Save the Date!

I can't believe that I haven't included the Save the Date that I created for my upcoming nuptuals. What have I been thinking?

Both my Fubs (future husband for those who don't know) and I are geeks. We flaunt it openly, unashamed. We like video games, robots, gadgets, and Steampunky-type things (I'm also a huge Victorianophile.. is that a thing?)

Anyway, I wanted to add something custom to my STD's and not just have a postcard with a friendly reminder and a date, so I sketched up a couple of robots and assembled my postcards in Illustrator. I scanned some decorative paper that I had collecting dust in one of my drawers and layered my illustrations on top. The hardest part of the process was deciding WHICH font to use and how to make everything look just like the vision in my head.

Steve as a robot, pre-painting

Post-painting

Me as a robot, pre-painting

Post-painting

The final product!

Art-chives

The PokedWithaStick Studio's blog is relatively new, but I've been making art under my own name for a while. If you're new to my work, please check out my former blog, Jenn Hayes' Sketchblog for a bigger selection of some of my older and recent work. I promise to keep this blog active as I continue to promote my work under my new studio's name.

Thank you so very much for all your support, I really appreciate everyone who enjoys what I do!

A morton salt zombie that I did in early 2011.

Hearts

Some of my favorite things to add to my work are hearts. Especially anatomical hearts. I find that they present a sentimentality and "humanness" to my work.

About a year or so ago, I started creating anatomical hearts to be displayed in shadow boxes. I paint them to look like rusty pieces of machinery with sheets of metal and rivets, smokestacks and pipes. I'm a literal painter, I paint what my mind sees, and let's face it, hearts are machines, right? They're pumps, keeping the blood flowing to our organs, our skin, throughout our bodies. What's a good way to represent them than a hard working, industrial machine?!

I was able to find a great high resolution of a chest x-ray that I created as the background, and I tweak the colors to fit with the colors in each heart. Since each are hand made, I like to customize the background to the image.

I also have a great vintage anatomical chest illustration from an old corset ad that I've used before.

Valentines Day 2011 I was faced with a situation. I wanted to get my partner something for Valentines Day, although we don't "officially" celebrate it. I wanted to try something new, so I decided to look for a book that had a romance theme and hollow it out so that I could put some art in it. 

And this is what came out of it:

Luckily, I was able to find a book called "Sweetheart". I've found a new obsession.... repurposing books for my work. Especially if I can find one that thematically matches what I'm trying to do.

On to creating!

Fathers Day Fishing

My dad loves fishing, and camping and hunting. Bless his heart, even though he goes hunting, he never brings anything home. I think the fun of it for him is reclaiming his youth, and the fun that he has actually getting out of the house. Not so much the hunt.

I love going fishing with my parents because it's like having a family reunion with just the three of us. We sit and have lunch, throw our lines in the water and just enjoy each others' company. Now that I have a permanent partner, he likes to come too. And we're a family... like we were when my brother was alive and we were young.

I've been experimenting with hollowing out books and putting my art inside. Like a thematic frame. I figured I'd make a cute one for my dad for Father's Day because I'm usually making something for mom, why not let dad have some art this year?!

I was able to find a book at the local Goodwill called "Down River" (this Goodwill has been a great place to find thematically appropriate books for my work). I got lucky, took it home and started to gruel over the slicing of the pages. It's tough work. But this is what I came up with:

Progress shots of my Rainbow Trout

Rainbow Trout

 More books to come!

Confused Through the Looking Glass

I've had the idea for an Alice in Wonderland-ish themed paper doll. I've hacked away at her for a couple of years (to be honest, I was working on a life-encompassing thesis and education during that time). I wanted her to be in a style and aesthetic that I like. Some might call it Steampunk, some might call it Neo-Victorian. Whatever you call it, call her yours.
I'll be making her available on my etsy page in the next coming weeks as I produce them and order more brads.

I wanted to finish her before the Vancouver Urban Growers Market that I will be vending at as a introduction into some of my other styles of illustration.

Here are some process photos and a simplified version of the final.

Packaged and ready to assemble!

Inking

Painting

Rabbit sketch

In her early stages, I enlarged her and played with different colorings. 

Her mostly final version

Harry Jack, the custom dog in a box

We purchased a short sale in January. Well, the process started in August of 2011, it finally closed in January. Shorter than most short sales, but it wasn't without it's emotional and mental tolls. Our real estate agent is a saint. She fought long and hard on our behalf. She really is a nice woman.

I figured it would be a nice gesture to gift her with some of my work. I'm not a big fan of drawing animals because I don't think that what I draw usually ends up looking like the animal I'm trying to draw. I want to make them "cartoony" but something in the back of my mind wants to make them as realistic as I can. So it usually becomes some sort of creative battle in my head.

Our agent and her husband are huge Harley Davidson enthusiasts, and they love their little dog (which I have to say is one of the cutest dogs I've ever seen, just don't tell my own pups). So I figured I would combine the things they love into a piece.

And this is what I came up with:

HJ Before he was inserted into his shadow box.

Closeup of HJ.

HJ in his shadow box.

Welcome to the new PokedwithaStick Studios Blog!

I'l be posting to this blog from now on instead of the old blog. I felt it was time to do some major branding changes, and I've never really liked marketing myself by my name. Don't get me wrong, I love my name, but I just really want to try something new.

The "old" blog will stay up because it's sort of an "archive" (or "artchive") of my previous work that I've shared. But be prepared for more paper dolls and things in boxes and new work! I also hope to keep this thing updated more often than my previous blog. I'm going to force myself to create more, and worry less.

The theme or layout will probably change as I tweak the settings here and there as well.
So let's get on with it!

-Jenn