Coral Bouquets

One last one...

Reblogged from here. It looks to me like tin foil carefully applied to these trees. It reminds me of Andy Goldsworthy. How pleasent it must be to come across this on a winter day, twinkling in the cold! This is it till I leave for Belize! I'm a little bummed that I'll miss the first snow in NYC, as it's always so magical, but I'm looking forward to a fabulous trup! enjoy the frost!

5th ave windows

Cranberry Bread!

This is an awesome recipe from "The Cook's Country Cookbook" that I got for Christmas last year. Definitely the best version of this bread I've come across and I make this a lot!

Dancing Moo

awesome retro deer!

holidays!!

After a long weekend spent 90% in pants with elastic, its time for some holiday art! one of my favorite subjects!

found: type inspiration

nice stuff, lady

Mr. Fox, you are indeed fantastic!

Just a few thoughts on this newly release movie:

I adored this book as a kid . My paperback copy of it was read almost to pieces. So I was really excited when I heard they were making a movie out of it. However, a few poorly executed previews turned me off and I was worried this might be another "Horton hears a who," which I thought, though aesthetically stunning, failed the book and muddied the message with "adult" jokes and cheesy musical numbers. But...

I was thrilled to find my childhood favorite brought to a new level last night in the movie theatre. The attention to detail in this movie is amazing, everything from an acorn lantern to a book on a shelf has been considered.

The original illustrations by Quentin Blake were so full of character and humor. The character design in the movie were outstanding, certainly rivaling Blake's work.

Wes Anderson lends his usual features and if you liked "The Royal Tenenbaums" this will be another favorite. The writing also respected the original story. One of the farmers raises peaches and although they never explicitly mention it, he is eating a peach in a scene. In short, fabulous stop motion, a visual smorgasbord and an all around awesome movie that I plan on seeing again!

Here are some fun links:

-Concept Art

-Wes Anderson interview

-Story boarder interview

-Bergdorf Goodman windows

buns!!!!

These pumpkin cinnamon buns with dried cranberries and candied ginger were awesome!! The original recipe is here along with some very helpful baker suggestions and questions. I'd suggest reducing the ginger by as much as half as the flavor is pretty intense against the subtlety of the pumpkin. Also, I made two smaller logs to make smaller buns, and even those were large! These are a great alternative for people who cant eat nuts. The ginger is crunchy and although pecans would be nice, I didnt miss them as I usually do in non-nutted pumpkin items. These went like freakin hotcakes at the office, even with those people who usually wave away baked goods (ha, gotcha!) I'll definitely make these again.

Some mysterious person at my work is awesome

A little hard to see next to that weird film projector recorder thingie

birthday cards for two of my favorite people!!!

new paints!

Catching up from a late summer/fall of slacking

Cool records in the east village

Moo!

Park Slope

Marathon!!

Paleo Lemon Pound Cake Mufffins

I've been trying to eat Paleo for a few weeks now, with pretty positive results. There's nothing I love more than baking, though so I was pleased to come across fabulous pumpkin cranberry muffin recepie here. I went ahead and made the lemon pound cake muffins as well with a few modifications (see my notes on the original blog post). They came out pretty good! They are really rich and more like cupcakes. They would be great with some strawberry preserves for dessert as a shortcake. You could also quite easily swap out the lemon zest and juice for orange and have orange pound cakes. Yum!

Summer projects

I'm trying to get better at simply sitting down and making things. Anxiety and fear of failure gets the better of me a lot, especially recently. I think I share this dilemma with many other creative people, and unless we push through those feelings consistently they will become overwhelming.

That said, the biggest excuse I find myself thinking is...'there's nothing to draw!' which is ridiculous! But the idea that I can draw anything at all is just too overwhelming. I have to start with something small like a specific project and from there, something bigger usually happens, and that's when things really get going. So here are some ideas I'd like to do in the near future. I'd be curious if anyone else keeps a list like this!

-ABC or 123 book

-childrens book or comic strip based on a fairy tale. I already started this in a very loose way, just finding a fairy tale and starting to work on some character ideas and blocking it out. There is a hilarious story about a bean, a coal and a straw that I've always adored, and I think it would make a great book. Here are some loose character studies. I think that the coal looks like Meatwad from Aqua Teen which is funny, but not what I'm going for.

-children's poems
-calendar
-birthday cards
-concert poster
-monsters series
-strange animals series
-cookbook for kids

Happy Fathers Day!

I have some time on my hands to make a fathers day card for my dad that is NOT golf, tie or tool related! Apparently those dont really exist.

a gnome man and some animals!

IF: Drift

drifter fox

Kreativ Blogger

My Pal Amy Marie gave me a Kreativ Blogger Award! I am supposed to post 7 things that I like and then pass it on. I think Jeff could do something silly with this. I can't resist adding some more favorites, though: owls, cats in windows, Edward Gorey, Queintin Blake, bonfires, olives, ritz bitz cheese sandwiches, mashed potatoes, bagpipes, sharks, ITC Lubalin Graph, Australia, beets and barns!

Monsters!!!!

That last post got me thinking about monsters of all shapes and sizes!

IF: Legendary

What a great word! I instantly thought of mythology, and one of my favorite characters has always been Grendel from the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf.

IF:Intricate

For this word, I decided to do some endangered animals that have been hunted because of their intricate, beautiful coats. The word has an additional meaning here, because the intricate balance of an ecosystem is devastated when just one member is no more.

"Intricate" round one

Here is an attempt at the Illustration Friday word "intricate." I was going for some kind of neron, transmitter thing, but I felt it wasn't going anywhere. This process did, however, bring me back to making shapes with watercolor and blowing the color around as it dries. This lead to some neat characters!

jelly, ostrich-llama thingie, transcendent crane, spooky ghost, pondering dodo, jumpin' jehosaphat!

Two fantastic European children's magazines

I've come across these two publications recently, and they are stunning examples of fun, sophisticated design. Anorak is from the UK and is full of hilarious, graphic illustrations, comics and kids' fashion.

Milk is from France, but thankfully has some English translations in the back. It features amazing styling, art, and a very interesting fashion spread that would never fly in the in the states. Look closely in the fashion photo for bloody knife and flaming plane images. Even the styling of the kids, with their vacant expressions are "scary" by U.S. standards. On a more local note, "Cookie" magazine has a great, but short interview with one of my favorite artists, Ian Falconer.