Would Superman and Spongebob be friends?

Why WOULDN'T Superman and Spongebob be friends??



I've been told that my thought processes are extremely random. haha For example: I can finish a conversation up about what we ate for dinner last night and with the next breath ask if anyone knows where I can find Rainbow Bright socks.  It leads to many spoken questions and sentences where I only get confused looks and stares back as an answer. ....Actually, this happens quite often.... 

Yesterday, I was laying on my bed trying to take a short nap and of course, like always, my brain didn't want to settle down to let me sleep.  After a gazillion thought processes running through my head I all of a sudden realized that I was trying to think of (and PLAN) a situation where I could compare Diane Keaton to Lady Gaga.  Oh! if only I could insert that into a conversation!!

Why on earth would I waste my time thinking about that? LOL

So I started thinking again... (mayday! mayday!)... is thinking randomly like this is a reason why I love storytelling and illustration?  Getting involved in such dramatic and off the wall situations and topics? It's so much more entertaining than having conversations of the weather. How much better people would we be if we didn't take ourselves so seriously and let in some imagination to our lives.  Who says you can't have a bacon cupcake? or carve a wooden box that looks like a sandwich? (Jennie made one!)

So, I guess my answer would be that, while I don't know if it makes a GOOD story or illustration if it's more random, but it definitely keeps you on your toes and interested!

I'm silly, I'm RANDOM, I'm interesting, I'm different, I'm Me :)

a taste of having a "big girl job"

This is a bit different than my other posts, but just as fun :)

All my life, especially the last 4 or 5 years, I've never really felt my "age".  When you're younger it's looked upon as being immature and probably somewhat irritating to some, but as your years start to add up it can actually be a blessing in disguise.  I would bet that a lot of you who don't know already, based purely on a random picture of myself, would not be able to guess my correct age.  My poor sister, who's almost 4 years younger, gets asked frequently if she's the older one haha (I'm thinkin' it's because of the wedding ring, sis ;p )  And no, I'm not telling you how old I am! LOL

Anyway, I still feel like a kid a lot of the time and "Grown up" jobs are somewhat intimidating.  I bet a lot of the reason I love drawing and storytelling is a part of that.

Yesterday, I went with a friend (a grown up! haha) to a school she teaches an Arts program with.  It's pretty cool actually, they have different quarters in the school year and teach art, music, and drama to each class for 45 mins at a time.  Well, the director of the program let me tag along with a teacher to see what the job was like and if I would want to submit my resume' for a position in the fall.  I was a little bit nervous at the beginning of the day, I'm not gonna lie.  See, I don't have issues really with talking in front of kids or hanging out with them and I have plenty of experience in all of those subjects, but I've never had to be the disciplinary.  There's definitely a distinction between being the "fun helper" and the "Teacher".

She picked me up in the morning and we set off talking about what the day was going to be like.  Turns out, my friend has no clue about teaching beginning drawing, the subject of the rest of the school year.  Soooo very cleverly (I was swindled! LOL) the tables turn and I'M teaching the classes!!

In all my work experience, and maybe it's just my luck, the first day of a new job has never had the regular training for rookies.  Somehow, the person who's supposed to train me never shows up, or quits, or they can't find anyone... blah blah blah. I always end up getting thrown into it and flying by the seat of my pants.  So, for this situation, it was old hat :) She gave me the worksheets, went over a bit with the order of them and said "Do what you do!"  And let me tell you.... I did what I did!! 

It was so much fun! First, I had a mini discussion on what an illustrator was and did.  I showed them examples of illustrations they see every day and wouldn't think about, for example: classroom posters, the t-shirts they had on, sandwich baggies, pencil designs, their binders etc. I also had brought my portfolio along to show them what I did and explained my process what the exact same way I was going to teach them that day.  Then we got down and dirty with learning how to look for simple shapes to help yourself draw (lots of rectangles and triangles!) and then how to make them look 3 dimensional.
All the kids had fun and didn't really have any that acted out or misbehaved (those that had some issues, were dealt with by my friend haha).  But it was a very interesting experience on teaching and keeping the kids engaged with what you're doing.  It was surprising to me how many kids are soo hard on themselves :( if they cant do something right away, they give up. Maybe its the generation, maybe its the parents, i dunno... but it was sad.

All in all, it was a good time :) I learned a lot just by observing and who knows... maybe I'll be doing it for reals in the fall!

