cute

Giraffes!

| Erika Schnatz

This was a project I completed earlier this year for my dear friend Kayla (who is sort of famous). The girl has got some pipes. But I digress.

Kayla’s close friend just had a baby, and Kayla wanted a special card made for the family. Specifically, she wanted a family of giraffes. When I finally got down to drawing it out (I procrastinate heavily without concrete deadlines), it didn’t take me very long. I drew out one rough sketch to show Kayla:

 
The finished art looks pretty similar. I got a little crazy with Momma Giraffe’s hair, but it’s a good look for her.
And here’s what the card looks like:

All I used for this card was some Micron pens I think. Some kind of pens. I don’t quite remember.

A Lady & Her Pup

| Erika Schnatz

Here’s a quick post before I kick off my weekend:

We had a gift exchange in the AmeriCorps program I was in last year (we were a pretty tight-knit bunch) and I think there was a max of $5 you could spend since we were all broke and that sort of restriction leads to thoughtful, handmade gifts. (Which it totally did).

I had some small frames from IKEA that I wasn’t using for anything, so I spray painted them black and made some pen drawings to go inside of them. I figured most people would dig pictures of themselves (I adore a portrait of myself that was done in Paris – even more so because I’ve had to draw myself a countless number of times for self-portrait projects) and pictures of their pets. This particular lady was the first AmeriCorps member I met in Oregon because she let me and my boyfriend crash at her place for a few days before I moved into my house. She has a super cute dog named Pablo, and my then-boyfriend bonded with Pablo because he loves all dogs. I realize I’m getting off track now, so here are the pictures:

I apologize to Megan for this portrait – it does look like her but I did not crop this image well. It makes her look much less cute than she is in real life because of the way I cut her chin out of the picture. I did a much better job with Pablo:

Such a cute puppy!

I think these were drawn with Micron pens, but I can’t quite remember. Woo!

Wonder Wolf!

| Erika Schnatz

I can only tenuously connect this post to the Olympics, but I’ve been thinking about the Olympics, so deal with it.

This little guy is the Wonder Wolf. As you may (or may not) know, I worked in an elementary school in Beaverton, OR for the past school year (near Nike headquarters – Olympics connection) and the school mascot was the Wonder Wolf. I actually dressed up in that costume a handful of times, unfortunately there is no photographic evidence of this…

Anyway, I made thank you cards for student volunteers and teachers at the end of the year, so I drew a cartoony little wolf. He’s got an apple to signify education, and a little cape to do awesome deeds in.

I let some of the kids color in the cards before I handed them out – I’ll have to see if I can find one to scan in and put up here.

There was no real connection to the Olympics here, although I think the Wonder Wolf would make a pretty great Olympic mascot. Better than that weird blue thing for the Atlanta Olympics in the 90s. What was that thing?

More Monkey Business…

| Erika Schnatz

To continue on the theme of my initial post, here is another card that also involves a monkey. Specifically, party monkey.

This was for my brother’s 18th birthday. You can never be too old for monkey cards.

I think I used the same photo reference for this card and the party monkey on the last card. Months and months apart. Weird.

Materials used: Watercolor (very muted), some kind of pen, Artists’ ink & little brushes