There has been something lurking in my mind...

something about ink and watercolor and anthropomorphs...you know how ideas for paintings and things sort of scuttle about in the squidgy corners of your mind when you are trying to sleep or listen to a radio serial from the 70's or some such thing and they grow and grow and growandgrow and GROW until....they sort of DEMAND to be made or else they take your mind hostage and you can't get the bills written out or read that nice-smelling book you found until they've had their way?

this was one of those times, so i hope you enjoy "Beatrix".

Is Beatrix showing off her naughty knees? Or is she startled to find human legs beneath her skirt? She's so hard to read...

Au Revoir.

Vintage doodles and Other Miss-Takes...

So here's the latest Miss-Takes and my new Pinstripes, you can click on the images for more info, I'm having such a blast with these vintage-inspired images! I can't...put down...the pen....*scribble-scribble-scribble*

Miss-Construed...........My New Miss-Take.

Out of the 500 billion things I had to do today...this was the one I REALLY enjoyed. I still have roughly 300 billion things to do, but please meet Miss-Construed, my new Miss-Take. She is ink and acrylic on wood, and she's not happy. :)
If you feel inclined, you can see close-ups and such HERE.

I'm not sure where this is going, exactly, but it beats painting cardinals on mailboxes. *sigh*

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, folks!

-Liese Marie, mailbox/house painter in a pinch

I guess I'm as forgetful as I am well meaning...

I really MEANT to take a picture of this inkblot before I started working on it in black ink...it's just that I was waiting for it to dry while watching Monty Python's Flying Circus (on VHS, by the way!) and somewhere between Spam and a semi-nude pasty white man in lingerie, I got distracted. Anyway, here's the start, the next 2 blots have been properly scanned beforehand. anyone see where this might be going? I'm not really sure myself...

Awesome finds in broken books...

I really hit the jackpot yesterday with the torn up old books I found! One of them is just too precious to deconstruct, even though it is a mess. It is the Junior Instructor, from 1918, a homeschool book. Hilarious. The others have spurred a new batch of birdies in my etsy store. One is a book filled with Kanji, (if you know which language, PLEASE let me know!) one is a text on learning shorthand and this one is from a book about musical composition.

Off to do some more ink work and painting!

Telling Secrets...

I finished this new inkblot painting last night, and am working on another in my watercolor sketchbook. That one will be too large to scan, but I'm sure having a blast with these. I love looking at a character I've drawn and wondering if he's going to wind up reading a book or pulling a turtle's tail. You can get a better look at "Telling Secrets" HERE.

I've been roped into the Chamber of Commerce dinner tonight with the owner of the gallery I run. She HAS been nominated as business-person of the year, so let's hope she gets picked! :) Gotta run...

I Wish I could Fly...

This is an experiment for me, inspired by something I saw on the web somewhere late at night-(I really need to take notes! If I find the amazing artwork that got me thinking about trying this, I'll post the link, promise!) I made a design in watercolor paint, folded the paper to create the inkblot and then I used what I saw in it to guide my drawing in ink. This was a TON of fun, and I will definitely be doing more of these Rorschach paintings. If you love it, you can buy it HERE. :D

Psychoanalysis welcome!

If you go to sleep in the sky, you will wake up cousin to the birds...

I'm having WAY too much fun digitally coloring my drawings...

Just to be able to say, "Yes, I can do something similar with brown/green/puce instead...no problem!" I LOVE it. Hope you do too. :D

The new mixed media piece, "Rose"...buy it HERE. Now off to work with me!

The Fountain Pen...

So I grabbed this fountain pen while I was out yesterday, and I have to admit that I didn't want to go to bed last night, I was having too much fun drawing! I think I'll be needing replacement cartridges soon... :/ Here is the link for the one print I have up on Etsy. I know my store has a lot of different styles in it, but I just love experimenting!

Off to get ready for work, but I'll be thinking about coming home to play with ink...

8 ACEO'S in a handbound book!!! "Hungry Moon"

We've been slaving away for days to produce the first run of my book containing 8 frame-able ACEOs. It's called "Hungry Moon" and is now available in my Etsy store! You can find it here:

That's only $2.75 per ACEO plus a hand bound book! :D

I hope you enjoy these, they have a deliciously sick sense of humor...

Insomnia and the tiny art...

So I think it is a sort of sickness. I get something into my head that I want to create and it explodes into dozens of spin-off ideas and before you know it...I'm up in the middle of the night using my exact-o knife to cut collage pieces and things and *click-click-click* I'm listing on Etsy and I have scraps of paper strewn about the living room...

I guess at least this time when my husband stumbled out into the living room squinting into the light I didn't have the blowtorch fired up....that man has some serious patience. heh. At any rate, enjoy my evening's sleepless creation, I really have to try to catch another hour or so of sleep, so much to do today! Meet Cordelia.

I gave in to the tiny art craze....

and started making ACEOs. :D I have been having an obscene amount of fun making these tiny little illustrations with collage papers and ink. I'm thinking I'll have to do more in the red since everyone seems to react to that color. I really should be painting other things right now, but I just can't stop! *runs in a circle clutching tiny scraps of paper to her chest*

I hope these are a seller!

Danced along a colored wind...

The light up here in the mountains is seriously inspiring today. If only it were not below freezing I would love to go for a walk...Hey Spring! Hurry up, damnit!

Anyway, I'm still playing with deadpan character ideas...trying beadier eyes this time, like the birdies have. Maybe...
Just realized more time has passed than I thought! This computer has stolen at least an hour from my morning I had not planned on. Off to work!

That certain something....

Today I'm working on trying to figure out what people want from my deadpan illustrations so I can come up with some more lines that people will like. Is it the bold colors? The simple lines of the birds themselves? The look in their eyes? I'm really not sure what exactly makes them a hit. The one pictured here is a new listing I just put on www.deadpanalley.etsy.com . I hope you like it! Feedback is always welcome!

Better a handful of dry dates and content with that, than to own the gate of peacocks and be kicked in the eye by a brooding camel...

I got the day off with my husband! Yay! We worked all day of course, but we did it TOGETHER. Kris cut me a bunch of mounting stock for my illustrations, and is almost finished knitting me a soft, silky, cranberry scarf. :D I made and posted 2 new pieces in my Etsy store, www.deadpanalley.etsy.com I also packaged and mailed out some Etsy orders and did some research online.
We went out to lunch at our favorite Chinese place and now we are listening to "Moon Over Morocco", (one of my favorite radio serials) while we work on various things.

It is incredibly windy outside but the fire is starting to make it rather cozy in here.

Life is good.

Yes, indeed.

DeadpanAlley Originals for a...song. *cough*