The Apes of Eden

Hi Guys! 

I wanted to drop in today and show you a final painted piece that wrapped up last night. Today I'll be scanning it into photoshop and fixing anything and/or adjusting any colors if need be. 

This is a cover for a self published ebook entitled "The Apes of Eden" which will be out as soon as the client and I get everything together. I'll be posting more on the release if you guys are interested in downloading. 

Here is a quick shot of the original painting (pre-title).  

The book is based on a tribe of intelligent Apes years into the future and one's quest to record their history onto tablets. It is also written in Iambic Pentameter which makes it a very unique and interesting read. 

Hope you guys have a great week!! 

October 2013 Update

Hellooooo out there!! 

I have not been back in here in a VERY long time. I decided I needed to give you a quick update on what has been happening in my own little corner of the universe.

First, my personal freelance business has really picked up!! This has been incredible and I've received orders and commissions from people outside my friend and aquantance circle!

I had to put a cap on taking any more commissions for the month of October because I got so busy!

Now granted, I had also picked up 2 other short term side jobs while doing this, so my time has been limited.  But had I not capped it, I still would have had to put off some of the incoming requests.  Those lovely people are waiting patiently for me to finish up and take on their projects in November. It's been a really interesting fall! I'm so thankful that people are coming to me to help create their vision. 

This is an underpainting of a book cover I'm working on.  Such a cool opportunity!

2ndly, I've sort of dropped into the world of Disney and shoes....

What in the world?

Random, right?

For the month of November, I've recieved 2 requests for painted shoes and multiple requests to recreate scenes and characters from Disney films.  Hey, there are worse things than getting to paint your most favorite things in the world, right?? haha!  I'm loving working on those and it puts me in my happy place.

That pretty much sums it up, I don't have a lot of spare time right now and actually I'm liking it.  Sure I'm tired and I try to take quick naps here and there, but I'm so friggin PRODUCTIVE!!  :)

I'll leave you with a quick sketch I did last night while I was literally waiting for some paint layers to dry.  

Have a great week everyone!

Dr Who Shoe Commission

Hey Guys!!

I can finally show you all one of the projects I've been working on!! The Recipient has had them shipped to her and she loves them. :)

I was asked to do another pair of shoes, except these were to be themed after the British series Dr. Who.  Megan sent me a clear idea and inspiration photos for the tops of the shoes, but let me have creative license for the sides and the back.  I had a really fun time working on these and I even added a few extra things to make them extra Epic! You kinda have to when you're dealing with a Dr. Who commission. Just Sayin'...


Anyway, here is the front of the shoe that was designed by the client. she wanted the lace area to mimic the wardrobe of her 2 favorite "Dr's".

Side view, I painted a Galaxy theme and added in a glitter to the star area so the sun will make them sparkle!

On the backs, I painted a Dalek - 2 separate robot characters that go with the light/dark of the front of the shoe

Here's another view of the 2 side by side

Here's the video I shot for Instagram.  You can really see the sparkle on the sides!

Now, for the extra EPIC part! I couldn't get a photo or a video of it as the camera just could register.... but these shoes GLOW IN THE DARK!! Yup! That's right! The front white sections of the Tardis, the stars of the galaxy, and the main front light area of the Dalek's all glow in the dark! I can't tell you how many times I took them into a dark room just to see it all glow again. haha! 

If you're curious what type of shoes these are, I believe they were purchased at Walmart, but they're basic "Keds" type canvas shoes.  If you're interested in having a commissioned pair from me, I can paint on any canvas shoe surface.  I've also done a pair of Toms. I use regular acrylic paint and craft paint, neither will come off with water.  Once the paint is on, it's not going anywhere unless for some reason the fibers of the shoe come off.  I mix the paints with a certain amount of water so it really soaks deep down into the canvas.

Thank you guys for checking out my work! I have had a some interest on doing another pair so I hope to have another version to show you!

Have a great week!!

New Studio Space!

Hey guys! I FINALLY am able to show you the new area I've built up for my studio space.

I have one room to myself so I had to make it functional as a computer desk, painting desk, bookcase, and all over storage.  It was a big task but needed to be done as I had a huuuge mish-mash of old furniture barely able to hold all my "stuff".  It's amazing how much you can accumulate in art school...

Anyway.

After hunting around, I came upon a blog that held the perfect plans to my dilemma, you can read about it HERE.

Long story short, I was able to get all the parts I needed from Ikea and local hardware stores and I built the PERFECT workstation!! Here's a couple views of what I put together...

(I apologize for the fuzziness in them, due to how dark it is in my room all my working lights are pointed towards my desk.... doesn't help with photos LOL)

You can tell it's quite a bit different than the inspiration photos of her blog, but we both have different needs of our spaces.

Now for the components,

*The main desk I got years ago during art school.   It's built like a drafting table and can be hinged up and down.

*2 IKEA Expedit shelving units on each side.

LINK

* Then I have a piece of white shelf board I bought at a local hardware store, sitting atop each of the shelving units creating a deep shelf above the desk.  These were made for closet shelves I believe.  It's a heavy duty board that has a rounded edge so I didn't have to paint anything. 

