Illustration Friday - One Sweet "Melt!"

Good afternoon everyone and Happy Friday!! I couldn't resist doodling something up for this week's "Illustration Friday," topic as soon as I saw it! The theme for this week is "Melt." Of course, immediately my mind goes to food. There are so many food centric items that melt it was hard picking just one! But I decided on this summer favorite:

S'Moreeeesssss! Now that's one melty dessert! Whether toasting a marshmallow by a warm fire or nuking it for about 10 seconds, s'mores are an excellent treat with double the meltiness. You get melted chocolate AND a big messy marshmallow in one cracker sandwich. Hope you enjoyed my "Illustration Friday," contribution for the week and a happy and safe holiday weekend.

Illustration Friday - "Nefarious" City Girl

Good morning everyone!! Just wanted to throw a quick "Illustration Friday," post up before the theme flips over for tomorrow. This week's theme was "Nefarious." Nefarious is another word for "criminal," or even "wicked" which is quite the opposite of work I typically post. I was going for shady but still feminine when I created this piece:

A tough looking, no nonsense city girl. Even my color palette was darker and more muted than what I would normally choose. She's one tough cookie with her sharp business wardrobe complete with the  viciously-cliche toothpick jutting out of her crimson lips. A quick doodle but a great exercise in expanding my horizons creatively!! Hope you enjoyed my "Illustration Friday," contribution for the week and a happy weekend.

Illustration Friday: Tina Belcher Meets the "Sea"

Hey everyone!! Just popping with a doodle for this week's "Illustration Friday," theme.  This week's theme was "Sea" which was too fun to pass up. I've been dying to create my own undersea illustration ever since my Mermaid "Inspiration Post." Disney's "Little Mermaid," is great but I found inspiration from another lady heroine:

Little Mer-Tina Belcher!! Bob's Burgers is on of my favorite shows. And although Lynda, Bob's wife, is my TRUE favorite character, Tina comes in a close second. A girl so chock full of imagination she writes her own "friend-fiction," I can only guess that imagination has taken her under the "sea." She probably met a cute mer-dude but I added a sea-horse to the silly doodle to keep her company. She loves land-horses so why not! Hope you enjoyed the doodle and have a super creative week!!

Seasonal Snowman "Light"

Good afternoon everyone! Hope the Holiday season is treating you well! I haven’t participated in an “Illustration Friday,” challenge in a while. This week’s theme was “Light.” I wasn’t struck with an idea until I noticed one reoccurring Christmas decoration I spied around everyone’s block.

The shining “light” of those bizarre plastic Snowmen! In driveways, on porches, on roofs and outside businesses, these jolly, vintage, hard plastic Snowmen are a classic sign of the Holiday season where I’m from. It doesn’t stop at just Snowmen either, I’ve spotted giant plastic characters ranging from jolly lighted Santa Claus’ to entire Na displays!! It makes me wonder what other king of wacky and tacky decorations are staples of neighborhoods around the USA. I’d love if you’d share some in the comments section!! Have a super weekend everyone!!

Illustration Friday - Zelda's "Disguise" Cupcake

Hey everyone!! Hope everyone had a good week. I really am cutting it close with this week's "Illustration Friday," piece. The topic chosen was "disguise." I thought pretty long and hard about disguises and settled on my favorite alternative personality:

Sheik from the Legend of Zelda. If you've never played the Zelda games, spoiler warning, that guy who helps you out along the way named Sheik? Yeah that's Princess Zelda. . . in disguise. Dun dun DUN! I decided to keep on imagining and create a Sheik-cupcake. And now I'm half tempted to create other characters in the Zelda universe as cupcakes! Have a great weekend everyone!

Illustration Friday - Suzy and Sam's "Beginning"

Good morning everyone!! As promised to you and myself, I am attempting to keep up with "Illustration Friday," before the deadline sneaks up on me!! This week's topic was, "Beginning." I've been really dying to create a "Moonrise Kingdom," themed piece so I created this illustration:

"Moonrise Kingdom," was such an enjoyable movie. Keeping with the theme of "beginning," I decided to create a pop-art type piece that represented the two main characters, Suzy and Sam's, first encounter. After sneaking into the girl's makeshift dressing room during a play Sam points to Suzy and asks, "What kind of bird are you?" In her elegant black costume, wide eyed, she replies with, "I'm a Raven."

