Carnival Christmas.

I've been sick for the past week or so. Here is a new piece I have had shelved for some time now in my folders. I knew I didn't like the original colors that I did(they were far too intense for my linking) so I toned it down to more of a soft palate. I like it better now. Holidays are coming up quite quickly, it always comes faster now that I'm older. I remember waiting like crazy and doing the advent calendar at my house and thinking it would never come. Now Christmas just sneaks up on you. I sadly won't be getting to spend the holiday with my brother, mom, or dad...I will miss them.

I've been wanting to do a drawing of Jane Eyre. I just have to find the right photo for it. I'm going to go see "A Dangerous Method" tonight which will be interesting. I've heard so much about Carl Jung and learned a bit about him in my time with an Analyst. I hope its good.

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday time!

Everyone will have Tea!

Nearly a month since an update! My, I shouldn't do that again. I wanted to post the finalized version of Tea Time. I adore Elizabeth. Not all the things she did but what she stood for. A woman in a time and world where to rule as a woman was often not done. When I went to London with my mom after I graduated high school, one of my highlights was getting to see her tomb at Westminster. I couldn't get over the fact that I was standing beside the tomb of a woman I looked up to for her strength. I love drawing Elizabethan garb. Its so intricate and those lace fans they wore were stunning, though I'm assuming quite cumbersome to wear they looked like something that just needed to be painted.
I wonder what Bess would think if she knew how many documentaries, movies, plays and costumes had been made to immortalize her reign. I'm assuming she would be quite happy and perhaps want to have some tea to celebrate.

Next thing I want to draw is Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. I'm going to go see "A Dangerous Method" when it comes out this month!

Also in wonderful news. Bunny Dee was featured in a wonderful brand new online magazine!The Unexposed is a wonderful magazine that interviews up and coming artists and seeks to display their work and thoughts. I'm interviewed on page 148. Take a look!

Hope everyone had a good thanksgiving and a good holiday coming up!

Golden Age

I've been on a kick of drawing period costumes lately. It has always been a favorite thing of mine. When I was a kid I loved drawing elizabethan ruffs on all my drawings. Or giving animals ball gowns..I was fascinated with history from a very young age. At times instead of watching cartoons I would beg my parents to put on the national geographic tape we had about the titanic and its sinking. Oh Lady Anne of Cleves. She was rather lucky wasn't she to escape the ax. I've always loved the depiction of her from her portrait that was sent to Henry to see if he would wish to marry her. I really want to do more period costume drawings. They really are my favorite to do. I often wish I could dress like they did back in those days..just for a day.

I also finally got to see Anonymous. Well..I've seen it twice as of today. When the movie Elizabeth came out, I saw that 3 times in theaters. Period costumes make me drool. As does the actor in the black off to the left side. He plays the hunchback Robert Cecil. I usually like the bad guys. I didn't mind his back either, hes a great character and the actor gave life to a person so often reviled in history. He did a brilliant job at the roll. Many of the actors were amazing. David Thewis, Vanessa Redgrave, Rafe Spall..it was beautifully shot, had a wonderful soundtrack and a dramatic plot.
I am going home next week. So excited!
Hope everyone has a good weekend!

not so secret garden

Its been a bit since a post. I came down with a cold and am finally recovering. In the process of getting everything ready for my halloween costume which I will hopefully get a few pictures of. I got the most wonderful email last week from such a kind customer that bought some stuff from my etsy site. Gabs with Moobaacluck has a blog hereshe had such kind words to say and took some beautiful pictures of the packaging I packed her necklace in! Thanks again so much Gabriella.
The above art is something I drew in anticipation of seeing the movie "Anonymous". I don't draw enough men so I thought I would give a go at drawing Shakespeare with a variety of different source material. I don't know if I will use this as the sketch for a digital final piece or try re-drawing him.


Since I'm finally coming to the tail end of my sickness I forced myself out of the house yesterday and through golden gate park. Where I stumbled upon the 'Shakespeare Garden". What I loved was it was quite deserted. There is apparently a engraving of him behind the locked door at the end of the path. A beautiful little spot though that I didn't even know was there right beside the Academy of Sciences. Next thing I'd love to do is check out the botanical gardens since I haven't done that since I was a kid visiting with my parents. After nearly 8 years of living here its time to do it again..

Shakespeare

A new item has finally made its way into the etsy shop. Necklaces! That feature rabbits and foxes. Soon hopefully there will be other items as well just as soon as I work a few kinks out on them.

Modern day Ophelia will be the next print that I post on etsy as well. She has been waiting to be properly colored for sometime. I had her colored before but really disliked the palate that I used and had to scrap it.

