So sorry for laming out on Art Day, guys. Art Day is serious business, no doubt. I woke up super early yesterday morning and went down to the bodega to pick up some AA batteries for the camera, and then I went over to Dunkin Donuts for some coffee, and then I came home to contemplate what I would create.

Yeah, I ended up just prowling around the internet or most of the day.

See, the thing is, I’ve mostly resolved myself to write less about life here and more about art, because, let’s face it, most of life is pretty much boring-ass drivel. Drivelous? Drivelosity? Anyways, that life stuff got all up in my business and completely distracted me from making shit like I was supposed to be doing, and apparently some of you got nervous, so I apologize.

The big news is- and I don’t want to go leaping or getting way too excited- but Matt and I are probably most very likely hopefully oh please yes please please please be buying a house in the somewhat-near future. Things are still a little vague, however, and since the arrangement is a tad bit complicated we haven’t got a plan 100% in place yet, but! Yes! It’s likely I will be relocating to the Maine seacoast before winter sets in. Bye bye Boston, hello pretty ocean! So I’ve been spending the past few days attempting to get my duckies all in a row, signing up for first-ime homebuyer classes, figuring out finances, and doing some preliminary scout-outs for potential homes.

I think I have scrutinizedt about 1000 house listings since Saturday. Seriously. 

And it’s not even like the old days, where you got a single one inch blurry greyscale photo listing with a barrage of archaic abbreviations in the caption (EIK?!); you can go on whole visual tours of some of these places and find out what the cost of electricity was for the past winter or in what year the roof was redone, and they’ll help you figure out your mortgage payments and even give you names of local inspectors. Holy shamolie. So I feel I have been able to significantly narrow down some more promising options, and I have already scheduled a couple appointments this weekend with realtors. Huzzah!

So less like art, and more like life; but this house feels a little like both (it might be love), so keep your fingers crossed for me…..

Front of the house, pretty blue door and sun porch

the side of the house…. you can see the stairs to the deck and some full windows letting air, light & access into the basement

the kitchen is kind of quaint, but it has a gas range which makes me happy. Would probably paint something cheerier n the walls.

Pretty sure there’s 2 bedrooms upstairs… one to sleep in, one to be a guest room or studio

The basement appears to be newly refinished, and there’s another bedroom down there. This would be converted into an apartment for my mum to live in. It’s got some good sized windows, too.

the view of the big backyard. There’s a willow tree, a garage, a new deck, and a HOT TUB.

Pretty sunroom.

The living area, with pretty maple wood built in shelves, and a fireplace!!

Announcement:  in two weeks I have big plans for Art Day (that’ll be Monday, August 4), and you’re all invited to participate!

I’m going to be playing Fairy Godmother to all you Cinder-Sluts out there, so if you want to take part, you gotta send me your fondest wish. Write it down on an index card (or a similar-size piece of paper)- you don’t even have to put your name on it- and stick it in an envelope. Make sure the return address is really clear, and mail it to the address I’m about to post in the next protected entry.

(I might be a certified Fairy Godmother, but I’m not a dumb one, and I ain’t gonna broadcast my address for all the creepos of the universe to see….. you feel me?)

And just in case you were wondering, yes, I am a licensed and certified F.G., as we like to refer to it in the field.

Bippity boppity boo, etc. Yo.

If you’re not on the protected list, drop me a xanga message / email requesting my info. Email isn’t gonna fly: in order for the spell to work, I have to have a physical piece of paper with your handwriting on it. Use a crayon, pencil, sharpie, pen, whatever. Draw me a pretty picture, if you like.

All of the wishes I recieve by August 4th will be included in a creative project which I’ll blog about on Art Day. The next part is a surprise. I wouldn’t be a very good F.G. if i told you all the good secrets, now would I??

   
12:00 NOON

This week I need your help!

Last night I posted a little pulse asking for some suggestions for people’s favorite animals. Me, I have an affinity for owls and squirrels (couldn’t you have guessed??), but I am pretty much a big fan of all critters, large and small. And that includes the crawly bitey ones as well as the fluffy snuggly ones.

