V-V-Vroooooom

Today I was promised 70 degrees... its was a lie. I mean, I can't complain too much because it was up in the 50s but I had really been hoping for some warmth. It felt like this.

Anyways, the rainy/misty morning did give me an opportunity to do some doodling. Instead of Sharpies I used my Staedler skinnies. They bleed a little less and give a nice sharp line. My name is Liz and I'm a fan and a marker/pen addict.

It's Raining It's Pouring

Something about being stuck inside for days really gets my fingers itching to doodle. Last week's Hurricane Sandy was no different. On a semi-related note, our new neighborhood is almost directly adjacent to an A.C. Moore craft store. Dangerous for obvious reasons. I recently maaay have purchased an 18x24" drawing pad.

Of course this created the perfect storm for some weather-related art.

In addition to my big new pad of paper, I also broke out some crayons from a 120 Big Box I've been saving for oh, like, five years. #crayolaconfessions. Here are some progress shots.

5.5x8.5" mini version completed during a particularly long teleconference. 

Pencil sketch. Kind of hard to see. Bailey was very annoyed because I was ignoring her.

Outlined in gray marker. Complete with cozy socks. Gives you some perspective about how big it is. My wrist was definitely aching after I finished each layer. Of course this is not my first weather related art. Let's not forget my Snowpocalypse 2010 bubble wrap painting...

What did you do during the hurricane? Any out-of-control art projects?

Top 10 Things I've been Doing Other Than Blogging

Hey team. So I was debating ways to re-start blogging since it's been about 2 months. Do I make excuses? Do I try to explain? Nah, how about just the "Top 10 Things I've Been Doing Other than Blogging." Enjoy!

10. Recieving lovely rain boots from Jessica Swift's Kickstarter project and being included on her website wearing said beautiful rainboots. I'm dancing because I'm so famous.

9. Block-printing some beagle-themed Christmas cards for the masses. I also made a beagle angel Christmas tree topper :o)

8. Celebrating Beer Advent... don't ask.

7. Enjoying some D.C. pastimes like sneaking quietly through air ducts at the International Spy Museum and seeing Zoo Lights at the Smithsonian National Zoo.

6. Recieving a brand new Singer sewing machine to replace supplement my very old one. Thanks Mom! And sewing a fantastic navy and white houndstooth iPad sleeve on said brand new sewing machine. Starting small, I know.

5. Ordering and giving my mom her own custom Snarky Beagle iPhone case from CaseMate. I almost stole it because I loved how to came out, even more than the first one.

4. Joyfully rolling around in (maybe also drawing with) brand new Sharpies I got from Kevin.

3. Attending lots of fun soirees and outings from the pretty darn classy Battery Lane Family Thanksgiving (don't mind the post-it note place cards) and New Years on U Street  to the decidely less classy Jersey Shore party. I love my friends/neighbors.

2.  Celebrating Christmas with my family in my one-bedroom apartment and watching Kevin make an AMAZING Christmas dinner for us with delicious things like clementine granitas and herb and scallion bread pudding.

1. Finishing and generally-knocking-it-out-of-the-park grad school. I officially have earned my Master's in Public Relations from Georgetown University! Hooray! I'm super excited to have it off my plate and once I recover from my stressed-out-burned-out-freaking-out (no promises on how long this might take...) I will hopefully have more time for my creative pursuits.

Block Printing Take One

As previously noted, I recently purchased some supplies to try out linoleum block printing. Let me tell you, I'm more of an instant gratification person so block printing seemed like a good alternative to screen printing. Not that screen printing is necessarily hard... but there's lots of steps... and waiting. I have no patience for those things. Linoleum block printing basically has three steps: 1. carve 2. ink 3. press and DONE! The carving was the hardest part and ended in me stabbing my fingers with the pokey-carvey-tool (technical term) more than I care to admit.

So here's what I made...

This was the basic block and the first attempt. After this I cleaned up the relief a bit with the carving-scraping-finger-poking tool. Then I started experimenting with some patterns and different color inks...

Kevin also got in on the block printing action. He was determined to make his first attempt as hipster as possible. He plans to make other prints including mustaches, birds and plaid shirts. Isn't his bike so cute?!

Have you ever tried block printing? Are you clumsy like me and stab you fingers 43 times? Would you admit it if you did? Stay tuned for part two when I scan these suckers in and play with them in Photoshop. Oooo. It's gonna be excitin' y'all.

Art Store Adventures

Bailey loves new art supplies.
And cookies held by photographers.

So we had an earthquake... and then we had a hurricane. Needless to say, it's been a week. Luckily yesterday was fairly sunny so we decided to take a trip up to A.C. Moore. We were looking for frames for a few pieces including my cow picture and a print I got from Jessica Swift's Kickstarter project. I also wanted to find some basic linoleum block printing supplies to play with. I came home with none of those things. I just picked up some basics that were on sale. Boo A.C. Moore. They rarely actually have what I want.

I bought this basic Speedball block printing
kit. You can also get it from Blick. 

But it's ok because the story gets better! That is when we re-discovered our lovely neighborhood art store! I was honestly so in love with this store. They had exactly what I wanted plus lots more at reasonable prices. I will no longer be driving 30+ minutes to go to A.C. Moore or Michael's for art supplies. Plaza Art Store is literally a five minute walk and I'm pretty sure they are my new BFFs. That's not creepy right? It was one of those moments where you are like, "uugghhugh, why have I been wasting my time when I could have just walked down the street." Duh.

So needless to say, one of our short term goals is to get a little more screen-printing practice and try out block printing. I think this might be one way I can make cool, hand-made prints to sell/give-away to friends/have just for me. Here's an example of a linocut print I got in Portland earlier this year. I will definitely be sharing as I figure it out! Anyone have any linoleum tips that don't include scrubbing gross stains off 1980's-orange flooring (you could share that too I guess, I'm not picky)?