New at LitKids: Alice in Silver, Black
At LitKids, I came up with something to make up for the dwindling supply of Alice In Wonderland prints on hand. These new prints use the same design and book pages, but they are printed in silver and black inks. These came out really nice, even better than the original red-on-pink design. The black-on-silver ones are gorgeous, and the reverse silver-on-black gives the image a striking “goth” feel (although they didn’t come out as nice). I feel especially proud of these since they were done from a brand new silk screen — Alice is the most complex image, and to get a good screen exposure in the sunlight, it has to be timed especially right.
The silver prints cost $15 and the black ones are $12. Check them out!
New at LitKids: Box ‘o Note Cards
My summer LitKids project has come to fruition — a spiffy box set of blank note cards! This project actually started last spring, when the proprietor MADE Boutique here in Phoenix brought up the fact that note cards always sell in her shop. From the beginning I thought I’d use the popular Anne of Green Gables, Jo from Little Women and Alice In Wonderland images on the cards, but I put off printing them until the Tom Sawyer one was finished (I knew it would come out nice, and it’s good to have a boy to add to the three girls).
Once the cards were designed, it was pretty easy getting them printed at Overnight Prints. Add in boxes, clear plastic sleeves, and labels on the back and voilà — eight LitKids cards in a box!
New at LitKids: Tom Sawyer
I finally have a new LitKids piece ready — Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer with fence and paintbrush. The first time I showed this design to Christopher, he remarked “That’s very mod.” I’d have to agree. Keeping past mistakes in mind, I made this one especially thick-lined and graphic. The drawing was even refined in Adobe Illustrator to get that super-sharp look.
My next LitKids project will be taking images of four of the more popular designs and professionally printing up some blank note cards. I’m hoping to put together boxes of eight and putting, say, ten dollars on them. This one makes me a bit leery, since I’m still in the red and it will cost me more $$$. Online, I’ve sold 69 prints in 2010 — which was wonderful — but 2011 is turning out sluggish. I’m gonna go ahead and print the cards anyhow, since it will be nice to diversify the product line a bit.
Tom and many more characters are available at my LitKids Etsy shop.
New at LitKids: Laura Ingalls, Edition No. 2 Print
I have a new Laura Ingalls, Edition 2 print available for sale at LitKids. This is a variant on the earlier Laura Ingalls printed on pages from Little House on the Prairie that was added to the store in October. That print was a real bear to make, but it unexpectedly became the first sold-out print I did. For this go-round, I attempted to remake the same design in different colors (with warm reds and oranges replacing the original blues), but the results were not satisfying to me. The brushy quality in the drawing never adequately translated to silk screen in either edition, so halfway through the project I scrapped everything and came up with a new, cleaner drawing that looks more like a silhouette. The design was printed on the remaining papers that were prepared — and now I’m happy to have Laura Ingalls, prairie girl, back at LitKids!
New at LitKids: Mole from Wind in the Willows
When it came time to create a new LitKids design late last year, I was a bit stymied until coming across a battered copy of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows at the local Salvation Army. I knew the book was well-loved and was familiar with the Disney animated version, and the opportunity to do an animal character was too irresistible. I read the book pretty quickly and found it utterly charming. The main characters are Mole, Rat, Badger and Toad. Although the conceited Toad winds up getting the most storyline, I most loved the sweet Mole and wanted to make him the subject of this print.
Unlike some of the earlier prints, this one was a breeze to do. The background is some Victorian era clip art of a flower, screen printed in bright yellow. I then used some sage green spray paint on the mole shape, making a nice speckled texture. A spray of gold paint and the dark green mole image was complete. Here it is, listed on Etsy.
As a bonus, here’s a photo Christopher shot of me sitting at the table we had set up last weekend at (excellent) local bookseller Changing Hands. We were there for five six hours peddling prints, and at the end of the day we wound up selling ten prints — including more copies of the Mole print than anything else!
Laura Ingalls, Prairie Girl, at LitKids
I’ve added a new print at my LitKids etsy store — Laura Ingalls from the Little House on the Prairie books. This is the first time I’ve done a relatively recent character, and by “recent” I mean published in the 1930s. That means it’s not in the public domain, so hopefully the Laura Ingalls Wilder estate won’t sue. You never know with them prairie people, however. These prints have a lot of spray painted layers, with a final screen printed layer that came out a bit more blobby than usual. I’m slapping ten bucks on them and hoping for the best.
In other LitKids news, I’m happy to report that some of my prints will be available locally in a brick-and-mortar retail setting! Changing Hands, the legendary indie bookseller in the Phoenix area, will be selling matted and poly bagged versions of a few of my prints in a special display starting on October 20. They only took five prints (our Laura was among the rejected ones), but they look excellent packaged like this. Hopefully they’ll sell out those five and want more. Later on this month, I’m going to be shopping the prints around to other local retailers. Wish me luck.