 

When I was a teacher, I used to keep a copy of the Macmillan Illustrated Animal Encyclopedia in my classroom (it was my favorite book as a kid, and is now hard to find; it has beautiful drawings representing just about every vertebrate on the planet, and a facing page full of facts on every one), and I used to challenge my students to try and draw their favorite animals. As a treat, we also played a game where the kids would try to stump me by naming any animal and seeing if I was able to draw it from memory.

So if you love animals, name your favorite, and we’ll see if i can draw it. (I promise not to peek in my encyclopedia too much.)

At the end of this project there will be a special surprise…..

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3:00 PM

Well, that seriously sucked. Had a wee bit of technical difficulty, but everything seems to be working smoothly again. I’ve been painting and taking pictures in the meantime!

First, a shot of the workspace and some of my supplies.

• My animal encyclopedia
• two sheets of transparent Polyshrink paper
• Fine grit sandpaper
• Sharpies!!!
• Watercolor paintbrushes
• tempera paint
• watercolor pencils
• iridescent watercolor medium; I’ve had this bottle for ages but have rarely played with it.
• Brush tip markers

1:00 PM

I’m going to start by sanding the sheets of shrink paper, first in horizontal strokes and then vertical strokes. This gives the surface a little “tooth” so it will absorb color.

You can see the scratchy texture on it now.

If you don’t sand it first, water will just bead on the surface.

But when sanded, the water & pigment have something to cling to.

Now I’m ready to add color and drawings; here are some of my drawing and painting supplies.

I’m so bad, I really love using kiddie art supplies, especially poster paints and crayons. The colors are always really bright and cleanup is way easier! Plus people think it’s really funny when you tell them what you use to draw with, haha.

I’m going to begin with some blue tempera. i get my brush wet and pick up a bit of color…..

And then I lay on a light wash. It’s really watery and doesn’t soak into the surface very much, so the brushstrokes stay fluid and sort of meld together.

I finished this page, using mainly cool colors…..

And then started a bolder, warm colored wash on the other sheet.

2:00 PM

After letting the first washes dry for a bit, i went in and played with some detail effects. If you get your brush really wet- with just clear water, or pick up a little paint- you can override the wash color and paint in detailed designs.

 here, i’m making dapples using drops of water. The water spreads out from the drop and pushes the color outwards.

3:00 PM

I’ve got a lot of effects going on this page. Drips, dribbles, dapples, etc.

This is the other page, after the wash dried. I haven’t messed with this at all, but check out that weird line effect where the brushstrokes meet. I kinda like it.

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3:30 PM

I thought i might try my drip technique on the plastic sheet.

It kind of made mud. Pretty mud, though!

4:00 PM

After waiting for the watercolor to dry ( i have to be patient, since the surface is plastic), i went in with the felt-tip caligraphy marker and added some details.

Since I will be adding animals in the next step, I started to think about this background as being a kind of ecosystem for them to inhabit.

I’m not a big proponent of Creationism by any means, but it is interesting to think of building my own little watercolor planets.

Perhaps……. I am a wrathful and avenging art-creator goddess!

…….Or maybe just a messy goddess.

……or one that is a freaking slob and has to do laundry this week.

Did i mention i like to use washable kid paint? yep yep.

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4:45 PM

Here’s a list of all the suggested animals so far. Lots of kitties and fishies, hehe.

An Elephant, in honor of Mister Matt, who single-handedly saved Art Day today!

And an unlikely aquarium starts to take shape……..

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6:00 PM

Well, i’ve almost finished the fishy page!

say hello to Mister Octopus. Did you know they are highly intelligent invertebrates, and will kill and eat sharks??

I thought i might take the iridescent medium for a test drive…..

I liked it okay, but mostly it just pushed the paint around and made things only slightly shimmery. Feh.

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7:00 PM

Okay, i’ve drawn most of the animals.

Turns out? Stuff like aardvarks and lemurs i can draw straight from memory. But kitty cats? I freaking have no clue.

I guess i just don’t pay attention to them, ha! But this one turned out okay. This is a requested kitty.

it’s a freaking zoo!

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7:15 PM

I took a ruler and started drawing lines on the back of the drawing, dividing it up into rectangles.

I tried to make each rectangle contain [most of] an animal……

I’m just going to post this picture of this pair of scissors, and let everybody freak out for a few minutes.

because, yes, i am going to CUT IT INTO PIECES!!! muahaha.

