Scary.

Glamour Girl, Q. Cassetti 2013, Adobe IllustratorIt was a mild spring day yesterday, but this morning snaps us back into winter on the first of February. All of our mounds of velvety moss had seized up into bright green patches by the side of the house. Shady romped while Mr. White wriggled on the pavement with feline delight. Today we will be running for the radiators and prime spots under the stove. Its frosty and white.

Love Leif Peng. Love Leif Peng’s “Today’s Inspiration” illustration history blog which surfaces people, time, projects, trends of illustration. Leif recently interviewed my mentor, Murray about Herb Lubalin and more broadly, on the ’70s. Take a look. Murray and Leif surface some lovely things and trends highlighting the amazing PushPin Studios along with the work of John Alcorn (wooooooweeee!!)

More pictures of percieved glamour… Here is a vintage Barbie with the half frisbee eyelash shelves, pouty lips and the tiniest pre-surgical nose in the universe. Freakolicious! Isnt she horrifying? Not surprising, even in her updates, she continues to be horrifying though her nose gets a scootch bigger, and her body a bit less atomic…its still pretty unreal. Good thing Barbie never gets old, gets pregnant or has gall bladder surgery. Middle age Barbie goes to the PTA meeting?  Colonoscopy Barbie? And its also good that Barbie is independently wealthy, so Barbie working at the Grocery Store or Walmart is out of the question. If she does work, she is a Vet or owner of a candy store…but never a window clerk at the DMV…though I am sure she has some rocking denim studded number that would really make folks sit up and take notice.

heya.

Troll, Q. Cassetti 2013. Adpbe IllustratorAlex is back at Hofstra. Kitty has started classes. Rob is busy. I have pulled another muscle in my leg…so I am hobbling around cronelike…and living for the heating pad. We are a few days into it…and I must admit, its getting better—but not as quickly as I would like.

Lots of work from Great Camp Sagamore. Just finished a poster, quartercard, black and white ad, ticket, web icon, Facebook graphic to promote a benefit folk concert April 5 in Saratoga Springs with the Jamcrackers and another group. I have their benefit invitation, website work and then, hopefully we can do a bit of a dive into a brand. After the board meeting, I now grasp how I can help the team move the needle in branding, brand building, promotion and programming which I am beginning to understand I am pretty good helping spin ideas about. The Piggery did a Bacon Fest which we talked out…and it rang the cash register, drove traffic and awareness and was a complete success for them. I hope with Sagamore, we can drive more people to visit, to give and to support. So much is volunteer, that those with means should contribute a bit….but that is a later story.

The troll is one of a series of illustrations I am going to work on—portraits of toys that terrified me as a child… breathing alittle life into their scariness. I finished a Barbie and have a few more Barbies to do…as I am stunned by the big lips, and the alien eyes that these oddly shaped iconic dolls portray.

frosty

Winter on Cayuga, 2012, Q. Cassetti, Adobe Illustrator.Wintery mix. The weather got so nice and warm this weekend, it was doors open, with Rob chipping away all the left over ice in prep for the next go round. It is white and magical this morning, with a slow fall, falling quietly albeit not too oppresively. Alex is itching to work, and I need to figure out how to get him occupied for a significant amount of time so it isnt this little thing and that little thing. I have projects to do, and with the littleinterruptions all day, it can make things a bit unwieldy and though productive for him, not so for me.

I got some bad printing back (first time ever) from an online source who has an email customers service thing…and I am anxious as the job is def needing to be reprinted and it is their problem… I think I am going to send another email with a photo of the job attached….so that the question of fault goes out the window. It is a time sensitive thing, so I need to get them rolling and I do not want to take a hit to reprint a job that I am doing as a courtesy for a friend. Quel Drag.

The winter bunny is an exploration of the color palette for a local college who has gold and blue as their exclusives, which I have pushed to a rainbow of tints, with beige. I was monkeying around with it for a legit picture, and figured I would salvage some of the parts and make my own picture just for kicks. They also are looking for another approach which dawned on me could be a photographic collage which skirts the color issues (no guidance on photography) yet, gives me some leeway with imagery and the mooshing of all sorts of ideas. So, I did one for kicks yesterday in addition to the vector image just to see what their response would be. These images may be “grandmother tested” when the kids come back to school to see what they respond/react to, and then move accordingly. Collage is a whole world of opportunity we have not really even explored! How exciting! Equally time consuming but in a different, more humorous way.

 

Citric Acid

Citric Acid, Q. Cassetti 2012, Adobe IllustratorHave been full bore on work and trying to slip in an illustration  or two just to keep the advent buzz going. A local college contacted me for an illustration for their summer program (which formerly they have mined my existing images that we would change out to suit their needs). But now that they have a new branding program which is fairly constricting, with a very intense, very quiet palette which they are firm on…I figured this was a good challenge to create within these bounds to see what could happen. Interestingly, the more limits I iput on myself with the color, the better the illo got (using basicallly two colors and the myriad of screened color). I hope it is something we can go with. I am intrigued to see where this can go combined with the trippy brushes, objects, and animals.

Alex is helping me with cards for Valentines Day. We are cranking them out from my printer and my accucut die cutter. We have about 10 different designs for sale at Sundrees along with some pins, some pendants and some little collections of tiny food that can be purchased in a nice tin box. We also have a cute Bakery Case (mini) to show the cake and cupcake pins, and some little unfinished/raw pine tables for sale to go with the little food for Valentines Day. I am focused on this as I am delighted that we made a bit of money out of one venue in December, and hope to see where this can go as the possibility of going to the stationery show in NYC and selling cards is not an impossibility. Consider that I have well over 40 images from the current Advent Calendar, why shouldnt I take advantage of that income stream.