I hope everyone is having a good week so far and I hope you enjoyed my Illustration. Oh, and go see that movie if you haven't!! 

Illustration Friday - Pink "Power" Ranger Kimberly!!

Hey everyone!! The week has just started but I couldn't resist working on another piece for "Illustration Friday," when I found out the theme was "Power." The first thing that comes to my head when I think power?? Power Rangers of course so I decided to create this little cartoon:

That's right the Pink Ranger, Kimberly!! As girly as I am, believe it or not she wasn't my favorite but my second favorite. In my mind, the Yellow Ranger came in first!! I liked her weapon and dinosaur far more than Kimberly's. But I'm sure I would have given my right arm to be EITHER of them!! Hope everyone is having a great week so far!!

Illustration Friday: "Fresh" & Ready for Class!

Hey everyone!! Hope your week is going really well so far. Can you believe we're already halfway through August?! I decided to participate in this week's "Illustration Friday," theme which was "Fresh." At first I was drawing a complete blank. But thanks to a suggestion of one of my friends I came up with this little doodle:

 
A "fresh" piece of fruit with a super fresh mind ready to get back in school!! Ready to hit the books, he's got his glasses on, and his ruler out ready to learn! The background is the scanned texture of a composition book to match the school theme. I'm contemplating releasing this as a blank card in my shop for educators and students. I hope everyone who goes to school enjoys their last bits of summer freedom. Have a creative day everyone!!

Illustration Friday - BakerBot Version 2.0

Good morning everyone!! Just wanted to squeeze in my "Illustration Friday," post before the deadline hit!! This week I was pretty excited to create a piece since the topic was "Robots." I love drawing robots. I have drawn so many different kinds during the span of this blog. A concept I frequently play with is a BakerBot:

This latest model of the BakerBot has no time to for fun at the moment. He has to delivery a freshly baked blueberry muffin to a VERY hungry customer!! Maybe in the future we will have bakeries run all by "BakerBots." I can dream!!

To improve on my skills I challenged myself to work on a more dynamic pose for this character. I hope everyone has a super weekend!! 

Illustration Friday - Space "Travel" PRINT!

Hey everyone!! Man is it super hot here in Pennsylvania. I hope everyone is staying cool where they live. I have some exciting news to reveal in this post. My Etsy shop, VioletInk, has been re-opened and I am ready to sell some art prints of my illustrations!! The first illustration I added for your purchasing pleasure is "Space Fish," which also happens to work swimmingly with this week's Illustration Friday theme, "travel."

The first Goldfish to ever TRAVEL to outerspace!! Space can't be that different from life underwater. Our little guy glides his fins effortlessly through the stars. I will admit, I did cheat a little. This was an original piece I created back in 2010 but this is first time I am releasing it as a 8x10 print!! If you are interested in checking out my shop or purchasing this particular piece of artwork, just go to http://www.etsy.com/shop/violetink. Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Illustration Friday: Unicorn "Protest"

Hey everyone!! Hope your week is starting out well. If not, it's almost over, no worries!! I am trying to stay consistent about my "Illustration Friday," posts and created a piece for this week's theme which was "Protest." The past few topics have been challenging for me since they're less fun and more serious but I still managed to come up with this:

A propaganda poster advertising "Unicorn Rights." Did you know some people do not even BELIEVE that unicorns EXIST?! What a slap in the face!! I am positive if all the unicorns banded together they could form an excellent protest. I wanted to create a powerful and marketable piece to aid in raising awareness of their existence. Fight the power!!

Illustration Friday: "Equality" Wedding Cake

Hey everyone!! Hope everyone had a good week last week!! I had a fun idea for this week's "Illustration Friday." The chosen topic was "Equality." I thought long and hard about what to illustrate that showed my support for marriage equality and came up with a super cute idea below:

An adorable Groom & Groom teddy bear wedding cake! Although I like to have a lot of fun on my blog I always try to emphasize the point of being yourself!! And I'm a strong believer in treating those how you wish to be treated.

