bob ross

Sexy Bob Ross: Let's paint some happy little trees... in your pants.

(You can't really tell at this size, but the circular tattoo around her belly button says "HAPPY TREES." I was going to take it out, but it made my boyfriend laugh pretty hard, so in it stays.)

babies of the 80s

 

I don't sketch much anymore. I'll do a rough sketch in Illustrator before I start working on something, sure, but I don't really just spend time noodling in a sketchbook anymore. In fact, I can't actually remember the last time I used my sketchbook. I'm not even sure I know where it is. How sad is that?

It's sad. Really sad. Sketching is super important! I am terrible. So in an effort to be less terrible, I decided to dust off my atrophied sketching muscles this morning. I had no real direction, but I guess I've been feeling nostalgic lately because I ended up with this little late 80s/early 90s babe. I'm pretty sure I wore both of these outfits at one point during my childhood, big permed poodle hair and all. It was not a good look for me, but it was still better than the bathtub bowl cut and giant translucent glasses that followed.

Anyway, sketching is fun. Who knew? Oh wait, I did. I just need to do it more often. I'm very fond of this little character, so she'll probably pop up again. Mostly because I will seize any opportunity to draw moon boots and scrunchies.

P.S. There will be another Sexy Sexy Costume post very soon!

sexy cactus

 

Long time, no post! Suddenly it's October and I realize I haven't put anything new up in ages. I've been drawing, just not necessarily getting the chance to finish anything personal. This adult life thing? Kind of exhausting. It's not all pantslessness and cereal for dinner, kids!

But anyway, it's October, which means that Halloween is upon is and costume manufacturers everywhere are selling SEXY SEXY versions of everything under the sun. I am not really a sexy costume person - my last three Halloween costumes have been Yoshi, Kaylee, and Yoshi again, and this year I'm going as Party Cat - and while I don't begrudge anyone the right to go as Sexy Exposed Breasts or whatever, I feel like every year the selection of sexy costumes on offer gets more and more absurd. And sometimes downright inappropriate - I mean, Sexy Elmo? Tickle me creeped out.

So as The Sexening ramps up, I thought it would be fun to do a series of legit ridiculous (legiculous? sorry, I've been watching too much Awkward) sexy costume illustrations. I am doing zero research as to whether any of these are real, but given the list I've compiled so far, I fear for the future of our people if they are.

First up: SEXY CACTUS. The spikes say "stay away," but the peekabo holes say "how you doin?"

illustration friday: power + pll

This is a bit of an odd scene, but it's your average Tuesday night at my house these days. I've recently added weight lifting into my workout regimen - which I am loving - and on Tuesdays I do it while watching ABC Family's amazing, cracked-out teen mystery soap Pretty Little Liars. It's pretty ideal multi-tasking.

I don't usually post sketches or line drawings or unfinished stuff, but I think I should start - I'd post much more frequently if I did. For example, this, which I wouldn't have been able to finish completely in time, but is a perfectly cromulent drawing all on its own.

greetings from watkins glen

This week's Illustration Friday theme, "travel," is a bit fortuitous - we just got back on Monday from the first vacation I've taken in more than a decade. We spent 4 days in Watkins Glen and Ithaca, NY for my birthday, hiking, visiting Farm Sanctuary, eating obscene amounts of coconut milk ice cream, and just generally enjoying being in the middle of nowhere. I sketched out a whole series of little vignettes I want to draw from the trip, but this is the only one I've finished so far - an ode to Watkins Glen State Park, with its 19 (!!) waterfalls and amazing gorges.

strummer

 

Yesterday I signed up for the very exciting new Vegan Cuts Beauty Box, because I am a vegan who loves me some beauty products and also getting packages in the mail. It's a win/win. (My boyfriend already gets us their snack box, because while he is not vegan, he does love snacks and making me happy.)

ANYWAY. The preview video for the first box features Melisser from Cruelty Free Face and her tiny adorable dog named Strummer. I, like the rest of the vegan interwebs, am totally smitten with Strummer. I'm not generally a tiny dog person - I basically want a dog who outweighs me - but there is just something about this little lady that kills me. Anyway, over the course of a a Twitter conversation about the beauty box and how cute Strummer is, I drew this picture of her leaping into the air with unbridled glee re: nail polish. Like you do.

TL;DR: Here is a tiny chihuahua. She is very excited.

the great chicken caper

Remember Lily and her chicken suit? Well she's back! This character and her chicken obsession have become a favorite of mine recently. As I mentioned in the last post, I've been germinating a very stupid story about her ever since that IF topic sparked my imagination. It's something I think I would actually like to write at some point, maybe, possibly, perhaps. Or maybe I will just continue to draw random pictures of her with out-of-context captions underneath! MAYBE. This is not for us to know.

illustration friday: farewell

This is Pancake. He loves breakfast and math. He doesn't want you to leave yet, even though the bus is coming. Pancake has trouble with goodbyes.

