Illustration Friday: Run

Not much to say 'bout this one, except that my husband will now have nightmares after seeing this.. der... I thought it was cute and creepy... Not a final product, just a sketch. I like the upper half of mr. green creepy guy, but the lower half needs a little bit more tweakage. Funny bunny doesn't have any paws... I think he kind of skootches across the floor to get around.. no wonder the creepy dude's running.. he's creeped out.. (sorry, it's late, and I'm tired, and I really need to not be talking... :)

Our Home

Kind of a brag spread! Friends and Family have been asking for photos of our home. We've done a lot to this place since we've moved in, from painting every room on the main floor, and landscaping the back yard!

Instead of having a formal living room, we put in a theatre. The seats were bought off of ebay from a real theatre, I think from Maine.

The kitchen has gone through a major transformation! We sanded and painted the oak cabinets white and create a glass panel effect on a few of the doors! New slate tile floors and corian countertop. We added the moulding after we painted the walls.

The "Pub" area is the eat-in kitchen section. J.D. found these booth seats from a restaurant in D.C. They were a little dingy, tore off the fabric and foam, customized them a bit to fit in the space, and I refoamed and reappolstered them. The table was a $20 find from an estate sale! love that! He stripped it, sanded and applied a rich dark stain, that turned out really well! One corner that leads to the garage has been painted with chalkboard paint. I think that has to be the most interactive corner of our home! (And lots of fun at party's!)

In the dining room, I was trying to go for an outdoor seating area somewhere in France. It's still trying to get there! Maybe this fall/winter I'll be motivated to finish it up.

It's nice when our plans come together and look good for two people that don't have a clue about what they're doing! A lot of the things we do have very minimal planning. Which leads to a lot of trying and being displeased and trying again. We're pretty pleased and excited about our latest installment, the Great Wall! It keeps the upper yard looking level and finished off, and we have a decent pathway from the deck to the side. It was J.D.'s last minute thinking to add the firepit to the end. Seriously cannot wait for cooler weather to roast some marshmallows now.

The pool is awesome! J.D. works so hard to keep it looking as refreshing as it does! We're lucky to have neighbors with pools, who have been more than helpful, in understanding how to keep it maintained. Of course there have been days where we would love to just fill it in with dirt, but when it gets hot, or when we just want to relax and do nothing one weekend, it nice to just for a dip in the pool!

So that's all! This fall/winter, we'll hopefully get the upper floor done, so we can have more pics to show!

Salut!

Bai Ngoai

My grandmother was in town in June, and was so happy when my Dad brought her over to see our home! We don't see each other but once a year, so it's nice when we can spend some quality time with each other! She's a ball of energy for her age! She thinks she's still 20 years old! (both my grandmother's are like that!) And loves to go to the casino's! Love them both!

Great Falls; Virginia Side

August 19, Saturday (last week) J.D. and I thought it'd be fun to take a break from being cooped up in our house all the time. I had never gone to Great Falls, and it was close by, so we packed up our camera and a few snacks and we were on our way! yay! I wanted to try and document the day, so I took photos of everything, even silly things like the highway signs we exited onto. Of course I missed the most important one, so I didn't post that part!!! der. We had a lot of! We ended up veering off the path and made our own path through all the rocks! We haven't hiked in awhile and the mid-day sun was out, so by the end of our hike I felt like poop. But I'd do it again, just with more water next time! So tempted to jump into the water and let the current take us away! If you've never been, it's a nice place to go! Lots of picnic and bbq areas.

Crayola Magic Clay Sculptures

Just wanted to share some spur of the moment, I had a second to spare at work to put together a few office friends. My boss brought in a huge HUGE box of these magic clay packages, and I felt like a kid at a candy store... so awesome!!! They're just kinda hangin out in my cube hole. gotta make friends some how... :P

Illustration Friday: Match

aargh... I know I'm not going to have time to do anything detailed, so I'm offering a mere sketch of what I wanted to submit... sowwy...

Even though they had a few differences, they were quite a match for each other. aawww... yay for love!

My other ideas were to have a guy farting on a match which caught his friend on fire... oops.. the other was of a matching dc tourist couple (since I see them all the time... with matching t-shirts... so cute & funny!)

