i’m super excited to share this comic – its the beginning of a new goal. written by my hubbahubba, nick, i hope to post these once a week. i really miss drawing comics! anyway, i hope you enjoy it ^_^

i am excited and happy to announce that i will be honored at the white house on april 5th as a champion of change. and i’d like to thank you! thank you for your votes, your support and wonderful messages. i was overwhelmed with the response and i still am. the image i created today is an expression of how i feel right now – surrounded by love and light.

it’s been a flurry of activity here as a group of family and very close friends will be joining me in DC – i’m simply ecstatic. the event will be streamed live online as well (more info to come).

to show my gratitude to you, i’m offering a coupon for 15% off in my shop, good for one week: FULLOFLOVE

thank you, many times over.

eeeeeeohmygod! i’m going to the white house! ^_^

my sale begins today on my etsy shop, use the code THANKSNOV11 for 10% off.

it ends Monday November 29 at midnight.

a brief description: “These Friends of Mine” explorations of our secret companions through whimsical, colorful illustrations and “Unraveled” intricate and playful wood burnings.

the opening reception will be on september 9th, hope to see you there!

a bit ago, a client contacted me to create an image of her and her hubby for their first wedding anniversary. so cute! i love those kinds of jobs and i felt very honored to be a part of their special day. she gave me some direction – their honeymoon to greece, them walking together, and sent me a bunch of photos. we agreed on a price, which included a couple rounds of revisions and i sent off preliminary drawings.

after i sent these to her, she told me what she liked – the look between them in the first, the composition of the third, except it felt unbalanced on the left. oh, and that she wanted her black boots (hehe) and i had put a cat in her hubby’s bag (third), but they actually have a dog! i revised the sketches and sent her the following sketch.

this made her very happy so there was only one revision.

from here i took my line drawing and in flash added a layer over it and went in with color. i don’t usually have any specific color in mind, i am fairly intuitive with colors. after looking at her photos, i knew the kinds of outfits both of them wore and i generally tried to pick colors that would unify them and the entire piece.

after this, i take the drawing into photoshop. i add highlights, gradients and this is where i spend time playing with overlays of color and really finalizing the image.

and voila! she was very happy and so was i! ^_^

i was invited to be a featured artist on the anti-achievers website. they are a wonderful design firm based out of new york – check out my interview! i created this piece for them as part of the feature ^_^

threadless: finding friends

infectious: tree songs

and i’ve been popping up around the web, very sweet write ups by some folks on my work – it makes me so happy to know that my work makes people smile!

cuteness galore

drifting and dreaming with nidhi

and this post from the ukraine! scraps of emotion

here it is translated

that’s all for now – time to relax and rest ^_^

as a result of this, i have *finally* put select illustrations on tees, cards and mugs – here are some:

Music by smallhandsdesigns

Sheepy by smallhandsdesigns

Guitar player by smallhandsdesigns

Boots by smallhandsdesigns