Gobs of Patterns from Paper Bicycle's Daily Pattern Project

It's hard to keep up with double posting these!
I'm having a great time doing the Daily Pattern project and am very proud of a lot of these! It's been interesting so far - I'm getting faster and it feels like it's only been tough to think of something a couple of times! The hard part is - if you don't do your pattern early in the day, all the good versions of that topic are taken, and you have to think really hard about how you're going to make a pattern that hasn't been done yet! So, here they are! Everything from the last two weeks!


Mice


Milk


Bulb


Fourth of July


Hair Products


Quilt


Minneapolis


Recess


Dog Accessories


Date Night


Bandaid


Circus


Keys


Bowtie

Another Batch of Patterns!

Here are a huge chunk of patterns from last week's topics!
I'm trying to get as much done as possible this week because I'm off to New Jersey on Wednesday to meet with an awesome client and THEN I'm headed to Portland for Erin Loechner's Ace Camp!
I am so excited!

I'm hoping to get some exciting art inspiration and meet some amazing people! Besides that, it's been nice getting a little bit of a break this summer! I love the rainy weather and I am getting used to doing a million patterns in a row!


A tribute to my late birdie, Dean!


Yoga


Air Mail


Hands


Father's Day

Besides this, I'm excited for us to get our crop share! I wish I was here to eat it in Thursday, but Chris and Francesca will have to eat it without me and let me know how it goes! Send me good vibes, I hope my travels are safe and that I get some sleep on my trip!!

Updatey Update

Wow, this week has been insane!
I am so excited. We're making patterns like crazy in our free-time, and getting things done! I've been having stair-master battles with Chris and eating a lot of spongey fake hotdogs this week (strange flavor and strange texture). I've also started teaching my two classes at MCAD! The trend blogging class is righteous and my digital pattern design class is full. Everyone is super nice and I am so excited to see what they'll do over the next 6 weeks!

Besides that, awesome news! I was featured on Betty Magazine's Blog!


I am so psyched!!!

We were also featured on Zupi. com, which was SO SO awesome!!

Alyssa Nassner's pattern is first on the list of patterns. She is super talented!!
Chris, Francesca, Mary and I are all in that post, too!



I will have this week's patterns to post here once we finish tomorrow's topic!
I'm excited for that one, too!

Seems like a good week, for sure!

Ah, to be in Paris...

I've been meaning to head to paris for the last couple of years.
After the loads of complements from my sister, mother and father, I've been meaning to make it there someday. I hear the food is great, the atmosphere is amazing, and maybe this is a chance I can finally go there!

Oh Happy Day is giving away a 7 day trip to Paris!
Here is a link to their giveaway!

I'm hoping that I'll get to go some day!
In the meantime, I'm posting this silly picture of a polar bear outfitted with french bread, a beret, a mustachio, and the Eiffel Tower. All the things Paris has.
:P

Last Week's Patterns & This week's news.

I have another chunk of patterns from last week to share. All of these are for Paper Bicycle's Daily Pattern Project!
Also - I have some awesome news! I was featured on DesignWorkLife.com.
I can't believe it! I am super grateful and totally surprised! It came on a day when I really needed some cheering up and I was shocked to see that I was feautured.
Here is the link to their post on me!


Bear


Childhood


Bikini


Amphibians


Backyard

Next week will be exciting.
I'm teaching my two summer classes at MCAD starting tomorrow. - Design / Trend blogging and Digital Pattern Making! Wish me luck!

I'm also contributing to Ten Paces and Draw - You'll see my sketch and final contribution later this week!

Check it out - Patterns galore.

So - The last post I made was the very first pattern for Paper Bicycle's Daily Pattern Project. There are a slew of us making a pattern every single week day and it's been going strong for almost a month. I'll get better at posting my contributions here weekly, - but here is EVERYTHING I've contributed to the project over the last several weeks! This project is so awesome. It's really pushing me to think faster and draw quickly. Yeah for being productive!


Gardening


Whistle


Fall


Race Track


Treasure Hunt


Screw


Easter Eggs


Writing Utensils


Groupies


Asprin


Suitcase


French Pastries


Spa


Tulip


Lamp


Saturday Pattern - for fun


Fishing


Books


Mirror


Bones


There you have it! A giant chunk of work! We've got next week's topics chosen already and I'm excited to start going on them! Wish us luck and be sure to check out everyone else's patterns on the Paper Bicycle blog!

DailyPattern: Mirror

Here's another pattern!
This one is about Mirrors!
Cross posted with paperbicyclecreative.blogspot.com



Mirrors me think of my morning ritual of getting ready.