(don’t worry, i took pictures of the original )

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7:30 PM

I hope you don’t hate me now : )

I cut the animals into regular rectangles, and the fish are sort of amorphous shapes.

Time to pre-heat the oven! (275 degrees Fahrenheit)

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8:00 PM

But first, the hole puncher!

Before i put the pieces in the oven, i want to put holes in them so I can use them as pendants. It’s a lot easier to do this before they’re uh, hard….and, uhh, thick. So I’ll take care of that while the oven is heating up.

I laid them all out on a piece of cardboard, and put that on a cookie sheet. They will stick to metal and it leaves marks on the backs of the shrunken pieces; sometimes i put additional pieces of cardboard on top of them to keep them from curling or rolling around in there.

See? When they hit the 275 degree mark, they start to undulate around and become curly as heck. This is when i start to get nervous; but really, you just have to be patient. Once the plastic softens they start to flatten out. The whole process takes less than ten minutes, but i like to sit in front of the oven and watch the progression.

9:00 PM.

Then i took them out of the oven and let them cool down;they’re still a little soft so i gently pushed on the curved ones to flatten them. Later i will put a clear gloss on the surface of each one to protect the design. The colors & designs are really intense, because basically they’ve been concentrated on the surface of the plastic.

Let’s see what we’ve got:

Here’s the whole set:


I’m going to put a little varnish on each one, and then affix a loop through the holes i made and put them on ribbons.

Soooo….. i dunno if you remember, but at the beginning of this post I promised a surprise. Since you were all so helpful in suggesting animals for me to draw, I thought it would be only fair that you should each receive a piece of this artwork, if you so desire. Even if you didn’t mention an animal, I’ll still send you a piece if you would like one. One per person!

Of course quantity is limited (I’ve got about 28 good ones), and although I’ll do my best to send you the animal you named,  i can’t really fulfill specific requests. As you can probably see, it’s kind of a jumble.

(And i already have dibs on the octopus and the turtle, because they are special-made for another project!)

For those of you on xanga, send me a message with your mailing address and I’ll send you a piece. Or you can send me an email (moontree.studios@gmail.com , subject line: “Zoology”) and send me your address that way.

Thanks for hanging out with me in my blog studio today!

    12:00 PM

I like a little bit of process. Today we’re going to start with a couple things, and see how many times I can change it.

Now i’m not just talking about, “paint over that shiznit!”; what I’m talking about is an equal amount of creation, transformation, and destruction, and then…… probably more creation. It’s a good lesson if you’re an artist, since it broadens your concept and keeps you from getting too precious or uptight about what you’re making.

First, i am setting myself some standards:

• I will create three new elements;
• I will destroy something i have already created;
• I will incorporate all of this into one artwork;
• I will drastically change the original form somehow;
• The resulting piece will be functional;
• You will be able to see the process in it.

I have a feeling this is going to be a chaotic afternoon, heh.

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12:30 PM

Sorry for the delay; i realized my camera ran out of juice, so i had to go hunt around for batteries. File this under: “Destroy”.

hey, look. A big sheet of paper!

Ugmoe the rabbit volunteers to help destroy it, or at least destroy it a little around the edges.

He’s not interested in painting, however.

But that’s okay, because we all know that i do : )

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1:00 PM

Ready to rock!

first glob on some paint…..

then, start laying it down.

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1:30 PM

It looks like an underwater cavern. I like it, just as it is.

But see, that’s the thing, i don’t want to get attached. Ultimately, it’s going to get it changed, and then destroyed.

hey look, i am a painting!

And my shoes are the same color as my creativity : )

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2:00 PM

I added some purple paint. Nuthin’ wrong with purple paint.

Oh, eff. Except when you drip it on yourself, because acrylic paint doesn’t come off!

Also notice my awesome manicure. You can just call me Slob Girl now. I gotta wash this off.

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2:15 PM

You know what? Screw it, life is messy.

Let’s celebrate by dripping copper paint all over the place.

Oh, yeah.

But you know what? It needs something…. different.

So i’m gonna pick the whole thing up and flip it upside down.

That’s better.

---

2:30  PM
Oh yes. She is bringing out the sharpies.

Annie, Annie, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

Straight up marker fumes, that’s how.

---

3:00 PM

A sign of things to come…..

A few of you have specifically requested that i do a dancey-dance.

