The Life Pursuit: San Smith

6 things list!

Hope you guys had a nice weekend! Lately, I've seen a couple of people post a "6 things" list on their blog, which looked like fun! I thought I'd post my own version today... enjoy!

It is a screen cap from Ponyo! I saved it to be my cintiq's desktop for a little while because I loved looking at Ponyo's little goofy smile.

1.  Chris/Pika (my dog)/My family and friends (I feel like those are too easy so I mushed into one!)
2.  Art/illustration
3.  Toys (Vinyl figures, collectibles, action figures, vintage)
4.  Animation
5.  Visiting San Francisco
6.  Fun exercises (riding my bike and hula hooping)


 
1.  Being antsy
2.  Eating out instead of cooking
3.  Hitting snooze on my alarm over and over and over
4.  Taking 2 hour long naps
5.  Being too honest
6.  Making messes and then cleaning them up a few days later


 
1.   To sell stationary, stickers, postcards, tshirts, etc with my art. Soon!!!
2.   To become more successful with my illustration work
3.   To visit Japan
4.   To move to San Francisco
5.   To work for myself full-time
6.   To inspire others and bring happiness into the world


 
1.   Character designer
2.   Hair Stylist
3.   Tattoo artist
4.   Singer in a band (but I can’t sing! Haha...)
5.   Shop owner (of a cutesy crafty handmade store!)
6.   Professional hula hooper

Did you guys fill out a 6 things list? If so, share a link!

Art update: Crazy space girl commission

I was recently asked to do a quick portrait for someone's birthday. They said it needed to include a bloodhound named Eugene, a vampire manatee with wings, an orange tree, space shuttle, tropical fish and/or submarine, paint brush and palette, and a boombox. (WHAT?!)

Oh - and she needed to be a super hero shooting laser arrows...! Not just any old super hero though - a super hero Native American wearing a rocket pack! When I first read the request I was thinking - Hoooollly crap thats a lot of stuff to fit into one picture. Above are my first few concept sketches trying to figure out how the heck I'd put all that together.

After drafting out the concept they asked to change her to a super hero space/underwater girl with the name, "Andy de Panteloons - Protector of the Ocean Blue" - which kinda took it one step further into kookyland.

Anyhow - I somehow fit it all together! Above is the final product. There are a few things I still would like to change, and I might later on down the road... but for now I'm pretty pleased with it! What do you think?

Also! Thanks so much for all the sweet comments on my Things I love Thursday comic :D It means a lot! I was a little iffy about posting it, but I think I'll try to do more Things I love Thursday comics in the future!

Hope you guys have a lovely weekend!

Things I love Thursday

Things I love Thursday... Its a slightly weird one. I haven't really seen much I wanted lately! Nor have a found a ton of things that have inspired me... A lot of what I'm loving at the moment isn't even linkable, so I thought I'd just draw it for you guys:


click to view larger

A few of the things I am loving that are online:

I watched a PBS documentary, "Crisis at the Castle", on saving the Kelburn Castle the other week, and now I'm like, craving ridiculous PBS stuff. I'm such a nerd!

Wrapping things using Furoshiki - I want to try this!

This outfit by Tiny Toadstool

Jaime Hernandez made shirts for Stussy!! Jaime is one of my most favorite artists - I love that he collaborated with Stussy to come up with a Love and Rockets inspired series of shirts. I really want the one of the hero girl playing guitar.

How to make a Katamari cousin costume - I almost did this for Halloween! Maybe next year...

I loooove the triple scoop necklace by MaryMaryHandmade! Her designs are so cute.

Jeytoy! I just found out about this cutesy little company - I loove their Joo Zoo planner! I got one on etsy here. I can't wait for it to arrive so I can get planning for 2010! :B  

Cute little cups and Koala eye mask, plus loads of other cutesy junk at Artbox! Thank goodness this site isn't in the US, or I'd be buying tons of stuff I don't need XD I'm such a sucker for cute things.

OxfordJasmine's make up tutorials and her devotion to cruelty-free products

I really like this blog, KatieDoesJapan, where she posts photos daily of her exploring different parts of Japan. I was hoping to go to Japan this year, but it didn't work out... so I'm living vicariously through her blog!

New artists I'm enjoying: dric and Souther Salazar 

Hope you are having a good week!
Do you do Things I love Thursday? If so, share a link to it!

A low key sort of day

Today was a quiet sleepy day at work. I was super wrapped up in some tedious design projects, so I took a relaxing lunch break by a large window on my floor. It has kinda a weird view, but its refreshing for a change of scenery. I brought with me a little book to look at:



Its a stamp art book by Japanese illustrator Tomoko Tsukui. Her art really inspires me! Its very sweet and whimsical. This was my lunch view:




After lunch, I walked down to a coffee shop real quick to get some pumpkin bread. Its starting to really feel like fall around here and I loooove it! Over all today wasn't very eventful, but sometimes thats ok. :) Thanks for all the sweet comments on my last post, it really makes days like this exciting! :B



How was your day? Hope you guys are doing well!

Halloweenie

Sorry it has been a bit quiet around here in the past few days! I've been really busy working on upcoming projects and planning Holiday items I want to make for Etsy! So far its looking like I'm going to have stickers, pins, magnets and charm-things in my shop. Maybe a few gocco items! I am going to work on it this week and see how my tests turn out :D I'm very excited to start using Etsy again!!

As for Halloween - I didn't go to any fancy parties. Chris had to get stitches in his chin due to a bicycle accident Wednesday night, and can't do a lot of talking/chewing/goofing off now... So it seemed like the best option was to hang out with friends for a bit and then give out candy to kids in the neighborhood!

So, Friday night I ended up making a snazzy little Minnie Mouse outfit to wear for the kids. I made ears out of foam, a bow out of fleece, painted old shoes and the rest was my clothes... I really liked it!!

But only 5 kids came to our house! Whaaaaaaaaat. And they came before I could change into my costume!! Talk about fail. So I guess I'll have to dress up in my two costumes later this week to get pictures. When I do, I'll be sure to share them!

Did you have a good Halloween?
What was your costume?