The other day, I had the worst day of my life. My flip-flop broke! Read the “Broken Flip-Flop Ruins Life” illustrarticle here: http://illustrarticles.com/broken-flip-flop-ruins-life/
“Broken Flip-Flop” illustration is available as a poster, framed print, tote bag, and more at the IllustrArticles shop.
How do people even keep up with multiple blogs?
This blog here is more of a behind-the-scenes thing, in case it helps anyone. But my main focus is IllustrArticles. I’m pushing myself to take more in-progress photos.
In the past few years, I’ve been pushed by several people to try teaching art that I actually started to consider it, but then my thoughts were like, “Uh. What?” and “Uh. Thank you! Here, buy some of my artwork, instead! :D”
I was lucky that I had good teachers in high school. Teaching takes a lot of planning, dedication, and patience. Yeah, I couldn’t be a teacher. Or maybe I just don’t want to teach…? I don’t know – not even thinking about it!
Anyway.
Here’s an illustrarticle I’ve recently finished:
It’s for a story about a dog I heard barking in the distance as I tried for fall asleep one night. A lot of dogs bark in my neighborhood. Basically, I don’t live in the Rogers Park neighborhood. I live in Rogers BARK.
After I wrote the story, the illustration started with this little sketch:
Then, it turned into an outlined final sketch:
And then, a finished painting:
Ta-da! Those little hearts were originally sketched out as dog skulls & cross bones. But right before inking the illustration, I realized that’s not the direction I wanted it to go. You can read the illustrarticle here: “Why Dogs Bark At Night”
An illustrarticle is it’s not quite a comic, not quite a blog. It’s an illustration with an article. Can’t have one without the other. Thought I should clarify that. New IllustrArticles are posted whenever important stuff happens. And sometimes, Thursdays.
“Bark in the Dark” illustration is available is a poster, framed print, tote bag, and more at the IllustrArticles shop.
This illustration “The Laundered” is for the new illustrarticle I wrote, which you can read here -> Study Reveals: When Laundry Folds, You Win.
“The Laundered” is available as a poster, framed print, tote bag, and more at the IllustrArticles shop.
For our last stop of the road trip, we saved the best for last: It was an amazing, beautiful, and refreshing dream come true to finally see an internet connection on my iPhone!
Yeah, we had no phone or internet reception in Canada, and had to catch WIFI just so I could post #RazorRover photos.
New York was just across the border from Niagara Falls in Ontario, but I thought I may have to swim a few feet closer toward America to get the internet service on my phone to work.
Thankfully, Stosh thought of better way to do that – turn the Razor Rover into the Razor ROWER! So, I did. And it worked! That’s when Stosh & Anya took this photo of me celebrating internet euphoria at Niagara Falls!
This concludes the Razor Rover trip to Canada. The first Razor Rover trip was in San Francisco, in March. Live-tweets of the #RazorRover are on Twitter and Instagram. Check out the previous stops we made along this trip here:
3. Traveling Toronto in the Razor Rover
2. Traveling Kalamazoo, MI in the Razor Rover
1. Traveling Indiana Dunes in the Razor Rover
More Razor Rover adventures to come!
I can officially say I’ve been to a different country. (Although, I’m from Ukraine and live in the U.S., I’ve spent enough time in both of these countries to consider them both homes.)
When we’re not getting high on fresh air, we’re getting up high on tall buildings. We got to the 114th floor of the The CN Tower, one of the tallest buildings in the world, or something. I tried to figure out what rank of tallness exactly, and then instantly regretted it. Don’t even bother looking at the debates about CN Tower and Willis Sears Tower unless you enjoy being queasy from thinking about technicalities. Basically, I was in a tall building in Canada! Wee!
Earlier this year, I made a resolution to see more places and made a goal to visit at least one state I’ve never been to. And so far this year, I’ve visited 3 new states AND a new country!
A couple years ago, when I finally became a U.S. citizen, I got a shiny U.S. Passport (which is pretty much the MULTIPASS in travel) so I gotta make good use of it.
The first Razor Rover trip was in San Francisco, in March. Check the blog tomorrow to see the final stop of this road trip!
