For this year's local gardening, food, art and music festival, I designed two posters featuring chipper chickadees and a Scandinavian-inspired mandala of garden tools, food, music notes, art supplies and more. Since we're deep in January's cold, short days at...
Friend and award-winning homebrewer Christophe Venot of Bearanoia Brewing recently bottled a New England-style cider from my parents' apples and collaborated on a label for the brews. The crabapple tree just outside the house produces over 300 lbs of fruit every other...
In the Phoenix area? Check out ABBA's exhibition: my Orange House Book will be there to flip through, along with a LOT of wonderful artists' work. Opening reception: Tuesday, Oct. 8, 5-8pm Free and open to the public Harry Wood Gallery – School of Art, 900 South...
"Orange House" is a digitally printed, post-bound flip book, 4 in. x 10 in., 50 pages. It chronicles the hope, joy, despair, grief and recovery from a personal experience in 2017. My perception of our home in the last 12 months progressed from future nest to empty...
Do you know what's growing in the farmland near you? My dad and I made these jumbo veggies to increase awareness of local produce and encourage our neighbors to support Alaskan agriculture. Everyone loves dad jokes (especially my dad!) so each of the veggies also...
These 48 ft. x 10 ft. murals feature six of Japan's 100 most revered mountains and parks. Illustrated using a combination of analog and digital tools, the curving slopes and angular peaks of these beautiful features were drawn from Google Earth data and photos. During...
These 24" round panels were made on commission for a private business in Arizona with custom illustrations digitally printed on cotton poplin and mounted to plywood. Mogollon Rim: Flora Mogollon Rim: Forest Mogollon Rim: South Mogollon Rim: North Techniques:...
Recently my husband Bill sold his baby blue 1991 Subaru Legacy, his trusted travel companion for many years. In memory of the ol' Sube, I made some die cut stickers to share using my laser printer and Silhouette Cameo's awesome optical registration feature. Rust...
This mural was commissioned by Curator Engine for a client that does business in both Japan and Arizona. The original art was created for my laser cut books and adapted for large-format print in cool hues and bright vermillion on a clean white background. [gallery...
CRAFT Southcentral Alaska is a collaborative, regional alliance for farmer training. They commissioned these logo design with simplicity, growth, and interconnection themes, so I focused on the cyclical nature of farming and the passing down of knowledge and...
Margaret Adsit at Alaska Farm Tours commissioned these designs for a proposed campaign for Taste of Talkeetna, including a van wrap, print designs and web collateral. If you're visiting Alaska (or know someone who is) this tour is not to be missed! The final design...
The folks over at A Buncha Book Artists are putting together another amazing show of artist books: see it at the Arizona State University Harry Wood Gallery September 4-15, 2017, with an opening reception September 5 from 6-8pm. My submissions include: Asemic, a...
This series of papercuts features hand cut and CNC cut layers of acid free, archival cardstock in neutral colors. Each piece measures 12" x 12" x ~0.2". Designs were inspired by the nanotechnology themes in the book The Diamond Age by Neil Stephenson: he uses the term...
The kind folks over at Southwest Maker Fest asked me to create three concepts for their Saturday, February 17, 2018 festival in downtown Chandler, Arizona: these illustrations implement hot colors, strong geometric shapes and energetic lines to convey SWMF’s diverse...
Drafts for an upcoming mural, postcard, and swag for the Alaska Farmland Trust, dedicated to protecting Alaskan soils and farmland for future generations: donate today at akfarmland.com! Mockups made in Adobe Photoshop have been invaluable in showing board members a...
A quick illustration of Pillow Queen (Birdie the pit bull) and her buddies Ruby, Albie and Charlie: Illustrations made with Adobe Illustrator (vector) and Adobe Photoshop (embroidery mockup). For a free vector version of this image, please contact me.
The rare Kermode bear, photographed by a friend who was able to photograph one in British Columbia, inspired this drawing. Ink on bristol, digitally colored in Adobe Illustrator. Frame mockup: Color: Drawing:
Illustrated quote: "It is by logic that we prove, but by intuition that we discover. To know how to criticize is good; to know how to create is better." - Henry Poincare
This series of prints is inspired by the nurse relationship of many Sonoran desert plants with the mighty saguaro. T-shirt designs, tote bags, and business cards from my original drawings are...
