Agh! It's been eleven days since my last post!!

How can this be? Well, you know Christmas was here and like a good little procrastinator I waited till the last possible moment to do my Christmas shopping and work on my hand made gifts. Okay so only a few people got the handmade stuff, but I've been busy :)

Anyway...just wanted to show my latest ATC (Artist Trading Card) swap. One of my moly exchange buddies and I did a private swap...I asked her to add to my very small Alice in Wonderland collection (you know, my collection of one whole card, LOL) and she asked me for animal card...preferably owls, she asked. It's funny how many people like owls lately...well maybe they've always liked them, how am I to know?

So here it is my Hooty Owl for Elvia.

And the game continues to move forward...

Hello all! With the Holiday season upon us, I just wanted to show some of the progress on the Ugly Baby Studios game project I've been helping with. If you follow my blog, you may remember me mentioning my work for UBS before, here. Up to this point, most of my contributions have been in the pre-planning or concept stages. Character sketches, mostly. It's definitely one of those projects or assignments that I would consider a challenge. It's not my normal style or process, so the challenge has been a fun one. I thought I would take this time to show you one of the background paintings I've just finished for one of the XNA game's levels. XNA being the programming framework that these guys use to get the job done. That's the limit of my knowledge on that, so no questions, please, hee hee.

This was all done on the computer....ahhh, so nice to paint digitally. No clean up afterwords, lol.

Sketchbooks

Sketchbooks are supposed to be an artists tool, are they not? For as long as I can remember, I've found sketchbooks so appealing. Especially the process of picking out a new one. The filling up of said sketchbook is another story completely. I've never been good about doing daily sketches or setting aside time for the sole purpose of doodling or drawing. Sad but true. I should be fired as an artist. Wait...don't you have to get hired as an artist first?? Whatever!

Anywhoo...this last year, with J (also sometimes referred to as The Boyfriend on this here blog), I managed to fill one up. Why do I put it like that? In those terms?? Because I truly believe that this man spurs my creativity. In my whole life, all twenty nine years of it, I have never once filled an entire sketchbook. Not even during my semesters at art school. Not once...in fact if I go look through most of them I can guarantee you that none of them made it past the first twenty or so pages. It was a wonderful surprise and complete shock to me the other day, when I came across the fact that my sketchbook is almost completely filled up. How did this happen? Did I really draw that much in this past year? The answer is yes! And that's not including any of the many drawings I've done for the molies or the extra side projects I constantly have going...it's just sketching...so there you have it. One totally boring blog about the fact that I filled up a sketchbook, LOL. I could leave it at that but since I rambled on and on, I figure you deserve a treat...here's a peek at one of those sketchbook pages.

More monsters...

Monsters, monsters, there are always monsters. I'm not sure what it is about monsters and little kids, but I love to draw them. I think part of what makes drawing monsters so fun for me, is taking something that is supposed to be ugly or scary and giving it a personality or making it endearing to the viewer. Anywoo... these are the monsters I managed to come up with last week. Notice the lavender guy's grill?? Diamond crusted, LOL, I'm sorry I couldn't help myself.

I now consider myself a member of Tiny Art...

So....a few months back, one of my online exchange buddies introduced me to ATC's (Artist Trading Cards). Not knowing anything about them, I signed up with a small group of very nice artists and was totally flabbergasted by the artwork they put forth on these itty bitty cards. They are literally trading card size, so 2.5 by 3.5 inches and yet some of them are detailed to the point of being ridiculous. With all the molie exchanges I had going on, I didn't feel right getting in on the ATC's because I wasn't sure how long it would take to get the back to the artist, but I did accept an invitation for a private swap. One of the members asked if I'd design a raccoon themed card for her, apparently she's accumulated quite a few and wanted me to add to it. So I did. And here it is...I think he's adorable myself...Hope she finds him as cute as I do...My little raccoon robber....hee hee.

Molie Update, Part One.

So clearly I am infatuated with the moly exchanges. They've almost become "the other man" at home, I'm kidding, the boyfriend gets a kick out of them too. Plus he feeds my ego every time a new one comes and says, "yours is much better than that," AWWWW.

Anywhoo, my friends and coworkers are all quite familiar with my little projects. They ask about them, love to see them when they arrive, it's great. I must say, however, I'm probably the most impatient of all, wanting to know where my books are, you know like every other day?? As if it can bounce all over the world in a matter of nights. It's not hitching a ride on Santa's sleigh, hell, I know that...but I just want them all back and filled up because it so much fun to see how they're evolving. So I'll do a break down of each one, so you can see the progress...this early in the game, some may only have one or two entries, but at least you'll get a chance to see how they started if you missed my earlier posts.

My first exchange....was Monsters! Since it was my first attempt at the exchanges I was a bit nervous and ended up flubbing up on this...this isn't the final version...if you look closely you can see where I painted over one of the monsters.

and this is Katya's entry following mine...as you can see I have some dark swirlies leaking over on to her pages :) Right now it's on it's way to the east cost for more monsters.

The Wonderland Exchange. This was the exchange that I got to choose the topic...Wonderland has been on my mind a lot lately...and I've alwyas really liked the story....so there you have it.

above are my intro pages....just a little extra wonderland for everyone to see.

and of course my opening pages...looking at them now I should have done more to fill up my book, but I can always add more on later towards the end if there is still space left over. Below is Rose's entry in my book...I just love that little slouch...I couldn't be more pleased.

Rose's Moly

So Rose's moly is officially on it's way to Oregon and into Amy's capable hands. For those of you just tuning in this is part of the International Moleskine Exchange, which I've been a part of since September of this year. That's four months ago...since I discovered this flickr group I have joined four exchanges and had so much fun drawing in strangers sketchbooks and seeing what they are putting into mine :) Go check them out when you have time...and if you are artistically inclined, join up and start an exchange or pick one from the list...you will find it highly addictive. I did.

Where has Kelley gone off to?

You may be wondering what I've been up to...or not :) Man, how sad if you didn't even realize I'd been away for awhile, lol. Anyway, with Thanksgiving and work, I've been kind of busy. And unfortunately the blog got a little neglected. I've been busy working on my art too though...so I thought I'd do a smorgasbord for you all and show you all the fun I've been having....

This is a self portrait for another one of my moly exchanges. For this particular swap, they call it a Portrait Party. Basically, we draw two portraits in each book...one of ourselves and one of who-ever's book you have. We all post pictures of ourselves online or put a couple snapshots in our sketchbooks and send them off to strangers so they can draw us :) Kind of weird, but think how cool it is when you get a book back with 15 different versions of yourself along with 15 strangers faces staring back at you, LOL!! So crazy, I'm loving every minute of this.