dumptruck

Here is a bunch of sketchbook pages and fashion drawings I have been wanting to scan in. I haven't kept a real sketchbook for what seems to be a year. I've had sketchbooks in that time, but not so much a journalistic personal one. So it's been nice to get back into it.
Also, if you've never heard of the band Murder by Death, go check them out. It has been great drawing/driving music for me lately.

Scott was in Michigan this week, I get to go pick him up today, yay!

commission-Memory #3

Here is the third memory Ella has commissioned me to illustrate. If I'm not mistaken there are twelve total, so I will likely share all of them as they go. I'm excited to see them progress over time.
So this one was challenging. It is about how Ella and her husband, Robbie, first met. She was visiting Robbie's roommate while in the army. While fiddling around the room waiting for her friend to get ready, she went over to Robbie's bed, sat at the edge and said, "So do you think I'm pretty or not?" He just smiled. They were later married and have been happy ever since. So, this one was tough because I wanted to show the scene but also incorporate the strong emotions they both had. I went with a tattoo-esque look. I felt like this lent itself to a sort of romantic eternal love feeling-a permanently ingrained love that followed the moment they met. This was one of those "do it and hope for the best" pieces. Too much planning and I would have bombed it, haha. Hope you dig.

a drawing

"The Gold Digger" She has been widowed many times. Her rich husbands have unexpected deaths, but we know what really happens.

I'm on an "update my blog more often" kick, we'll see how long this lasts. haha.

Also, I've been getting out and meeting a lot of cool people in Atlanta. This city just keeps getting cooler. Relating to that-I am working on an exciting project, I can't wait to share it. Till next time! Thanks for reading:)

P.S. Atlanta has amazing grits at multiple locations, if you ever visit, I'll tell ya where to get em' ;)

sharing time

I wanted to share some things I've been into lately. I always wonder what people listen to for music, or what type of blogs they check on a daily basis. So here is some of the music I've been jammin' to and some bloghizzles. You can share some too!

Music for my more laid back and enjoying life times, and/or reflecting- Santigold, The National, Holly Golighty, Neko Case, Grizzly Bear, Band of Horses, Mazzy Star, YYY's, Horrorpops, Tv on the Radio, Iron and Wine, Johnny Cash, The Hellbenders, Of Montreal, Hippodrome, Tom Waits.

And then, in my other mood, a more determined/excited mindset, where I'd like to think that I am going to war in some epic thriller quest for justice, I may listen to the following. Nightwish, Kamelot, Dreamtheater, Epica, Dragon Force, Theater of Tradgedy, Sirenia, Amon Amarth, Children of Bodem, haha.

A few of my daily blogs. This is minus the ton of art blogs of course. But that would take too much time right now.
Make Me Laugh
Awkward Family Photos
Goths in Hot Weather
Sexy People

Feel Good
I love
I Can Read
Things We Forget

Inspiration/Cool Stuff
Shorpy Photo Archive
Lovely Package
The Sartorialist
Neat O Rama
I love the "feel good" blogs because when I check through my reader in the morning there is often a little quote that I carry with me for the day or they serve as little reminders.

Soon I will have some drawings to post, and two commissions that I will hopefully finish this week. Rock out.

weeeird

I have two strange stories.#1 Last year I found this picture on Corbis while looking for baby carriage reference. I completely freaked out because it looks exactly like me when I had my blonde hair. EEK!! I got serious chills! I forgot I had it on my computer still. Also, some of my roommates from Ringling might remember, I have a dress just like the one she's wearing that I bought for reference shots. So yeah, beware, if you are ever searching through old photos for reference you may find a pic of yourself from another time period. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Weirdness #2, Yesterday Scott was skateboarding with some friends in a cemetery (don't ask). Scott went flying down a giant hill on the board, the road curved quickly, and he biffed pretty hard. The strange thing was that when he hit the curb, he flew a few feet and landed onto someone's grave. When he sat up, bruised and torn, the gravestone read "Scott." That's it, no last name! I would have freaked out. He was thinking it was a sign, haha. Now I get to baby him:)

Ok, and lastly, thank you for your help if you voted for my poster, but I did not win. Better luck next time!

a couple things

Yay! I finally finished getting a new fashion section on my website! I also added a new piece in their and a new piece in pattern. I had to switch hosts in order to have more space, so there is more sketchbook work as well. Hope you digg.


Also, as stated in the previous post, I am in a poster contest, if you take a moment to vote for mine, Entry #5, I would greatly appreciate it. It only takes one vote! Thanks!

