Eloise Wilkin...and my ego

kindergarten I attended a children's  illustration panel the other night.  A couple  people  that were on the panel were illustration buddies of mine.  And being the narcissist that I am, when questions were directed to my friends I felt the need to voice my answer, quietly in my head...

"So, Molly, what got you started in illustration?"

Molly Mikela:  "Well, (small chuckle) I don't know how many of you are familiar with Golden Books but (reflective pause), for me it probably was seeing Eloise Wilkin's We Like Kindergarten.  The cover of that book was so strange to me, because on one hand, you have this beautifully rendered little girl and on the other hand the girl is holding her crude yet innocent drawing.  It was quite a conundrum!  So....ha.... (smiling at the audience) the contrast between realism and naïveté was an appealing aspect of art to my six year old mind and remains a source of interest to me as a developing artist."

Speaker: "Tanja, can you tell us about your experience with promoting your book through your various book tours?"

Tanja Mikela: "uh... book? tour?...uh...."

Death is upon our house

O.k. I give up. 

I am no good with plants and animals.

Even as I write this, I fear for the lives of my children...

It all started with a magazine, and to protect their anonymity their name will not be mentioned, but let's just say that when you read this magazine, one assumes things are gonna be very easy...so I'm all excited because I find a recipe, which gives me the impression that it's very easy.  I need a cup of this and tablespoon of that, and oh, of course FRESH herbs!  I fell for it - again!  8 out of 10 times, I never get around to cooking this herb infused concoction, and yet here I am handing over my $2 for a coffin shaped box of fresh herbs.   Sorry Tarragon, the hand of death put you in her fridge to slowly wilt and die underneath the zucchini.

What's worse is the death of Stevie...

Stevie was part of a co-op my husband and I joined for the enjoyment of our young daughters.  A gecko co-op.  Yes, Stevie was content eating his $.10 crickets in his little plastic cage, until guilt set into my chest.  I wanted him to experience his home even if through the blurred vision of his plastic penitentiary.  Putting him outside in his little greenhouse was not a good idea.  Especially in Arizona.

R.I.P. Tarragon, Thyme, Mint

In Loving Memory Stevie.

herbs

sorry, I'm not going to draw a shriveled up gecko.  I don't do that kind of illustration.

Starbucks is so beautiful...

starbucks If you are a coffee drinker, you know the pull of  that seeing that weird green two-tailed mermaid posted by your local Walgreens, Target, Big-O tires and random power  plant.  Yes, fellow coffee drinkers, we are brainless moths attracted to a corporate giant flame, in need of our caffeine fix.  But I'm superior to you Venti triple shot no whip frappicino drinkers.  I only get a tall coffee, whereby I can justify going in 3x as often, which of course monetarily equals one of your snooty drinks.  But I don't think that when I walk in, all I think is "I woke up today, I deserve this."

Use Twitter for good, not evil.

Ya' know, I had my reservations about Twitter when the hubby suggested it, meaning he signed me up and started following a dozen or so people without my knowledge.  But now that I've jumped on to the networking bandwagon, I've come to the conclusion that you can only do good or evil with this - thing.  I guess what I'm trying to say is there is a lot of, not even politics, but just flat out third grade bragging on this public micro blog.  The best thing about it though, is finding people that don't have 1000+  followers and have AMAZING work.  Here's two, just to start... cateris

Sarah Caterisano I'm such a sucker for beautifully rendered people and watercolor washes!

Tea and NPR

Tina Sweep Wonderful still life and anyone that listens to NPR is a friend of mine.

 So, in conclusion, go to your local Twitter and check out other great artists - and be good!

Having trouble staying faithful

monogamy to my  illustrations that is... (calm down Cameron!)

Typically, I am an organized person.  I can focus on one thing at a time.  I like things kept tidy, a place for everything, food evenly distributed on a plate, the Container Store and playing Tetris.  But when it comes to art I'm like a 4 year old kid with ADHD. Right now I have 4 things I "work" on, when really I should be working on only one. Can you guess which?

1. A big freelance job that's due in a month (meh) 2. A promotional editorial illustration (in my mind's it's awesome!) 3. A secret illustration based on a current obsession (giggle!!!) 4. A banner for my blog that requires extensive amount of scanning utilizing the world's crappiest scanner (could you hand me that baseball bat?)

So basically - put children down for a nap, turn 180°, walk into office and commence farting around on the computer until said children arise.

