Poem Collaboration

tonight I will pretend
I can shoot water from my fingertips
in the shower

tonight I will imagine
the carpet is made of lava
and the couches are the rocks

tonight I will pretend
a blanket tied around my neck
makes me Wonder Woman

tonight I will imagine
my room is being sieged by dragons
and I, the princess, must slay every single one

tonight,
I will pretend I can go back.

childhood fascinations

by Allyssa Barker

You can see more of her Poems her: http://inkedsummit.tumblr.com/ 

New Discoveries

I have found I like hand lettering! At first, I thought "oh no! Not another hobby!" As it turns out, hand lettering only enhances my book binding. Now I can create custom labels for my books and personalize them further. I also wonder if it'll be an asset to my illustrating as well. 

In the meantime, I am copying other artists designs to learn style and design. It is so fun to make the most mundane of lists and information beautiful. 

I have a lot more practice to put in, but I hope to eventually have handwriting as nice as my moms!

Trying Out Digital

Painting digitally is not my favorite way to illustrate. With my current skills, it takes me 3-5 times longer to create something to my satisfaction, BUT I can stop easily and quickly. Now, that I have a toddler and a 3 month old, I really-really don't have time to set up and clean up traditional painting. 

This Mermaid is a warm up of sorts. There is another piece I'm working on, but I was struggling with it's complexity(also my anatomy has never been a strong suite) and fighting this digital medium. So I thought I'd work on this old sketch, which is simpler to work on shape, color and style. I have learned I have to have a strong sketch to start with and that I can't just wing it once it's in the computer. I still have a lot left to do on this, but I wanted to share it because I'm excited to create again. 

I have a few short stories with graphic novel formats that I've been too chicken to work on traditionally... also babies. So, I'm thinking maybe I can attempt to do them digitally over the course of the next year or two, fifteen minutes at time in between diaper changes. Crazy? Probably.

Easter Printables

Every week, I have a "craft" day with my two year old. I drew these lil' guys up, and then I cut them and we tape them to the wall.  She loves arranging them just so on the wall. Older kids might like to color them, or you could attach them to popsicle sticks and have a little puppet show. Or you could hide them around the house and have your kids search for them. 

I'm selling the pdf's on etsy for $0.25 (the eggs are free) and you can print off as many as you like.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/thepapersandwich

Recycle, Reuse

My darling husband cleans and reuses food jars for other purposes. He took a old jar of sun-dried tomatoes and cleaned it up for our Q-tips. The boxes they come in are awkward and ugly. 

My assignment was to create a cool label for the lid to cover the old food design. We can't decide which one we like better. Can you?

 I shamelessly stole these shapes and designs from milk labels I googled. Typography and graphic design is NOT my strong suit. I did learn what I liked though. Its a good exercise. I think I may try it again.

#inktober

It's the Little Things...

I'd been feeling down because I've lost some steam on my goals to exercise and eat more healthy. Then today, getting ready for church, I put on a little blush and mascara. Voila! I felt pretty. It was the boost I needed to tackle this next week and keep trying. 

#Inktober

More Inktober

Day 3 of #inktober

I totally get why mom's put laundry on the back of the couch now! To keep the toddlers from unfolding everything. I hope to paint this one by the end of the week. 

Day 4 of #inktober

This fish is from last year's series of #Inktober drawings and it has been patiently waited to be inked all that time. I think I might do some more fish this year but maybe fish that are native to my new home in the state of WA instead of FL. Squishing them into squares an interesting challenge