Lynsey Erin Illustration

Hi friends! It's been a bit of work, but my illustration website has launched!! Wooooo! This includes my fancy new blog where you can keep up with my news, art inspiration, goodies and such, as well as super new art. Stop by LynseyErinillustration.com and let me know what you think!

La Isla Bonita

Hi! I'm back from our honeymoon in Spain, too soon of course. We went to Barcelona and Mallorca, a beautiful island off the coast, and had an amazing time.

This is the beautiful town of Deia in Mallorca that
many artists, writers and musicians come to for inspiration.
Check out more of my Spain sketches on my Flickr page.

Illustrated Wedding Invites

So this is how our wedding invitations came out...our friend Ricky is an amazing graphic designer, and he type set and letter pressed them at The Arm in Brooklyn. (and took these 2 top photos...mine, not so great!)

images per Ricky Ferrer

Here's how the set looked. King and queen Love stamps, grey envelopes with attempted calligraphy, RSVP post card and invite. It took 2 stamps to mail just because the envelope is vertical! At least it made sense with the king and queen on each one....

Fancy Free and ABT

Hi! Haven't posted in a while due to the upcoming wedding and work, but I'm still drawing daily! Recently my fiance and I have been going to the ballet a lot, and he turned me on to the ABT logo contest....and I won! It's a rendering of Fancy Free, a ballet set in the 1940's about 3 sailors who fall for 2 women. Wooo! Check it out at American Ballet Theater.

Moleskine fiend

I never really understood why this brand of seemingly regular notebooks has such a cult following. But then I saw this video by Juan Berrio and was completely inspired, and started searching for other Moleskine using artists...of which there are many, many, and even more many. You must, MUST take a look at the video- it is just incredible.


I found a new favorite illustrator, Badaude, and fell in love with her hand done typography, fashion musings and illustrations, and fantastic scenes of Paris. J'adore her!!




Moleskine page from Illehell, on Flickr....the set is an a-z of cities worldwide, but I had to post my hometown, Houston!



This is a set of 3 Moleskines I bought for me and my two friends so I would finally have a sketch book to use in the subway, and because they are so wonderful and thoughtful, that I owed them some pen pal love. The girl in the top left corner I drew from a Depression era photo found in the Library of Congress's Flickr photostream. Best resource ever. I drew the Alexander McQueen dress for Jen, who was also a huge fan, and finally, a sun bear lamp/upholstered living room scene with a Daughter Earth wall hanging for Katy, of Daughter Earth. That may sound weird, but read her blog, and you'll understand. I'm off to finish my drawings for the invites...and start filling up pages of round cornered inspiration!

Inky play

A few weeks ago our class was asking illustrator Brian Floca what materials he used and he talked about Japanese nibs. I've always been curious and when another student tried them out for her final project with nice results I was encouraged. I love the thick and thin flow-y lines you get, but it's definitely harder to use than a pen and sporadically the metal scratches, ink erupts and creates sprinkles on the page. Lovely.

UP!

Last weekend I saw UP! and it was seriously amazing. The story, the animation...just incredible. Um, I cried...a lot...and was thankful for the 3-d glasses I was wearing! I'm always in awe of animators, but I especially like seeing their character sketches because they draw in a completely different way than other artists. They can just "see" a fictional character from every angle and it's completely imaginative, existing in his own world. I'd love to do more sketching like that. Some excellent pieces from Disney's Hollywood Studios Animation exhibit-

Aging Carl


Russell


Pixar's The Art of Up - on my Amazon wish list!

Extremely Mary Blair inspired- especially the painting that hangs on the hearth in their house- lovely

Sketching in the park

I've been reading Danny Gregory's book The Creative License and am very into his watercolor in-the-moment observational drawings. I don't really journal, just keep sketch books and sporadically draw what comes to me or ideas for specific drawings, but I love that he makes the mundane look beautiful. He makes me want to capture my coffee and morning bagel and make it feel special. I definitely don't do enough outdoor drawing and realize when I do how static it makes my other work feel and it' s nice to use it as a relaxing exercise. Pick up his book if you want encouraging and funny words, or new ideas to sketch if you aren't feeling inspired.


3 birds, a dog and 2 people at Riverside park

MoCCA love part 3: favorite artists

So guys, this is the last of the MoCCA posts and I want to introduce you to some of my favorite new artists that I'll definitely be keeping track of, and hope you will too. Enjoy!


Hellen Jo- this girl is ridiculously funny and talented. Go over to her website to see what I mean. She did a series of illustrations on post-its and it will make you feel bad if you're ever like, "waaa I have no supplies to draw with!"

oooo she did a watercolor of Belle de Jour- one of my favorite movies! If you haven't seen it- get it! the costumes were done by Yves St. Laurent and every shot is eye candy.

Joseph Lambert- this guy is extremely prolific, super nice- and signed everything in pink pen! He was selling gorgeous handmade work for great prices. You MUST go to his blog and see the screen printing process for the middle poster (I bought one)- it's awesome.

Robin Ha- Makes comics and does beautiful fashion illustration. I love the 50s styling of The Cherry Twins.