What's on my desk? Scribly Scribblies

Just a quick peak at some sketcherdoodles I'm messing with today.  These will eventually turn into another canvas painting. :)

it's a little dark, sorry for only phone pics

(Those chicken legs crack me up! lol)

I'm working on trying to find interesting perspectives.  So many fun scenes can look boring if they're all in profile with simple shapes.


Hope you're all having a fantastic day!

Friendship Roses

It's a new week and I have another little goody for you!

First a little backstory (I don't think I ever tell anyone anything without one actually...).  This project was a gift for my mom, sorta for Mother's day but after... haha The backstory is that she loves yellow roses and I mean LOVES them. She had them in her wedding, every anniversary, special occasion, etc... you get the picture.  Well, whether by coincidence or accident, every house that we've ever lived in has had a yellow rose bush or tree on the property so it's kinda been a silly little thing we always laugh about.

When my parents moved up to this house, my mom didn't know it at the time, but there were no yellow roses planted anywhere. There were red, pink, orange, white, practically every other color but sadly no yellow.  :(  One of my dad's friends heard my dad talk about how it was kind of sad that our yellow rose streak would be broken and decided that there was no reason for it! He went out and bought a small yellow rose bush to give to them as a going away gift  :)  So now every time it blooms the little bush outside reminds my parents of the friends and family we left behind in Orange County. 

My mom has since named it the Friendship Roses and asked me to make her a little sign to put in front of it so people know it was a special gift. Last week we went to Michaels and she picked out a cute little wooden sign that I handpainted for the roses. :)

I used all acrylic paint and just watered it down to create stains. The Gold is an actual gold leaf paint. (Note: If you try this, be careful about keeping the gold leaf on your brush too long, it might ruin the hair)

The gold leaf is going to look really cool in the sunlight!



Hope you guys have a great rest of your week!

So excited I want to cry! New Little Mermaid attraction at Disneyland!

I know this really isn't illustration related, but I have to share this with you guys because it involves my favorite animated film. 

As a HUGE Disney lover, I eat up any information on anything new coming out of both the Imagineering and Animation departments.  The parks have always been such a great retreat for me to get out of the troubles of the day (or year!) and let myself be immersed in a land of story and excitement. No one can do it better than Disney.  No one!! I mean honestly, think about what you feel as you walk under the railroad tunnels into the beginning of Main Street. With a view of victorian era buildings bursting with gorgeous storefronts, wonderfully themed music surrounding you (Hello Dolly is my favorite!) and a Castle waiting for you to boot! How can it get better?


With THIS!

 (All attraction images are from recent Dateline Disney articles)

The Disney Parks blog released another video this week of the soon to be opened attraction (June 3rd) based on The Little Mermaid! Can I even relate to you guys how excited I am that she finally has a credible attraction? Probably not! haha Most have been meet & greet type set ups and there was (now Pixie Hallow) a fountain section on Main Street at the Disneyland resort that was themed beautifully to the film, but it deserved it's own attraction.  Now, finally!, after 20 years... its Here!

Here's the video from the park's blog :)

You can bet I'll be standing in line with a giant cheesy grin on my face for no matter how long it takes!

Although I wish that Ariel had been able to be placed in Disneyland park itself, she was gifted with a gorgeous building made specifically to house this attraction. The talented imagineers did such a wonderful job with details.  Oh! did I mention part of the color scheme is TEAL? I think the artists snuck a peek at my color pallets haha! The animatronics are gorgeous like you saw in the video, there is a huge mural in the loading area, and at night the stain glass windows are lit to reveal incredible underwater scenes. I just really can't say enough about how well everything has gone for this, there have been a lot of attractions in the last oh ... 10 years! that haven't gone so well for Disney.   I was really hoping this one wouldn't follow suit.  Good Work Disney!

I can't guarantee this won't be the end of my excitment on this haha! It opens just a few days before I get to go to the park in June! So I will for sure be sprinting to this attraction and of course... what would complete the package? An Ariel souvenir! ;P

http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/dateline-disneyland

  I'll be sure to take some pictures and share :)

Bye!

What's on my desk?

Still pluggin' away at some current projects. Here's a peek at a handful of character sketches :)


This guy is a "special" pup.. he'll be fun to pose and get his quirky personality in an illustration.

He's a party pooper...

These two were fun to figure out!  They're "an old Jewish couple" according to the character descriptions haha!
The ram is hard of hearing so we incorporated a hearing device into this horn.