I swear I'll work on it tonight, I swear I'll work on it tonight, I swear I'll work on it tonight, I swear I'll work on it tonight.....

Ora Eitan

 cowboy_bunnies1 Upon my weekly visit to the library with my girls, I came upon one of Ora Eitan's books Cowboy Bunnies and I had one of those "Oh yeah!  I forgot about her!"  moments - like rediscovering my favorite chapstick lost in the abyss of my purse.  My fav book of hers is Sun is Falling, Night is Calling.  Her painterly style is just so fresh, innocent and effortless.  You look at it and immediately start craving gouache - and plywood.  "Plywood, plywood!  I need it!  I've been inspired!"  The poopy thing is she doesn't have a website so this link will have to suffice...

Texas travels

texas Did this lil' painting based on a sketch of the Texas country side.  One thing about Texas, (ifn' you nain't never bin!) it sure is - FLAT.  I grew up in SoCal, yes I am an original 909-er - but never a tweaker.  Anyway-  California is very hilly, mountainy, up and downy.  So I was very surprised by Texas' expansive flatness.  The part about the land that I loved was how it seemed like striations of earth.  Because the mountains weren't there to distract you, you're able to really appreciate the colors of these horizontal stripes.  And the cows.  The cows were so cute!  They looked like teeny weeny grass eating big rigs.  Ah Texas...

I $*#%-ing ♥ zeichenpress

zeichen Well, I have these card designers under "inspiration", but I just wanted to give a special shout out to Zeichen Press, and to Fran Shea's blog. 

I stumbled, well, ran my cart into their cards at Trader Joe's, and now am hooked.  Not only are the cards handmade from a vintage letterpress and have a rockin' vintage look - but they are HE-larious.  I went so far as to confess to the designer Fran via e-mail that I am now her official stalker.  Being the sweet and understanding woman that she is, she doesn't seem to be bothered by my living in the bushes outside her house or my digging through her trash. 

What it comes down to is -

Need a card that doesn't suck?  Buy Zeichen.

Need to laugh?  Go see Fran.

Breezy

kite This is so...serendipitous!  My daughter Lily has been on a quest to fly kites.  Yet again, Walmart saves the day (I know, a necessary evil).  We purchased a $1 kite and waited for a breezy day.  The end result was  squealing three year old running around a field, jumping and trying to catch the kite's tails.

more horses...

horses2 Well, I'm still not too great at horses, but I am pleased that I worked on it (almost) everyday.  Man, God bless that Jack Hamm and his books. I hope, when I go to Heaven, that I can buy him a beer.

Horses

Ok.  This new category is all my 3 year old daughter Lily's fault.  Basically any time we sit down and draw THE dreaded question will come up... 3...2...1...

"Mama, will you draw a doggy?" or "hey, yets draw horseys!" or "Mama, tan you draw an L-ephant?"

So here, now, I am confessing to the blogging world that I really don't like drawing animals.  Primarily because, well, I stink at it.  I am not an animal person but my daughter is, like  PETA level animal person.   I'm never going to have the heart to tell her where bacon comes from...

but I digress.

So, my goal is to work on skeching one animal (Lily's choosing) and posting the results.  This week is "horse"

horses1

I know, it's bad... the head study looks like a sock puppet.

waiting, waiting, waiting...

waitingroom Isn't funny how covert you have to be when you are sketching people? 

"I'm not hiding a sketch book on my lap!" 

"No, this isn't a sketch of the back of some guy's head, really.  I'm just sketching ...a possible landscape plan for my yard"

And then if you do get caught...

"Yeah, it's just something I do..."  "Yeah, working for Disney would be...great"  "No, actually I illustrate..."  "illustrate-you know the drawings in magazines and children's book, yeah, that's illustration."   "Actually, um, I don't really have the time to, uh, illustrate your daughter's children's book." "$200?  wow, yeah, that's tempting...but I'm really kinda swamped...."

ah, waiting rooms.

Glasses circa 1980

glasses This illustration was rejected from the latest book I did.  Ironically, it was my favorite illustration.  I think Michelle Pfeiffer donned a pair in some of her less memorable roles.

Violent Senior

grandad_3 Finished illustration for  an upcoming book about a wacky grandpa and his inventions.   My friend Mac posed for me.  He had a bit more fun with the hammer than I had anticipated.

Promoting Cat Poop

cat_box New Editorial Promo Piece.  I came across the dilemma that no matter how ideal, picture perfect, Martha Stewart-y a room is, if you have a cat - you have to clean up it's crap.