Anna Bongiovanni- Also very, very nice and signed my poster after sketching another fan on the spot. Anna had a comic book called 100 princesses, each page with a drawing of a princess and a little story, really cute and funny. These are the posters she made to go along with it, they are adorable! Unfortunately she's sold out on Etsy, but check back, they're so worth it!

MoCCA love part 2: artist cards!

The thing I love about festivals like this is that even when you are all out of money, people are still giving out full color business cards, postcards (great for framing for cheap art!) and stickers all for free, and helping me remember who I really liked. I've spent several hours admiring their websites and trust me, they are well worth your time to check out!

leaves by Mark Burrier

Center for Cartoon Studies postcard by Sean Ford

Illustration for My Mommy is in America and met Buffalo Bill by Emile Bravo

-Martina Fuggazzotto's work can be found at one of my favorite print sites, Charmingwall, or over at her super bright page
-Stephanie Yue is a RI based artist who does adorable children's work and these great mice!

I've been looking into printing business cards, so I'm quite keen on seeing what's out there right now, and what graphics work or don't in such a small space. The Twinkletoes Gang is deep pressed and came in an array of colors on thick creamy paper- very nice. Graphic black and white penguin card by Thomas Baehr- cutest graphic novel ever! I think the Comics Bakery is my favorite though, I love curved edges right now and the sweet sepia colors work so well.

MoCCA part 1: Kate T Williamson

I was surprisingly overwhelmed by the many great exhibitors at MoCCA art festival this weekend, it's just rows and rows of booths with graphic novels,comics, pins, cards etc. so it feels very personal when you're at an artist's booth, right in front of them, flipping through their work, and either you put it down and obviously weren't captivated...or you love it and start a conversation with the artist. Luckily the latter happened with one of my new favorite illustrators I was meant to meet, Kate T Williamson. Her beautiful graphic novel is called "A Year in Japan" with humorous writing and watercolor illustrations of a year documented there when she was granted a fellowship. Kate was super friendly, wrote me a beautiful inscription, and *gasp* has authored books about Hello Kitty!!!! whatt??? How have I not started her fan club yet??!

Pocketful Illustration

ooOoOo... the 3rd issue of Pocketful Illustration Magazine is out! I love the concept- an excerpt from The Little Prince-"Draw me a Sheep!" Everyone interpreted it in such original and unique ways, I'm really excited to be a part of it.

Luckiest girl alive!

Yesterday I had lunch with my very good friend Jen, who, unfortunately for me, moved far far away, but fortunately for her, got an amazing job that she loves, and affords her money to visit! I can think of no one more deserving than her, yay Jen! We used to work together and she taught me everything I know, and pretty much got me my first "real" job. Due to the move I suggested exchanging addresses to snail mail each other (we used to cut funny clippings and draw pictures and sneak them onto each other's desks which is just not the same via email) and of course I never sent my first letter and the week before she comes i get this:

My very own portrait!!! I'm loving the Madonna/ SJP in Girls Just Want to Have Fun vibe!! how cool is that??? oh, did I mention? I'm kind of crazy about Hello Kitty...thanks Jen!! now get a website so we can all "ooo" and "aaaa" over your work!

Friday's Five: Must see summer art shows

1. MoCCA Art Festival 2009 - a fundraiser for the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, but held at the Lexington Avenue Armory; a huge exhibit of artists, sketchers, animators, indie comics and more- I mean, just look at the poster! June 6th and 7th.

2. Also currently and, actually, at MoCCA through August 23rd, is a retrospective of David Mazzucchelli, a comic artist who started at Marvel working on Batman in the 80s and moved into the less glamorous but more personal indie comic world. He was actually in one of my classes at SVA- you know how you'll be in class and there's always a superstar the teacher adores and everyone else is struggling? Well, he's the superstar. Mazzucchelli's new work, a graphic novel called Asterios Polyp, looks really exciting - I can't wait to see it and get to know his older work.

3.Giant Robot NY - One of my favorite little galleries because of it's laid back vibe, cute shop items, and back issues of it's awesome magazine. Check out the new exhibit Panelists: Comic Artists on the Wall through June 24th.

4. Society of Illustrators -Earlier this year I posted about Yoko Furosho, a favorite artist of mine and a really nice girl. She was featured in The Society of Illustrators annual student competition, along with many talented upcoming illustrators you should check out to say you knew them when- through June 6th.

Petals in the water by Yoko Furosho

5. American Folk Art Museum- I already loved Henry Darger's collaged and traced outsider art illustrations following his fictional 15,145 page story about the Vivian Girls, but seeing the actual pieces is stunning. I didn't realize how large they would be, or how dreamy the use of his colors were until I visited Up Close: Henry Darger - though September 6th.

Subtle for summer...

...or not!! Little illustrated hipster Miss Marc by Marc Jacobs adorns this swimsuit, cover up , beach tote and flip flops -all on my summer wish list.

Images via NY Mag, Neiman Marcus and Revolve clothing

What I wore Wednesday

1 part Lynn Yaegar...

+ 1 part Linnea in Monet's garden

=

what I wore on Wednesday