A Friday Find for you, my friends...

A fun Friday find for you, my dear readers. I thought it might be a nice change to use my Friday blogs to post things that I have discovered which I find inspiring and/or fun. After all, it can't be all about me everyday because I'm just not that interesting. So without further ado...

I'm told it is a common superstition that beginning a sea voyage on Friday is unlucky. I suppose if you believe that, it is appropriate to post this video today. From the Australian band 'The Basics', a video for their song "With This Ship" as directed and animated by Matt Arnold. The video consists of the animated and perilous journey of a tea kettle ship across the sea, accompanied by a catchy tune. Anyway, I'm no music critic so I won't try to expound upon the awesomeness of this track. But I know what I like, and I like this so check it.


And if you like that, I believe you will also enjoy 'Hearts a Mess', a song from Gotye, The Basics' front man Wally De Backer's side project. It too is filled with animated goodness and vocal bliss. Animated by Brendan Cook.

Old Sketch Thursday

As I've been cleaning up my workspace, a long and arduous task, I started flipping through my old sketchbooks. It's a very weird feeling to look at your old work. It's nostalgic, amusing, and often downright embarrassing. So I thought it might be fun to post some blasts from sketchbooks past. I always liked these three sketches from different books circa 2004. I never ended up using them in anything though.

Snuffy. So named because it reminds me of Snuffleupagus from Sesame Street. His feet came from the idea that he was as tall a tree, so his feet remind me of the base of a tree trunk:
This little guy is about the size of a mouse and I imagined he used his prehensile hands and feet to climb up the stalks of plants, his tail was used for balance, and his long snout was adapted to sip nectar out of flowers.

While this creature may look frightening, he's actually very harmless. His mouth, which is comprised of several holes, filters plankton from the water for him to eat.Well, I hope you enjoyed my trip down memory lane. I'll have to think of some excuse to put these guys into a drawing sometime.

New Sketch Tuesday 2-24-09

A new little project of mine. Every Tuesday I will have a new sketch to show on my blog. Having a deadline will help me to keep getting new work done. I'm doing this with a few other artists, with our group effort we should be able to keep it up. I hope you enjoy.

This week's is a sketch for a scratch board piece that I will make into an art print. I hope to complete it in the next 2 weeks or so.

A small planning sketch for the scene. I'm just trying to figure out the composition at this point and I will blow up the whole image bigger so I can make a more detailed sketch:


And then a more complete and larger (though not yet complete) sketch of the girl from the scene. Can you tell from this blog and previous blogs that I like making illustrations of girls with their hair blowing in the wind? haha. Her head will probably be turned more away from the viewer to make it appear that she is looking at the tornado. I just can't help but want to draw the face though. The plaids in her dress are hard to figure out...
Stay tuned to my blog for a completed illustration of this. And come back next week to see my new sketch! Same Bat time, same Bat channel.

SALE INVENTORY RUNNING LOW!

My 2008 Inventory Sale is running out of well... inventory! I've already sold out of Crubbly, Hugmitten, Groulby, and Fribbler. There are only 4 styles left. Be sure to get them from my 'sale section' while they're still around because they're going fast! Last chance for a deal on your Nightmare Snatcher® journal purchase!

Featured in Disney's Wondertime Mag... Fact check?

One of my journals was in Disney's Wondertime magazine for the month of February! Hooray, right? Well, Any exposure is good, but:

1.) They called it a "Monster book" instead of what it is, a 'Nightmare Snatcher journal'.

2.) They said it was made by "Nightmare Snatcher", when it is in fact made by Spiderbite Boutique.

3.) and they indicated that you should buy it at a store that I know longer wholesale to. I would obviously have preferred that they linked to my site. I could really use the sales and having it link to a store I don't sell to any more, doesn't really do me any good.

4.) And lastly Wondertime magazine looks like it's getting shut down.

Oh well. There's no such thing as bad publicity, right? When did magazines stop fact checking? Alright, I'm done whining. At least they didn't say my product sucks.

Work in Progress

Another sketch I'm in the middle of, again for a short story written by my Dad. Enjoy.

Elkton's Undead: My acting debut

A short 10 minute film made by my friends in scenic Elkton, MD in 2003. And you get to see ME as an extra in it... Isn't it exciting? Aren't you thrilled?! Can you spot me? My biggest scene is in the outtakes at the end of part 3 of 3 where I don't do anything. Yeah... I'm lame. However the video is not. It's fun. Watch it, in order of course.

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:

Sketchiness...

Spot illustration for the chapter page of a story I'm working on illustrating. It's the moon in case you couldn't tell... Should probably get some reference images and a compass for this one. It's lopsided. Drawing freehand circles was never my strong point.


And another spot illustration for another short story. I like to think it's obviously a calf, but just in case you were wondering, wonder no longer.

Special Edition Striped Nightmare Snatcher!

Here is the newest Special Edition Nightmare Snatcher® , the Hugmitten style with special black and white striped fur! Woohoo! Okay, so he came out a month ago, but I still think it bears mentioning. Available for purchase at my Etsy shop! As someone who prefers to work in pen & ink and scratch board, I'm partial to black and white. The black and white stripes also make me think of Tim Burton. Most of his movies seem to have creatures and costumes that have black and white stripes as seen below. From left to right all sporting their stripes: 'Vincent', Beetlejuice', Miss Spider from 'James and the Giant Peach', Katrina from 'Sleepy Hollow', and Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett from 'Sweeney Todd'.

By the power of Greyskull!

A polaroid of my sister and I as children of the 80's. No real reason to post this other than, well.. it's He-man and He-man is awesome. Look at those sweatpants and that wood paneling. Now I'm sure you can truly appreciate why so many people are trying to bring the 80's back... Yeah, not really.

I'm the little one on the left, holding the sword in the correct hand for the He-man stance, I might add. Even that young I knew what was up.

UPDATE: Sad Songs and Sweet Dreams

Here's the full image of the illustration I'm working on, with nonsense text to be filled in later with the real poem. Still some things to work out, need to make the grass cross over her legs, the underside of her dress show a bit, work on the folds of her dress, etc. Made with pen & ink on scratchboard. See a detail image in my previous post.

It's for a zine my father and I are putting together of his poetry with illustrations by me of course. If you're interested in knowing when it's coming out, join my Mailing List!