christmas plush

So, these were those christmas presents I was totally bragging about awhile ago. Since it is now post-xmas, I can post them. The first one is a happy spray paint can for Justin's youngest brother, Alyx. (He does a lot of work with spray paint.) The second is a cat plush based off an awesome character his other brother, Josh, created. The last, of course, is for Justin, as it's his lonely dinosaur protagonist, Gwango.

These were a lot of fun to make, and some were pretty friggin' complicated, but it was an excellent challenge. I feel like I really need to push my work otherwise I'll get stuck in a rut of what I like to make, as opposed to what I can make. So, yeah, if you wanna give me a challenge, draw me something and I'll try to turn it into a plush.

I also finished my sketchbook, so I'll scan some stuff and post that soon, too. But for now, here's a picture from my christmas trip to San Diego/Temecula/Palm Springs. If this doesn't scream awesome Christmas vacation, I don't know what does.

Goodbye 2008.

More plush, just in time for the holidays. I'm rolling out tomorrow for "T-Town" (Thanks to Kevin) and a fabulous Christmas away from the city of (Homeless) Angels, thus, I won't be updating the rest of the week. But I will be making things, so the new year should bring plenty of plush and sketchbooky goodness.

In other news: Today was our second trip to the Tonight Show with Jay Leno (I swear to all that is holy that man only has one outfit, and it is ALL DENIM) to premiere our newest short, 2008's Year in Review. It's got a unique style, very dirty and cut-up, I enjoy it quite a bit. Everyone at JJ worked their butts off on it, so you should check it out somewhere around... um...here.

Oh yeah, and the guest was Robin Williams. I'm pretty sure he's actually insane. But he dances, so that's okay.

P.S. I can't believe another year has rolled by! Crazy!

collab model drawing and sticky fun

Some stickers I made oh-so long ago for my senior GIC portfolio night- I had some left over (somehow) and decided to pop them into purchases from my etsy shop. Good times.



The other pieces of scans from my sketchbook- this week at figure drawing Devin & I collab'ed on some sweet draw-rings. Each of us would draw for a minute, then switch.

The first thing Justin said when he saw them: "What the heck, the model was skinny!" Well, that's what you get when you only half-look at the model when drawing anyway.

we'll high five all our cares away!

So, went to the Aquabats L.A. Holiday Concert last Friday and it was awesome. [You are so jealous, I know. ] There were monsters, pool toys, dancing, singing, jumping around like idiots, and a ton of super nice people everywhere. I wish the whole world was filled with Cadets, because they are always super nice. Plus, they played Super Rad, and everyone in the known universe sang along, which was just awesome.

I haven't been to a show since I was like, 17 or something ridiculous like that, so it was nice to not be an 23-year-old super granny homebody for one night.



Other than that, I'm back to updating the store before I go out of town for ze christmas-themed holidays. Expect cupcakes, elephants, and other things of that nature, because they are fun to make.

slow decay... I won't stop fighting you...

Told ya I'd finally get some drawings and stuff up here! So these are all from my current moleskine... the third is a collage I did the last night of my class... some figure drawings from JJ wednesdays... I love drawing really fat women. I had to blow the contrast out on it in photoshop though, otherwise you couldn't see anything. The top two are just random spreads from the moleskine I liked. Now I promise I'll post more drawings and so forth.

Thanks to Ben for helping with the missing drivers and such.

destination

Some plush, including my white elephant gift:

This fellow is now living with a co-worker's lady/fiance. I believe he has a happy home.



These other two (and the successive ones, because there will be more, I want a mini-elephant brigade) are going in the shop. You should buy them for people you like. Or stick pins in them and buy them for people you don't like?

Oh, and I finally got that usb cable I needed, so I'll scan some sketchbook stuff soon. And christmas plush... made a bunch of those, but obviously, they cannot be posted until after christmas or else the giftees will seeeeee. So you have to wait and see, too.

ballroom blitz!

Here's some new plushies I've been working on. The french fry doesn't have a name yet. You could help me with that? The pig is named William Hamilton.





Oh, it's been getting so hard
Livin' with the things you do to me, aha
Oh my dreams are getting so strange
I'd like to tell you everything I see

I'm reaching out for something...
Touching nothing's all I ever do
Oh, I softly call you over
When you appear there's nothing left of you, aha

Rock Band next Friday. Can you tell I'm excited?

december-ish

So, it's nearly the end of the year. Where in the world did the time go? I've been at JJ now, for like, 4 or 5 months, and time just rolls by like you wouldn't believe. Anyhoooo. Life is great, I'm making plushies, and even better, people like them oodles, so yeah. Good times. Here's some new(ish) work:




In other news, I got a sweet holiday card in the making, and tomorrow is my last collage class, so I'll post that stuff soon too. And I definitely owe at least two of you letters (and I believe some of you owe me letters, a-HEM!) so expect those in the mail!

om nom nom nom

Hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving, if you live within the United States, and a fabulous Thursday otherwise.



Try not to go crazy on the eating, okay? And no, that is not my cat.

yay for christmas... in november!

So here's some of the Christmas content I worked on for JibJab. To work in a business where you're creating content for holidays that are weeks (sometimes months) away is very weird, to say the least. We're on v-day content now, and I wish I could show you some of the sweet stuff I'm making, but, alas, that's at least a few weeks coming.

