art: girl power & dinosaurs.

I had the chance over the last couple of days to peck away at some sketches and to make a new little piece of art for Avery's nursery! Here are a couple of things I've done:


A few more girl power pieces--

Some practice sketches of Avy and Fred the Triceratops, for possible later use in some picture books currently brewing in my brain--

And my favorite: a finished watercolor + colored pencil piece featuring Fred the Triceratops, to be framed and hung in Avery's nursery.

There's actually a silly story behind good old Fred. A few years ago, Mike and I, along with his sister Elly, went on a little mini-vacation to Washington, D.C. We were very taken with a triceratops skeleton in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. The skeleton implied that this dino was, we joked, the perfect size for a pet. So we nicknamed him "Fred," and referred to him as our future / hypothetical pet throughout the trip. When Mike and I returned to D.C. for our honeymoon, we of course took photos of ourselves with our friend Fred. And here is a cute picture of him for Avery's nursery! We can't wait to take her to see him someday. I also would love to feature him as a character in picture books down the road, perhaps!

Well, that's it for now. Sketching and painting are just one of the many things I've been doing lately to try to keep my impatient mind occupied while I wait ((uncomfortably!)) for Avery to arrive!

art: hand-lettering practice.

Aside from illustration, I've also recently become interested in hand-lettering. I see it pop up a ton on Pinterest, blogs, Etsy, all over the place. I used to have a cute little calligraphy set when I was a kid, and my dad has always been a big calligraphy junkie, so hand-lettering and I go way back. But it has become kind of trendy of late--which you won't see me complaining about, because I love the current half-messy, half-fancy aesthetic that seems to be quite popular right now. I dig it.

So, I've been dabbling a little, just for fun. I recently purchased these cheap Crayola watercolor markers (got them a couple bucks cheaper than this at Target), which look a lot like the expensive brush pens serious hand-letterers all seem to use. I'm sure there's quite a bit lacking in control and brush quality in comparison, and the color options are quite limited, but they're a good starter pack for someone who just wants to play around with it casually!

Here are a couple things I've made as I've been playing around with them:

Wilco lyrics

Lucius lyrics

And some things made with other tools:

Plain old Crayola markers! Layered over thin black Sharpie.

Sharpie pen in black

Regular Crayola markers again

Same

Yeah, I'm definitely not too fancy or skilled at the hand-lettering stuff yet, but you have to start somewhere, right? Meanwhile, it's just fun and relaxing to play around with. As I get better at it--and buy fancier tools for it--I may work up some pieces nice enough to frame and hang in mi casa. Until then, it's a fun form of doodling--I feel like a middle schooler with her markers & notebook! ;)