My Etsy Shop

Before my brain explodes trying to get a handle on how to work with all this technology that keeps distracting me, I thought I’d put in a plug for my fabulously neglected Etsy shop.  I’ve had it for 3 years now, but only recently have actually tried to promote it.  (No wonder I haven’t sold anything…doh!)

The main items for sale right now are individual alphabet letters.  I created the original painting series  way back in art school, scanned them, cleaned them up and repainted them using “digital” brushes.

They are each 8×8″, printed on beautiful archival Velvet Fine Art paper, which has the look and feel of a cold-press watercolor paper. Each print is hand-signed by me and offered for sale at the bargain-basement price of $18/each or 4 prints for $60 (not including shipping).

The prints are bold, whimsical and vibrant and I’ve been trying to market them as a “great addition to your kids’ bedroom”.

Well…we’ll see what happens…..

Stay tuned for upcoming children’s growth charts…but only if I can figure out how to correctly load roll paper into my funky printer.

Max and Ruby

This is my latest pet commission and the first one I’ve done of cats.  ”Max and Ruby” were very well-loved kitties.

For more custom work, please click HERE.

Custom Holiday Portraits

For anyone who might be
considering having a custom family portrait or pet portrait done this year, I am offering a 10% discount for new clients from now through the end of November.  These unique and funky archival prints make special holiday gifts! Please email me directly if you are interested and would like more details: barbara@happypix.com     Be sure to mention “November 2011 discount”.  Meanwhile, Happy Halloween!

Art Explosion Open Studios

This past weekend, I participated in  Art Explosion‘s fall Open Studio.  I’m fortunate to be able to rent a wonderfully cozy space with some friendly folks in a great little art community within walking distance of my house.  This is where I escape to make paintings when I’m taking a break from commercial work.  For those of you in SF who may have missed it, there will be another Open Studio happening again October 1-2 and a holiday sale sometime in December.  (Date TBD)

I plan to be at the December sale and will host a kid-friendly, hands-on activity in my space. Stay tuned!

My Stop Motion kids

This summer I taught a week-long stop motion animation camp to a small group of 6-10 y/o kids as part of the Young Inklings Group. The Society for Young Inklings is a workshop for budding writers and storytellers that works with elementary age kids in schools.

I taught various forms of animation including: white board, animating objects (such as candy), paper cutouts and, of course, claymation.  We also worked on story, sound, POV and developing a memorable character.

The kids had a blast and produced some interesting and very funny work. Here is a sampling of one of the movies they created.  (Um, yes, that’s my voice hamming it up as the Evil Mushroom Villain.  Thanks for asking .  ;-)

CLICK HERE

I’m the Featured Artist!

I’ve just have been selected as the Featured Artist for the week at www.hireanillustrator.com!

“I’m working on it!”

For those of you who don’t know, my husband and I are in the process of launching a brand new company, specializing in games and apps for the iphone, ipad, nook and android platforms. With our kids’ sporadic camp schedule, it’s been a challenge (to say the least) to get anything done. My job has been creating graphics for our first product-which is a kids’ game called “Bounce Party”.

So here, at long last, is a sneak peek at some of the cool graphics I’ve been making.  Hopefully, this post will soon be followed by an announcement of our game’s launch!

We also just got a twitter account, so please follow us!

 

Screen shot from "Bounce Party"

Latest Portrait Commission

I created this custom portrait for a family in Tucson, AZ.  I’ve been doing these collaborative illustrations for the last 5 years and I now have about 20.  It’s fun working with families and learning about their lives, interests and personalities, as well as having the challenge of trying to capture their physical characteristics. I’ve also started doing some custom pet portraits.  Besides appearing in different fantasy landscapes, my clients have chosen to have themselves depicted as astronauts, pirates, circus performers, toys, royalty and more…

The final image is printed on archival fine art paper at 13×19″ and signed.

For More Examples, Click here

Desert Family (click to enlarge)

Forgetfulness

I really love this merging of Billy Collins’ poetry with animation.  I could watch this over and over again.  .

Retro Promo Card

I really love “retro” images of kids’ toys like jacks, hula hoops, etc. Perhaps my next promo will have 2 kids playing marbles.

2011 Retro Promo Card