Somehow all of this blog deals with Shakespeare related things. The fox is seated on the Yale Shakespeare book that I own. Ophelia is the love interest in hamlet. Rafe Spall is playing a very different version of Shakespeare in the movie Anonymous. I had never even heard of this movie until I was watching Project Runway last week and they continued to bombard me with trailers for it. I'm hoping its good. It's nothing like Shakespeare in love. I rather adore that Spall(who happens to the son of Timothy Spall who played WormTail in Harry Potter)plays Shakespeare as such a cad. I love costumes. Especially elizabethian period costumes...and I've not seen a movie since I saw Harry Potter 3 times in theaters. I miss Harry Potter movies..

hope everyone has a great week!

Pinch Me

A few weeks or so ago I recieved an email on my etsy from Blakely the curator of R.A.G.(RESIDENTS APPAREL GALLERY) asking if I would like to bring my stuff in for her to look at to include in the shop. Last week I got everything together on thursday and brought it down to hayes valley. I'd love to ask everyone to check out their site and if able maybe take a peek inside! Rag has a ton of wonderful vendors and I was hard pressed not to buy a few things right when I was setting things up. I know nothing is a sure thing, but right now I'm happy just to have had someone think my stuff good enough to place in their shop. It is a good feeling and one I hope to experience again.

In other news I just finished the first season of Downton Abbey and it was amazing! Edwardian period is one of my favorite styles to draw and I might need to include more women in period clothing on my blog and etsy shop. Maggie Smith very much deserved her emmy that she got for being in this. I love good character build up. Check it out! Its free to view until the beginning of october on PBS.com they also have frontline, nova and all other PBS shows many of them up streaming. I haven't been on netflix in a week because of it!
hope everyone had a great weekend!

Mina and the Wolf

I finished the ink drawing of this more then 5 months ago and it took till now to color it in. As I was about to write the description about her for etsy the soundtrack for Bram Stokers Dracula came on my itunes. Then the description I had been thinking of using seemed dull. I was remembering the scene where Dracula and Mina are enjoying their first meeting out in London. There is a panic about the escaped wolf in the city who comes right up to Dracula and Mina and he introduces them. This is that wolf. Who is now her protector. Her outfit recalled Mina's seafoam green blue gown from that scene in a way. I like this description much better then my old one. After all I'd prefer to think that Mina stayed with Dracula and had a wolf rather then married lame ol' Mr. Harker..bleh

Sunset

I got hired recently to do some watercolors for someones art website that they are going to be making. I did two. This one was the more open to what I wanted to create, color scheme and subject wise. One of my favorite story books from childhood was "The Legend of the Bluebonnets". A beautiful story about a native american girls sacrifice to help her tribe in a time of sadness and lack of rain. I think I was inspired by that story with this little image. I also wanted to paint a sunset. I know that this isn't the sort of stuff I normally do, but it was fun to do something for someone that was actually narrative based in a way and not just a figure on a page.

In other news I've seen Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2, 3 times now and have cried each time. Already contemplating a new hp tattoo to go with the two I now have. Really want to get the deathly hallows symbol on my wrist. Or another of my favorite snape quotes. I'm being Bellatrix Lestrange for halloween as well, a costume that I have wanted to do for the last two years but never had the right stuff to pull it off to my satisfaction. My mom as been telling me since Bellatrix showed up on screen "You remind me of the crazy witch". Can't wait for halloween!!

Always

Its been awhile since a post! Things got a little hectic before the craft fair. I'd like to thank all my friends who showed up and bought things from me. The craft fair didn't turn out the way I envisioned. Having friends there for support though helped a ton. It meant the world to me actually.
This post really is involving my newest tattoo. I didn't draw this, I wanted something realistic so several of my friends recommended tattoo artists that have done their tattoos. The one I settled on after hearing tons of good things was Cicely at Cyclops tattoo in the mission district san francisco. She had drawn up the perfect little doe for the piece. I was nervous as I usually before a tattoo. It had been so long since my last that I was pretty freaked out. It didn't hurt as horribly as I imagined it would. It did hurt of course but it was worth it.
I had been thinking about getting a design like this for awhile. Its from one of my favorite scenes in the book/movie. More then being a tribute to Severus Snape(my favorite character played by my favorite actor) it reminds me that people are not always what they seem. I won't spoil what scene it was from in the book because that would be a huge spoiler.
I love the tattoo though.
I'm a huge HP nerd. I'm already contemplating where to get the deathly hallows symbol.