 Little more exaggerated in this one...

Last, this guy was a little more difficult. He's described as being a New Yorker, hopefully I achieved some sort of that attitude. 

so ya!  I sent these over to be reviewed, which means you might see some more with changes later.


I'm planning and getting supplies together for a couple new projects and doing sketches for another canvas painting to go with the piggies! Stay tuned for lots more soon!


Have a great week guys!

Cute as a button!

Hi guys!!

I told you I had something else up my sleeve to show you :)


As I wrote in my last post, I went to a baby shower for my cousin (Sarah) this past weekend.  This is the gift I made for her little boy and my other cousin's (Michaela) little boy.  So many boys!!

I've been trying to think outside the box and do more things that are illustrations but are also things people can use. Not just a cute painting or a fun card, but something that can be worn, or used, or taken places etc. So here's my little attempt at making some cute shower gifts for my cousinses. :)

Two little onesies!

I made them matching onesies that say "Cute as a Button" along the side! I made them two different sizes as Sarah's peanut, Brody, is still cookin, haha! And Ephraim (I hope I spelled it right) has already been there, done that!  This way they can match :)

These were really easy to make, if any of you wanted to try it.  I bought the onesies at Hobby Lobby but you can get them anywhere.  I washed them first because they were 100% cotton and I didn't want things to be shrinking after I applied the iron on backing.
Next I took an extra blue kids t-shirt we had from a musical last summer, cut out the circle and painted the face on.  Next I cut out some Wonder Under (WU) that is slightly smaller than the blue circle; I want the edges of it to come up and curl to add a bit of texture instead of a flat image.  Last, I followed the directions to apply the WU by ironing it to the blue circle first, peeling off the back, and then ironing it on to the onesie.  That particular backing is supposed to be able to be washed and cleaned without separating.


Here's a close up for you ...

Hope you guys liked these, I sure had fun making them. I can't wait to see both matching babies!

Hope you all have a fantastic rest of the week!

Roll! Roll! Roll in ze Mud!

I'm so excited to show you all this illustration! It's finally finished and it was SO MUCH FUN! I found myself smiling and giggling out loud sometimes while painting and I'm not ashamed because I love doing this! THIS is what I do! It's what makes me happy :D

(so if anyone would like to donate to the Annie Hobbs Illustration fund... please see my contact information! hahaha jk :)

A little background on what this piece was done for, my cousin Jessica had her 2nd little munchkin, Ally, a few months ago and I told her I would do a couple paintings for her as a gift.  She has done up her kiddo's room as a sort of cowboy/farmyard theme and these are to go with her decor.  This is the first of the two! It was meant to be a surprise, but she's been dying to see it and since she wasn't at our other cousin's baby shower this weekend.... she missed out on getting to take it home! Technically, it's still a surprise because she will see it in it's final form today hopefully.  Jessica, you should have come!! I can't keep my fans waiting! ;P

Here's the final illustration!

(*click on the picture to view them larger*)

Acrylic on Canvas

I wanted you guys to know too, I took these with my camera phone so I know the clarity isn't perfect. To be honest, I've been hearing a lot about work getting ripped off of blog posts and it's made me a little worried about final illos like this one. I don't like watermarks, but I don't know if slightly blurry pictures are any less detrimental either. What do you guys think? I'll definitely include a professional photograph on my website portfolio, but I'm not so sure about putting it here. For now at least.

I also thought it would be fun to do some progression shots!

Here's some of the process so you can see how the canvas started and sort of what areas I focused on first.

I worked from the background with more subtle color choices to the foreground with a much brighter and bolder color range.

I utilized a lot of bright under painting with this and it worked really nice! I loved the warmth and tone it set while I built up the texture and rendering. 


Here's a shot of my poor desk! I have so many things on there that I'm trying to find space for haha

And here's one last shot of the momma pig... she's so fat and cute and silly! She makes me giggle :)

So there is the first of two in my "Barnyard Series" :) Again, I had so much fun painting this, although I have to confess, I'm really not a fan of acrylic paint! I've tried a few times with not a lot of success to use this type of paint and I really don't like it! I'd much rather use my watercolor and gouache instead.

Maybe it's because it dries super fast or the brushes I have aren't that good and go all wonky... I get frustrated because I can never get the amount of detail I want. I know that's probably weird to some of you... I dunno...

Until tomorrow!

I have another set of SUPER CUTE things to show you! get your "Awww-factor" on!