This illustration is still cute and I wanted it to symbolize my support for same-sex marriages. I'm thinking about making a Bride & Bride themed illustration as well. We'll see!! Have a great day everyone!

Illustration Friday: "Worn" Trunk Murderess

Hey everyone!! Just wanted to post my illustration for this week's "Illustration Friday," post. The chosen theme was "Worn." I took to google and got the definition of "damaged and shabby or very tired." I decided to create a piece depicting, "Winnie Ruth Judd," aka the "Trunk Mudderess":

Ruth Judd was convicted of murdering her two best friends back in the 1930s and placing them in a trunk that she attempted to transport at a train-station to Los Angeles. The entire case as well as what Ruth Judd was put through left her an extremely "worn" woman. Way more macabre than anything I usually create I decided to place newspaper clippings I found online around the illustration as a background.

Illustration Friday: "Sweet" Ballerina

Hey everyone!! I nearly ran out of time to do an illustration Friday post but the challenge word was WAYY too tempting for me to pass up this week!! This week's theme was "Sweet." I love cupcakes, candy, sprinkles, sugar just EVERYTHING sweet. I wanted to combine all my favorite sweets into one piece so I created this illustration:

A SWEET little candy girl with peppermint stick arms and legs, a donut tutu, chocolate frosted hair, gumdrop torso complete with a cherry on top!! She's dancing a ballet routine on an equally sweet pink frosted cupcake. Mmmm!! I'm really happy with how it turned out, with what little time I had from start to finish. Hope everyone has a super weekend :)

Illustration Friday: "Tension" Elephant & Mouse

Hey everyone!! As difficult as it may be to keep up with my blog posts while working 2 new jobs I am staying committed because I love to illustrate AND blog!! And that includes participating in "Illustration Friday!" This week's word was "Tension," and this is what I came up with:

A little cheddar-colored mouse just wanted to make friends with this baby elephant but got more than he bargained for!! As our elephant tries to escape the little mouse hangs on to his new friend's tail just as frightened. I know elephants really aren't THAT afraid of mice but I couldn't help myself!! Hope you enjoyed the illustration and have a super day!!

Illustration Friday - S.T.A.R.W.O.O.D. band from the "Future"

Hey everyone!! Just wanted to update the blog with my "Illustration Friday" entry. This week's theme was the word, "future." It took me no time to come up with an illustration, I decided to create a cartoon of an awesome band I saw live back in April, called "S.T.A.R.W.O.O.D."

"S.T.A.R.W.O.O.D." stands for "Sociopathic Time Altering Robot Warrior Of Organic Design," and is actually a band made up of Vitruvian Androids from the futuristic year 2276 AD. They were sent back into time, our time, present time, just before their own planet was destroyed (by us, the human race). Their mission?? Alter the timeline and control the human race saving their planet from it's imminent destruction.

My illustration is of lead singer, G7ANGEL591S (aka Gabriel Starwood) standing over planet earth. If you haven't heard them before, their entire album is up online for FREE to download right now at http://starwood.bandcamp.com/ Also be sure to check out their Facebook http://www.facebook.com/StarwoodBand and Twitter http://twitter.com/S_T_A_R_W_O_O_D. Hope everyone has a great week!!

Mika Doodle Contest 2013 - Part II

Hello everybody! Just wanted to update the blog with the continuation of my "Mika Doodle Contest" entry from earlier this year. If you missed my previous post about the competition, let me catch you up. The contest was open to all illustrators, artists and anyone else who wanted to doodle select tracks off the album, "The Origin of Love," that were posted on the MIKA Facebook fan page every week. I made it my mission to submit an entry for EVERY one of the songs posted. This post contains the other half of my entries below!!

Song 6: Popular

This track was based off the original tune "Popular," from the musical Wicked. I love the production Wicked and this song sang by Galinda to Elphaba. MIKA's version has a similar melody but the message was less about BECOMING popular and more a stab at the "popular" kids that put down the other kids at school. I resisted the urge to create something girly and cute and based my drawing on the the line that said, "Dunk me in the toilets now it's you that cleans them." Your typical queen bee trades in her tiara for a little janitor's bucket printed with the song title and filled with cleaning solution, a sponge and a toilet brush. 