*Underneath the top shelf, I have a floating shelf out of the same piece of board as the top.  I bought 2 cheap shelf hangers and fit it directly above my computer. A lot of my easy access tools are up there as well as some fun inspirational things. 

*Right up snug next to the right shelving unit is an Exedit bookcase I bought years ago.  This has been an amazing piece of furniture for me. I tilted it on its side and fit it perfectly alongside the shelving unit. 

LINK

As you can see in the pictures below, I have some drawer sets and cupboards in the shelf boxes.

These are amazing! They're shelf inserts from.. you guessed it! IKEA You build up the shelves, fit it into an insert box and then slide it into the square space of the unit. Brilliant. 

LINK

LINK

Now the rest of the contents of the desk were made up of many of my existing materials.  The only other things I purchased from Ikea were 5 packs of cardboard magazine boxes to hold upright materials like specialty papers, job files etc... I plan on covering those with fun papers to add a pop of color to the dark and white look to the desk.  

LINK

So there you have it! I'm super excited about this space and if you have checked out my post of the Fox and the Hound painting I did, you can see that a full size canvas fits on this desk! It has also been bolted to the wall so there's no danger of it falling over or moving around.  I'm so happy I discovered Jen at I Heart Organizing  Her idea of the desk was just incredibly inspiring and perfect for what I was looking for.  I think for everything - mind you, I already had the desk and the double Epedit unit, the cost was around $250. Which is nothing compared to what you would pay for a unit like this already put together.  And it's completely customizable! 

I'm still adding touches here and there, I lined all the drawers with fun paper and eventually, I'd like to cover the desktop in glass and be able to slide inspiration pieces underneath. But as far as adding anything else, for now I'm set! On the walls around the workstation, I'm collecting inspiring artwork and hope to have my own little art gallery all around me while I work.  That's an ongoing hunt :)

If you have any questions on how I put this together, please let me know in the comments and go check out Jen's blog!! 

Little bit of Disney lovin'

Hellooooo my friends!

I've been working on something that has probably been THE most fun painting I've done to date and it was close to my heart for multiple reasons.  You guys all know my love of Disney and it's no secret  how much I enjoy watching the films. Well, one of my close friends is expecting a little boy and for his "gift", I painted a huge acrylic canvas with a scene from The Fox and The Hound that she opened at her shower last weekend.

It was one of the most rewarding "jobs" I've done and I can't wait to see it in the nursery in Portland.

I spent probably about 30ish hours working on both the background and the 2 baby characters.  I was extremely lucky to find incredible references for both as well as extra sets of experienced Disney eyes to critique for any proportion issues.  These two stole my heart and it was difficult to wrap that canvas up to give it away haha I wanted to keep it!

I'm waiting on a good quality final picture to show but here are some behind the scenes shots of the process and a quick shot of the finished piece that was taken at like 1am.

I drew out the initial illustration on the canvas with pencil. The canvas was prepped with Gesso. 

A side view to show how huge this thing was! It was about 3.5ft x 4.4ft. Took up my whole desk! 

The next step in my process was to get a base wash down to help hide the white of the canvas and to establish my darks. 

At this point it was about 6 hours in that night and I was getting a little... Uh ...

tired. I needed to really be "one with the characters" LOL 

Even the kitten had passed out on me. 

The final shot before I wrapped it up! As you can see, the acrylic has a reflective shine to it. I'm hoping I can get a clearer image once it's up on the wall and not facing at an angle. 

Hope you guys like it! It was just a joy to work on and I can't wait to do some more painting! 

Hope you all have a great week, summer is almost here!!  

Teapot Mouse

Hey guys!


It's been a while since I've shown myself over here.  I promise I'm still alive and plugging away on stuff.  When you're not able to devote a full time schedule to your passion its really hard to fit it in while you work to take care of necessities. Luckily, Ive been blessed with multiple outlets that are allowing me to make ends meet and keep up with all I need to.  Sad part is that a lot of my time for my personal work gets put on the back burner.  Hopefully this summer, I'll be able to kick start that while I'm on break.

I wanted to drop by and show you an illustration that hasn't made it up on the blog yet.   The final illustration ended up being a bit 3D with added elements but I don't have a picture of it :(

This illustration was for a baby shower for my niece last spring.  It was on the front of the invite and we actually glued a real goose feather on the hat so it looked like it was stuck under the ribbon.  It curled forward and made a really cute addition.


Hope you guys have a great weekend! I hope to have more posts in the next couple months. :)

Studio Space Update

Hey Guys!!

Really fast update, as it's 12:30am and I have to go back to work tomorrow (I LOVE 3 day weekends!).

I have all my parts together! ...wait, what?

I have all my studio parts together! haha!

Both sets of shelves have been put in, both bookcases, drawers inserted, doors hinged... it's been a LOT of work! But it's going to be so worth it in the end.  Now comes the daunting task of finding all the extra bits and pieces a home.  Or the trash. (that's another tough part)

I promise you a final reveal and "studio tour" when all is put back together.  You'll get to see my little bit of room/office/studio. :)

New Workstation!