Daily Pattern - Bones

Hey! Cross posted with paperbicyclecreative.blogspot.com

Here's a pattern I made today about our daily topic - "Bones!"


We're trying to do one a day!
excitement!!
Go check out Chris's, Franecsca's and Mary's!!
HERE

Daily Pattern - Gym Class

Francesca and I have decided to take on another epic project.
Here is the first piece of our "Daily Pattern" project. We wrote down a million subjects and then drew one out of a bag this one is my answer to "Gym Class!"
We'll be trying to make one a day for as long as we can stand it!
Wish us luck!

These will be cross posted with paperbicyclecreative.blogspot.com!

Landscape Studies Inspired by Iceland

Seaside Cliffs


Mountains at Dusk


Jagged Crags


Mossy Hill

I was inspired by a couple of things lately - My students are making some amazing landscape/backdrops for their final assignments in Digital Illustration, and Icelandic Space. They're doing a backdrop for a trio of scenes based on either a fairytale or a cultural event from a specific time period. I was blown away by the backgrounds they brought into class on Friday and was excited to try some painter studies myself. I did a series of four 10 minute studies based on Iceland. I'd love to go back some day... this is as close as I can get for now. Maybe I'll make some full fledged paintings based on these some day.

At least it's good practice for one of the topics I've always avoided (backgrounds).
All of these are with Painter!

Acrylic + Pug Dogs = good fun.

I did an acrylic demo for my Illustration 1 class on Thursday which was a brief intro to painting. I decided it would be fun to finish it up later that night and am really happy that I did.

It's been a long time since I worked with actual paint (it seems) - for something that was not for work. So here it is! I am hoping this summer I get to spend more than a couple hours on some paintings that are bigger than a couple inches! This guy is only about 6 x 6" - and with just a couple weird tubes of paint I had lying around.

I always wanted a pug - but then fell in love with our weird pug-rat terrier mix!
Mutts are really the best, but I'll always have a place in my heart for these guys!
Look at all those rolls!



A small detail of his face complete with textural cat-hair addition!

Olivia's Tiny Face

A funny painting of my black cat, Olivia's giant green eyes and tiny face

Today was insane. I contributed way too much money I didn't have to my retirement for 2010's stupid taxes, taught a class and then went home exhausted. I've got good company tonight as I make some 10 minute art and I am excited for the remaining two weeks of the semester to happen! My students are doing amazing things and I am psyched to see them through!

I think I'll finally have some time to relax in May - I am looking forward to it, though I am trying to hang on to my brain in the meantime!

Livestream and my Dog, Atari!

My silly dog, Atari! Closeup

This week was LONG. I finished up a million things, had some super long nights with everyone at Paper Bicycle - and a lot of teaching this week.
I feel accomplished, but worn out. It's funny though, I came home from having dinner tonight with some great friends, determined to get some personal art done and determined to relax.


Full-scale!

I made another Friday night personal art challenge thing tonight - this time of my silly dog, Atari. I ALSO learned how to use livestream!


A super closeup!

I'm super excited because it's really easy to use and I can broadcast some of my Friday night artwork times to whoever is interested in watching!
Here is a snippit of my in progress live stream before it cut out - all 37 minutes of me noodling around!(watch at bedtime for relaxing sleepy-time)

paperbicycle on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

I hope I can record these for myself when I have the chance and if anyone is interested in my process in the future, I hope to do it again!

Darklands - Relive the glory days

Back when I was in 7th Grade we got a computer.
The first huge computer game I ever bought was called Darklands.
I used to sit in front of the computer, day after day, playing this amazing, hard, epic game. This was before games gave you a "journal" to keep track of your quests. This was back when everything was on a 5.25" floppy disc, and this was when I was first becoming computer literate.

Needless to say, Darklands was a HUGE part of my childhood. I bought an old copy on CD in 2000 off of Ebay and hadn't been able to run the game until recently, when on a whim, I bought a PC, installed DOSBOX and got the darn thing to work. The sound doesn't function, but the rest of the game is amazingly intact. Bugs, copyright protection and all.

Chris, Francesca and I are doing some Friday night art tonight - all to celebrate the amazing characters from my very favorite game of all time.
I took one for the team and did a portrait of Ebhard, the fat, old priest that uses a Flail the whole game. Anyone that had ever played it might recognize the font, maybe the bandits, but most certainly the blood stain that was left after killing some dudes.

I still remember the sound it makes when someone dies.
Those were the days!




EDIT:
Here is the one CHRIS did tonight of Gunther! Studly man!!!


And one of Gretch! from Francesca HERE!