Now I am off to the Atlanta I.C.E. show, where a ton of craft vendors sell their work in Centennial Park. Sunscreeen! A few of my friends will have booths there so I am excited to see their jazz. See you on the flip side.

vote for me!

I submitted this poster to a competition called "Flax Your Art Muscle" for a concert here in Atlanta. The concert is to help with the stimulus so they made it free admission. There are some really cool bands at the event, and it is an awesome idea. Vote for mine and I will be a super happy camper! The winner gets a really nice gift card to Sam Flax Art Supplies and their poster is used for the event and t-shirt designs. I could really use the gift card with Scott being in school needing photo supplies.


Click here to vote! I think you can vote once a day for the next week from the same computer. I would be super grateful!

*UPDATE* you can only vote once. That's even easier!

P.S. This is what the poster should look like, their scan blasted it out a bit.

new fashion print in shop

"Esmerelda and Her Robo Dobies"

Another fashion illustration! I added it to my Etsy shop with a little back story on the character. Hope ya digg.

commission-Memory#2

This is the second memory, next to the Sealions piece, that I have just finished for a lady named Ella. This memory took place at her wedding. It was the first time she met her husband's grandma. The grandma made all of the flower adornments for the wedding. She also made a very hippie headband for Ella to wear. Apparently she chased Ella around for hours trying to get her to wear this headband, and Ella really didn't want to wear it. The memory seemed very funny and energetic, which is the gesture I wanted to achieve in the piece. I love working on personal pieces, and have had a blast for Ella so far. I must say she is wonderful to work for since her main concern is letting me "interpret" the memory, which leaves an element of surprise for both of us. She encourages my ideas and that is cool.

I feel like I have finally married my pattern aesthetic with my humor world-being able to make a patterned funny piece was something that I struggled with. Yay!

Also if you are following Jooperwits, my online comic blurbs, I hope you are enjoying them as much as I am making them.

sketchbook

A drawing I did for Doodles&Shit blog for the theme steampunk.


How I feel at work sometimes.


Too much prog metal lately, hehe.



She reminds me of Dr. Seuss's world for some reason.


Headddss


Seen this lady in Atl before.


dude

My best bud Sarah moved back to Texas:( I will miss her company. I wish her luck on her next adventure. Besides that it's been a slow and sleepy week, although, I did watch Star Trek last night. It was friggen awesome! I am glad that we aren't that advanced though, outer space makes shit way more complicated. Hope you enjoy the sketches!

Peace and love. Live long and prosper;)

big damn band

This is a gig poster I did for Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band. Probably my favorite live show to date. If you have never heard them, you must see them live if they come to town. They have an incredible stage presence, and the band members are very interesting characters, playing a blues/punk sort of vibe on stage with wild faces-it's awesome. My friend Kyler introduced me to them. Anyway here is the final, and the sketches I sumbitted follow.

What a blast drawing all the random stuff in this poster. It was sort of a tribute to all of the road traveling they do in their van, and possible some of the things they see in their adventures. I also wanted to allude to the story telling aspect of their music.


One of the requests that I got from the Rev for the objects that I put in there was an old school revolver, and maybe a racoon, haha. They are awesome.

introducing Jooperwits.com

I have comics that I draw, and need to put them somewhere so they don't get lost on scrap paper or put on a shelf in some obscure sketchbook. Jooperwits.com is the new home for these. I will be updating this every day or every other day. For those of you that have feeds, this may be a cool thing for you to check out and possible get a chuckle out of. I am trying not to sensor my sense of humor at all here, so that might make for some interesting drawings, or more lame ones. Follow Jooper if you wish.

Oh, Jooper is my childhood nickname then I tacked wits to the end of it.

Fish and babble

Hello all! This is a piece that I did for my friend Gail as a trade for a big favor she did for me. I sort of like the color version and the black and white,not sure. What do you think? Anyhoo, Gail likes fish, and we are both Pisces with the same birthday, so the piece is called Pisces. Gail got the original drawing and will get a print of the color. It's a miracle that I didn't butcher the drawing with ink smudges, so that was cool. I think I crossed some sort of mental bridge with this piece, really trying to get some more movement in my work since line rhythm is something I strive for. Al Hirschfeld had it down pat, he's the man.

In other news I just returned from a kick ass vacation in Sarasota, Florida, where I roadtripped down with my BF Sarah. I met up with some old friends from Ringling, got to see my former instructors, and saw an awesome thesis show from the graduating illustration seniors. I also visited family which was great, and saw some strong sunshine and beachiness. I missed all my college friends, and seeing them really inspired me.

