Fun and games

A little piece to go with this one I drew a while back:

And I think there should be one more...any suggestions?

A Purple Heart

One of my loyal customers was in a quandary: She had purchased eight of my heart series prints, but nine makes a much better wall arrangement. We tossed around some ideas and thought that a purple cabbage heart might fill that blank space quite well. She was very patient, as I had a couple of things going on at that moment, but I think we were right: Look at this photo of her kitchen wall that she sent to me! I will be adding it to my shop shortly, if you'd like to try a similar project.

I love it when buyers send me photos of how they're using my prints,

so if you have any, please share!

Drink your Nehi and eat your Coney Island! (Round Things, No. 3)

With the Academy Awards being held this weekend, it is only fitting that I found the inspiration for my latest drawing alongside an Oscar-winning performance.

I was in search of  another "classic" object for my "round things" series. A bottle cap seemed to be just the thing as they have such cool graphics—but which one should I draw? Nothing red, as I already have the peppermint in the series. Nothing Pepsi or Coke: too corporate. Then I remembered this little gem of a scene from "Paper Moon" (1973) in which a bottle of soda stars front-and-center (along with Tatum O'Neal, the youngest Oscar winner in history) and practically shouts "middle America":

I went onto eBay and had a blast strolling down Bottle-Cap Memory Lane. I purchased a bag of 20 different vintage, cork-lined, orange soda bottle caps for $6, and I was in business: 

I always like the look of the unfinshed pieces.

So, what do you think? 

So, what's next for my series of "round things"?
I have a peppermint, a button and this bottle cap.

Give me your suggestions in the comments below. 

(One caveat: they should be "flat" round, not spherical round...)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Nudes and Windows

The artist who hosts our weekly life-drawing meet-up moved to a new studio at the beginning of the year. The space has really high ceilings with a north wall that is is home to this fascinating composition of windows—some new, some old. 

I was immediately taken in by this hodgepodge of rectangles—with the blue sky that day, they looked like a group of painted canvasses hung together. I started to wonder how they would change, so I started taking a photo each week. 

The photos gave me a reference that I used to draw a layout and make a bunch of little 6 x 9 "blanks" that I can fill in with color each week. I've just now done this first drawing (from the photo I took); once I figure out my palette (and get a little faster at drawing sky), I'm hoping to skip the photos and just do the sketch during our breaks. 

I am not entirely sure that the white paper works, as I wanted very faint—if any—outlines of each window. Would it work better using a medium grey drawing paper? I might have to try that.

Wouldn't it be fun to hang them all up together at the end of the year—all 50 or so of them!? I must warn you: my track record with long-term series projects is that they usually become very short-term series projects, but I'm really into this one. One down, fifty or so to go!!