Illustrated quote: "How the striking of the great clock, whose hours are millions of years, reverberates out of the abyss of the past." - John Burroughs Typeface: Gin
Sketches for Spring Classic 12, Anchorage, Alaska's favorite frisbee golf tournament featuring a tattooed hand and eyeball frolf disc.
The Palmer Midsummer Garden and Art Faire is coming up on July 8, 2017: check out details at palmergardenandart.org. Here are some of the assets I illustrated for this year's fair and concurrent events, including the Wine Walk and Rhubarb Rumble: [gallery...
Over at Grant Street Studios, the graduate art facility for Arizona State University, the ceramics department is celebrating their grand opening with a cup sale. Ceramics Open House at Grant Street Studios Saturday November 19th, 2016, 6:30-9:00 p.m.
Here's a little throwback to 2014, before I started my 365 Days of Design project. Experiments with Adobe Illustrator have expanded my skills and come in surprisingly handy for graphic design and web design jobs. These circle patterns were an initial foray into offset...
The typeface Hobeaux Rococeaux Regular is OUT OF CONTROL. Sultry flora and woodsy fauna, all in one beautiful, outrageous font, free for Adobe Typekit subscribers.
Typography studies using Lust Script's wonderful selection of swash variations and Adobe Illustrator's blending modes. Type reads 'REAL' and 'FAKE.'
These continuous repeating cactus patterns were inspired by prickly pear cacti at the Desert Botanical Garden near Tempe, Arizona. The variety of spines, paddles, flowers and ribs overwhelms many visitors used to seeing the same ol' pricklies in their landscape. More...
Tiny 3 x 3 in. botanical and desert landscape notecards with envelope in tiny cello envelopes, both hand colored and black and white and printed on FSC certified cardstock. Special thanks to Bill Jamison over at billspots.com for the trip to Zion National Park that...
Thirty one years, coming up next week! Photos from 2015-2016 travels to Zion National Park, UT and Tempe, AZ. Fonts include Futura Bold, Blenny Black, KG All of Me, and KG Geronimo Blocks.
There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self. - Aldous Huxley
The 2016 Palmer Midsummer Garden and Art Faire will feature a Rhubarb Rumble rhubarb recipe cookoff and Topihairy Challenge, a garden-themed hair design contest. Visit them at palmergardenandart.org for all the details These illustrations are complements to the...
Spring Classic Eleven version 1: illustrated killer giant chicken, crushing a frisbee golfer while his friends watch, with space helmet, plucking a top-hat-wearing mustachioed snake Spring Classic Eleven version 2: hand-drawn underwater leopard seal/sea lion devouring...
T-shirt designs featuring Grant Street Studios and TAG: art by Kate Horvat, mockups by Emily Longbrake and Bill Jamison. The Art Grads at Arizona State University is a student group dedicated...
Illustrated quote: 'In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.' Albert Camus. Adobe Illustrator, color overlays and transparency variations, Woah typeface.
Forget-me-not illustrations inspired by EJ Hauser's 2012 piece of the same name.
Infinitely repeating hexagonal patterns in impressionist colors made with Adobe Illustrator, available as a free SVG, EPS or AI if you contact me.
Coming soon to the store: Auntie Em's Amphibian Abecedary, an A to Z illustrated guide to 26 amphibians of the world. Frogs, toads, salamanders, newts and many more are all part of the class Amphibia. Axolotl - also known as letter T, the tarahumara salamander,...
Illustrations of Joshua Tree National Park made with a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 and Adobe Creative Cloud software.
Non Plus Ultra: Nothing beyond this point. Often inscribed on temples.
Lattice designs made with Adobe Illustrator's pattern tool, reminiscent of bamboo basketry.
Printed patterns for TechShop Chandler: 36x36" on matte paper.
Drunkard's Path / curved piecing quilt roundup and quilting designs using Adobe Illustrator.
Sine wave patterns made with Adobe Illustrator.
