Illustration Friday - Safari

Showing the contrast of the wild African plains versus... the vast... bland cubicles of Corporation XYZ.

Monsters. And other mature topics.

My husb gave me this handmade journal/sketchbook and it's just been sitting and giving me nasty looks with it's gorgeous stitching but very blank pages. It was created by the talented Ann Renee Lighter - check out her Etsy shop and blog.

Now it's coming to life with monsters, critters, creatures and beasts. I'm trying to restrain myself from scanning and posting each page as it's completed. So here's a teaser with some low-res, poorly shot phone pics:


Oh and mature things. Yes. A Chart. Because for everything I do, there must be ...


... a chart.

The Fiction Project 2011 - Art House Co-op

I'm participating in the Fiction Project 2011, which consequently was just returned to me because Catman @ the UPS store didn't charge me enough for postage... grrr...

So, once again, the pages of the Moleskins are superthin and anything besides a pencil bleeds through. My stepson, James, is amazing and I picked his brain for a story idea. (It is heavily influenced by his current obsession - Super Mario Brothers.) Basically, a pug named Max escapes his shelter and finds a cave filled with monsters and gold. He looks to defeat the monsters while freeing his canine buddies back at the shelter.

Here it is, HOW TO MAKE A HANDMADE BOOK IN THREE DAYS!

First step, remove the crappy pages. My favorite part because I got to use a knife muahaha:
Typed out the story in InDesign and printed out pages:
Sketching out the illo's:
Pages brushed with gold calligraphy ink. Pages are just manila 8.5x11" card stock sheets cut down to size. Funny thing is, the India ink adhered better to the gold than to the manila pages.

Inking the words using print outs as guides:
Sketches cut out:
Transferring the vampire turtle over. Rubbed lead on back of drawing and traced onto manilla page:
Inking the three-headed snake (google Tryclyde) with good ole fashioned dip pen and ink well:
Max, the main character:
After finishing all the inking, glued the pages, back to back:
Modge-podged the cover (love that shizzle):
My loyal apprentice, The Lazy Rabbit, "helping out":

Glued book:
Finished! (my God what a veiny hand - gross!):


He liked how it turned out...