I'm Headed DOWNTOWN!

As you know, I work with StudioDIY to create some kick butt, totally cute graphics and printables for their cool and colorful blog! I love it, truly.

Here is one of the projects I finished in March that just got blogged about! (Side note: SO hard to keep an exciting project secret for so long! But I DID IT.)

Anyways, it's a Choose Your Own Adventure guide to how to successfully spend a day in Downtown L.A. and it looks like SO much fun! Road trip, anyone?... Like for serious. 

Number one reason it looks so AMAZING is all the yum snacks! Food is my most favorite expense and hobby. (StudioDIY, you have my heart.)

It involved a lot of lettering, which I am totally about! But I can be so picky about how my writing looks, so even though it looks cute and casual, I put in some major love perfecting it all!

Anywho, fun project and I made a cute little Instagram teaser too :) 

I painted a palm tree quick and made a pattern and laid the title of the piece on top!  (Funny story, I didn't have ANY palms in the original piece, but after making the teaser all about them... I had to add them at the top of the guide! Cohesion. Oops.)

The silly pattern.

The Instagram teaser!

Another version of a potential Instagram teaser- this one was unused but I still like it :)
(Rough texture of the letters is from actual gouache painting of words that were scanned in.)

Always looking forward to working with StudioDIY again! If you want to check the post out for yourself (you should!!!,) just click here!

And for the heck of it (and to pay homage to the title of this post...)

Ooooh, Mack is too real. 

"To like, Arizona"

Anyone else watch Judd Apatow's new series on Netflix, Love? I watched it in a day (it was like, ten hours so that's not even that bad... right?) Anyways, did a quick doodle (literally, ~10-15 minutes water coloring the elements, quickly scanned it and photoshopped it all together!) This quote was probably meaningless to anyone who isn't me, but I'm sad and wanted to make something and here that something is.

Just Dinking Around!

I'm no stranger to the ol' Shrinky Dink magic. My dear friend Emily Orzel and I reignited our childhood love for the craft back in college when we made pins for our zine, Washed Out. We were way ahead of the whole pin game that has taken over Instagram but I'll try not to brag about that now... 

Anywho, enamel pins are back and big as ever and if you want to be a relevant, hip artist, you are turning your line art into metal pins and slinging it to anyone who digs your style. It's great to bask in the golden age of pins, I am all about poking holes into my jean jacket or my army jacket with illustrations that show who ~I really am~. And literally anything you have ever wanted to express yourself is made into a pin now a days. It's amazing. From The Smoking Man to lady products to Mrs. Doubtfire and Mike Tyson to Olde English in a paper bag. Literally anything you want. Anything... But my art. 

I don't know how to get into the enamel game and I don't think anyone would want to buy my shit and I am not financially able to make risks like that. So the alternative is... Shrinky dinks! 

I made a bunch of random doodles into a bunch of hunks of plastic and watched how they shrunk to a third of their printed size and expanded to 9x's their widths. It was fascinating. Still. (The packaging does suggest that teens and adult use this product, so no shame!) 

These pins aren't for sale, they were made for a special purpose and a cool lady and are off in the mail as we speak. 

I pinned the pins onto swatches of my pattern designs and they turned out pretty dang cute. 

This heart eyes pin set would've been so cute for a Valentine!

Do you guys want some dinked pins of my art? No? Okay, cool.

PS. Before you go and start thinking I'm a magical magician of a human being (I'm not. At all.) Check this picture out: 

Perfectly imperfect. I messed up like 3 full sheets of dinks because they got too hot and the inks melted together and couldn't unfold in the oven. It's a game of chance- nothing comes out perfect and hey, that's pretty cool. 👌🏻

Thinking of you and wishing you well!

I designed these and drew the lettering for my family's holiday card. Printed by Haute Papier on peacock paper with brushed silver foil. 

Wishing everyone a bright and happy 2016! Hope it's off to a good start! 

PS.

My resolutions this year are a joke minus all the drawing I'm going to do and all the burgers I'm gonna eat.

Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey

Heading home from the east coast where it's warmer than it is on the west coast. This is my holiday card I sent out this year and it's ironic as all hell... Thanks El Nino!

The background is a pattern I made that I used for the envelope liner, as shown below.

Envelope liner?! What's that? I don't know, just a pretty touch that us paper snobs and stationery geeks add to make letters even prettier. It's my excuse to create a repeating pattern.

Thinking of you and wishing you well!
xoxo

UNBREAKABLE!

Sundays are a day for art and naps! I spent the morning inking words and scanning 24 pieces of chipboard littered with lettering onto my computer so I could edit them on photoshop.

Awesome way to get texture and get away from the computer for a little bit. 

Had to make a print from Netflix's "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" 

Such a hilarious show with excellent one liners. This line spoke to me. FEMALES ARE STRONG AS HELL. 

Ice cream in bed, drawing finishing touches and Netflix.