Wallpaper patterns with gears, pulleys and sprockets for TechShop Chandler. Made with Adobe Illustrator's pattern function.
Wallpaper patterns with gears, pulleys and sprockets for TechShop Chandler. Made with Adobe Illustrator's pattern function.
let me tell you about alaskan girls everyone has a mask they wear, a persona for you jungians out there. they also have an ego, along with a deep unconscious, that drives them...
"Get in here and let the big bear get his paws on ya." Everyone needs 12 hugs a day: typography includes Cyburn, Lust Script and Edwardian Script. Quotes from Wedding Crashers.
Yayoi Kusama inspired dot patterns made with Adobe Illustrator.
Non repeating, random color patterns made with Adobe Illustrator's Transform Each > Random tool.
Chinese zodiac illustrations: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig.
Chinese zodiac illustrations: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig.
Typographic quotes by the indomitable Agatha Christie. "Curious things, habits. People themselves never knew they had them." "I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just...
Typographic quotes about growth from Edward Abbey, Theodore Roethke, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ho Chi Minh, John F. Kennedy, and Henry Miller: "Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell." Edward Abbey "By daily dying, I have come to be." Theodore...
Mandalas made with Font Awesome icons in Adobe Illustrator: inspired by travel to hippieville Sedona, travel with good friends, and the great outdoors.
Awkward eagles: is there anything more ridiculous than our nation's symbol in all its uncomfortable, ruffled glory? I voted for the turkey.
Headphone patterns made with Adobe Illustrator's pattern and offset path features.
Tiny dinosaur patterns inspired by Wes Anderson's film The Darjeeling Limited.
Continuous vector circle pattern.
"Scritchy" continuous vector patterns made with Adobe Illustrator in 3 variations and 3 colorways: kelp, salmon, and blue steel.
Continuous vector patterns made with Adobe Illustrator's pattern tool in 6 colorways.
Continuous pattern of bottles made with Adobe Illustrator.
Mountain illustrations made with Adobe Illustrator.
Mask designs inspired by DISGUISE at the Seattle Art Museum.
African mask vector designs from DISGUISE at the Seattle Art Museum.
Patterns made using the Font Awesome icon set: motorcycle, globe, leaf, birthday cake, gear, scissors, key, paper airplane, and cloud.
Snowflake like, retro continuous vector patterns made with Adobe Illustrator.
Bright patterns made with Wundes' Metaball script in Adobe Illustrator.
Square designs reminiscent of Kandinsky. Made with Wundes' Vary Hues script in Adobe Illustrator.
Square designs reminiscent of Josef Albers' Homage to the Square. Made with Wundes' Vary Hues script in Adobe Illustrator.
Hand-drawn playing card designs: suit of diamonds.
Hand-drawn playing card designs: suit of hearts.
Citrus fruit patterns made with Adobe Illustrator: lemon, lime, orange and grapefruit in fresh colors.
Calligraphic lines.
Geometric bird designs: snow goose, cormorant, and Stellar's jay, along with continuous patterns of the same.
Scribbly continuous patterns made with Adobe Illustrator.
Fruit patterns made with Adobe Illustrator, inspired by Lotta Kuhlhorn's book Designing Patterns.
A fragment from an old notebook to celebrate 300 entries: so i drank some melancholy juice and since then have been quite a bit drained of life but i think the colors will soon return. egl - 2011
Alaskan bird illustrations: Bohemian waxwing, snow bunting, osprey, sandhill crane, Stellar's jay, snowy owl, spotted towhee, American coot, snow goose, spectacled eider, violet-green swallow, and sharp-shinned hawk, all migratory birds found in the Katchemak Bay area.
Festive Sonoran animals and plants for a desert birthday party: a saguaro cactus, Gila monster, javelina, and a rattlesnake.
Auntie Em's Astronomical Abecedary including: ANDROMEDA the chained lady BOöTES the bear driver CAMELOPARDALIS the giraffe DELPHINUS the dolphin ERIDANUS the river FORNAX the furnace GEMINI the twins HOROLOGIUM the clock INDUS the native american LEPUS the hare...
