this one's dedicated to all my friends who either just had babies or are about to – and there's a lot of them! i usually never doodle people and almost never strictly in illustrator but this worked out as a first try. i think it could use some tweaking but it works for now... any advice from the IF community on this style would be very much appreciated!

more distressing! i made this for my sweet, champ of a husband. whenever i start falling or second guessing myself he's always there to bring me back up. xoxoxo

together at last... the how-to's. i'd like to do a couple visual, step-by-step how-to's next. i'll post the outcome. have a wonderful day!

here is the counterpart to "how to be a gracious guest". i really enjoyed making this couple. i'll post them together next.

may 7th was the one year anniversary of my grandmother's burial and i wanted to make her a memorial. i also wanted to experiment with creating the ever-popular distressed look... here's the result.

IF: worry. i know it seems like i'm obsessed with large birds hanging around little towns but i swear it's the last time! i really just combined two projects together – my kutztown blog header and the IF word worry. if you've never been to the kutztown area the joke is that they call part of old main (the original dormitory) the "chicken head". anyway, i used a little more of a loose hand and very vivid colors in comparison to last submission. hope you all like it!

i caught a glimpse of this poster in the movie juno just yesterday... and if you haven't already please check out tara mcpherson's work. i can guarantee it will blow your mind! i especially love her because of how she managed to combine two of my most favorite artists (alphonse mucha and mark ryden)in a fantastic new way! note: she is going to be a speaker at icon5 this year – hope i can make it...

here is my final "how to be a gracious guest" doodle. i used a old painting as an experimental background for this piece and the hawk mother... i think it works...

IF: wide. entitled "hawk mother spread her wings wide over the village".
i had so much fun making this – while outside it continued to rain and be ultra gloomy. nothing like a good 'ol drawing session for a pick-me-up on a rainy day. hope it brings cheer to others stuck in this dreary condition. xoxoxo

this is a new work in process entitled "how to be a gracious guest". i'm excited to try this new world of characters... i'll post the progression.

this is the thank you for all of the wonderful people who have helped/inspired/loved me in the past years! i couldn't have done it without you. thank you! i love you.

i was feeling my dutchy roots today... maybe my next header will be in this style.

i did a small run of prints of mothmother and fishsister. i matted them in 5" x 7" boards and put them in little cellophane baggies. hope you like them! they are on sale now at my etsy shop!

yey, robot heads! i have a summer plan of making robots... we'll see what happens.

i've obviously gone a bit crazy with the puffy border and curly accents... this one's called "i have a crush on you"

during my search for inspiration for this weeks IF I ran into these interesting solutions to the open ended circuit from our outlets. apparently it's a power leak we don't even consider... check out Die Electric for more information.

IF : electricity. Which one of these 3 couples has the most electricity?
I'm not sure if this has enough substance or even looks complete... any advice from the community?

since everyone liked the mothmother so much... here's a new one called fishsister.

made this birthday card for my niece today... hope she likes it!

Our trip to Costa Rica is all in this fun line map... I made it so my husband and I would never forget the awesome time we had on his surprise getaway. Making this was so much fun - I plan to do this every trip we take.

keri smith rocks. i love her blog, books, ideas ans illustrations! so much to crush on, so little time...

new doodle entitled mothmother. i think the yoga penetrated my brain!
now for sale at my etsy shop!

IF : seeds... I'm not usually this dramatic but the idea just stuck in my head until it forced itself out... I don't love the colors or the proportions but that seems strangely and perfectly ironic.

Maria Kalman is awesome! I was so inspired when I saw her talk on TED linked from the illustrationfriday blog that I just had have her on my blog as well. Her attitude is so contagious - check her out and enjoy!