Friday, December 05, 2008

Action Shots!




Caught in the act! Back in late July or early August, David was a bit sneaky and took some pictures of me while I was working. Cheeky monkey. Anyway, the paintings I am seen working on are a series of five watercolors featuring a pink-tailed, anemone-headed mermaid. My goal was to have between 20 and 30 of these little paintings (all of different mermaids) ready for APE, but the Hawaiian Gods and goddesses ended up taking priority. I have still have my list of different themed mermaids that I will get around to sometime in the near future, but for now I will just post these. I realized that I had only posted two of the five when I finished them, so now here are the rest. I hope you enjoy them! And I promise, promise, promise to post new artwork soon.


Oh - I have also posted these in the Etsy shop for anyone interested! Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Monday, December 01, 2008

Party Girl


Just a doodle I did today to get back into the swing of things after a few days of vacation. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and ate lots of different goodies with wonderful company! Now that Thanksgiving has passed, it is Christmas party time! This gal is all dressed up and ready to go to her first holiday party. Eggnog anyone?

Also, since it is the holiday season and all, I thought it might be a good time to add a few more items to the ol' Etsy shop. I just added a "Multitasking" print (see previous post) as well as a series of 5 small original mermaid paintings to the shop. Check 'em out! They all need good homes. I will be adding some more items throughout the week, so you might want to check back for updates! Happy December, everybody!

Monday, November 17, 2008

"Multitasking"



This is the second piece I made for this year's Purrr-casso art auction to benefit the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society. It is ink, watercolor, and collage on Canson paper, and measures about 12"x 6".The auction was held last Sunday in Emeryville and was a great success! So many artists donated so many beautiful pieces - it was a really fantastic time. Thanks so much to all of the artists who donated and all of the people who came out to support the Humane Society!

I am still in the process of winding down after APE and last week's auction, but I hope to get some new artwork up in the next week or so. In the meantime, I just added the two mini-prints I had at APE ( "Shhhh" and "The Flower of Lanai") to my Etsy shop. I also added my mermaid Holiday cards sometime last week, so check them out! Thanks for stopping by, and have a happy Monday, everybody!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Whirled Open for Business!


Whirled Landing Page Video from Brittney Lee on Vimeo.

According to the press releases that went out yesterday, Whirled.com is officially open for business! I have worked on this site for just over two years, and am pretty excited about it. In honor of Whirled being presented to the, uh.....world, I finally decided to get my act together and post this landing page video I made for the site a couple months ago. I directed and animated this little movie in Flash, and the characters are all avatars that you can wear in Whirled. The characters were designed by the talented artists who work here at Three Rings, including my partner in crime Bill Robinson, Jon Demos, Ian McConville, Sean Keaton, and Rick Keagy.

Some animation for a change! Yay! Enjoy!

Monday, November 10, 2008

Prints for Sale!

I have to apologize for being too busy to post for the last week, but I promise that new updates, photos, and artwork will be coming shortly.

But in the meantime...

If you look to the right, you might notice my new little Etsy shop widget! I have decided to venture into the exciting world of online sales! Yay! Right now I only have the left over prints from APE in the shop, but within the next day or so I plan to get greeting cards and other little bits up there as well. So please take a look and let me know what you think! Also, I promise that I will make this blog look a bit more spiffy soon! Really, I promise. Happy Monday, everybody!

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Ku and All Things APE



Ku is the god of the East and the rising sun, while Hina is the god of the West and the setting sun. It is said that they pass the sun to one another as it makes its way through the sky. Ku completes my series of six Hawaiian gods and goddesses. Just in time!

APE starts tomorrow! Bill Robinson and I will be at table #283 with all sorts of goodies. Here is a map of the hall so you can get an idea of our location:


I will have 13x19 prints of all of the following:



and possibly even a few of this one:

I will also be selling these two mini-prints:


And all of the proceeds from the kitty min-print will go to the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society!

I will have ten small original mermaid paintings available, and two different sets of mermaid greeting cards (see previous posts). On top of all of that, I have bookmarks and buttons, so come by and say hello and grab some stuff!

