Handmade valentines & learning Hebrew

I'm trying to learn Hebrew, and so for my valentines this year I decided to write "love" in Hebrew. It's pronounced "ahava" and spelled אהבה .

I made them out of repurposed thin cardboard from a coffee cup carrier (and some scrap card stock with drafts of illustrations on it), which I painted with watercolors, and then drew on with gel pens and markers.

Practicing drawing mouths

Recent illustrations

Some mail art and illustrations I've made recently. The map is meant to be Union Square in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Handmade Mother's Day card

I made this card for my mom with gel pens on card stock.

Illustrated Boom Boom the cat glitter holiday ornament

Happy December!

I made this Christmas tree ornament for my friend, with an illustration of her cat Boom Boom. I also used lots of glitter, because why not?

I drew Boom Boom on white card stock, then pasted him onto gold glitter paper which I cut into a circle using zigzag scissors. Then I cut a piece of cardboard into a slightly larger circle, wrapped gold tissue paper around it, which I secured with glue, and gathered the ends of the tissue paper on the front, to be covered by the glitter paper. I also added some extra glitter on top of the tissue paper to give it more sparkle. Then I used a hole punch to make a hold for the ribbon.

It's so cute in a little gift box!

Illustrated pecan pie magnet and fabric bag

I made this glittery magnet for a loved one whose favorite pie is pecan.

I drew the pie on card stock using markers and colored pencils. Then I covered it in a coat of Mod Podge, added a little gold glitter, and stuck a magnet to the back of it (on top of another layer of card stock to keep it firm).

The back of the magnet

I made this little fabric bag to put the magnet in.

Overheard poetry book project, or: Book leaning casually against wall

I recently unearthed this book of poetry that I started making six years ago! The idea was to include "poems" that I overheard people say in conversation. Some of them were said by people close to me, and others by strangers. I think I'd like to finish it and make some copies, because it's always nice to share my creative projects.

"Poems" Various Authors, Previously Unpublished, 2010

Me looking at Valentine's Day things on Pinterest sketch

Ode to the space heater

I drew this on my fridge white board to express my love for my new friend, the space heater. 

Birthday Kitty

I drew this card of my parents' cat Abigail for my sister's birthday.

New Art at Fiore's

Eric and I went for some pie and coffee at Fiore's in Jamaica Plain yesterday. There was one piece of art in particular that made me smile.

I also enjoyed this exciting announcement

Ugandan Taxi Card

Last spring I took a trip to Uganda to visit my sister. One of my favorite Ugandan cultural things that I saw was the taxis. They often had decals of sayings on the back window. These sayings were often cheesy godvertising (though sometimes not).

When my sister's boyfriend David's birthday came around, I wanted to make him something special because he is awesome. Here's what I came up with:

The Story of How I Became an Illustrator

When I was a little girl, my sister and I once had our portrait drawn by a caricaturist on the street. I remember looking at his markers and being amazed and envious. I was often frustrated with my Crayola markers because they only had two tones: full saturation and bleeding-through-the-page saturation. (I'm not sure if I'm using these art terms correctly; bear with me.) But I thought that this was just how markers were: inherently incapable of depicting muted colors (i.e. my skin tone) or blending well.

Then I saw this professional illustrator with his fancy markers getting all blendy and realistic looking and I was blown away. I. Wanted. Those. Markers. But I was pretty sure that you had to be a grown up to get markers like that. I don't know if I even asked my parents.

Flash forward 15 years and I'm at a yard sale in Jamaica Plain. The punk anarchist guy who is getting rid of his shit happens to be an art student. He has a whole bag of these fancy professional markers and even though half of them are the same tone of gray, my inner self is pleading with him, "HOW MUCH FOR THE WHOLE BAG?" He says a couple bucks and I am now the proud owner of real art markers. I even have enough colors to draw a convincing picture of my parents' house with a big, imagined "Happy birthday, Mom!" banner on the front of it for (you guessed it) my mom's birthday. I just have to use a highlighter for the lawn, which my dad, not knowing about my marker situation, notices has a different texture than all of the other colors. He tells me how impressed he is by the realistic looking grass-texture.

A couple months go by, and one day I'm strolling around Boomerangs (local thrift store) when I see what I now regard as one of my best thrift shop finds of all time: An unopened box of 20 art markers! And there are no grays! I would like to take this moment to thank whoever donated this box of markers.

Thank you.

Now that I have professional grade markers in every color, I am officially an illustrator! 8-year-old me has never been so proud.

Here are some things I've drawn since The Big Day at Boomerangs.

76 house portrait

Eric portrait (the original sketch was done with my eyes closed, and then I colored it in)

Rain cloud

Romantic road trip illustration: A wedding card

I made this card for Eric's friend Jessica's wedding. She and her new husband went on a road trip in California for their honeymoon. Happy wedding!