Wild Hare

Exciting news is afoot! I will be participating in a craft fair! The first I've ever been in and I hope to do more eventually. I got the necklace pendants above made for the occasion. I am also excited to eventually be offering them for purchase on my etsy site. I will have to get more made. They are pendants of either a bunny or a fox leaping. As far as the craft fair goes here is the website: Hecho Local August Edition
I will be selling the following:
Bunny and Fox Pendants(very limited number!)
Original sketch book pieces
Prints
Post cards
buttons
hand painted ceramic pendants(even smaller number!)
I hope that people will come out. It will be great fun and there will be 40 other vendors there.
I'm excited and nervous and hope it turns out well. Still in the process of figuring out how to display my wares without having to lug too much stuff to the event. I found a nice coral fabric at the goodwill and bought a beautiful ikat yard off etsy(thats what is laying under the banner).
Hope to see you guys on sunday!:)


Hope everyone has a great week

Madam Lapin and Harry Potter

It has been quite awhile since a post! I went home last week for two of my friends wedding(they got married in beautiful Santa Barbara) it was the best wedding I've been to so far. I also went home for my brothers birthday. Just got back last friday to good ol' SF. I also got to see Harry Potter while I was home with my parents. I will admit I cried quite a bit. Not loudly..but when your favorite character dies..its pretty hard not to. I got to bring along my wand my good friend got me for my birthday! I'm trying rather hard to look intimidating. The dress is green and I wore a victorian looking waist coat. Fashion!



Speaking of fashion. This is the newest art I've finished. Her name is Madam Lapin. As a kid I loved drawing ball gowns, fancy fancy stuff. I wish i still had the page after page of ruled notebook paper I draw them on. Madam Lapin is accompanied by her lovely rabbit friend Stella. I really enjoyed drawing her.

Now that I am back, I shall post more regularly.
Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Look to the RIGHT!

I think it has been over a week since I posted! So much insanity as of late. First off and something I'm super excited about is post towards the right in the side bar!
I was asked to post my wares on papernstitch. I was approached on my etsy about it. Exciting! I'm feeling so lucky this 4th to have the great people around me that apriciate my art and support it. So check out papernstitch. Its a really beautiful site.

Above is my new favorite print. She is called 'The Mountaineer'. I was inspired by my own silly love of Jon Krakauer books. I will admit if I could going on a date with any living author it would be him. "Into Thin Air" blew my mind.

I've been working on figuring out new things to put up on my etsy so as those come together I will be posting them here.

Hope everyone has a happy 4th! Or a great day where ever you are!:)

Tea time!

Wow its been a long week. I came down with a horrible flu and had to go to the hospital on monday. I'm glad that I did I was given meds and I'm feeling a bunch better now. Still groggy and tired however.

I've been told by a few people I should show sketches before I ink them in. I have such a hard time doing that though! The minute I get something drawn out that I like I leap into the pen stage(probably because its my favorite stage)and I can't stop myself. As he can see though, I had to do a patch on her hand. I messed that hand up prrrretty bad!

I've been checking out Hark A Vagrant quite a bit and I was inspired to do a historical lady. Check the site out. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life. Combining history and illustration is one way to get me hooked...If I could of majored in anything else besides art it would of been history for sure. Queen Elizabeth has always been a favorite of mine. I like drawing neck ruffs..Sometimes I wish that we still dressed so intricate but have to remind myself that it would be painful. That the clothing of today is very easy on the body. I still wish I could wear edwardian dresses on a day to day basis though..and that men still wore suits...ah well...

Have a great weekend!:)

General Bunny

Here is General Bunny. He hasn't been posted on etsy as of yet. He is a civil war man. I imagine that lady bunnies in hoop skirts and bonnets wave at him as he passes on horse back. Hes a very stoic sort. You'd have to be with a mustache of such prominence.



Unique is ready to take on the world. I imagine that her poster was everywhere when she was the world renowned tattooed lady of the 1900's. Shes up on my etsy.

I'm excited that I got the days off to go home to visit my family and go to my friends wedding. I leave on the 14th of July and that means on the 15th I will get to see The Final installment of Harry Potter with my parents. Excitement! Then the wedding is on the 16th. My brothers birthday is the 18th. I don't return home till the 22nd. It will be a nice break.

The weather is so nice here..but its messing with my allergies.
I want a burrito...

Have a great weekend everyone!:)

Desk Quest

I've been on a quest for the last week or so to organize my desk. It often is in a state of chaos since I use it for so much and it is rather small. I can't believe I actually use to keep my scanner on it..it just took up too much space though and was regulated to the bottom shelf of my bookshelf. The quest to clean the desk turned to a quest to tidy the rest of the flat spaces in my room(shelves, dresser, tables)and now I'm pretty pleased..so now if you want. Take a trip to my room where I make art.

