Art Swaps, Pirate Ships, and The Talented Chris De Armas

[ Me and my Chris De Armis original water color. ]

I'm no longer an art swapping virgin! The deed took place the other day at American Vintage Tattoo in Orange, around 5:30, with a nice young man named Chris De Armis. I've known Chris long before he was a tattoo artist at American Vintage - since way back in our days at San Clemente High when I was the new girl from Kentucky and he was the greaser kid who worked on cars. He was the only person to come to my very first art show, and now he is the first person I've ever done an art swap with. Poetic, isn't it? 

[ The talented Chris De Armis of American Vintage Tattoo with my drawing in tow. Notice his freshly tattooed neck courtesy of Jack. ]

Now that I've got a taste for the it, I'm going to be an art-swapping whore. It was just like the good ole' days of bartering, except instead of trading a pig for a bushel of wheat, we traded one beautiful piece of art for another. I will have to admit, however, that I made out like a bandit on this deal. I showed up with my sketch (a gold ink on black paper sketch of boxer Sugar Ray Robinson in his prime knocking the lights out of some poor sap - see above), a nice sketch to be sure, but nothing like the masterpiece Chris showed up with: an 11x17 watercolor of a salty, old, classic tattoo style pirate ship in an oval rope frame. (Check it out at the very top.) I think I'm going to have to draw him something else up to even out the trade. Next time you're in Orange swing in to the shop on Katella and say hi to him, Neil and the rest of the fellas. They're all sweeter than grandmas apple pie, and a talented group of S.O.B.s to top it off.

- Amy
Listening to: Lorretta Lynn and Conway Twitty's "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man."

Magic vs. Heat/Thanksgiving Miracles, Jameer Nelson Descended From Racoons, and Yellena James

[Maybe, 11"x14" pen and ink]

Today's Inspiration? These awesome pen and ink drawings by Yellena James. They look like underwater scenes from another planet. She's done work for Nike, K2 Snowboards, and Anthropologie to name just a few. Not too shabby. Check out more on her blog.

- Amy
Watching the Orlando Magic play the Miami Heat. Orlando are so much fun to watch. Especially when they're taking down the hyped up Heat. It's tied now, let's hope for a Thanksgiving miracle! Also, is it just me or does Jameer Nelson resemble a racoon? Google it.

[Allure, 8"x10" pen and ink]

[Allustion, 8"x10" pen and ink]

[Deluge, 12"x12" acrylic]

[Flare, 8"x10" pen and ink]

[Sole, 7.5"x7.5" pen and ink]

[Origin, 7.5"x7.5" pen and ink]

[Relish, 11"x9" pen and ink]

[Simmer, 6"x6" pen and ink]

[Thistle, 7.5"x7.5" pen and ink]

Ole Saint Nick Illustration, Deus Motorcycles, and Ella Fitzgerald

Here's a fun little illustration I did for The OC Gazette for the December issue. It's for the kids page. I was trying to think of how to draw Santa without it turning out like the same, ole, redundant Saint Nick. Thus, Santa riding a custom DEUS motorcycle (the Deus Drovers Dog II to be specific), roaring through the night, bugs bouncing off his pilot goggles, and toys hanging on for dear life. This is a bad ass Santa. (Not to be confused with that horrible Billy Bob Thornton movie Bad Santa. How does one go from Sling Blade to that?)

-Amy
Listening to: Ella Fitgerald's "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?"

Illustratrations, Matt Barnes, and The Smart Brothers

Inspired by Jen's diamond, I made my own for use in The OC Gazette this month. It's an illustration to accompany my Off The Record interview with new Laker Matty Barnes to signify his many different facets. How about his last two games? Our bench is probably better than some teams' starting lineups between Brown, Barnes, Blake and soon Odom again. I see another Larry O'Brien in our future.

- Amy

Listening to The Smart Brothers' Heavens' Gate. They're an amazing band from SD.

PG-13 Dioramas, Vintage Movie Posters, and More Design

[Front of the LN Directory Postcard.]

[Back of Postcard.]