Auntie Em's Astronomical Abecedary including: ANDROMEDA the chained lady BOöTES the bear driver CAMELOPARDALIS the giraffe DELPHINUS the dolphin ERIDANUS the river FORNAX the furnace GEMINI the twins HOROLOGIUM the clock INDUS the native american LEPUS the hare...
Dachshund vs. pug: eternal rivals! Longboard vs. skateboard, hot dog vs. hamburger... to be continued. Inspired by Madison over at Creechers!
Triangle vector patterns made with Adobe Illustrator: graphic design prep for spelunking at Peppersauce Cave.
Download illustrated, calligraphic poster versions of Robert Service's "A Race of Men" Illustrated, poster-size versions of Robert Service's poem "A Race of Men." A Race of Men There’s a race of men, that don’t fit in A race that can’t sit still. So they break the...
Illustrated versions of Robert Service's poem "A Race of Men." A Race of Men There’s a race of men, that don’t fit in A race that can’t sit still. So they break the hearts of kith and kin And roam the world at will. They range the field and rove the flood, And they...
Posters inspired by the book Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins: all about that rain.
Poster for the May Second Saturday Art Walk in downtown Palmer, Alaska. 2-6pm: info and more at palmermuseum.org.
The final installment of my coloring book: colored pages and a printable PDF for YOU to print out and color in yourself. Download a printable version of Auntie Em's Animal Abecedary here (PDF) Featuring animals that start with a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n,...
Part 3 of my animal drawings, part of a four-page mini coloring book, featuring animals that start with r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y & z: rhinoceros skunk tapir urial (sheep) vicuna walrus hyraX yak zebra...
Part two: animal drawings, part of a four-page mini coloring book, featuring animals that start with i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p and q: ibex jackal kangaroo loris mongoose nyala orangutan porcupine sQuirrel Side...
Animal drawings, part of a four-page mini coloring book, featuring animals that start with a, b, c, d, e, f, g and h: aye-aye bear cougar dromedary (camel) elephant fox giraffe hare
Pie illustrations.
Images made with Adobe Illustrator's object mosaic, gradient mesh, round corners filter, and image trace features.
More Warhol-style portraits of writer Anais Nin.
Warhol-style portraits of writer Anais Nin.
Learning to use my new touchscreen 2-in-1 laptop reminds me of learning to draw with paper and pen: lots of practice, lots of mistakes, and lots of a certain kind of quiet, Zen fun.
Graphic posters with the following: Architect Sym Van der Ryn wrote of ten patterns that make up the physical world: Spheres Nests/mosaics Lattices Polyhedra Spirals/helixes Meanders Branching Waves Symmetry Fractals
Easter egg illustrations made with Adobe Illustrator.
Thanks to Wundes for an excellent script called Fleurify: this Javascript allows the quick and easy creation of complex geometric patterns.
Thanks to Wundes for the Adobe Illustrator script All Points: this little gem makes amazing patterns or mandalas by connecting all the points in a vector.
Using Wundes' Vary Hues script, I made these patterns in Adobe Illustrator: perfect for crazy wrapping paper, quilt inspiration, stationary, etc. The title is inspired by Zora Neale Hurston: “The varicolored cloud dust that the sun has stirred up in the sky was...
Thanks to Lance Lekander for this awesome sticker: this scrap of red vinyl just asked to be used for something awesome.
Apologies for the delay in posting the last weeks' 365 entries: I married the wonderful Bill Jamison today, SUPER Pi Day (3.14.15) and was caught up in planning the big event.
Designs for pottery using Adobe Illustrator's blend and envelope distort tools.
Starburst patterns made with Adobe Illustrator's pattern brush tool.
Wave patterns made with Adobe Illustrator's blend and envelope distort tools.
Minimalist, geometric book covers for some of my favorites: David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, Tom Robbins' Another Roadside Attraction, Anais Nin's Collages, Ken Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion, and Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose. More to come!
Studies in overlapping color and line using Adobe Illustrator.
The birch: "This tree is sometimes called "The Watchful Tree" because of eye-like impressions on the bark."