Illustration Friday: Play

It's been awhile since I've played with watercolors. This didn't exactly turn out the way I wanted it too, but I can't expect much when I've only begun experimenting. The subject matter was probably influenced by Mark Ryden mixed with a little bit of Japanese animation. I've been on an animation kick lately, which is sparking all kinds of ideas, and motivations. You can view the original sketch on my sketchbook blog.

Our Backyard!

It's amazing when something I plant actually blooms, and continues to live. I think I love the idea of planting things, and anticipating them growing, being beautiful and providing plenty. The thought of actually caring for them seems to slip my mind when I have other projects or things going on in my life, and so some of the plants I've grown have a short life span!

J.D. and I take pride in the home that we are so lucky to have. A lot of thought goes into the landscape, and I won't even go into the interior yet! We moved in a little over a year ago, so any accomplishment we make is a happy moment!

So here are a few happy moments!

Purdy Dahlias









We watched a hornet (that thing is huge) wrestle a dead cicada. I wonder if it was trying to fly away with it. It eventually gave up and flew off. (and later tried to carry my husband off to its nest!)














And our Pool!














More of a funny/wierd moment than a happy one. In early spring our dryer decided to call it quits, so we were going to put it out with the trash. But before that could happen, J.D. wanted to see the inner workings of a dryer, and tore it apart. When he got to the dryer drum, he thought it'd be cool to use that as a fire pit, and kept it. So the fins came off and hundreds of different sized balls fell out and rolled like marbles every which way across the garage floor. It was the most bizarre thing.














All these years of tumbling clothes, when we could have been in the business of manufacturing lint balls...

Illustration Friday: Capture

Hooray! I'm always excited when I get an illo in before thursday! You may want to click on the image to make it bigger too see all the details... 'specially to see what the baker's up too!
This weeks inspiration came from the ever growing popularity of cute cuddly plushie animal-ie food products I'm seeing everywhere. I don't own one yet, but I can't wait to get my hands on one! mmmm... Yum-Yum Bun!!! btw. My husband thinks I'm nuts, because I can't stop saying that. It's catchie :)

Illustration Friday is a Friend Finder

I used to go to high school with a very talented artist, in fact sat next to her on the bus to and from school for awhile, hung out at lunch sometimes... and as time passed we grew apart. We maybe saw each other once or twice at GMU, passing to get to different classes. I always remembered how in demand she was with classmates to have their caricature done by her.
Well, after all these years, who'd a thunk-it, that IF would bring two long lost friends back together!!! I'm really happy that we're back in touch! Joy!

See some of Michelle Lana's stuff on her blog!

*Silly Monkee Sketch Blog*

Yay! I've been meaning to get this started forever, and I finally had the time to scan, and upload all the pages from my MoleSkine sketchbook. This book now goes everywhere I go. I'm getting braver and am actually opening it up in public to make a few sketches! I'm still a little shy about drawing in public. *grin* I hope you get a chance to look at it, and that you can draw some inspiration or motivation from it!



Check it out! SillyMonkee Sketchblog

Illustration Friday: Clean

Washed out? Cleaned Out?
I felt a little morbid at the time. I also was feeling a little overwhelmed with thoughts in my head, and probably thought about what would happen if I powerwashed my head... probably exactly what happened to this poor guy! berr--aaaaaaiiinnnzzzz...


I first sketched it out in my sketchbook, then copied it onto velum paper, which is great to color, and my scans are cleaner.

Illustration Friday: Opposite

Opposites attract, and that's true with J.D. and I. We share a lot in common, but in general we're definetly opposite of each other. He's an extrovert, who is very outgoing, enjoys being around and talking to people. I on the other hand, am totally content with being alone to work on an art project. I enjoy company from time to time, if I overdose, I go into a veggie like state.. drool... the whole bit.. it's not pretty.
I love J.D.!!! He brings sooo much into our lives.



Didn't think I was going to make it this week with an illustration, but I had last minute inspiration last night, and was able to color it in tonight! YAY! I need to work on making my illo's a little bigger so I can use bigger markers and bring more detail... Not to mention some of the compositioning of objects to each other.. yikes... the more I look the more I want to do this one over. Can I blame the shaky camera?? I'm open to suggestions! oh.. I also drew this on velum, which is really really nice to work on.

What a Saturday!