Here's a postcard I designed to advertise the 2011 Laguna Niguel Directory. The company I work for has been designing it for the last two years, so the design team and I thought it would be fun to make the postcard into a movie poster announcing the sequel of last years directory. I got nominated for the task, while they worked on other ideas. Here's how I did it: I used wikimedia commons and found a copyright free image of a cowboy from a vintage movie poster, then erased out the background and created my own using the paintbrush tool along with other copyright free images I found on wikimedia of dark stormy nights. I found some old movie posters with great type treatment for inspiration, then headed over to dafont.com to find some vintage looking fonts to use on my own poster. I used the envelope distort tool a lot with lot with the text to get the arched 3D look. 

I clone stamped the faces of the cowboys out so I could write "your face here" on them. Which I thought was very clever of me. [*Gives herself a pat on the back.*] The whole idea is that your business could be one of the stars of the sequel to the LN Directory if you advertise in it. 


Part of my inspiration for this was I had just been introduced to the work of photography/diorama-maker-extraordinaire, Thomas Allen, by my dear art-loving friend Oscar. You're probably thinking, "A grown man making dioramas?" Yes, and they're the most bad ass dioramas you never saw at your 3rd grade parent-teacher night. These are PG-13 images full of violence, lust, and suspicion. Check some of his work out below. I tried finding some old books at Books Etc. the day I saw this so I could make my own, but it is really hard to find good old books with illustrations for cheap! If you find any, let me know. 

[Chemistry, 2006. 24 x 20 inches. Chromogenic print.]

[Breathtaking, 2006. 24 x 20 inches. Chromogenic print.]

[Mate, 2006. 24 x 20 inches. Chromogenic print.]

[Knockout, 2006. 24 x 20 inches. Chromogenic print.]

[Three commissioned works Allen did for various magazines.]

[Hindsight, 2006. 24 x 20 inches. Chromogenic print.]

[Distraction, 2006. 24 x 20 inches. Chromogenic print.]

[Unreachable, 2006. 24 x 20 inches. Chromogenic print.]

- Amy

Listening to: Van Morrison's "And It Stoned Me"

Crushing on Ron Weasley, Claymation Holiday Creatures, and Press Week

Here's a little graphic I created for one of our clients for a holiday ad they were going to run in our magazine. They ended up choosing another option, but I really loved this little guy that I created. Creating ad after ad gets pretty redundant, which is why I get so excited when Christmas comes, because holiday themed ads are so much fun to create! Claymation-esque snow creatures, snowflakes, Christmas lights, holly... I've become a master at the cute holiday themed ad.

Now to work like crazy so I don't have to work this weekend. Guhhh... press week. Then it's off to the Spectrum with my partner in crime, Sara, to stand in line for some Potter action. We can't help it. I have a little thing for Ron Weasley. It's not something I'm proud of.

What's inspiring me these days? Those hilarious claymation Dr. Pepper commercials with the "I do exist" support group. So clever!

- Amy

Listening to: Pedro The Lion's "The Longest Winter"

Thank You Cards, Spavens, and Salty, Sailor Illustrations

[Front of the Thank You card.]

[Back of Thank You card.]

We're on press week so I haven't been getting much art in recently. Looks like I'll be posting some old work on here at least until this weekend when I can put those creative juices to work again! 

I illustrated/designed this thank you card for use at The OC Gazette earlier this year. I wanted to do something maritime themed, and so I thought this thank you card might be a good time to try. So I looked up a picture of a salty, wrinkly old sea captain, got my pen and paper out, and did a quick silhouette portrait of his profile. I scanned the drawing into Adobe Illustrator and live traced it to clean it up. Then I designed the background with the waves and the ravens/sparrows inspired by a fun fabric I had seen a few days before. I'm really not sure if I drew a raven or a sparrow so let's just do what the tabloids do and call it a spaven. Spavens and all I really liked the end result! The caption on the front says "You Be Yar." [Author's note: Yar is sailor speak for a boat that is fabulous/magnificent/awesome/second-to-none.]

[The Thank You card, with envelopes and special Gazette emblem stickers in silver.]

Now it's back to editorial layout for the magazine. I really love doing editorial layout. I just got my new issue of Esquire (well, Jen's new issue of Esquire, but what's hers is mine) and it is BEAUTIFUL! My head is full of new ideas to reform for my own use. Like Isaac Newton said, "If I have seen further than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." 

- Amy

Listening to: Kings of Leon's "Manhattan"
[I love these Only By The Night home movies they made to promote this album. You can see them all on their youtube station here.]