What's Yours Is Mine, What's Mine Is... Mine.

Yay! Just finished a new set of hand-painted coffee mugs, and I'm really proud of them! I meant to take pictures of the process, but sort of got swept into working on them before I remembered. I did manage this:

And now you can check out the mug set:

You can see them for sale in my Etsy shop by clicking here.

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Exciting piece of news! I'm going to be having a blog giveaway starting Friday. Here's a tiny sneak peek! (so get excited!)

Be sure to check back in to see more and find out how you can win the secret giveaway! And come follow me on Twitter @almiart !

IF - Puzzled

Here is the story of Bronton the bird.

All his friends call him "Watt," but until you know him better you can call him Bronton.
Is this the face of a Puzzled character?

Certainly not.

He's called Watt for a reason - he has an answer for everything and lights up like a lightbulb at a challenge.

He's read the dictionary front to back 7 times and has it memorized pretty much word-for-word.

In fact talking to him is like reading a dictionary. Or Thesaurus. Or Encyclopidia. 

Even when he hasn't read about it, he can make an educated guess to answer any question.

Who needs the World Wide Web when you have Bronton around?

Puzzled?

Just ask Bronton.

But you might get more than you bargained for.

For sale in my Etsy Shop: http://www.etsy.com/listing/97733434/almi-art-bronton-aceo-vintage-book-page

Bronton on a Mug

A new illustration - a new product! Check it out at my Etsy Store.

Bronton is a brilliant little fellow. This sunny, summer day he is contemplating the garden, the flowers, and the effects of photosynthesis on the plants.

Etsy Mug

A new handpainted mug to add to my Etsy store! I had a lot of fun making this and I'm very proud of the result! I've been working on a lot of new things, and I need to start posting them!

This week's IF topic is "vocal." I had a hard time thinking of a scene for this, but finally chose to do these fish on this mug. I thought of it being a great conversation starter, and this is why it's a "vocal" piece. So far, everyone who's stopped by my house has certainly said something as soon as they saw it! :)

More Fish in the Sea
  Hand-Painted Ceramic Mug
  4.5" Tall

Here's the Etsy listing: http://www.etsy.com/listing/97317530/almi-art-more-fish-in-the-sea-hand

Life Is Like a Bowl of Fish

It took me a while to come up with an idea for this week's Illustration Friday topic "yield." Eventually, I thought about circumstances that might yield one outcome or another, and this was what resulted:

It made me smile - I hope it does the same for you.

Local News!

I'm on the end of this news clip shown today illustrating with my drawing!

Fashion springs up in Fort Wayne: wane.com

Oh, the Places I'd Like to Go!

This week's theme for IF was "Intentional" and today happens to be Dr. Seuss's birthday.

I absolutely love his work (he is very much an inspiration to mine) and have drawn him in the past. I see him as a very "intentional artist" with his bright colors and bold lines. He created a whole new genre of children's books that were nothing like the traditional "Dick and Jane" stories his generation was used to. Once, when at a book signing, he disappeared into a back room, where they later found him striking out the prices on boxes of new "Dr. Seuss" shoes and repricing them because they were too expensive. He never read his books in public, got very angry if reproductions of his work looked "cheap," and created all kinds of personal work that never was published.

Here is my "intentional" entry in colored pencil:

The time had come,

But Marvin said "NO!"

So Walter climbed on the Crunk-Car

And set it to "slow."

But slow was no fun,

Slow would not do.

So he cranked it to "fast"

and, boy, that thing flew!

I'm a little disappointed in how the colors came out when I photographed that one - in the original the blue is bluer, the owl is teal and the tree is orange. Also, I wanted to include the portrait of Seuss that I did two years ago for a Museum show. I realized I never put this into a blog, so I wanted to make sure I did! :) It's all colored pencil (no ink or any other mediums) and it's 18"x24" (poster size). I was illustrating his less-know characters with a little of my own style and coloring - little did I know they'd be making a movie out of the Lorax!

It's framed for my Office:

Wish I could have met him!