Whitney Houston, Owl always love youuuuuuuuu

…in the Body­guard. ♪ ♫ ♬ That movie was so pop­u­lar when it came out!

Happy (Late) Valentine’s Day!

I like to cel­e­brate Valentine’s Day Decor sales the day after.

I Left my Heart in San Francisco

Over the week­end I attended a memo­r­ial ser­vice for Paul Robert Mitnik…RIP Paul!

Paul was Joe’s (my guy’s) Godmother’s Father.

Dur­ing the ser­vice, I ended up draw­ing Paul from his wed­ding photo he took at San Fran­cisco. The same sailor hat he wore back then was placed on top of his urn. They played “I Left my Heart in San Fran­cisco” by Sina­tra, it was a beau­ti­ful service. 

It was my first time meet­ing Joe’s God­mother, so I was a lit­tle shy to give the sketch to Melody — los­ing your Dad is in the top ten worse days ever — but at the end I did end up giv­ing it to her through some encour­age­ment … she smiled & liked it, so I’m happy for that. 

This took place in Apple Val­ley, the wide open spaces of the desert was gooor­geous. I live next to the ocean, so it’s such a con­trast in environments! 

Going to any Memo­r­ial Ser­vice makes me renew my New Year’s Res­o­lu­tions  

Before I ride off in the sun­set, I’ll keep in mind to enjoy the ride by doing more of what I love.

*turns up Sina­tra songs & croons along

Sophia Artist Trading Card

It’s been awhile since I’ve drawn an Artist Trad­ing Card —

Draw­ing on a small sur­face area is faster, but the detail is tricker. The next 20-min por­trait will be on a large paper with char­coal, it’s good to mix it up

 

 

Stan: Hello Sophia, you’re look­ing younger every day. 

Sophia: Hi Stan, and that’s a beau­ti­ful toupee you’re wear­ing. Great, now we’re both liars.

Craft & Hobby Association Show 2012

I went to the Craft & Hobby Asso­ci­a­tion Show at Ana­heim. Craft-apaoolza!

It was fun to see such purdy things & visit Globe­craft Mem­o­ries’ Booth with prod­uct that I rec­og­nized work­ing on! It was Globe­craft Mem­o­ries’ Pic­colo DIY Home Décor Debut~

(pho­tos by Joseph Med­ina. Above, Hozi Berger’s expres­sion in the right-hand cor­ner is great! haha — Below, it was awe­some meet­ing Mae Lewis in person)

 

Here’s the progress of the Pic­colo Brand Identity:

First a sketch, then it’s nar­rowed down before it’s refined in Illus­tra­tor. Here is the cur­rent Pic­colo logo with dec­o­ra­tive ele­ments that may be used in Pro­mo­tional items like Cat­a­logs, etc.

I loovvve the sophis­ti­cated color palette, picked by Mae Lewis & Sum­mer Spedowski. 

I worked for the Children’s Mar­ket for a long time, so it’s always refresh­ing work­ing in some­thing other then pri­mary colors, haha!

Lincoln Sketch

Lincoln’s Birth­day is com­ing up real quick! This sketch is part of my year long project to draw a 20-minute por­trait a day.

When I used to per­form at piano recitals, my teacher said that it was much harder to per­form a song every­body knew, because if you screwed up peo­ple would know

I wanted to start sketchin’ famous peo­ple when I had more time to prac­tice my draw­ing, fur­ther down the road — but it’s fun to see where I can improve. Happy B-day, Mr. Lin­coln! ♥

Portrait Drawing — A Year Long Project

 A Year Long Project starts Today! —

I’ll draw a Por­trait for about 20 min­utes a day. It’s a great warm-up exercise!

I took a Por­trait Draw­ing Class when I was work­ing on my BA — we had to turn in a draw­ing a day. All this home­work really paid off at the end of the class.
I could whip out a draw­ing soooo much faster & with more accuracy. 

 

Lately, I’ve been using the com­puter exclu­sively in my work. I draw directly into Pho­to­shop using my Mouse Pen … BUT there’s noth­ing like draw­ing from life — it trains my eye + refines my style.

It’ll be fun to chart my progress + “Fill in the Blank” at the end of the year

★ Merry Christmas

What a FAB­u­lous year it’s been! Thank you for all your encour­age­ment & sup­port — here’s to an amaz­ing 2012!! 

★ Wish­ing you a safe and happy hol­i­days ★

xo, Anna

 

 

Get what you REALLY wanted — for a good price!

The best way to get what you want is to get it yourself. 

 

I upgraded my ‘lil all-in-one HP printer to a Canon, which prints up to 13″ x 19″.

(I’ll be able to print out actual size pages of the Children’s book I’m work­ing on, awwwww YEAGH!)

I bought it for… drum­roll, please … less then half price on Craig’s List — MINT in box — from a film stu­dent that didn’t really have a need for it. I’ve got­ten addicted to bar­gain­ing when I used to live in Thai­land. But even if you detest bar­gain­ing, the peo­ple who posted on Craig’s List have already bar­gained the price down for you.

Joe was so kind to pick up this big boy, since it was on his way home from Long Beach. I didn’t know the pick-up place was in Cren­shaw, Joe said he saw a police raid a house on his way there — Adven­ture Times!

(I bought my Mac­Book Pro from Craig’s List too, I rec­om­mend arrang­ing the meet­ing some­where pub­lic. Just in case…and you might want to go with some­one too. Thanks to Liz & Cyn­thia for play­ing chap­eron )

Here’s a pro­gres­sion of my office space below. I’ve found less IS more —

BEFORE :

AFTER:

— but, like Jello, there’s always room for a doll­house shelf. 

—————-

Any tips for sav­ing some mula? Please share! Since start­ing up my busi­ness, I’ve turned (even MORE) into a money-saving & time-saving tip junkie. 

 

Recordable Door Plaque Sighting @ Hallmark

The multi-talented, Über-nice Anthony Toscano took a photo of the Record­able Door Plaques I designed, over at a Hall­mark store.

Thanks sooo much, Anthony! It’s soooo cool to see what you designed in stores!

So far, there’s been 2 sight­ings that I’ve known of on the screen. My Name Mugs in the movie, A His­tory of Vio­lence, and the My Name Sippy Cups on a tv show called Pri­vate Prac­tice. I have screen­shots of these some­where. I’ll include them in the next “Prod­uct Sight­ing” post

I’ll have to head over to the store to see how they sound.

Since they are released into the world, it’s fine if I share some more pics:

 

Book Signing @ the Santa Paula Art Museum

I illus­trated a book called The Only Way to the Back­yard, is Through the House.

The author is the FAB­u­lous Pam Strange, who is such a joy to work with ♥

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll be going to a book sign­ing next week for it, at the Santa Paula Art Museum.

It’ll be on Decem­ber 11, from 2–4 PM. I’m excited to go (free refresh­ments don’t hurt either )

Here’s the link­age as well as the address: 117 N 10th St Santa Paula, CA 93060