eighteen miles of books. it's an odd way to measure a quantity of books, but such is the claim the strand has made. and what a bookstore it is! aside from your local mom and pop bookstore, it's the best place to go in nyc. why mention all of this? because the strand is having a tote bag competition. current totes flaunt the work of art spiegelman and adrian tomine–swoon!–so it's safe to say it's a pretty awesome opportunity.

so...i had to submit. i don't have any illusions of winning (though being a runner up and getting a bag of books from fantagraphics would be pretty amazing), but i did have a lot of fun (and yes, a bit of frustration) trying to come up with something that reflects nyc life and not just books. there are things i wish i could tweak; i think some of the individual elements in the green-yellow combo could have been more refined for greater fluidity. in the end, i spent a bit more time refining the pup in the blue-orange one. but, deadlines are deadlines and i'll learn from my mistakes. the process of completing each new piece teaches me a little something about myself and illustration that i may not have realized before.

it's also really interesting to see what other people in the nyc area are doing. because sva is a sponsor, i'd imagine several of the submissions are coming from current students.

enough babbling. over and out.

another western inspired illustration. how can you not love cowboy boots, hats, and cacti?

p.s. feeling patterny these days. more to come i think.

the pieces for the lake grove store are up! sadly, i was unable to make it out there to see them in person, but i was sent some photos. twice as sad, the photos weren't so great, so I'm just posting this one to give you an idea of how they were finished. the décor team decided to print directly onto 2" thick pieces of wood with the sides painted in a color pulled from the illustration. this was then mounted on an even larger piece of unfinished wood. the final effect allows the wood grain to show through–surprisingly delightful, i think. in doing so, they were able to tie these into the rest of the store's décor even more.

i only wish i was able to get my hands on one! the tribeca store may also use the illustrations, but on a smaller scale and with a different printing technique (no wood, alas). should that happen, i will post those results as well.

* visit the first post to see images of all the illustrations.

drinking tea during the winter and fall is one of the greatest comforts when it's cold, damp, and generally miserable. with an enduring love of tea time and mid-century inspired everything, here's a little kettle-illustration-turned-pattern i did last weekend (and haven't posted until now!)

happy (almost) spring! another experiment with hand/custom typography. even though my own day-to-day cursive is on the sloppy side, i love to examine the curves, loops, and structures of more formal cursive/script. it also allows for an interesting play between thick and thin line weights and, to me, is another wonderful form of drawing and illustration. joy!


also in pink! over and out.

just a quick post to say thanks to share some candy for including my spring reading illustration on the site! made my day!

p.s. yes, this screen shot is using google chrome's incognito settings. how sneaky!

the stores keep coming, one after the other, and with the opening of the new lake grove store on long island, i was invited to create a series of six 36" x 36" pieces for the children's area. it was a rare and treasured moment; i could work as i pleased without the worry of conforming to company brand standards! i was told that they really liked my style and to feel free to explore the ideas of food and health as i saw fit.


i decided to focus on farming as it seemed to be a fun subject for both me and the parents/children who would be in the space. the deadline was short for these six pieces–only a couple of weeks and it had to be done in addition to my usual work load. therefore i kept them very simple and composed each illustration of several smaller ones.


for a greater sense of cohesion and because children tend to like elements of repetition, i limited my palette to only six colors and had several images recur throughout the pieces. if you look closely, you might begin to decipher a pattern to my decision making as far as composition and patterns are concerned, but if not, i'll keep that my (time consuming) secret.

to get back into printmaking, i've decided to start small and simple. on tuesday i experimented with a chemical-free approach to xerox transfers. most of my research claimed the process required gum arabic or wintergreen, but i remembered a project back in my school days that needed neither. the concept is very simple, though the execution takes a bit of care and patience. the tools: glass (for working on), brayer, oil based ink, printmaking paper, water.

begin with a xerox copy of your image, in my case a pair of fancy men's shoes. place the sheet, image side up, on a piece of glass and proceed to wet it using a sponge or spray bottle. the toner should repel the water (you'll notice it beading up; i gently wiped it away with a paper towel when possible). let it sit for a few minutes so that most of the water on the toner evaporates, but the paper remains wet. repeat as necessary (perhaps one or two more times). you want the paper thoroughly wet but not pooling, and you want to toner as dry as possible. ink up your brayer (i was out of oil based ink and used oil paint which seemed to work well enough) and begin to roll over the image. the water-soaked paper should repel (most) of the ink while it adheres to the toner. repeat, re-inking brayer often, to ensure the image is well inked. once you're all inked up, place the paper you plan to transfer to carefully on top of the inked surfaced. i used the back of a wooden spoon to rub the paper and transfer the ink. and you're done!


the tests i did are a little blotchy; they almost look like watercolors or india ink which is nice in its own way, but not the effect i was going for. because these few were practice runs, i used really small pieces of paper, but i think in the finals the images would really benefit from more breathing room. the inconsistencies could live a bit more and become more of an interest and less of a distraction.

it feels so good to be making things with more hand, less computer. i have a long list of things i want to focus on this year: xerox prints, relief, screen printing, stenciling, embroidery, painting. here's to year of hard work and grad school applications next january.