Florasaurus 2021

Each January Native Poppy, a flower shop in San Diego, runs a dinosaur and flower drawing contest they refer to as their Annual Florasaurus Competition. While I don't usually partake in many contests anymore, this one is definitely one I still very much enjoy.

This year's contest is accepting entries through Jan. 17. Native Poppy will select 4 finalists and voting will be from Jan. 20 to Jan. 24. Winners to be announced Jan. 27.

Below is my entered drawing, wish me luck!

Feel free to check out their Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/native_poppy

LAS Apparel: Women's Wild One Tee

I LOVE apparel design! One of my favorite shirts I have designed for LAS was this Women's Wild One Tee. Like most of my best apparel designs, this one began as a hand drawn sketch.

The goal was to create something feminine for the female archer/hunter. I spent a lot of time finding the right shirt sample-something feminine, flattering for many body types, and also a decent fit since so many women's shirts run small. For the sketch, I went in a floral/bohemian approach.

From there I brought the sketch into Illustrator and converted it to a vector file. It took a decent amount of touch ups and tweaks since the sketch was generally small and rough. I experimented with different colors and potential garments, before ultimately landing on the Anvil Women's Freedom Tee in rose with a white and black design. I added in the "Lancaster Archery Supply" text subtly below the right antler to add some LAS branding without taking away from the overall design feel.

The grey pictured above represents the knocked out pieces. Therefore, this could be screen printed with only black and white ink. The grey above will just be the rose garment color. Using the t-shirt colors is one of my favorite techniques. Not only does it create complexity to the design, but it also allows me to implement an additional color without adding an ink color which then adds cost.

Once we got this design produced, it became available to purchase on the Lancaster Archery website. Our in-house photographer took great photos of the shirt. You can currently purchase this shirt here: https://www.lancasterarchery.com/lancaster-archery-supply-womens-wild-one-tee.html

Time Lapse Rose Drawing

First and foremost, GoPro's are awesome. I've been meaning to capture the progress of my drawings and paintings and finally purchased a GoPro to do so. I used the time lapse feature and began to mess with the speed settings. While this one is a little more choppy than I was initially going for, it certainly does the job. This drawing took about 30 minutes, and I did speed it up in post at 200%. The drawing is graphite pencil on Rives BFK.

Evening Rose Sketch

McCabe Drawings

I particularly enjoy making drawings for friends and family getting married, and I have posted a lot of these in the past. Most of the time I draw or get creative with letterforms, typically the beginning of the couple's last name. My friends Colleen and Paul got married on October 15th, and I needed a unique idea. The couple already have several "M" decorations for their married name of McCabe, so I abandoned the letterform idea. I was fortunate to be a bridesmaid in their wedding and was elated, and because of this I got a lot of details on how Colleen was planning her wedding, including the flowers in the bouquets. Recently I have been drawing some flowers with micron pens primarily, and the idea struck to do a series of drawings of flowers that would be in Colleen's bouquet. The three flowers I decided to choose to draw were a sunflower, a white rose and a white ranuculus. All were done with very thin micron pens at 8"x8". I added some boulder details with a thicker pen. I debated adding some color with chalk pastels but ended up being so pleased with the black and white prints that I kept them as is. They were double matted in white with a dark brown frame that reflected some gold when looked at in a certain light. Below are the final drawings and a photo of my bouquet from the wedding. Colleen and Paul had a gorgeous wedding, had a full on dance party at the reception and I am so happy to have been apart of the celebration. Congratulations to the McCabes!

Blue Rose Painting

I put in a bit more time into the blue rose painting I've been working on. It still seems unfinished so I'll let it simmer for a bit until I figure out some sort of solution.

Rose Paintings

This weekend the plan was to set up at a flea market in my hometown to sell a bunch of clothes, odds and ends and a few of my paintings I've been working on. Being that it is Mother's Day weekend I chose to paint a few roses in a traditional style on an 8"x10" canvas. Unfortunately, the weather does not seem to be favorable for an outdoor flea market, so the sales may not be high. However, if you would be interested in checking out the original paintings for purchase or have a piece for commission, let me know! I intend on also getting prints made of paintings and drawings in the future as well.

Five 8x10s Started, Two Completed

Rose Drawings

Lately I have been drawing several roses in the same style. I refer to it somewhat as traditional, but not entirely. They are drawn with graphite pencil, microns, vine and then compressed charcoal for the deepest shades. I've painted them too, however, I prefer the softness that the blended charcoal gives them. Below are some final and progress drawings, expect to see a bunch more!