Check out my “Shake that Spraypaint” dance.

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3:45 PM

Results of spraypainting:

I also added in some white highlights.

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4:00 PM
Oh hey, look, i found this owl drawing. I think it’s high time i wrecked something.

(you can see that the rabbit already got to it)

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4:10 PM

I spraypainted it gold. Oh yes, yes i did.

Ok, ok, i’m just kidding around. It wasn’t an ORIGINAL drawing. (That owl is my favorite, are you crazy?!!) It was just a print on vellum that i made the other day.

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5:00 PM

It is time. bring forth the scissors!

Let’s put this on the floor where we can see it.

i always know a painting is ready to be shredded up when i get that little wishful twinge, like i’d rather just hang it on the wall.

But that’s not what i’m doing today.

ha! this used to be a painting!

Now what?!

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5:30 PM

I went through the cut up paper and sliced it further, into long, tapering strips of paper of different sizes. They’re really pretty because some of the designs i drew are still visible, and the gold makes some parts almost look iridescent.

Then i did the same thing to the owl print that i just spraypainted. It looks so cool all remixed, hehe.

---

6:00 PM

Ok, so i sorted all of the tapered paper strips by size, so i can see what i have.

With all this paper on the floor, i have to be careful. The rabbit usually snoozes under the table until matt gets home, so i better check to see if he’s waking up…..

nope, still snoozling!

Ok, good to go.

I has a stik! and some glue.

And a long strip of painted paper.

First, i’m going to start winding the wide end of the paper around the stick.

I continue winding the paper around itself, adding layer upon layer of paper.
Since the paper is tapered, the new form starts to take on a tapered shape, too.

When i get to the end, i glue the last couple of inches down.

Et voila, the start of a large paper bead.

---

6:30 PM

But what about the owl  print?
I take one of the strips i made and measure the width against the shape of the bead.

Then i choose a 2 inch section i like, and wind it around the bead.

A transformation bead, with owl feather patterning.

Later, and after i’ve made a few more, i will coat these in a clear resin, and create a piece of jewelry from them.

---

Oh no! some people seem to be all sad because i hacked up my painting. I have been contemplating this while I’ve been busily rolling up all those strips of paper.

Here’s the thing: it was a painting on paper. Paper doesn’t hold up very well in the long run, so you can’t be getting all attached to it. I’m sure i could have framed it or put it on stretcher bars, but really, there will be other paintings on other days. I promise. They will be pretty, too.

In the meantime, I took quite a few photos of the painting just before it was transformed. I always do this, for reference, comparison, and so I can make prints or digital photos later if I need to. Nothing is forever, and everything changes: let’s celebrate that!  Every bead i make from it represents a part of the original, which can now be worn. I think that’s a pretty interesting concept, i mean, if you think about it.

So i’ve got a few beads made so far, and it’s getting to be dinner time. i’m going to work on these tonight, and then this week I will finish the process.

Keep an eye out for goofy photos of me, rocking my newly created transformation piece : )

Witness: the man I love, at his finest.

    A while back I scored a strand each of some chunky rough-cut chalcedony & opal, in gorgeous shades of blue.

This is what chalcedony (a cryptocrystalline! of quartz and morganite!) looks like in the rough.

And this is what Peruvian opal, which is only mined in the Andes,  looks like before it is cut.

This is my new necklace.

This is NOT going on Etsy. It’s mine!

An interesting dream last night, or rather, in the hours before waking:

I am waiting for a bus, and it is raining. Luckily I am waiting indoors, watching through the big windows in the front of a deserted and empty department store. I am feeling sorry for all the other people at all the other stops along the route, because the bus is terribly late today and not many of the stops have any place to shelter. The sky is absolutely dreary, and it is getting cold and dark.

I always have a sketchbook with me, and my sharpie, so out of habit I take that out and start thinking about what to draw. The room becomes a design class, and on the far wall of this gigantic, abandoned space the professor has written down our assignment for the day. One of my classmates points it out; apparently i’ve been dawdling or daydreaming instead of doing the work. It is difficult to read, since a.) i am myopic, and it is far away b.) it is in scrawly cursive and c.) it’s nigh impossible to read in your dreams. Apparently this is an entirely separate function of the brain.

