Wednesday, May 30, 2012

wonderground gallery show

I was asked to be a part of the very first show at the Disney Wonderground Gallery in Downtown Disney (right next to Disneyland, CA!).  I was asked to do a Mickey themed piece and a Pixar theme piece, and I got to choose which Pixar film to do.  I finished these waaaaaay back in February and  I can finally show them to you!

The grand opening of the gallery will be on June 9, in Downtown Disney.
I'll be there!!! 
From 11am-1pm I'll be there to sign my custom painted Vinylmation 95 (which is top secret until then), and say hello!




I love classic cartoony Mickey, especially the rubber hose era, where things were allowed to get super weird and surreal.  They're so fun to watch.  I didn't want to stray too far from that.  But also, pink.  Lots of pink.



I wanted to focus on Sid for my Toy Story piece.  Did you ever know a kid like him??  I didn't, but I DID go to people's houses were it was obvious they hadn't redecorated in about 30 years.  That gross avocado green from Sid's house really stuck with me...and the shag carpet...and the crazy wallpaper...yipes.  I always liked the mutant toys lots, too.  They're fun and sad at the same time.  

Both these pieces are acrylic on board, and framed, and ready to go!  

I'm not exactly sure just yet, but there may be t-shirts and prints of these paintings available at the gallery, amongst other things!

Should be a pretty good day.  Hope some of you can make it out!


Monday, May 28, 2012

paintings for sale!



I put some paintings up for sale in my old etsy store tonight!  (The painting above included.)

These paintings were sitting in my closet, and every time I opened the closet I found myself thinking "what am I gonna do with all this stuff?"  
After hemming and hawing and thinking and such, I finally decided that listing them online was a better idea than using them as really big coasters.  
Just kidding...I actually really like my old work.  It's just tough when you have a lot of your own stuff around.  If you hang it all up you risk looking like an egomaniac, and you also risk making yourself crazy since inevitably all you see in your own past work is the flaws.  It's also sorta sad to just keep the stuff locked away...it is meant to be hung up and adorning walls somewhere, after all. 

What's for sale, you ask?



I don't sell my own work very often, and I'm not planning on listing anymore after these have sold, so it's kind of a special deal.  As I'm writing this I've already sold a few things.  I'm just sayin!


Saturday, May 26, 2012

peter pan


This is my piece for the Peter Pan themed show at Susanita's Little Gallery.  The gallery is completely online, so you only need a computer and internets to snap this one up when it goes live.  
Another cool thing about Susanita's: they donate 20% of their profit from each sale to a children's charity.  You can support me AND an adorable child in need AND you get a pretty cool painting of an androgynous elfish boy to treasure forever.





I had fun with this!  I wanted to get away from the Disney version of Peter Pan (even though I like that version...those green tights are very strange, if you think about it).   I have read the books and Peter is described as having a tunic of skeleton leaves or something, so lots fancy leaves were in order.


Composition sketches before I thought of doing it in an oval.  I like the oval format.  Sean thinks it's stupid, but I like it!


I looked at a lot of leaves.  


OH yeah and Tinkerbell!  I love that she is unapologetically bitchy. I wanted her to be topless.  Tiny little fairy boobies are funny, don't you think?  In the actual painting she's so small that you can barely see her face, so I just skipped the boobies and hiked up her dress a bit more.  I'm tempted to do a second piece with her in it, but I've got other stuffs to work on!




Tuesday, May 15, 2012

cheer book art

While digging around in the folders on my desktop looking for stuff to update my portfolio with, I ran across many (many many) folders of artwork from the CHEER! series that I worked on last year.  Then I realized that I never posted any of it!  I guess I was waiting for the books to come out and kinda forgot!  It all works out because now I can post my favorite drawings from the third, fourth and fifth books altogether.  
Unfortunately, the last two books had very, very few illustrations in them at all.  I guess they weren't selling so hot and they had to cut back where they could, so the books went from having about 80 illustrations total to having about 12.  Ah well, it was fun while it lasted!