An update on other projects: I am still working on Sunday Funnies and Useless Talents. It is a slow project for me since its such a large series, but one I really care about. I am having a lot of fun with it, trying to get the characters just right. Thank you so much for the submissions, and feel free to keep sending them.

I am definitely the type of artist that has to have a bunch of little things goin on at once-toggling chaos keeps my creativity satisfied. (makes me a little tired too, hehe.) On that note, another thing is brewing-something I have been needing to satisfy and organize in my brain. Stay tuned.....

pen, ink and skin

So yeah, got my first tattoo last weekend!! I thought it would be cool to show my drawing too, and the translation of it to skin. I have always wanted one and never could figure out what I would be okay with for forever, until now. I had to wait for it to heal a bit to share.
Basically, I drew this crane to remind me to have fun and live my life, like the skydive event. It reminds me not to fear the little things, that I jumped out of an airplane, so nothing can be that scary. The drawing is sort of how felt too-like I was flying and it felt very epic. But man, getting a tattoo on your back hurts like hell!! I have never gotten hurt really bad, so I had never experienced that level of pain- but it was totally worth it. Scott has a full sleeve, so he got a kick out of watching me go through it for the first time.

Mr. Muns

This is a piece I did for the "In Honor of Kidrobot" show at Clothesline Gallery in Sarasota last week. The theme was to create art based around Kidrobot designer toys. I thought this was a good way to smush it into my world. For any of you that have driven down some good country roads and suddenly needed some vehicular service, you may have met this nice fella before. Great job on putting the show together Sandra! I'm sure it was rad!

Also, thanks for the comments on my recent skydive adventure, it was an awesome experience. I'm back to earth now I suppose. I will go again though haha.

pure.bliss.

Here are a few pics from my trip skydiving with Scoot. I will post the video recording of the event as soon as I can figure out how to compress random gibberish files into a quick time file.


So, this was the most unbelievable thing to do ever. This first pic I had to post because when you walk up to the loud plane with all your gear on and the crew, it definitely feels like you're in a badass aviator flick or Armageddon or something. Scott is to the left of me in the blue suit, calm and serene, being awesome as usual. The hat I'm wearing was optional but I insisted on looking like the red baron.



The jump......OH MAN, the best part, although the worst feared.



The clearest my mind has been in pure happiness-the free fall, I dropped 9,000 feet in under a minute. wow



I guess from the ground people could here me yelling coming from the sky "I'm flyingggg!!" The parachute part was a nice, calm, bewildering feeling-when you get yo really see what is happening. The parachute we used was called "The Black Beauty" very fitting, sounds like a potential illustration.


Thanks Scott, you are incredibly inspiring.

Sky Diving

As some of you may know, my fiance is insane. He has convinced me to go skydiving this Saturday. If I don't make it, I had a great time, and you guys are awesome. If I do make it, I am hoping for some truly uplifting, life-changing inspiration. I have felt pretty dead brained lately, I am hoping to "wake up" so to speak. I trust Scott and I believe in his life theory more than anyone I know. So I am in on this with him.

Life is not just about making art and doing your best, it's also about jumping out of airplanes.

Haha, I think I am going to pee my pants.

interview with Blanket Mag

I submitted my "Snake Queen" piece to the Re_action project for Blanket Magazine, and they did a little interview with me about the piece and other things. The piece is also in the magazine, which is an online downloadable issue. There are some great artists in there, along with some really cool articles to read. Go check it out!

sealion commission_plus thanks

I was recently asked to illustrate a memory for a lady named Ella. The memory was about a bunch of sealions who were hangin out and barking on a dock. A little baby sea lion tries to squeeze onto the dock and causes it to capsize, hurling all these giant sealions into the water. I thought it would be neat to show the drawing and final. This was a difficult illustration, because sealions, with their organic forms, can easily look like amoebas if not drawn right, haha. So I ended up drawing a bunch of them on tracing paper in different positions to get use to their shape. Then I layered them together to get the rough drawing. I really wanted to capture the hilarity of the memory, since a barreling heap of sealions would be pretty funny to see. I believe I am working on another memory for Ella, which sound interesting, I will share later! Hope you digg.

Also, about Irration Fears, I wanted to thank Amy from Pikaland for posting about the Irration Fears and Useless Talents! I recieved some awesome submissions from it, so thanks Amy! If anyone has any more to share, just put them in the comments or email me at sarah@wattsalot.com

Shop open

I finally got around to opening an Etsy store. Go check it out!
I had one a long time ago, but I put lame stuff on it. Hope you enjoy, maybe there is something on there you could buy your mamma for Mother's Day!