A moment of clarity: thinking outside of my situation, I realize I am actually somehow able to read and write while dreaming. It’s been happening fairly frequently over the past few weeks, where i’ve been typing something or looking at signs or trying slowly and painfully to write a message (i keep getting distracted or interrupted), so perhaps I’ve been practicing. I seem to be getting better.

The assignment is a design task: something about drawing an architectural rendering of a business which is rooted in ancient history. What?? and since these are words in a dream, they are quickly gone. I am clever though, and the inspiration comes quickly: an ice cream shoppe in the desert. I remember some elaborate faux factology- did you know, that it was the Ancient Arabian people who invented ice cream? it was made from sweetened and spiced milk and topped with sugared dates. (Sounds excellent, but is that even true?? where would they even get the ice to make such a thing?? how did my brain come up with that? what is this strange affinity i have for middle eastern culture?) Already i’m off, drawing this Arabian ice cream parlor in the desert.

It has arched windows and spires and columns, and elaborate mosaics on the patio. There’s some camels chilling outside while  the children wait for their treat. I am having a tough time drawing the camel’s legs; one is standing at attention and comes out looking a bit lopsided, and the other one is sniffing the ground. I draw a sloppy U shape  to represent a saddle or blanket on his back. I can’t get the cupola of the roof quite right, and this is seriously aggravating. I realize again, lucidly, how weird it is to be mimicking motor control in a subconscious state. I draw a boy sitting on a mule, and the mule is stealing a lick of sweet cream from a nearby dish. This is exactly the kind of funny thing i might draw even if i were awake.

And then i am awake, and it’s really frustrating because i was right in the middle of this great big fantastic artistic effort, and now i have zilch to show for it. You can’t take drawings back from dreamtime, you know. So now i have to start all over again….. but it is sort of fascinating, because then i wonder: where do my ideas come from? Maybe what makes me an artist is the ability to to tap into my subconscious, on cue,  from my waking life, and then draw from those images and ideas. And now it seems i have somehow managed to do it vice versa, and mimic my waking life and objectivity while in a dream state. neat!

So it’s no question that I am a maven of sharpie markers. My particular favorite is the dual tip in black, with a fine and extra fine point; I’ve got a well-defended stash which is tagged and labeled so i don’t lose them, and I’ve also got a few different colors. When they broke out of the blue red black rut a few years back- oh holy bajeesus, olive, magenta, teal, and PURPLE??- i thought i might die and go to heaven. Actually, with the amount of fumes i breathe in, that is entirely possible, whoops. So it was pretty much inevitable that I’d eventually stumble onto the actual Sharpie website.

Why have i never thought of it before, durrr?

Oh, that’s right. Sharpie fumes affecting my brain and all that.

So it turns out you can actually PERSONALIZE your own markers. Duuuude, you don’t even know how excited i got about this idea. On the website there’s the usual crapola like sappy wedding favors, or some effed up holiday clip art. Blah. What i want? is sharpies with my studio name and logo on them. Or sharpies with my actual line drawings printed on them. The promotional possibilities are endless. I could even turn it into a whole performance dealie where I’m working on a piece in public, and i could sell or give away the actual markers I’m using at the time. Wooo! Exciting!

heh, yeah……..  i better lay off the fumes for a while, i think.

I am no stranger to antique shops and kitschy boutiques, especially the ones that feature vintage jewelry, handbags, gloves, and accessories. I’ve noticed that the “fascinator” is starting to make a fashion comeback, at least stateside; on the other side of the pond, hats and hair decorations have been the standard for fancy dress since forever and ever.

Basically it’s a piece of millinery, larger than a barrette, and smaller than a hat, featuring flowers, rhinestones, and feathers. Sometimes they have a veil or piece of tulle, and they look hot hot hot with some chic red lipstick : ) You might remember old photos of your grandmother (or great grandmother) wearing something like it when she was dressed up, or movie stars who used to rock the look in the 40′s and 50′s.

If you look up “fascinator” on etsy you’ll find loads of designers selling them for upwards of fifty bucks, or more, depending on detail and craftsmanship. I wanted one of my own, but i was having none of that. So i did a quick run to the craft store to get some basic supplies, and then dug around in my stash to see what else I might add. Here’s the result:
 

Ok, I admit; I was a little overzealous with the hot glue gun with this one, but it still looked pretty fabulous when I wore it to a wedding we attended last weekend. A lot of the older women there cooed about how they remembered their aunties and mothers having them once upon a time, which was super fun to hear.

