Popsicles

OK. So I have a new obsession. It's serious. It's popsicles.

For my birthday my husband got me this nifty popsicle maker....it makes them in 7 minutes!!! SEVEN. It really is awesome. The main part is the base, which is filled with freezing liquid. You pop the sucker in the freezer for 24 hrs. and it's ready to go. Any time you get a craving for a popsicle you just whip it out, put in the special stick, and pour in your favorite juice. I've made more popsicles in two weeks than I have in my lifetime. So far I've made....watermelon, cantaloupe, orange juice, fudgesicle, peach, banana-blueberry yogurt swirl, cranberry-orange, chai, and coffee. Every time a new one comes out I give it to Doug to do the taste test...I'm starting to think he bought this to benefit himself.

Inspired by my recent popsicle craze I thought a new illustration was needed.

map paintings

I feel so ashamed. I've failed as a blogger. Once upon a time I posted many times a week...adding new images and exciting news....well ok, somewhat interesting news...but at least I posted! So for those of you who haven't given up on me I promise to post more regularly.

Long ago I experimented with making collage paintings. Well I've gotten back into that, but this time it's with old road maps! My family has collected a ton through the years, we traveled mucho. We were that family that sang corny songs and played cheesy games along the way. And it was fun. So I asked my dad to dig them out of the attic so I could cut them apart and give them a use once more. I'm using these map paintings to play with colors,, shapes, and textures that I don't usually use. Sometimes I plan ahead, or sometimes I just begin making shapes according to the lines already on the map. If you want to keep up with them I'm selling the originals in my etsy store.

In other news I now have artist representation from Advocate art in London. I'm excited to see where that relationship will take me, hopefully it will open new doors in illustration. Also the book I illustrated, No Girl's Allowed by Tyndale, is now officially published! I'll admit that I haven't picked up a copy yet....such a slacker.

Enough chit-chat...here are some pictures

Growing up my family and I would always go on summer camping trips. They are still some of my favorite memories. I wish I had a camper like this....

This is for a book idea that's been brewing in my head. Thank you for visiting!

Mermaid Party

My friend is having an under the sea themed birthday party, SO I thought it was about time to venture down the path of mermaid illustrations. Thank you for visiting :)

I feel like it's been a while since I've done art just for fun. So I'm spending some time each day to do neat pictures of neat things all while playing with color and techniques. I'm also going to kill two birds with one stone...I'm going to use this experimentation time to knock out the flood of birthdays that there are in the next couple months. So here was a card for someone who likes music and a phone because old phones are neat. Thank you for visiting :)

A friend of mine had a tea party themed birthday. It was the cutest idea for a party. When we got there we made big frilly hats and decorated them. I was just impressed by the variety of things she had laying around the house to decorate the hat with. Then we had all kinds of tea, snacks, and yummies. It's always good to get a bunch of girls together and catch up and reminisce. For her present, I thought it was a good time to do a tea party illustration! As always, thanks for stopping by!

Etsy

So I've finally gotten around to open an Etsy shop! It's called Tophat Society, if you're bored...check it out! http://www.etsy.com/shop/Arrolynn Right now I've been playing around with sculpey doing magnets and such. Every once in a while it's nice to create something just for fun. I'm going to have characters on there from my sketchbook and soon I'll put up some prints. First I need a nice printer....or know someone that has a nice printer...and now some penguins!

Hello!

It feels like it's been five years since I've posted! It's been a busy year. I got married and had a book deal with Tyndale House Publishers for 120 illustrations all around the same time.

The book is called "No Girls Allowed" and will be published this fall. The illustrations are going to be 3x3 and most if not all will be converted to grayscale. I've posted some below. I thought posting all 120 would be annoying and boring to you. Soon I'll be working on another children's book, but I can't give out any details yet! The other picture I posted is a box I painted for the wedding. If someone brought us envelopes to the wedding (probably full of money) they could slip it in here so it wouldn't get lost. Because seriously no one wants to loose money. As always thank you for visiting!

There are fishies and coral on the sides!