Song 7: Love You When I'm Drunk

Next was a song called, "Love You When I'm Drunk." My doodle depicts the chorus, which is exactly the same as the title of the track. I drew a bottle of whiskey with the lyrics written on the label and a half empty shot glass with heart-shaped ice cubes beside it. The entire drawing is surrounded by little broken hearts because as happy as the melody sounds the theme is pretty depressing. The text was based off of 3 different fonts from my computer. 

Song 8: Stardust

Next up was a track called, "Stardust." My original concept was going to be a silhouette of the singer made of little tiny stars taken as a Polaroid picture. After a few sketches, I was convinced it looked much better as another cartoon Mika instead. As for the colors, I was going for galaxy; purple, dark blues and dark pinks. Once I was done, I realized it looked A LOT like Coraline and her star-covered pajamas. Oops!! I still think it came out pretty good though.

Song 9: Emily

I loved the style of the video which starred "Fanny Ardent," dressed in red playing the part of "Emily," that went along with this song. The video's artistic interpretation of the song was spot on but didn't want to translate that too literally into my piece. "Emily" seemed to me from the song, to be a woman under an identity crisis. I wanted to play with the idea of changing identity by illustrating a mannequin head complete with wig and hat labeled "Emily." The curly short haircut and bright red color of the hat tie in with the look of the music video. Elegant yet still fun this is a stand alone piece and an illustration I'm really proud of!

Song 10: Make You Happy

When I heard this song for the competition I immediately thought . . . robot! And that's not just because I love robots and think about them 56% of the time I had a valid reason. The line, "all I want to do is make you happy," is constantly repeated throughout the song in mechanical sounding-auto tuned voice. Much like a robot. But this isn't just any robot, this is a MIKABOT. He comes equipped with a bolted-on suspenders, a fancy top hat and a mop of curly locks underneath it. Beep boop beep!

Song 11: Underwater

The competition wrapped up with a song called, "Underwater." I thought about what could be underwater and came up with an oyster. The oyster is open to reveal a precious pearl, shaped like a heart to symbolize love. I hand-lettered the lyrics, "put your lips on me and I can live underwater," above the piece and added some bubbles to surround the piece.

I love challenging myself artistically by entering contests and competitions. And it was fun to see everyone's different interpretations of the songs off the album. Not only that I made some new artist friends along the way!! Hope everyone has a good week!! 

Illustration Friday - "Tribute" to "Bun"

Hey everyone!! Hope last week was a good one. I'm still getting pulled in a lot of different directions in life but I DIDN'T forget about "Illustration Friday." This week's topic was "Tribute." I thought long and hard about this one and decided to create an illustrative tribute to my favorite childhood stuffed animal, a pink bunny named "Bun."

"Bun" was my favorite toy as a baby and I took him everywhere I went. He had pink fur, purple ears, blue eyes and a pink nose I distinctly remember I thought was a jellybean (yes, I chewed on it). "Bun" taught me to be imaginative and I always made sure to include him in all my silly adventures. "Bun" took your typical battlescars; went through the dryer, lost a lot of his pink fur and his stuffing. In my book, he deserves a tribute! 

Illustration Friday - "Farewell" Mr. Cupcake!

Happy Monday everyone!! Why not start the week with an "Illustration Friday," post? Founder "Penelope Dullaghan" announced last week she would sadly be moving on from "Illustration Friday." She left the artists the weekly topic of "Farewell."

Saying "Farewell" is always a sad event. But I hate being sad so I decided to try to spice up the sweet sorrow that is parting. Making friends as a cupcake must be hard; you can't trust anyone. Hope everyone has a super week!

Illustration Friday - Yummy Candy "Train"

Hey everyone!! My blogging hasn't been few and far between due to some personal struggles I've recently been put through. But fear not, I am still drawing, baking and just being the creative crazy girl that I am!! In fact, I just finished up my SECOND "Illustration Friday," post. This week's theme was "Train," and my contribution is this illustration:

A sweet and delicious candy train! Choo choo!! This cakey locomotive chugs along covered in orange frosting on some sweet candy, cookie and donut wheels. Ready to deliverying a fresh batch of GIANT cupcakes to the nearest town. I cranked this out super early and can't wait to see what they pick for next week. Hope everyone has a wonderful week!