June Newsletter

Hello Creatively Juicy Friends!

June has been a sweet month. My hubband is off work for the Summer and the weather has been wonderfully cool here in our little Valley. Usually it’s scorching, but we’ve been able to enjoy lots of time outside playing in the pool, the garden, and going on walks without terrible sunburns. It’s been wonderful. And I’ve made some progress on music and books, which I’ll share about in a moment.

My artwork for Fly.io is up around San Francisco! It’s fun to see it in the buzz of a big city while people make their way to their jobs and while on errands. Hopefully it adds a little magic to their day.

And another project update: My pal Joshua from Accelerated Tech asked me to create box art for his cool 3D printer expander that he designed. I just got it in the mail and it turned out awesome!

I’m still tuning up the B. Tull bok, making sure it’s as tight and strong as it can be for a publisher’s eye. Everytime I work on a book it feels like the first time!

In music news…did you know I make music?? I uploaded my first album from 2011, to my bandcamp page. Now there’s 1 album and 2 EPs, and I have another batch of 5 songs. I’m working on for my 4th release, due later this Summer, titled: RUNAWAY. Music has always been so special to me, always a sacred outlet. I have too many songs that I’d like to record and share, but who has all the time to do this with a job and two young kids LOL??

This month’s goals are to carve out time for making music and my books, read some literature, and spend enough time doing nothing, too. I hope you get some time to do that, too! This dream weave class from my friend Kelly might interest you. I plan on joining! It looks like a great way to connect with the self, which I know I need!

One last update on the kids: Brother used to hate baths but once he got into the kiddie pool, all of that changed. He is OBSESSED with playing in the water. And sister loves doing anything that he’s doing. :) This is a typical Summer day around here:

Have a great rest of your June and see you in July!

-Annie and the Crew

Along Came May

Happy May, friends! My allergies are in full bloom. If you saw me you’d think I’d been crying but no— it’s just pollen ruining my life.

I’ve been in the studio working on stuff for fly.io, but I also have made progress on my B. Tull story (more on that soon) and I even did a little spring study today. I plan to do more larger studies, and post them up for sale in my web-store.

Here’s what I did:

I drew four rectangles, and reflected on things I’ve loved about this Spring so far. Orange blossoms, Abby’s raspberry birthday cake, making lemonade with my son, and bouquets of garden flowers. I made quick painting sketches of three of them…still need to finish the orange blossoms. Then I did a larger study of Abby’s cake, adding in more detail and fixing the composition. I like who it turned out, but I think I’ll use hot press water color paper next, so that I have less texture.

Small studies in my sketchbook

A larger study of raspberry cake. mmmmmmm.

The title got weird when I painted it, so I cut some paper and redid the lettering. I used gouache and watercolor, then pencil to finish the details. It was fun, simple, and had been a WHILE since I sat down to play so it didn’t feel second-nature. But that’s ok! It feels good to not know what I’m doing sometimes and just make art for art’s sake.

I’ve also been working on some art for fly.io. Here’s a new hero image for the website:

Part of me wants to go even more psychedelic, but we’re not doing a full rebrand right now, so we need to stay consistent with the current style. We’re getting a new designer soon, so I’m anticipating changes and some fun collaborations in my future.

The garden is lush and the veggies are in the ground. The kids and I have been playing a lot outside and enjoying the sunshine and fresh air. My husband is happy and we’re all just trucking right now. I feel very thankful for that. The ebbs and flows of life bring so many things, and sometimes, once in a while…it’s peace and quiet ;)

……

If you’re in the Napa area this Thursday, May 8th, I’m doing an event with Chad McComber to talk about his latest book, CamShaft10 that I got to illustrate. The Napa Bookmine is a fabulous bookstore, so please come and check it out. Event starts at 6:00pm.

Wishing you lots of wildflowers and sunshine,

Annie