Candy Girl

I’m one of those people who romanticizes autumn, counting down the days until Pumpkin Spice lattes appear on Starbucks counters and all manner of squash pile up outside the produce market. I spend most of summer eyeing my cardigans and scarfs, longing for a bit of cool crispness in the air. I love fall.  And I love Halloween. So I’ve been trying to squeak out some seasonally appropriate cards in between freelance projects this past couple weeks. I’m hoping to have a least a couple more available in the shop over the next week, but for now there are a couple you can check out, including this one, just listed this afternoon:

Halloween Candy Girl greeting cards are available for purchase at She Can Lift a Horse on Etsy. Click here to go directly to that design or here to view the stationery section for that and other cards.

Here’s the original sketch:

The final art didn’t change much from the draft, except to get more cheerful. The final color combo – blue, orange, black, and white – makes me think of my wedding (almost two years ago!). That was our color scheme. There weren’t any bats on our invitations, but there were ghosts and pumpkins and a sheet white girl in a black dress.

Anyway. Fall! It’s the best!

Teaser

Several people have asked me if I’m going to have more Gilmore Girls prints available in my shop and the answer is yes, yes, yes / eventually. I have an endless amount left to do, but I am starting to feel pretty pleased with my geeky efforts thus far. Here’s a bit of a teaser.

Madeline at Ten

I’ve been playing around with new portfolio and web hosting options, looking for something that will make updating less time consuming. In the meantime, updates to shecanliftahorse.com have hit the breaks, which means I haven’t shared much of the custom portraiture work I’ve been doing –which is actually the bulk of the work I do. So without further ado, here’s summa dat:

This portrait was drawn as a gift for a girl named Madeline on the occasion of her 10th birthday. Madeline I actually know (she’s my sister’s niece) so it was easier than usual to think of fun scenarios to draw and personal details to add (I’m told the first thing she noticed when she saw the print were the tiny panda bear earrings, which makes me so happy.) She loves animals and drawing and dark, creepy things. The shift in the color schemes from bubble gum pink to bold red and black is just another example of my tendency to draw in shades of pink regardless of the subject. She may be the ten year old girl, but that’s truly a reflection of me.

Here’s the completed 10″x10″ print, followed by my sketches.

Thanks to parents Sarah and Gabe for such a fun commission. I hope it’s something Maddy enjoys for years to come, potentially feels mortified by for only a brief period as a teenager, then finally comes to enjoy again. :)

Dribbblin’

I was invited to joined Dribbble recently. In case you’re not up on your designers-referencing-basketball-terminology, Dribbble is a community for visual artists to uploads snap shots of their work (or “WIP”s, works in progress). The bulk of its members are designers, so as an illustrator posting, I feel a bit like I’ve interrupted a meeting by walking in too loudly, dressed inappropriately. Spilling coffee down the front of my shirt while balancing a cartoonishly tall stack of books, if we want to continue the mental image. Still, it’s nice to be part of the “team” and see new work being developed without the number of updates being too staggering. The “players” are friendly in a way that makes me feel like I’ve wandered into a strange new place where people are kind and constructive. Guess I’ve just grown accustomed to a dumber, meaner internet.

Anyway! I thought, in the spirit of Dribbbling “shots”, I would blog some sneak peeks at work I’m… well… working… on. There’s a portrait, stationery and tea towel designs, and a snippet of an illustration for the next Pinkie Swear story, which you’ll be able to see in it’s entirety Monday morning.