The first task was to move much of the stuff that was cluttering up the desk to the shelf right next to the desk on the bookshelf. This gave me a lot of free space and more room to work with as far as organizing. The Darger post card was purchased at the Darger exhibit when I went to NYC two years ago.

The lotus flower tapestry behind my computer is something I've had since I moved to San Francisco more then 7 years ago. My mom bought it for me and its graced every apartment I've had.

The desk was a craigslist find. 50 dollars. The cream colored globe was free(found it on the street)and the blue was 4 dollars from goodwill.

I'm glad to have everything mostly organized now. The yellow basket helped.

The map behind my bed is one I purchased 4 or more years ago. It is what has inspired my color palate in my work. The bed blanket was an etsy find. I collect picture frames.



Snape wallpaper background of course. It use to be my drawing of snape.

All the books were collected from the free box at my work, well besides the HP ones. My mom gave me the rabbit bookends. The stones, shells and driftwood is stuff my mom and I have collected on our many beach trips.

The book on the far right was one of the first things I think sparked my desire to draw. Edgar Allen Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination illustrated by Harry Clarke. Tucked in there is a huge book of maps, some Gorey, Klimt, Sendak, Schiele, Gibson and of course Harry Potter Film Wizardry.

More books. I'm a huge Krakauer fan..more so when he is writing mountain climbing books though. Into Thin Air is one of my favorites. I love the white bunny statue I got at goodwill during easter time.


More art and map books.
Now desk quest and room quest is complete. I am constantly changing things though so who knows...

Day Dream

For some reason this last month has seemed hectic and I can't figure out why.
I have many ideas for summer drawings mulling around in my head. My problem is
I have yet to find a cafe here in San Francisco that I just adore..That means I
often do my drawing at home or go to a random cafe and only do one drawing and then
quickly leave. Some of the cafe's here I would like to frequent are often overly
packed and I feel bad taking up a space for too long. I use to enjoy Bazaar cafe but thats back in my old neighborhood...

I'm working on re-organizing my desk space. I will take a picture of it when I am done. I guess I will just take a picture of different parts of my bedroom.

Hope everyone is having fair weather

M and M

I still don't know what exactly I want to do with the background of this piece. They are conjoined twins. Their names are Miriam and Mirabelle. My whole idea was that they both are in love with different people.

I want to do a drawing inspired by the showtime show that I've been so into watching lately "The Borgias". I don't often watch tv(if I do its usually history channel or something nerdy on discovery, I wish I had national geographic channel...)but this show has captured my attention. I love things historically based, even if much of it is loosely based. The costumes are amazing and lush. I wish that when I went with my parents to Italy that I hadn't been sick when we were in Rome. I was basically confined to a bed for nearly 3 days while my family visited the Vatican and the Sistine chapel. I had just take an extensive class on art history at the Academy of art and was so bummed that I missed out on seeing stuff like that, not to mention the Baldacchino.
I did get to see a bit on my last day which was good and then later we traveled to Venice and Florence. Florence was my favorite by far.
All this talk of history makes me want to draw a Borgia character...
Perhaps Lucrezia Borgia
or King Charles VII

one of these two.

Hettie

This is Hettie Kauffmann. Shes actually based off of a drawing of a character of the same name by one of my favorite odd artists Henry Darger. At the bookstore I work at one of the used book buyers got a wonderful Darger book in a buy. I had to look it over since I fell in love his his work some years ago in art class upon watching the documentary on him called 'In the Realms of the Unreal'. Towards the very back of the book was the drawing of Hettie. She is a girl general and a girl scout.

I thought she would make a great drawing, I wanted to change her costume a bit. The feathers around her neck of her coat seemed more to denote a flier in my eyes. So I gave her an aviators under cap from WW I.
One of my greatest museum experiences was when I was in NYC with my mom before I moved there for my very short stint. The Folk museum was having a Darger Exhibit and my mom and I went. His stuff is just spectacular in person. So much larger then you'd imagine reading one of the art books on him.
I really need to invest eventually in owning an art book on Darger. His stuff is just so fantastical.

stone cottage

My mom is coming up for a short visit today and this is what I made her for mothers day. She told me months and months ago that she wanted a drawing of her with a stone house. My mom has always wanted to live in a stone cottage, her favorite is one we sometimes take a side trip in Cambria to see. I hope she forgot that she asked me to draw it so she will be a bit surprised. I still need to do some laundry though!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Beautiful Trip

I am back from my trip home and to Yosemite. It was fabulous. My mom and I decided to take a walk the last day that we were there and came upon some deer along the trail. All told I probably saw 8 deer that one day. It snowed the second day we were there, the fires roared at the lodge and I got to spend some great time with my family. I did get one drawing done at the lodge which I want to re-draw though before I post it.
My mom will be up to visit on the 5th so I wont have to wait long to see her again.
So now I'm back in the swing of things and will be posting regularly again!