J.D. and I had a lot of things going on today! Had to drop my car off at the dealer for maintenance. Come home and clean the crap out of our place so our dinner company don't think we live in a heap of dust bunnies... (by the way, I found a third cat we didn't know we had while sweeping the house. yikes.) The car got done in the mid afternoon, so J.D. and I started finishing up around the house, and headed back to the dealership. All went well, and was following J.D. back. We came up on this intersection and noticed a car pulling towards the middle to make a left hand turn. J.D. was a good ways in front of my car, and since we had the green light, we kept going at the same speed, which was around 35-45mph. The car had slowed down, as if to wait, but then proceeded to drive and practically stopped (I'm thinking in fear,) right in our lane, which was the far right lane of two lanes. J.D. laid on the horn, swerved to the left to try and avoid them, but than I heard a crunch sound, at which point, I screamed, and laid on my breaks. I couldn't believe what just happened. I looked at J.D. to see if he was alright; he was already getting out of his car, looked quickly at his front driver side bumper where the turn signal light had popped out, and quickly walked over to the other car and asked if they were alright. They were an older couple. A man who was in the passenger seat, seemed to be shaken up. His door was pretty well damaged, and had a hard time opening it. J.D. helped him get out. After which he walked over to the passenger side of his car to inspect the damage. Not even a minute after the incident, a cop had stopped, and than another... and than 5 others. Apparently they were on their way to the station for a shift change, (stations two seconds down the road.) when they came upon us. The whole exchange of information lasted about 30-45 minutes. The whole time, the lady at fault never once asked my husband if he was ok, or apologized. Which seemed kind of wierd. This is what his car looks like...

Illustration Friday: Sacrifice

I don't normally do patriotic drawings, but this was one of the first things that came to mind when I thought of sacrifice. All the men and women sacrificing their lives for our freedom.

This is super messy, and definitely has more potential of being so much better as far as detail and accuracy goes. But ya'll get the idea! *wink

Here's the original sketch.
Thanks for looking!

Illustration Friday: Sticky and Skyline

I missed last weeks deadline, but had a great sketch, so though I'd incorporate it into this weeks theme.
Last week in Starbucks, I had a sticky situation where a napkin had fallen on this floor, and I had unknowingly stepped on it. Well luckily I noticed this before stepping out into public. I stepped on a piece to try and discreetly unstick it from my shoe with the other one, but it was now stuck to the right shoe. So I repeated the procedure by stepping on the napkin with my other shoe... and it happened again. I felt like I was going to have to do a song and dance, because I could only imagined what I looked like trying to get this thing off my shoe. Finally, I grabbed a clean napkin from the dispensor, and peeled the sticky napkin from both shoes, and threw it away. Looked around quickly and escaped as quickly as I could back to the office. *whimper

Sea Monkies: Week Three & Four

It's amazing how much they grow. And they're still growing. A few have feathery fangs that they use to grab hold of other seamonkies. Either to fight or to give big hugs! They're fascinating to watch, when I've stared at the computer monitor long enough. They've created little dust bunnies everywhere after fluffing through all their mess for food.

Here's a monkey from week three;



And week four;

Illustration Friday: Rain

What a perfect topic of the week. The past weekend through the beginning of the week, we have had nothing but rain and thunderstorms... crazy thunderstorms... So I have two different posts for the amount of rainy days I had this week!

(1) After seeing larger than life rain drops from the 17th floor of my building. I wanted to go on a break so bad at the time, I said that we could make it safe and dry just be dodging them, since they were so big. That was a no-go... (sorry for the graph lines.)


(2) Waiting out the rain, and what better place to seek shelter than under a mushroom!

Illustration Friday: Dance

Stick figuring to the extreme! Wasn't planning on choosing this one, but because I was so desperate to make it on time this week for illustration friday, she came to life! I'm hoping, at a later date to make this more of a watercolor, since the colored pencil I used were watercolor one's! I'll make sure to post it if I do! Yay! I made it before friday!

I did a second figure, which was initially my first choice because of the strong poise, and not-all-there head. I hope I can create a neat story from this one soon! Here's a sketch of a sketch!

Sea Monkies: Week Two

They're growing super fast. You can see their multiple fins, and little tiny black eyeballs on some. So cute... I'm not sure how this little city is going to hold 75+ Sea Monkies, especially if they start reproducing in a few weeks... craziness...

You can kind of see them in the tank, although my camera couldn't focus in on them yet. ggrrr.