This week's Illustration Friday submission is brought to you by the letter C for Corgi.

illustration friday: wild

A couple of weeks ago on my way to work, I passed this kid (well, basically) on his way to school. His mohawk hoodie made my day and really stuck with me, so when this week's Illustration Friday email came and I saw the that the theme was "wild," well, I took advantage of the opportunity to draw this little wild child.

Rock on, kid. You rule.

illustration friday: egg

It's not 9 pm on Thursday and I'm posting my IF illo! What is this topsy-turvy world? Is nothing sacred? Well, no. I guess not. In any case, here is a kid in a chicken suit. As you may be able to glean from the text beneath the drawing, there is a little story to go with this. It is very stupid and will never see the light of day, but it does exist.

I think this is the fourth or fifth little kid in a bird suit I've drawn over the course of my adult life. I guess I have some kind of deep-seated fascination with giant beaks on the verge of consuming childrens' faces? In a cuddly sort of way.

NONE OF THIS MAKES SENSE. But I'm posting it anyway. Happy Wednesday, internet. Enjoy the chicken child.

illustration friday: swim

I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do something for IF this week, which bummed me out because I already missed last week - but then I was able to churn this out this afternoon/evening, so yay! And I'm actually I'm super happy with it, which is always a plus.

This is a bit of a departure from the muted color palettes I've been favoring lately - the brighter, summery palette obviously worked with the theme, but it's also just because I am DYING for some warmer weather. I feel like I've been wearing a bulky winter coat for 100 years. Ugh. BRING IT SPRING.

illustration friday: yesterday

This is the second illustration I started for this week's IF topic, "yesterday." The first one was kind of personal (UNDERSTATEMENT) and super depressing and while I would like to finish it one day, I knew I couldn't now, and even if I did manage to, I was never going to post it. I got as far as a color comp before I abandoned it and decided to go with something a little less actively miserable.

The first thing that came to mind after that was the phrase "yesterday's news," which got me thinking about what if there was a little girl named Yesterday who put out her own newspaper and called it "Yesterday's News?" And she has a cat named Headline or Byline who "helps her," and by that I mean mostly rolls around in her notes but also sometimes discovers things or gets her out of jams too. And maybe they solve "mysteries" and uncover "secrets" around the neighborhood or whatever. Kind of like Harriet the Spy meets Nancy Drew, except with a super horrible name.

PSA: Do not name your child Yesterday. Do not name your child Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday (even if she's a vampire), Today, or Tomorrow, either. These are not names. Also a better, if less thematically appropriate, name for this cat would be Waffles. End PSA.

ANYWAY. There you go. I should just really stick to drawing.

illustration friday: talent

Nothing big for this week's IF, just another bendy circus lady, this time doing some double-hooping. I've been experimenting with color and technique a lot these last few weeks, and the streak continues. For this one I decided to work in Photoshop from start to finish (I usually work in Illustrator and then just take it into PS to add texture at the end) - and I didn't hate it as much as I expected. I kind of liked it, actually. I still think I prefer the results I get in AI - I like very smooth lines - but this method certainly had its merits and I'll try it again sometime.

I feel like I'm slowly figuring out how I want to work, through a series of hits and misses. Like, last week's piece? I hate it. A few weeks before that, for the "storm" prompt? I really liked that one. It's an interesting process.We'll see where I end up.

illustration friday: whisper

Getting my IF piece for the week in just under the wire - again. I see a pattern emerging. I actually did the sketch for this as soon as I got the email with this week's topic, it just took me a while to get around to finishing it. I'm still having lots of fun playing with color - this palette is a bit of a departure from the muted tones I've been favoring lately, but I felt like getting (slightly) outside of my comfort zone and trying out something that wasn't just strictly realistic in terms of coloring.

And I'm still all over hand-drawn text. I just want to draw pretty loopy writing all over everything now.

illustration friday: wool

You guys, my vegan is showing.

When this week's (this week's for another 1 hour and 34 minutes, anyway) Illustration Friday prompt  - wool - landed in my mailbox, this is the first thing I thought of. Mostly I just wanted to play with hand-drawn type - the sheep is pretty secondary. I think it came out pretty well considering I've never really done this sort of thing before. Looking at it now, as I'm posting it, I'd add change some things (when wouldn't you?), but... overall I like it. I think it ended up having kind of a vintage kid's book vibe, somehow.