Hey guys!

I wanted to share a new project I've got going on, it's called...

"OPERATION: WORKSPACE"

If you're like me, when setting up a desk in the beginning of your career, school, or hobby as an artist.  It's hard to go out and know exactly what you'll need.  We all start with a desk or table or some sort of solid surface, maybe a couple bins or boxes to throw paint brushes in or one of those rolling plastic carts.  You never realize how many different art supplies you're going to accumulate throughout the years and your space has to grow and expand to hold everything.  

What started for me as a nice wide artist table and a single drawer cart soon expanded over the years to include 3 more plastic drawer carts, an old short bookshelf that stacked under my table - filled to overflowing, an under the bed pull out bin, a tall bookcase packed with art/inspiration book,s and a full drawer of my own dresser. *sigh*

There's got to be a better solution. 

There is! 

First I want to say that I most definitely need to go through and purge old supplies before reorganizing.  Oil tubes only last so long outside of school... 

The first thing I needed to figure out was storage space and surface space.  I needed not only to have plenty of places to store supplies but I needed them accessible.  Digging through 3 drawers before finding a certain paper isn't efficient.  I also needed to make sure that my actual table was as open as possible.  One major change in this set up is the addition of a desktop computer.  Thank you Apple for making an all-in-one; it needs to be able to slide all the way back when I get out any kind of paint or messy mediums. 

On another note, I also need it to function as an office space.  I never realized how much "office supplies" fall side by side with the art pencils and my monthly bills have no where to land. (in turn they clutter up the desk.... and the problem starts all over again.)

It's a tall order to find something that specific and if you start hunting around the internet for such a station, you're gonna end up spending a TON of money.  

Then Pinterest came to my rescue!! (Have I mentioned I love Pinterest??)

One of my friends posted a picture of a pretty little office desk and in the description she said it came from an amazing organizational blog. iheartorganizing.blogspot.com "hmmm..." I thought.  So I checked it out.  

Scrolling down the list of projects on the blog my eyes fell upon this...

I clicked. 

All the world's problems were solved. 

Ok, not really.  But this was exactly what I was looking for!! It was a 5 part blog post about how she created this desk and the awesome part about it? It was completely customizable for anyone! 

This is the design she had come up with on Excel and posted it as a road map to her plan.  It included all kinds of cubby holes, drawers, boxes, and the same computer I have! 

Best of all, the components to make up this type of workstation, are easily accessible.  The two shelves on the side are IKEA bookcases, the top is a piece of heavy board set on each bookcase, and the shelf in the middle is it's own.  I'd use the desk I already have in place of buying anything new - I love it and it's perfect for what I do. 

The cool thing about those bookcases is that you can buy inserts for the cubby holes that allow for double drawers and cupboard doors. 

I'm so excited to get my version of this set up.  I won't mimic everything she did, she went into a lot of detail with wainscoting and molding along the top and bottom.  I don't necessarily want to do that right now, but the general idea and set up is brilliant.  She also went with an all white theme, I'm going with the black/brown version of the bookcases. 

This was her final outcome.  So cute! 

My table will come out much further than a regular office desk and it's perfect!  I'm still thinking of what configurations I want with drawers, shelves, and doors.   

Here's the link to her beginning post: Custom Desk you can follow along to see how they put everything together. 

Do you guys have any tips or trick on organizing an artist's studio? 

Any thoughts on the set up or improvements you'd make if you built one?

The Paperman illustration

Hey guys!

I do have something to show you that was finished up over Christmas as a commission :)

I don't know how many of you might have seen the Pixar short "The Paperman" but I've heard it's really really great.  In all reality, what Pixar short film isn't great? exactly.
One of my good friends approached me about recreating an image of the two main characters he'd found.  He and his significant other had seen the film together and instantly fell in love with it, it was sort of "their movie" so to speak.

The original image was found online and if anyone knows where I can link back to the artist, please comment or message me (I believe it was from a Tumblr account).

Anyway, this is my version of that image.  It was done in cool grey prismacolor pencils on a warm grey canson paper.  I loved the feeling of being able to take the neutral tone of the paper and add in my own darks and highlights.  It's much different from working light to dark.

Hope you guys like it!

I may do some more Disney fan art on here, I really do love drawing different characters. :)

Facebook Giveaway!

Hey guys!!

*Sigh* Yes, I'm still alive.


I wanted to send out a short blog blurp about a facebook giveaway for my Illustration page!

I recently hit 100 followers or "Likes" and am hosting a giveaway for a hand drawn original postcard by yours truly to be sent out to the winner.
I'll be posting the official rules, start and ending time tonight on my page so if you are not presently subscribed to my page here's the link to do so Annie Hobbs Illustration - don't miss out!

I've not only got the give away to announce but I also have a pair of blank shoes ready for paint AND a new commission piece to be posting about!!

See you back here soon!

Most amazing Ariel Balloon art I've EVER seen!