holiday at la paperie

It's the holiday season in New York City, and I was lucky enough to be in town! Here are some pictures of Kate's Paperie in Soho, decked out for the holidays.

Massive Inspiration Post: Illustration & Animation

Am facing some major life changes soon, so I'm moving my inspirations card catalogue online. (Yes, I have a physical card catalogue, with index cards and labelled tags and categories with sub-categories and...moving on.)

These are some portfolio sites, art blogs and other random web things I've picked up on my forays for inspiration.

ILLUSTRATION & ANIMATION - Websites

Gabriella Rose - watercolour illustration, fairytale style

drawgabbydraw.tumblr.com | gabsportfolio.tumblr.com

How she does it

Michael Spooner - Disney concept artist

Rebecca Guay - watercolour fantasy illustration, workshops

Masterclass

Ian Sidaway - watercolour travel illustration

Carol Gillott - Paris Breakfasts

One of my absolute favourite illustration blogs; looking through it is the definition of living vicariously.

The Perfect Scent

What I Ate In London

Achraf Amiri - fashion illustration, black comedy, grotesqueries

Terri Windling - yes, that Terri Windling. Fantasy Editor, writer and artist.

Site | Endicott Studio | The Journal of Mythic Arts

Traffic Creative Management, NYC - illustration agency

Favourite artists: Anja Kroencke | Daniel Egneus | Maren Esdar | Colonel Moutarde | Rikke Jorgensen

Their animation channel

Urban Sketchers - a collective of artists in various cities around the world.

Favourites: Guillame Bonamy | Will Freeborn | Gerard Michel

Inkbramble - fashion illustration & culture blog

Cartoon Brew - major animation blog; trunkline resource of the industry.

Zelda Devon - Fantasy/SF illustration

What I've Learned So Far

Some Stuff ('You learn to draw by drawing', and other wisdoms)

Tor Artist Rec Feature: A Is for Artist

Today's Inspiration - vintage illustration and illustrators

Female Illustrators of the Mid-20th Century - what it says on the tin. Art and bios of some brilliant unsung talents from the 'Golden Age' of advertising.

Illustration Art - my favourite resource for classic illustrators.

Katherine Tyrell - Travel sketching, techniques and materials.

Travels with a Sketchbook

Pastels and Pencils

Making a Mark: How to Sketch

The Blackwing Diaries - animation blog: concepts, design, and other artists

Main | Sketch blog

Art of the State - London art blog

Ulla Norup Milbrath - 3D illustration, masks, textiles and mixed media

Roz Stendahl - journaling, art and craft tutorials

Site | Blog | Teaching

Lauren Mcintosh - mixed media, vintage-style collage

Site | Cite

Teesha Moore - altered books, collage, stamp art and other mixed media

Blog | Journal pages | Techniques

Wendy Hale Davis - bookbinding, calligraphy, art journals

Ana_Lee on Livejournal is one of the best sources of inspiration for fashion illustration anywhere. Legendary photo shoots, famous photographers, vintage from all eras, and amazing illustrators, all showcased simply but gloriously.

James Gurney - Read the blog of the master who created Dinotopia and learn a ton about illustration from the ground up.

Art Analysis - Contemporary and classic illustrations dissected for study.

PHEW. Well, that should do for now. Hope you find some inspiration here too!

falconry

There are so many things wrong with this drawing (note to self: dear Pere, please learn to rule properly, or else get a fucking T-square), but I still quite like it. And I really enjoyed designing that bodice.

a spider in the garden

Took this photo while at lunch. The garden outside our window had the most beautiful spider, which I'm putting under a cut so as not to frighten any arachnophobes who might read this blog.

gulag

I'm sorry for the drawing gap--RL kind of smacked me in the face this month (isn't that always the way?). But am on holiday for a bit and actually got off the computer long enough to do some socialising and some productive things, one of which is an art walk.

My grandparents live in a posh gated community and the association dues alone are astronomical. Wanted to draw some pretty areas around the place, wandered round the back to get a good view of the mountains and found this:

'Park'. Oh good. For a minute there I was worried.

Unless it's an order. 'Park your butt, missy. You won't be goin' anywhere for a while.'

Day 7-8: invisible elf thing

I am exhausted by massive bureaucracy today--which is also why I couldn't post last night, had to go to bed early--but for related reasons I had plenty of downtime while waiting in queues today, and here's the result:

Invisible woman wears...Jil Sander? Armani? Will look it up when I'm not so tired.

And some observational sketches from today:
There was seriously a woman in the most bizarre conical hat, a very redcap- or gnome-like hat, except it was cream with navy stripes, wearing a top and trainers of matching sky blue. She looked just like a particularly dorky elf. So I drew the tree she was standing under so she'd feel at home.

And now good night.

Day 6: rose and spider

Was looking around the net for something to draw for today's post and came across a lovely photo of a rose with a spider on it, which I got from this amazing photography blog.

I'm still a bit clumsy with watercolours, which is why the spider isn't very clear. Sigh. I just loved the idea of a beautiful rose with a tiny spider, perhaps attracted by the smell and softness of it, or just hanging around waiting for even tinier bugs to snack on. I love little spiders, although the big ones frighten me a bit.

lamplight uniforms

Indulging in a little world-building.

In other news, I kind of like the look of the new Blogger interface. However, I strongly dislike the way it utterly fails to do anything functional at all. Sticking with the old one for now, thanks.

door strip

click thumbnail to see large version

From the altered book.

more tea, vicar?

Ugh, I waited too long and now it's the 4th instead of the third.

Also, why can I not draw a kyuusu.

I swear it's not going to be a whole month of tea, but for the moment I'm going with it. It's quite therapeutic.