Also, ElfYourself.com launched about a week ago, and people are already going nuts over it. (And by nuts, I mean posting the most ridiculous stuff over at YouTube. I believe that's two people with their THREE FERRETS as elves.) If you saw it last year, then you'll probably be pretty surprised this year-- JibJab took it over, and now there's four dances to choose from. My Aunt put my cousins in the disco one (yes, disco-dancing elves.) It's equal parts awesome and disturbing.

So, yeah, hope you all enjoy your Thanksgiving break this coming week, I know I could use a 4-day weekend.

win cool felt stuff- like Polo!

A super hip lady over at Now Entering Momville did a write-up of my etsy shop in conjunction with a plush I donated to her "Felt like Christmas" giveaway. If you win, you don't only get my plush (pictured above) but you get super cool stuff from 3 other shops as well!

You can enter at the link below by leaving a comment about what you like in each shop: Felt Like Christmas!

Pretty sweet, huh? Polo the yellow monster plush lurrrves you and wants you to win, so go enter, NOW!

flavoraid

Some new guys I made over the weekend. I'm doing lots of other things (including plush at work!) so I'll update with that stuff as soon as... um, February. When it launches. Haha. Sorry.

I also have some cool stuff from my collage class I'll throw up here soon. Gotta spray-paint it before its done. Hope everyone is well! And update your blogs! I need eye-candy, darnit.

3:04 am

Yes, I am updating at 3 in the morning. These are my newest batch of awesome. Going up in the store by the end of the week. Woot.

but my couscous!!

Some new monster plushies I made for the store. I like the green ones expression- his name is Franz.

lolololol-z

A lolcat plush I made for Maureen on her birfday. He is cushy and full of love, and based off my drawings that are now polluting the desks of my fellow JJ'ers.

In other news, I'm going to be posting new monsters and new content in my etsy store. I've been getting some big orders lately, but now that they're all finished I can focus on making things for fun again. I totally hate feeling like an art machine when I get huge orders, but it seems the only way to get them done. (Why don't I do prints like a sane human being? You just have to make it once!!)

Oh, and I'm starting work on a bitchin' holiday card- lemme know if you want one if we don't already penpal.

in the belly of a giant whale

So, I finally got the compilation book from the Crammed Organisms show back in June. It only took 4 months, but whatevs. One of my plush pals was badly injured on the way back to me, his horn has fallen into disrepair, so I have to figure something out for that, but otherwise they arrived unscathed. They will most likely be going up in my Etsy in the coming days.

Anyway, that's (somewhat bad) shots of the cover, with a closeup marking my two plushies, Aldous and the CupCake Girl (woot!) that helped inspire the cover by KillTaupe, and then the two interior pages with my work. Overall, I think the book could have been better designed, but I guess if he was in a rush... and there was a lot of content to include... it was okay. I'm not sure if I'll participate next season, it became much more of a hassle than a reward.

I've also been working on a giant order for the Ringling Alumni Store, so if you're there, make sure you check it out. I got lots and lots of goodies coming their way.


And there's even more stuff to come, soooo... stay tuned!

P.S. OBAMA!!!! Last night was amazing and historic and I cried during his speech and it was fantastic! <3

updations

Sooo... I've been crazy busy lately, and while I've still been (somehow) able to juggle work-life-plushies, it's been a little bit on the crazy side. This weekend I took off for San Francisco to visit Jessica and such. It was an amazingly good time, so much so that I felt bad for the kinda terrible time she had here a few weeks ago. I saw a great deal of the city (blurry pictures soon) including the Academy of the Sciences/museum thinger, Golden Gate Park (+buffalo), and Haight/Ashberry (yay for music and toys.)

On Sunday we hit up APE (alternative press expo) and saw some nice goodies from some very fine folks. If you're trying to picture it in your mind, it's a ton smaller than MegaCon (if you went to that last year) and pretty much just tables, minus the fun extra stuff like Rock Band and such. But I got christmas presents for some people, and I (finally) got to meet Justin's immensely talented brother Josh. If you frequent the JibJab site for halloween things (WHO DOESN'T?!) then you will catch two of his pieces there, as well as on his blog. Good times were had by all. (Or else!)

Ummmm.... other than that, the collage class is going achingly slow, but I'm optimistic. It feels like freshmen year, but at least I can get a grandma-worthy christmas present out of it. Maybe even something for Dad's new apartment... Hooray for tack-tastic wall art?

Plush pictures soon, along with other happenings. I PROMISE.

but only one can win!

Our sweet pirate pad at work, with the addition of the pirate flag I made last Friday. All handsewn, and lemme tell you, this thing is M-A-S-S-I-V-E! Much longer than I am tall (which isn't saying much) but the skulls are like, 3 feet big and stuff, not including the lower jaw. It's huge. But it was super fun to make. I work with the coolest people in the world.

The other photo is of a few of our piratey crew- one of our animators and our technical director. Good times.

Thanks to Dan for hanging the crazy thing and getting stuff all in his face from the ceiling doing it. Yuck.

He always took the time to speak with me

...And I liked him for that.

Something I started/finished working on today. Originally it was for Illustration Fridays topic "Late" but other than that clock... I don't know how it relates. I haven't had time to draw in my sketchbook much lately, but this weekend has been an exception. I want to finish it by Christmas-ish time, so I best start cracking. I also picked up American Gods and Coraline from the bookstore. It's about time I started reading again.

It's about time I started doing a lot of things again.