I think I’ll be making more of these and possibly selling them in my shop. What colors do you all like?

12:30 PM

What’s this?? An empty easel??!

What a rip off.

Matilda the Guinea Pig says, “I found some canvases under here, mummy! you can paint on these!”

Ugmoe the Rabbit agrees.

But I don’t really feel like painting today. And look at my worktable! it’s a friggin’ disaster!

Well, i mean, a CREATIVE disaster. But I need somewhere to work just the same.

That’s better.

I think I’ll do a drawing today. Get back to basics; just me, a sharpie marker, and an unwitting sheet of paper. Who knows what will become of us?? Only the next couple hours will tell……

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12:45 PM

Ok, i found the paper I like.
 
It’s pretty much just 5×8″ unlined index cards, but it’s a nice bright white, fairly smooth, a decent precut size, and, oh, CHEAP AS HELL.
Because i screw these drawings up more than you would believe (which you might very well witness today), and since i pretty much make everything up on the fly, i would probably go broke or drop dead from sharpie fumes if I were using fancier paper.

It’s still art though.

Behold: my badass twin-tip sharpie marker! and so artfully photographed!
I am unstoppable.

First things first: draw a border with the fat end of the sharpie. I kind of eyeball it to be around 5×7 inches, since 5×8 (the size of the card) is kind of useless. And i don’t use a ruler, because that would be cheating, and i like my lines to look kind of screwy.

Now comes the tough part….. what to draw??

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1:00 PM

Think think think think…..

1:15 PM

Kay, let’s start with some heads.

And then things begin to make more sense….

This is one of those moments where i have to stop and do some complex thinking. I rarely plan out a drawing ahead of time, so I have to consider how I’m going to draw the pose. And because i can’t erase, if i screw this shit up then i have to start all over. Not a huge loss at this point, but still sucky.

Sometimes this involves some gesturing or flailing around to get it just right. Meet my imaginary bunny rabbit, everyone!

Since i have been known to work on these drawings in public- say, the subway or in a cafe- I have occasionally gotten strange looks from people because i was pretending to have mermaid fins or an invisible squirrel on my shoulder.

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1:45 PM

Ok, i think i got the hands right. Or at least good enough!

So then i gave the girl some long, straight hair.

Added some details to the eyes…..

2:00 PM

I have this idea  to draw a moon in the sky, but i don’t feel like drawing a circle. i mean, I CAN  draw a pretty perfect looking circle, but i’m a lazy mofo.

So i’m cheating, with whatever is kicking around on the messy table.

 

This will do.

The rabbit gazes at the new moon in the paper sky.

I added a few touches to the girl’s gaze, as well.

And some more rabbity details.

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2:15 PM

Now i have to figure out what to add next.

Maybe i’ll just spraypaint it instead!!

har har, just kidding. I think the sharpie fumes are getting to me.

(By the way, don’t try that at home, especially with a fresh sharpie. In the time it took to snap a picture, i was definitely feeling woozly.)

Ugmoe decided to get in on the action. “Oh hai,” he says, “what are you drawin’?”

  

And when i showed him, he made this goofy face.

I guess everybuns a critic.

Badump-ching!

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2:45 PM

Just finished drawing some bold outlines:

And then I drew an “aura”, i guess you would call it.

I dunno really why i do this.

Actually, i do, and it is for a couple reasons: it sort of flattens out & separates the main figures, which I like, and contrasts them with the background.

The other reason is a little more esoteric. When i was *ahem* “studying” street art, one of the basic elements of almost every piece is the “force field”. It kinda serves a practical aesthetic purpose, but also has these pseudo-mystical connotations; in a way it’s meant to protect the finished painting.

So I’ve always liked to include that, even though i can hear my old illustration professors huffing and sneering about it.

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3:00 PM

coloring in the background:

A thoroughly markerfied sky.

Girl, why don’t you smile more?

That’s better.

Rendering some patches of rabbit fur:

And then a couple of details, like a locket for the bunny to wear.

And there we have it, all finished!

As always, thanks for hanging out with me while i draw, guys.