It’s Pollyanna at LitKids
Yesterday I put the finishing touches on a new LitKids print — Pollyanna! This one came out pretty great. I love the design, the colors, the quality of the book pages. True, some of her balloon string didn’t come through the silk screen, but touches like that give these prints a nice handmade quality. A Pollyanna is a rather disparaging term for someone who is blindly optimistic, but it can be a positive thing, too. This is a piece for those who aren’t afraid to call themselves a Pollyanna.
New at LitKids – Heidi
Our favorite literary Swiss Miss, Heidi, makes her debut at LitKids this week. My first version of Heidi had her positioned over the seam where the two book pages overlap, which caused bleeding problems with the silk screening. That didn’t work out, so instead I moved the girl over to the right and put one of her pet goats (which figure prominently in the book) on the left. Cute!
This print is the last of the six designs I worked on before launching LitKids in April. Which character should I do next? So many possibilities, and it doesn’t even have to be a kid. Here’s the direct link to get a Heidi print.
Alice in Wonderland, and at LitKids
I’ve been working on getting a swell Alice In Wonderland print up at LitKids. This is a tough one — out of the 30 prints I’ve tried so far, only about eight are good quality and sellable. The combination of a complex illustration and our dry weather means that my silk screen is getting clogged earlier and the images are coming out faint. I might have to put LitKids on hold until our weather gets moister.
The ones that did come out are really nice, however. I love the interplay between my design and the tinted John Tenniel illustrations from the 1946 edition of Through the Looking Glass I used. Next step: getting it on the Etsy front page!
Treasure Island’s Jim Hawkins at LitKids
I spent the last few mornings doing up a run of neato keen-o Jim Hawkins of Treasure Island prints. These came out pretty nice; Christopher even told me they were the best yet. Although the drawing has thinner lines (meaning less likely to come out in the printing stage), the screen prints ended up having a quality where the figure looks like it’s fading into the page. I also tried a neat dot pattern for the background shape. The source book was a “Fireside Series For Boys” copy of Treasure Island that has a great antique quality. I swear the book must be at least 100 years old.
Come on and check it out at LitKids!
Huckleberry Finn at LitKids
Just listed a new LitKids print of Mark Twain’s indelible scamp Huckleberry Finn. Another nice one, although this particular one came out differently than I expected (don’t they all?). I originally planned to do this one in two silk screened layers, with a solid shape on the bottom and the drawing on top. Unfortunately, the seam where the book pages meet caused bleeding problems, and so I had to fall back on the old “spray paint through a stencil” technique used in the other two LitKids prints. This time I have a lighter color silk screened over a medium color field — an interesting, subtle effect that doesn’t come across too well in the photos below. Some of the earlier spray painted prints produced a gorgeous darker blue field with a dusty, speckled texture. Those look killer. Since most of the final prints have a solid medium blue background, that’s what is pictured in the shop.
There was also the matter of Huckleberry Finn containing the “n” word. Hmmm, I didn’t notice the text has lots of “n” words! I was able to catch some of the offending words and creatively cover them up with splashes of gold paint; I just hope we don’t wind up with a pissed off customer! My opinion is that quaint 1800s language set off by a modern drawing is part of what makes these prints unique, so if someone gets a print with an un-p.c. word or two consider it one of the extra special ones.
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LitKids Is Now Open!
Today is the day – LitKids on Etsy is finally open! There are two 12″x9″ prints available — Anne of Green Gables and Jo of Little Women — listed at $12 each.
Ladies and Gents, Miss March
My first run of Jo March Lit Kids screen prints was completed this week. The pages come from an lovely old edition of Little Women. I did a lot of preliminary drawings for Jo, and I’m still not sure if this one captures her spunky spirit, but they came out pretty nice all the same. And the color palette of mauve, purple and gold on yellowing paper looks absolutely gorgeous.
I was so busy with printing that I forgot about our Wednesday video. How about a scene from the historically inaccurate 1978 TV movie version of Little Women? I mean how “1978 TV movie” is the casting of Susan Dey as Jo and Meredith Baxter Birney as Jo’s sister Meg? Eve Plumb was in this as well (being a Brady Bunch fan, that was the only thing about this production I remember).
New in the Store: Holiday Reindeer
It’s been awhile since I’ve done a Cafe Press Store update (mainly since sales there have been, shall we say, tepid) — but we now have a few products with this cutely attired reindeer made in time for the holidays. I did the illustration for our Christmas cards this year, and liked it so much I decided to have them printed in color instead of the usual hand-tinted b&w. The enterprise set me back more than a few bucks, but the cards turned out nice. Now we gotta send ‘em.
New in the Store: Cute Baby Stuff
This adorable little tyke is the newest addition to the scrubbles store. Born on a baby shower invitation I designed for Max and his friend Amanda, it has now been modified to go on a baby bib, a romper, and a keepsake ornament. C’mon, you know you want one.