Oh, and Bill and I will also have some books by the oh-so-talented Stephanie Laberis, so now there is just absolutely no excuse not to stop at our table. Hope to see you all there!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Kaala: The Flower of Lanai



While she is technically not a god, I found Kaala's legend too beautiful to resist illustrating. Daughter of Chief Oponui of Lanai, she was said to be the most beautiful girl in all the island. Kaala fell in love with Kaaialii, a lieutenant to the king of Hawaii. Oponui hated Kaaialii, and would do anything to keep Kaala from him. After Kaaialii fairly won Kaala's hand in marriage in a battle with another man, Oponui tricked his own daughter into following him to the sea shore, where he trapped her in a spouting cave far below the waves. He intended to tell her new husband that she had died tragically, hoping Kaaialii would then leave the island forever. Kaaialii did not leave, however, but went in search of Kaala. He finally found her in the sunken cave, but it was too late -Kaala died in his hands. Devastated, Kaaialii took his own life so that he could be with Kaala in the cave forever. Legend has it that to this day, the bones of the two lovers can still be found in the murky depths of the cave.

Kaala will be a mini print available at APE this weekend. I still have a bit more to do before then, so I will be posting more details this week. I am also hoping to open an Etsy shop soon for those of you who can't make it to APE, so stay tuned!

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Hina



Hina is the Hawaiian goddess of the moon, death, and rebirth. One particular legend that I enjoy is that Hina lived in the sea and was tired of her toilsome underwater existence, so she left the water and escaped to the moon. Another interesting story about Hina is that she is linked to the God Ku by the sun. Ku is in charge of the rising of the sun and the early hours of the day, and then he passes the sun on to Hina who sets it in the West. Pretty neat, huh?

Print #5 of 6 that will be available at APE next weekend. Ohmygoshihavesomuchtodo! Until next time, enjoy!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Kanaloa



Kanaloa is the Hawaiian god of the sea, and is a complimentary power to Kane. He is also the god of death and the Underworld, and teacher of magic. Fisherman pray to him for protection, but he cannot always be trusted.

This is #4 of my six Hawaiian gods and goddesses that will be available in print-form at APE next weekend. That's right, November 1st and 2nd... and I still have two more to go! I am most definitely running late...

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Purrr-casso



This is my first piece for Purr-casso - gouche and collage on Canson paper. Artwork is due on Saturday, so I don't know how many more (if any) I will be able to get done before then. I do, however plan to sell mini prints of this piece at APE, and 100% of the proceeds from this print will be donated to the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society! So, you can either get a print at APE or hold out for the original which will go up for auction a week later. Take your pick - its all for a good cause!

Also, I'm posting this to IF this week because it is pretty late for me to be JUST STARTING with this stuff. I was way ahead of the game last year. I have a feeling that I will probably be posting quite a bit to Illustration Friday this week because I feel like everything I am working on right now is late, late, late. More to come soon...

Monday, October 13, 2008

A Few of My Favorite Things...



Mermaids, small happy fish, and blue paper packages tied up with strings :)

Since this illustration features a present wrapped in strings, and since it is a Holiday card and holidays are some of my favorite things, I think it is an appropriate entry for this week's Illustration Friday. It really is much too early to be thinking about Christmas, but after working on these cards for a week I just can't help it. Now that they are finished, though, I need to focus on more pressing matters...

like what to be for Halloween?!

This is my second and final Holiday card for APE! Off to the printer they go! Have a great week!

Friday, October 10, 2008

Holiday Card #1



Yep, its another mermaid. Surprised?

Ok, break time is over. Back to work. Happy weekend!

Thursday, October 02, 2008

A Break from Ape: The Girls



This past weekend I was fortunate enough to get to see Spring Awakening for a second time. I saw the show in NYC just after Christmas this year with most of the original cast, and fell head-over-heels in love with it. I must confess, I am a musical theater geek, but this show is different from anything else I have ever seen. It is gritty and honest and beautiful and if you ever have a chance to see it, please do. The national tour of Spring Awakening will be in San Francisco for another week, so if you are in the area please go see it! The only warning I have is that there is a lot of mature content, so you may not want to take young children (or your mom - a painful mistake I have already made once) to see it.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed with APE things and other projects that I should be working on, I decided to take a break and let this sketch out of my head. This is the original cast of girls from Spring Awakening singing "Mama Who Bore Me." Way back when, I had a quite a hard time deciding what my major in college would be. It was a toss-up between musical theater and animation, and animation ultimately won out because it had been my first love, because I thought it would be easier to "make it" in the animation world (hahaha), and because I knew that a career in animation would allow me to both perform and draw. I'm confident I made the right decision, but this show in particular made me miss being on stage. Since I can't be up there with them, I guess the next best thing I can do is draw them. And for all of you IFers out there, this sketched is "packed" with ridiculously talented young women.