This is one of my favorites from all 5 books.  This girl is in love with Dustin-something-pop-icon-kid (basically Justin Bieber), so I got to draw really silly, jacked up versions of Justin.  The narrator, like myself at that tender high school age, really doesn't get the whole boy band infatuation thing.


The team mascot in the book is this wall-eyed bear costume.  Ha ha!




These are "artsy" kids.  I like the kid with the cameras.  He's really into photography, man!


A fashion blogger type!


I always like drawing tea cups.  Or coffee cups.  Any cups, really.



New York boys.  Too cool for school!



Little spice dudes!





Another Dustin-Justin, signing autographs with a booger in his nose.  


Did anyone else have teachers that looked like this?  80's blouses, miserable wrinkly face, sensible shoes?  I think all of mine were this way.  





Who hasn't wished they could high five someone through the computer screen?  Is anyone working on this technology?



These were all done in good old fashioned Photoshop, by the way.  I used a scratchy-inky brush.



In other news, I have a big THING to share with you soon and it has to do with 
Disneyland 
and Toy Story 
and Mickey Mouse 
and t-shirts 
and vinyl toys. 
 Doesn't that sound cryptic-ly exciting?? 
 I can't divulge any specific stuff YET (well, they actually gave me an official blurb I could post on my blog but it is so obviously not written by me that you'd probably be offended that I posted it at all, assuming I thought I could trick you, and then you'd be mad and never come back, right?) but as soon as it all goes down I'll post lots of pictures and it will be great!




Thursday, May 03, 2012

rose red + snow white + 2


Yeah!  Finally!  This took me forever to finish.



I couldn't decide which idea I liked better: the girls meeting the bear, or the girls riding on his back.  So I did both.  I didn't want them to have the same color scheme though, mostly cuz I think I'd get bored painting (basically) the same thing twice.  I loved this color pallet, even though it's nonsensical.  Who cares!  It feels right, that's what matters.

This painting will be on display this July at the Wonderful World of Animation, in a fairy tale themed show.  Yay!  I love fairy tales, I can't wait to see the rest of the work.  (Their website is...well, just look at it for yourself, huh?)

I think I'm going to give both paintings a glossy finish, which I usually don't do but it seems kinda appropriate for these.  Plus I understand that it enhances the color to a degree...cool!  Make those reds really pop.  

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

insta-life

Hey guys, I have a new painting to show you REAL SOON!  

In the mean time, did you know I'm on Instagram, making stylish photos appear in my iphone that I could never manage to produce with an actual camera and film?  My username is missbrigette, if you are of the Insta-persuasion yourself. 

Most pertinent to this blog, I often Instagram my works-in-progress, like so!


That one is almost done!  Just about a bazillion flowers left to paint, is all.







Ooooh yeah, there's a Beatles thing on its way, too.





 There's a lot of kitty-doggy pictures...



I can't help it.  I hang out with these two ding dongs all day and they are stinking cute.  


She was chasing a rainbow, you guys.



It's kind of handy, actually, because having all those neat filters reminds you to take pictures of places you go and things you see, with the incentive that you can make whatever it is appear up to 900% cooler than it actually was.  


But also I kind of think I go to a lot of cool places, too.  The Hollywood sign almost always looks fantastic.




Even freeways look cool through a vintage filter!!



Sometimes I just take pictures of stuff around my dusty old apartment.
Just kidding.  I take pictures of this apartment because I love this apartment. 


Also...I love my dog.  




My cat is not too bad, either.  










And sometimes I take pictures of my own fashionable choices, so I can remember them foreverrrrrr!





That horseshoe necklace broke!  Sad! 
See, it's working.  I'm remembering stuff.





It's hard to take a picture of the top of your own head.



An occasional picture of food.  Not too big on food pictures.  If food pictures is what you want, you've come to the wrong place.




Next time more art!