This lady just went up on my etsy. I call her arrow girl. She was raised by wolves and still hunts with them. Perhaps she is a princess of a tribe now but never stopped loving her spirit animal.

Sea Dream

I'm pretty inspired by the sea lately. Of boats and the like. I love the coast line along california as much as I love the mountains and valleys of Yosemite. I've been dreaming about the sea. Of collecting shells and pieces of glass. I hope to get a few acorns while we are in Yosemite(hopefully everything with the US. government will get figured out and national parks will not be closed..) I also want to do some drawings while I am there. Maybe my mom will go down with me to the main fire at the lodge at night.
I'm looking forward to seeing my family. Also my cat stella. Miss that kitty.
Hope everyone had a good week!

Her spirit animal

I certainly have neglected to post for the last few weeks! I've have had quite a few problems with my allergies as of late which has put me in a bit of a fog. The weather has been rather beautiful in SF and one does have to get out and enjoy the sun. Though it has meant lots of watery eyes for me.
The drawing above I did a bit ago. I think I was watching a documentary on the settlement of the west. I wanted to draw someone however that is there protecting the bison as much as he is protecting her. He is also her spirit animal. Drawing the bison was rather hard and I wanted to give his coat a Charles Dana Gibson feel of cross hatching. Well enough explaining! I should color them soon and post that as well. I hope everyone is enjoying good weather minus allergies!

Music Outside.

Finished Sea Lion woman today. The rain was coming down so heavily that the alcove outside of my room was nearly a half foot deep with water. Thank god there is a drain out there. The water was coming down like buckets. The sounds I hear from my room sometimes remind me of the background noise in the movie bladerunner. Especially right now with the muffled sounds of cars going by and rushing over the rain water. Cars honking and the light patter of rain. Probably doesn't help that I'm listening to Memories Of Green(a song from the bladerunner soundtrack).

I was watching a video that I saw placed on the Green Apple Core website called "The Library". It made me think that Snape would live there if he was just a regular gentleman about London. Check it out. Its beautiful, some would probably find it cluttered. I think its a big piece of art. I can't believe I did that Snape piece of art almost 3 years ago. Long fingers and elongated noses are some of my favorite things

The Library from Sergey Stefanovich on Vimeo.

Sea Lion Woman

We have been inundated with rain and storms here in the bay area. While my mom and I were in Mendocino I couldn't help but draw this while the thunder and lightning raged outside our windows. I named her after the Feist song Sea Lion Woman.

My mom and I had a great time on our trip. Great food, great chats and beautiful abide the chilled and dark weather. I have to commend her for the amount of driving she did. Miss her already! I will be getting to see my family though on the 11th of april when I take the train down for my week vacation. Much drawing will be done while in Yosemite.

Deer and Dreary

I'm pretty tired. Just woke up an hour or so ago when I didn't go to bed till 2...
Before I leave I thought I would post my most recent drawing/finished piece. Deer Lovely. I enjoy her colors.
I've got everything packed for my short sea trip with my mom. If my suitcase was more organized I would take a photo of its contents...but alas it isn't so instead I'll bring my camera and take photos of rainy scenery and me and my mom.
I'm not quite finished packing so I better hop to it...

Hope everyone has a great next couple of days!

Mr. Rabbit

My Blog has been given another lift. I recently changed the banner on my etsy site so I thought that the blog should have the same sort of look to it.

I was inspired a little by the She & Him new music video "Don't Look Back."


I also love this book. Before I graduated College my mom came up to visit and we went to see the Maurice Sendak exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum here in the city. It was amazing. He has been my favorite illustrator since I was a child and getting to see his hand drawn works brought tears to my eyes. I saw this book above among a collection of books they had to look of. I fell in love with it but the bookstore wasn't selling it. A bit saddened I went along with my days and forgot about it. Till my moms next visit and she presented me with the book! She had gone out of her way to find it for me. It is an adorable story about a little girl who just cannot think of what to get her mother for her birthday. I will be seeing my mom on in a couple days. Excitement!

ps. book art above by the amazingly talented Maurice Sendak.