Blooms

My zinnias and sunflowers have begun to bloom - exciting times for my flower garden!

Freshwater Prototypes

I'm working on something new and fresh (freshwater, I mean) for Watercolor Submarine. Here is just a little sneak peek at some prototypes I'm currently working on. Can't wait to post more info as this new line develops!

Find Your Voice Week Five

In this week's lesson I explored my "design style." The all encompassing style component of my stories and art. The end-of-lesson prompt I chose encouraged me to find a project that has a style I really admire and would like to emulate. I was then to create a project of my own using the admired project as inspiration. When completed, I was to sit back and take a look at similarities and differences between the projects.

Lately I've been in love with the minimalistic and geometric trends that I've been seeing on Etsy, in home improvement magazines and in clothing (think color block clothes). I kind of use minimalism in some of my stories and creations, but it's typically in a cute and cartoon-like fashion, and not in the sleek, modern way that I so admire. I would love to develop some minimalistic drawings of my own, but those clean, simple designs are harder to create than you would think!

There are a lot of big brands that use minimalism in their design. One of my favorites is Lacoste. You know, that iconic little alligator.

 

So, I decided to try to draw my own minimalistic animal. One of my favorite animals right now is the fox, so I decided to put my focus on foxes. I first drew a fox like I normally would, all fuzzy and full of motion. Then I slowly whittled away at it until I reached a point at which I no longer felt comfortable whittling any more. I tried to add some geometric elements in as well.

Here is the evolution of my minimalistic fox. It was hard for me to ignore all the little furry lines I wanted to add in, but in the end, I managed. I like how the little guy turned out, I even like the triangular patterns I added to the tip of his tail and legs (I was unsure of them at first). He still definitely seems a little more "free" than the Lacoste gator, but I guess that makes the drawing a little more "me".

Now I'm off to use my new minimalistic fox drawing to make a secret, surprise project for a friend! More info will be posted later.

UPDATED 7/29/13:

Here is the project I created using my drawing. It's a little wooden pendant that I hand cut and painted and then added to a necklace for my friend, Lauren, for her birthday.

New Free Stuff Section

I hope everyone is enjoying their Monday, I've been working on a drawing project for the past couple of months in which I'm sketching and catologuing all of my Aquatic Avenue Characters. Everything is in black and white now. I'm not sure if I'll ever give my characters predetermined colors or if I'll always leave that up to the imagination. I'd love to see how my readers (or some of the younger folks they know) view my characters so I've added a brand new (and exciting) page to my blog. Check out the "Free Stuff" page by clicking on it in the top bar. There you will find printable coloring pages and stationary featuring the Aquatic Avenue Crew. I'm hoping to eventually add another new section titled "Hall of Fame" in which I will post coloring pages that have been filled in, so if you print and complete any of my coloring pages please take a picture/scan it in and email your finished project to me  (Tangents.SHS@gmail.com) and it will be added to my future blog hall of fame.

Eventually I hope to have some hand stitched coloring books available for sale at Watercolor Submarine. So, for now, enjoy the samples that I post in the Free Stuff section (check back often, I'll be adding more as I complete my drawings), and be on the lookout for future coloring books!

Friendship

Yesterday, I was attempting to create a handmade birthday gift for my friend, Erin, when I accidentally made a gift for all the girls in our little group: friendship necklaces (hopefully slightly more grown up than the usual be-st fri-ends broken hearts that are typical for preteens.) I'm pretty pumped about these. I've been wanting to make wooden pendants for awhile and this was a fun way to do it. I made us some little rectangular puzzle pieces with a mountain view and a couple of secret messages.

Each individual pendant is a little abstract necklace, but when our powers combine... (just kidding, we're not superheros - yet.)

Find Your Voice Week Four

This week's Find Your Voice lesson was entitled: "What's your storytelling style?" and it touched on lots of important storytelling topics such as character, theme, setting... etc. After doing my homework (filling out the worksheets), I decided to do the crafting based prompt once again. This was the prompt: "Pick out two different storytelling styles, and tell the same story using different styles. Make sure to use styles that push you out of your comfort zone."

Lately I've been making a lot of black and white comic strips. I love creating these little cartoons, and I've been toying with the idea of creating a flip-book style hand drawn movie. It seemed too hard, though, so I hadn't tried it yet. Well, this prompt just shouted "TRY YOUR MOVIE!", so I did. I chose a story that came from a dream I had about growing plants that produce rabbits instead of flowers. I'm calling this epic (kind of) tale Rabbit Bloom. View it for yourself below:

I was surprised to discover that creating my entire cartoon movie took only about 2.5 hours. I like the finished product, it's short and sweet, but it would have been even more great if I'd added color and more detail. However, my movie is only about 10 seconds long. I can only imagine what it would be like to A) draw a 10 minute (or longer) story B) add color C) include a detailed background. Yikes! I have some serious appreciation for any old-skool cartoonists that made their creations by hand, this takes time!


I chose to create a comic strip for the second storytelling method. I used color for the first time ever (I'm always afraid coloring my comics will ruin them, but I like it in this one.) I also added a new character, thus causing this story to be narrated differently. In my movie, the viewer is simply watching from the outside, but in my comic strip we get to witness the rabbit bloom through the eyes of this witty little lady bug. I definitely like the addition of this six-legged narrator.

I like both methods for storytelling, however, the movie certainly took more time than the comic strip. There are some stories that need motion to be told visually, others will do just fine in a comic strip. I'll have to carefully consider my options before selecting a storytelling method in the future - especially now that I have a new skill set to utilize!

If you're excited about this project - you can still join Find Your Voice and start telling some stories of your own. Check it out:

Greenhouse Labels

What am I doing today? Not much, just sorting what seems like 100 billion plant labels.

It doesn't look too bad from this picture, but imagine that all of these are scrambled in a pile and covered in dirt...

 It will all be worth it when the greenhouse is shiny, organized and clean - I can't wait!