Cat portraits using Adobe Illustrator's Live Paint feature. I started making these for fun, but they ended up defining some eras of my life: Gooseberry, the feral cat that my dad tamed when I was really young; Olive and...
Swatches made with Adobe Illustrator's pattern tool.
'"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?" "Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's...
Zen garden designs using Adobe Illustrator scroll brushes. Om....
Creating plaid patterns in Adobe Illustrator is super easy, and they provide lots of inspiration for weaving, knitting, crochet, or other projects. Just contact me for the .AI or .EPS file...
Swirl patterns made with Adobe Illustrator's Shape Builder and transparency effects tools.
Call it stuck in a rut, but I can't get enough of these guilloche patterns. I really should print some money or fancy certificates with these!
Another special request by my sister, this pronghorn antelope will be laser cut as a wall piece. The pronghorn, or "speed goat" as my brother-in-law likes to call them, is the fastest land animal in North America and second fastest in the world (after the cheetah)....
Guilloche patterns are best known as security seals and patterns on currency, official documents, and more. Little did you know: they're also relatively easy to...
Per a request by my sister, this lovely/terrifying yelloweye rockfish design will be laser cut in time to greet holiday visitors. From Wikipedia: "The yelloweye rockfish (Sebastes ruberrimus) is a rockfish of the genus Sebastes, and one of the biggest members of the...
This laser-cut book design features Pseudotsuga menziesii, the state tree of Oregon and personal favorite. These trees are massive both in size and in biological influence, contributing to the remarkable ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest. Mark Dion, a guest scholar...
The ABBA (A Buncha Book Artists) club sale over the last three days gave me a chance to watch the cactus wrens at work.
Part 4 of my horse-animal mashup series: the six-legged Morgan horse, or morgant. "A Morgan is distinctive for its stamina and vigor, personality and eagerness and strong natural way of moving." See more about the Morgan horse here. [gallery columns="2"...
Part 3 of my series of horse-bug mashups: the Lippizzan spider, agile and aristocratic.
Here's a test of Adobe Illustrator's color halftone effect, plus some transparency blending effects:
Part 2 of my horse mashup series: the clydesnail, slow and mighty. Lisa Hanawalt is my illustrator idol and equine drawing inspiration: her animal/human mashups, including Bojack Horseman and Tuca and Bertie, are available on Netflix. [gallery columns="4"...
NASA's launch of Orion inspired these new circle designs, soon to be cut with the laser and added to my palette for future assemblages.
I learned to add a beak to an ampersand back in 9th grade to make a "chick-and", and I've never looked back. Every time a grim work email arrives, all I have to do is look for that little Latin "et" for some humor in the uninviting. fonts myriad pro bold bookman old...
Some sketches for holiday cards:
Adobe Illustrator makes even the craziest late-night thoughts a possibility, like this mashup of a caterpillar and a Palomino horse.
Just a friendly reminder to keep an eye out for your friends and neighbors on their bicycles this fall as the light wanes.
More studies, this time for patchwork quilt squares.
Studies in color and composition made with Adobe Illustrator's polar grid tool:
Preparatory sketches for a queen-size quilt featuring a map of Anchorage.
"Each Chinese zodiac sign and the order they rank in was decided by the mythical Jade Emperor and his favourite creature, the rat. When the task of choosing the [twelve] zodiac animals fell to the Emperor, he asked the rat to help him. The resourceful rat decided that...
These vector versions of paper cutouts are preparation for a piece for Bunnell Street Gallery in Homer, Alaska. Their 10x10 member exhibition and fundraiser opens in November 2014. [gallery type="rectangular"...
When did you last write a letter to a friend?
I just returned from an interesting visit to McCurtain County, Oklahoma, and, as promised, here are the challenge entries I missed. day 23: intro to broken bow Broken Bow, Oklahoma was quite the cultural experience; it also impressed me with the beauty of its forests,...
Just a series of Sharpie drawings for today: my favorite animals from the Chinese zodiac, tiger, ox, goat, snake, and pig.
Today's challenge: line, in 2D and 3D! The illustration is from a letter to a very wonderful friend, and the string ornaments are prototypes for holiday decorations.