Enjoy, and we will return next week with our regularly scheduled APE-in-progress programming :)

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Kane


Here is the third in the Hawaiian gods and goddesses series: Kane. He is the life-giver and creator of forests and trees. I had a really hard time finishing this one, so I'd love to know what you think! Again, this will be one of the prints I'll have at APE, so please come on by if you can.

Oh, and I know its a stretch, but I'm submitting it to IF this week because its "packed" with birdies! Have a great weekend everybody :)

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Pele



The bitter rival of Poliahu. She reigns over Kilauea on the Big Island of Hawaii, and is the goddess of fire, lightning, dance, volcanoes, and violence.

This will be my second print available at APE in November. I am having trouble deciding whether I should post the rest of the prints as they are finished, or wait until after APE to post them all together. In any event, I still have a ton of other things to be working on, so I should still be posting regularly. Again, if you have a chance to come to APE, please do!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Poliahu


Hooray for good news! Bill and I will have a table at APE (Alternative Press Expo) in November, and thus will be selling our stuffs there. That means that from now until the end of October, neither of us will be getting much sleep in order to make said stuffs. I know it will be a blast though, so I can't wait!

That being said, this will be the first of several prints I will make available at APE. Her name is Poliahu, and she is the Hawaiian goddess of snow-capped mountains. Snow-capped mountains in Hawaii? Yep, namely Mauna Kea - a dormant volcano on the island of Hawaii, which, when measured from its base at the bottom of the sea floor, is the tallest mountain in the world. Poliahu is the bitter rival of Pele, the goddess of fire, and uses her chill to keep Pele confined to Kilauea and Mauna Loa on the southern end of the island.

I have always been fascinated with Hawaii and its culture, so I will be making a series of illustrations of Hawaiian gods and goddesses for APE. If nothing else, it will give me an excuse to do some reading/research. If anybody is looking for something fun to do on November 1st-2nd, please come on out to APE and say hello! Good times will be had by all :)

Update: I added this post to IF because it fits the topic better than my posts normally do. She is an island goddess - perfect fit!

Monday, August 11, 2008

Singing, Sailing, and Swimming






I spent the weekend doing another five in the series, this bunch being a little different from the last. I've never worked with ink on a brush before, so I wanted to try it out and focus on line quality. These five are also slightly different from the last in that together they create a story. This mermaid is a siren ( are all mermaids supposed to be sirens?) and she lures a sailor into the sea and steals his hat. Hope you enjoy - Have a great week!

Monday, August 04, 2008

Return of the Mermaids


I've been very good and have not drawn mermaids in a very long time. We're talking months. I'm starting to work on a little project now, however, and it just could not be avoided any longer. So those of you who are angered by the sight of mermaids, I'm sorry. Actually, I think I have to let you know that you are just in the wrong place. Mermaids are (and will continue to be) a pretty regular occurrence 'round here.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy these watercolors. It was nice to pick up real paint again for a little bit. Shown are two of five paintings I was able to finish this weekend, and I plan to do more. If you like them a lot, there is a possibility that they will be available for purchase sometime in the not-too-distant future. I will post more details about that later. For now, have a lovely Monday!

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Comic Con!

I'm back from my first ever trip to Comic Con, and it was awesome! It was a whirlwind of a trip, but totally worth it. Bill, Mayka, Dave, my friend Sean (who flew out from good 'ol PA), and I left for San Diego on Thursday morning and stayed through Sunday. We all saw and did so much that I feel like I am just starting to get back to normal now. Anyway, here are a few pics from the trip:Sean and I Hulkin' out. Doesn't he look like Eric Bana? I think so. Especially when he turns green and rips things apart.

Dave and I gaze whistfully(?!) at the Lego Batman. I don't know why we are whistful. We didn't plan this out very well.

