An Afternoon at Gallery Nucleus!

Lots of things are happening! One of the neatest things I have to share is that the awesome people at Motivarti and Gallery Nucleus have asked me to spend an afternoon lecturing and demoing for anyone who might be interested. If you happen to be in LA on Sunday, April 17th, I would be honored if you would stop by! Here are the details:

An Afternoon with Brittney Lee

Sunday, April 17th, 2011
1:00 – 4:30 pm
at Gallery Nucleus (210 East Main St. Alhambra, CA 91801)

The afternoon includes:

- a one-hour lecture with Q&A, with topics including Brittney’s development as an artist, techniques for creating a fan base, and advice for making the transition to a career in the entertainment industry

- a two-hour, open-format paper demo, in which Brittney will craft an original paper work while explaining her process and techniques

- an artist meet-and-greet, with print and book signing following the paper demo

- a raffle of the original paper artwork created during Brittney’s demo; you’ll receive 3 free raffle tickets for attending, with more tickets available for purchase at the event

-an opportunity to purchase a limited-run, numbered and signed print which Brittney has created exclusively for Gallery Nucleus and Motivarti for this event

Tickets
Pre-purchase: $20 (click here)
At the door: $25

Get three free raffle tickets when you purchase an event ticket. Plus, college students show their I.D. at the door for an additional five free raffle tickets!

More information can be found here.

The painting at the top of this post is the print I made just for the workshop. I am not sure how many Motivarti/Gallery Nucleus are planning to make, but I do know that they will be exclusive to Gallery Nucleus (i.e. I won't be able to sell them in my shop.) I really hope to see you all there!

Now to finish my piece for this show. Back to work- more updates soon!

Lagoon Love

Ah, yes - the return of the mermaids:) I have been working on this piece in my spare moments for quite some time now, so I'm happy to finally be able to share it! I will have prints of this piece with me at CTN-X this weekend and they will also go up in the shop early next week.

This weekend's show is going to be completely packed with incredible talent, so if you can make it I highly recommend it! You can find me at Table 13 in the main hall, but if you are there you should go say hi to all of the other animation legends first. I will be around all weekend:)

I hope to see you there!

Colorful Creatures

Hey, everybody! Happy 2010!

I apologize for my absence from posting. Things have been quite busy around here since my last post at the end of November, but I should be able to get back on schedule now, at least for a while. Lots of exciting things are coming up, so I will have lots to share!

I have wanted to do a dinosaur piece for a very long time, so I decided there would be no better time to do it than to ring in the New Year. These dinosaurs are having a party, but the velociraptors were not invited. You might think that is mean, but they are bullies and have been giving me nightmares since I first saw Jurassic Park in 1993. Consider this payback.






And these photos are of another paper piece I did over the holidays. Peacocks are so much fun to sculpt!

That's all for now - have a lovely week everybody!

Caged Birds Sing!

This will be my page in the upcoming CTN-X program/sketchbook. The book will be filled with artwork, bios, tips, and all sorts of other things from the artists who are participating in the expo. It will be a limited edition program and only available at the convention this year, so you should be there to snag one!

In other news, the Purrrcasso Art and Craft Gala is this coming weekend! In all the madness that was last week (with work, Halloween Prep, and more work) I was happy to be able to finish my piece for the show on time....and then I completely forgot to take any photos of it. Luckily, Billiam was kind enough to get some shots, so hopefully I will have those posted before the end of the week. In the meantime, have a great week everyone!

Puppy Love

Here is holiday card #2! My pup is back East and I miss him very much! He looks just like this little guy, only multiplied in size by a factor of 100.

I will have both card designs with me at APE this weekend (with Billiam at tables 286 and 287), along with lots of prints and other things. I will also be posting mini-APE updates on twitter all week as well as during the show, and you can keep up to date with all of that right here. If you are in the Bay Area this weekend, please do come by and say hello!

Stay Warm :)

I know that its not quite this time of year yet, but I have to design my holiday cards early or they don't get sent:) Plus, they might show up on the table with Billiam and me at APE. They just might...

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Girls of Summer!