Walking in Sunshine

Walking on Sunshine, Q. Cassetti, 2012, Trumansburg, NYWell…it is snowing, and snowing and I couldnt be more pleased. It is mounding up and needs to be plowed… And I am coming off the Advent Calendar blitz by reacting with full Kawaii, full Lisa Frank, full Alex Grey, and the tools of candyshop illustration. I am just going with the flow…to see what evolves. I have a lace brush, rainbow brushes, a beginning knowledge of a few new tools, and the urge to take cute and run with it,. I have instruction from Kitty that the new neutral, the new grey for me to work in is rainbow. Wow. Far from the discipline of black and white and a second color. This is hard going to let the reins out.

Christmas: Sugar Coated Advent 2012: Day Twenty Five, Christmas Peace

Christmas: Sugar Coated Advent 2012: Day Twenty Five, Christmas Peace, Q. Cassetti, Trumansburg, NYPeace be with you and yours on this day that reminds us that each new day is a new birth, a new opportunity to grow, change, give and love each other. Have a lovely and warm Christmas with those you hold dear.

Advent is done. Christmas is here. However, if you want to review the images created for this years Advent Calendar, they are all compiled here (and a few more I didnt post)… its right here


Sugar Coated Advent 2012: Day Twenty Three

Christmas Eve: Sugar Coated Advent 2012: Day Twenty Three, Wrappin’ Mr. Giftie, Q. Cassetti, Trumansburg, NYLove to all my friends and family here and abroad on this Christmas Eve 2012. The day looks to be promising, filled with light, people gathering, and the space for all of us to assess all that we have to be thankful for—in the past, present and hope for the future. May you soak in the day—with those you love.

Sunday Special: Sugar Coated Advent 2012: Bonus: A Little Happy Time

I know its off topic, and I know it really isnt part of the proper advent calendar, but it was created only last week, so I will post this as a bonus on a beautiful Sunday before a week of celebration and joy.
Sunday Special: Sugar Coated Advent 2012: Bonus: A little happy time, Q. Cassetti, Trumansburg, NY

Sugar Coated Advent 2012: Day Twenty Three: Kawaii Snow Globe

Sugar Coated Advent 2012: Day Twenty Three, Kawaii Snow Globe, Q. Cassetti, Trumansburg, NYWe got some snow yesterday. So, it is feeling a bit more like winter. Kitty made a ton of earrings out of the dollhouse treasures—and sold $70. worth to friends during the course of the day. Alex visited with friends and helped Rob get the tree. I wrapped presents while waiting for my computer to boot up from the numerous crashes while making tomorrow’s picture for the next to final Advent Calendar project. I love what is going on with this picture and my mind is whirring about what is next. So, this body of work drove technique inspired by content, and now the content is evolving for the next collection of images inspired by the new techniques.  The Catherine Wheel of insipiration keeps proving itself to me.

A person saw my food brooches at Sundrees and contacted me to create a holiday feast without the pins to give to his wife for a holiday gift. I have a bunch of small pine tables and whomped up platters of cookies, veggies, a turkey, tea in cups with lemon, bread in a bread basket, a pie and more…so cute…I think I have another product to sell for Valentines Day? I need to get the valentine printed…and create a few to sell. Maybe this little deer would like to be part of a Kawaii valentine? Or the head of antoher stratosphere suit. Why didnt I see that yesterday? Jeez. Not much time to reflect on what is being thrown out the door.

Sugar Coated Advent 2012: Day Twenty: Punch in the Box

Sugar Coated Advent 2012: Day Twenty: Punch in the Box, Q. Cassetti, Trumansburg, NYAlright, I couldn’t resist. There were two Jack in the Boxes done for Jennifer Houghtaling….the happy and cute one posted earlier, and the Punch in the Box (as in Punch and Judy) that I had to do (if anything, to see if I could make a monster brush, which I could)… and so, I need to post that right now as a counterpoint to cute. Punch does not have his club, but as you all know, he uses his head as a battering ram on his poor scapegoat of a wife, Judy. I hope Judy gets a break over the holiday….

Sugar Coated Advent 2012: Day Eighteen: Special Delivery: Parachute Santa

Sugar Coated Advent 2012: Day Eighteen: Special Delivery: Parachute Santa, Q. Cassetti, Trumansburg, NYKitty and Alex are coming home today, so I figured someone jolly dropping in might be a fun point/counterpoint to our expectations! This little dude is again inspired by that wigged out show we saw at the new Museum and my fascination with stratosphere, diving and space suits (particularly the early ones)…articulated in stripes and candycanes. How I have gotten from Gingerbread houses to Stratosphere suits is a little beyond me, but in the context of 6-8 images make a thesis project, by the end of this process, there would be plenty to pick for one slash two thesis (in different flavors). I was watching a few YouTube videos on some techiques I am working into my digital mis en place and am fascinated to see where this is going.  I was delighted with an illustration I did last week when I had to do a reduction illo of a tractor and put type on it—using drawing to better integrate the type with the image. New tools= more control and confidence in really rocking with it…And it was significantly faster too.Such a fabulous surprise!

Its another grey and rainy day with dark clouds, heavy droplets and the suggestion of snow or something slushy later today. I have dethawed a pork roast from the half pig we bought and am slow cooking it for the soon-to-be arrivals along with a mess of tomatoes I froze after cooking and foodmilling this summer. I have a box of chopped basil to make fresh pesto for Alex (who is pining for big eating). Now, what to cook for Christmas dinner. Hmmm.

Later. More advent stuff (am contemplating another bonus image today!).