I don't think he meant to stand in the exact same pose as Ironman, but I found it quite amusing.

Upon our arrival in San Diego on Thursday night, Mayka informed me that I had missed Hugh Jackman, who had shown up to promote "Wolverine" during Thursday's convention. HUGH(the Australian love of my life) JACKMAN!?! I was devastated. That is, until I found his Wolverine jacket on the convention floor the next day! Not quite the same, but as you can see, I was still excited. It was probably better this way anyway because if I had known Hugh Jackman was going to be there on Thursday, I would have made everybody leave at 1am to make sure we were there in time to see him. And nobody would have been very happy with me about that.

Oh, and here I am being abducted by a Storm Trooper. Good times.

Spidey savin' the day. I should work on my poses. I'm not nearly as exciting as the rest of the people in these pictures. I guess an elaborate costume would help, too. Maybe next year...
Chris Sanders! I am off to the right distracting Chris with my uber-geeky "I'm such a huge fan!" ramblings while Sean snapped this shot. In my super-excitement over meeting this guy, it never once occured to me to ask to take a picture with him. Someday I'll learn to calm myself down. But it was fantastic to meet him - definitely a highlight of my trip.
Dave's only purchase of the trip, and he couldn't have found a better souvenier. He has been looking for a full-body Kermit puppet for years and I can't accuratley describe how his face lit up when he saw this guy at a used toy booth. It was priceless.
And here is my haul. I just have to say that coming from a small town in PA that is so far removed from any type of industry, you never think that experiences like this are possible. To be surrounded by so many talented people who I have looked up to and been inspired by for years is just awesome. And who knows, maybe someday (when I'm all grown up) I will have a Comic Con booth of my very own. Anyway, I am so inspired from the trip that I hope to have a few more posts of new artwork in the near future, so stay tuned. But for now, thanks for stopping by! I will leave you with this moment of Zen (featuring Dave on lead vocals and myself as" the puppeteer"):


Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Quickie




Feeling swamped and overwhelmed, so I decided I needed to do something fast to just get it out there. This was adapted from a sketch I did at the airport a long, long time ago. Enjoy!

Hope to see everybody at Comic Con!

Saturday, July 19, 2008

ENOUGH already!


So, a while back I had decided that I would be producing work and posting it on the blog more regularly. And then I didn't. And then I went to England and France for a week. And then I was exhausted. And THEN I decided I really wanted to do a quick painting of a nifty street in Oxford.

Just a quick one.

That was two weeks ago and I have been working on this almost every day. Needless to say it went beyond the "quick sketch" about 2 minutes in. It was a lot of fun, and if you look closely you might be able to spot me and my BFF Sean, who is studying at Oxford right now because he is a ridiculously brilliant Rhodes Scholar.

England and France were fantastic and I did do some sketching while I was there, so maybe I will post some of those in the near future. This next week will be hectic ( Comic Con, anyone?) but I might be able to put a few more things up before I'm off again.

Enjoy, and have a great weekend everybody!

Monday, June 23, 2008

IF: Hoard


And suddenly she's back from the dead!

Yes, I know I'm lame and haven't posted in 2 months, but I swear I have good reasons. I've been hard at work on several projects at once, none of which has been fit to post here. Yet. Hopefully I will be able to throw some of the work I've done up here in the near future, but I have other plans for the blog as well. So stay tuned and hopefully I will have more goodies to show shortly.

For my return to Illustration Friday, I decided to post about something that I am guilty of hoarding - fashion magazines and catalogs. This is a habit that I inherited from my mother, and one that I'm pretty sure I will never kick. I love looking at fashion, especially when it is photographed well. I very rarely have time to actually walk into any of the stores I receive catalogs from, and even when I do, I am usually either overwhelmed or intimidated within seconds and end up walking right back out the door. Having catalogs delivered right to my apartment allows me to enjoy all of the pretties from my favorite stores while sparing me the trip. Plus, they are full of so much drawing inspiration! Honestly, that's part of the reason I keep them....even though I hardly ever look through them more than once or twice. But today they are coming in handy! Today I am glad that I hoard them!

These two poses come courtesy of the"White House/Black Market" catalog. Um, I love this place so much. And that dress?! I would live in that dress if I had the money to buy it. And looked like the model. No, seriously, I would.