I love summer the best. In honor of sunny days, warm weather, and especially water sports, I made this poster. Sometimes I get a little bit homesick for days on the lake, and especially for skiing. There is nothing quite like early mornings on glassy water, and I'm counting down the days until my annual visit home :)

But before that...is Comic Con! This year I have the honor of being part of the Girls Drawin' Girls group and will be selling this print at their table. I'm not exactly sure what booth number it will be yet, but I do know that I will be hanging out there on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday morning of the Con, so if you are there you should stop by!

I will have more updates leading up to the Con, so stay tuned! And if you are in LA, go check out the opening of the Seductive Espionage Book Release on Friday! I'll be in vacation mode next week, but I promise to be back with plenty to post after the 11th.

Yuki 7 At Gallery Nucleus

Remember my little Yuki 7 fan-art painting from a couple weeks ago? Well, it turns out that she is going to be in the show at Gallery Nucleus next Friday! I am honored and humbled to be in such good company. The show is going to be great and I'm so sad that I won't be able to make it down there to see it:(

Here she is in her frame right before I sent her off to Nucleus. She seemed like she needed some pink paper fire, so I threw a little bit of that in there as a finishing touch. How will she escape? Tune in to find out:)

I'm busy working on a print for Comic Con, which should be done this weekend. As soon as I have something ready, I'll post a sneak peak. Have a lovely weekend!

After the Wild Rumpus!

All of that rumpusing can wear you out:)

This is my contribution to Cory Godbey's tribute blog to Maurice Sendak: Terrible Yellow Eyes. I have been inspired by Cory's work for years now, so I jumped at the chance when he invited me to be part of his project!
It was a lot of fun to rediscover Where the Wild Things Are. Picking up the actual hard-bound copy with the beautiful Caldecott Medal on the cover instantly took me back to story time on the carpet in kindergarten. At that age, no career could have been more glamorous than being a children's book author and illustrator. If you had that golden seal, however, it meant you were... well...a rockstar. So thank you to Mr. Sendak - we all hope you enjoy this project and that you keep on rockin'!


And just for kicks, here is my original sketch. Usually my sketches look like nothing but chicken-scratch, so the fact that this mildly resembles the finished painting is quite remarkable. So remarkable, in fact, that I decided it was both scan and blog worthy. Ball-point pen scribbles on scratch paper.

I will have more exciting things to share soon! Have a lovely weekend!

The Awesomeness that is Yuki 7

I couldn't help it, I had to join the fan-art wagon.

I try not to geek out too much about other artists on here, but I really must thank Kevin Dart for being such an inspiration. With the release of his new book, the trailer for the book (co-directed by Stephane Coedel), and planning the gallery show for the book's release, you would think that he has his hands full. Somehow, though, Kevin found time to write 3 fantastic blog posts on his process with Yuki 7 - from her first initial concepts to now. For someone like me who would like to tackle a book project in the future, these posts are pure gold!

For anyone who is interested, the show is happening at Gallery Nucleus in LA on July 3rd. I am really bummed that I cannot attend the show, but I thought I would use the blog to show my support instead. Way to go, Kevin!

Up, Up and Away!

So, I saw this:


And then I was tempted to do this:



But then I decided that painting the picture was a safer choice. Much less chance that I would have my eyes clawed out by a certain orange cat who shall remain anonymous.

All joking aside, Up is absolutely wonderful. Congratulations to everyone at Pixar for doing such an amazing job! Go see it on Friday!

I know I have been slacking - I am trying to find the balance between work-work and personal-work (oh, and life, too) and I just haven't gotten it all figured out yet. The good news is that this weekend is all about getting ready for Maker Faire, so I should meet my 2 post quota for the first time in months! If you are in the Bay Area, you should stop by and say hello next weekend! After you go see Up, of course.

Busy Busy Bee

Image Copyright Huckleberry Toys

So here's the scoop:
For just over the last month, I have been toiling away on a personal project. I still haven't decided whether or not I will post that artwork on this blog, but for the time being I think I will keep it under wraps. The rest of my time has been spent working on a couple of freelance projects, and the image above is part of one of them. Yay for cherry blossoms!

Now that said personal project is completed, I should have time for more fun blog/Etsy shop artwork! And that is good, because I am going to need new pieces for Maker Faire! Billiam and I will have a table in the Bazaar Bizarre section, and I can't wait! I have never been to Maker Faire before, but I hear it is awesome, and the vendor list for the Bazaar Bizarre is fantastic! If you are in the Bay Area the weekend of May 30th and 31st, I definitely recommend stopping by!

So I am going to try to get back to my 2 posts per week as of today. Hopefully it will work! Have a wonderful Sunday:)

Work In Progress...

Home

This is where I spent my summers growing up, and what I think of as home. That is my sister and me drawing and dreaming on the lawn. Whenever I'm stressed out, I think about being here and it always makes everything better.

The tree that I am leaning against was over 100 years old and had nearly been split in half by lightening before I was born. Cement was poured in the hole for support, but the tree around the cement rotted away long ago. For as long as I can remember there has been a large cement branch jutting out from one side of the tree. I left that part out of the painting for aesthetic reasons :) Anyway, that poor old tree could not make it through another harsh Pennsylvania winter and fell last December. It was truly legendary, and I cannot imagine home without it.

Rain Boots and Best Friends

Inspired by my golden retriever who I miss so much because he is all the way back in PA.

I did this itty-bitty piece as a mini-print for Wondercon and then I forgot to post it. I remembered about it today after watching the new UP trailer. ("SQUIRREL!" - hahahahah, so true and SO funny.) I cannot WAIT for this movie!
I'm working hard and would like to have some new things to show you in the next few days. Until then, have a lovely weekend!

Pretty Bird

Coming to a Wondercon near you!

I'm late (and lacking) in posts for the last week, but I promise to make it up to you even if I have to bake cookies for all of you. I'm in full prep mode for Wondercon, and I will have plenty of details to hand out in the next 24 hours, but right now all you need to know is that Bill and I will be at Small Press booth 13 (SP13), and you should stop by and say hi!

And for all of you IFers: Exotic birds are instinctively attracted to other pretty feathers. It was a no-brainer for this little guy:)

Sea Dragons!

Dave and I joined some friends last weekend at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and we had a blast! One of my favorite parts of the aquarium was the Sea Dragon tank. These things are crazy! So crazy, in fact, that they needed to be painted. So here they are. And wouldn't you know it? One of them has a crush on the mer-girl, so he's giving her a flower. Sea dragons are so sweet:)

I'm going to do something a little different with this and turn it into a limited edition print. I'm not sure how limited the run will be yet, but probably no more than 50. I will have this with me at Wondercon next weekend, and any left over will go up in the shop after that. I can't believe it is so soon! I certainly have my work cut out for me. There will be more updates on Wondercon things coming your way this week, but until then I leave you with this commercial that was stuck in my head throughout our trip to Monterey and also the entire time I was working on this painting. Enjoy!

Paris

Back in July, I was lucky enough to take my very first trip across the Atlantic to visit my brilliant friend, Sean, in Oxford. We spent a day in London, 3 days in Oxford, and 2 whirlwind days in Paris. The weather in the UK was surprisingly sunny and gorgeous, but our time in Paris was spent dodging sudden downpours. I didn't mind - the reflections from the rainwater made the city all the more gorgeous.

The IF topic this week is "Celebrate", and I felt this piece is appropriate because it is a celebration of my short time in Paris with my good friend. This is the second piece that I have made in honor of my trip, (this being the first) and I will be bringing both of them with me in print form to Wondercon. I may do a third of London, so stay tuned for that! Wondercon is two weeks away! Come by and say hi if you can!

Maui

Maui is a demi-god who is responsible for fishing the Hawaiian islands out of the sea. That makes him awesome.

He is also the last in my series of Hawaiian gods! Now I have to get busy on other exciting things. I missed my post last night, so expect at least two more posts from me before the end of the week. Happy Monday, everyone!

Not Easy Being Green

As I mentioned in the last post, I saw Wicked for the first time yesterday. I have so much to say about what I saw and how I felt that I just don't think I can do it justice yet. I need to process everything and put it into a well-written post, and I cannot do that this evening. What I can do is post this little sketch. Its not much, and it has its faults, but at least it is something. I think Elphaba is a fascinating character, both in the show and in Gregory Maguire's novel. I have been trying to draw her for years, and have never once come anywhere close to something that I like. This is not quite there yet, but it is a start. You can also expect more Wicked inspired artwork in the future. Have a great week everybody:)