When we arrived in Michigan, we found the beautiful Kalamazoo Nature Center. Anya and I roamed around the trails with a camera while Stosh roamed around the trails with a microphone. But interviewing nature wasn’t an easy task because of attention-whore mosquitoes. More like, Kalamazoo MOSQUITO Center.
I don’t usually purchase oxygen, so I don’t know what it typically costs on the market. Breathing the fresh air at the Kalamazoo nature trails was $7 per person. Pretty sure it was 100% pure oxygen.
Thankfully, the Razor Rover doesn’t pollute.
The first Razor Rover trip was in San Francisco, in March. Check the blog tomorrow to see where we headed next!
A couple weeks ago, my friends and I went on the road trip in the Razor Rover from Chicago.
This is Anya and her boyfriend Stosh. We cruised through Indiana Dunes State Park. They seemed to be super excited about a bunch of sand and water and sand and water. You can’t see me in the photo because I fell asleep in the back.
Anya is actually my sister. But she’s my friend, too. Maybe she was adopted, but don’t tell her that.
The first Razor Rover trip was in San Francisco, in March. Check the blog tomorrow to see where we headed next!
This is a commission I just finished. It’s based on my “Hear, See, Speak” crows.
The rough sketch from my moleskine:
The final sketch, before inking and coloring, in my large sketchbook:
Yay!
Last Thursday, I had a chance to be a part of State of the Art Chicago show at John Barleycorn River North.
If you like fruity drinks and ever go to that restaurant, you gotta try their Raspberry Margarita. So good! I had mine without salt. Because fruit + salt = nope.
The dining booths were converted into little gallery spaces! This was my booth for the night:
I was so happy to see some familiar faces visiting my booth!
The show was indoors and the walls were provided by SOTA – so I didn’t have to bring any of my heavy walls or tent. With my cargo being much lighter, I didn’t have to rent an SUV this time. So I rented a small car. A tiny car. Baby bear’s car:
The Fiat 500 subcompact car was just right for this show. I loved this thing. It was a day for all things tiny: Driving this tiny car, just for one day, for a 3-hour show, in a tiny gallery space. The only giant part about it all – it was a lot of fun.
This concludes my art show marathon for a little while. You can read about my past art shows from the previous 2 weeks here: Wells Street Art Fest and Custer Fair.
I’ll be working on commissions and traveling until my next show,Bucktown Arts Fest in August.
Last weekend, I was in Evanston, IL showing my work at the Custer Fair. It was nice and calm most of the day on Saturday, until about 5pm, when a flash flood raged through the fair.
My booth was located by a wall with a decline in the edge of the road. So when it rained cats and dogs, the water accumulated and rose to about 5 inches in the deepest spot.
All the artists closed up their tents, and everyone scattered looking for shelter. Some people drove home, some people were hiding from the storm at the underpass nearby. I zipped up my tent and quickly worked to get all my art away from the water.
Thankfully, none of my work was damaged. But my feet got completely submerged in the water.
From inside my canopy, I could still hear voices of kids and adults running through puddles to their cars. Thunder, wind, and lightning all around. Rain falling harder and harder. Flood rising higher and higher. My car is parked 3 blocks away and I’m stuck in this tent. What to do?
Take selfies!
This is the face of a stressed out person, wondering if she’s about to die.
When the rain calmed down a bit, I walked to my car and drove to Target to get some extra waterproof bins to help protect my artwork.
The next morning, on Sunday, I wondered if this rain would continue, and if I should just pack up and go home. But the weather became beautiful outside! I got a chance to walk around a little and make this little video of my neighbor artists:
The show went on! Soon, lots of people came to enjoy the fair. Thank you to everyone who visited and I was happy to see you enjoying my work!
I rented this SUV for the weekend. It was a brand new Chevy…something. I should have paid more attention to the make of the car because I really liked driving this one. It was a good fit for me and my cargo.
It’s similar to the Razor Rover, but just a little more waterproof.
This Thursday, June 26th, I’ll be at Chicago’s John Barleycorn River North for one night with a few other artists. Excited for this show and to drive my next mystery vehicle!
The Wells Street Art Festival was my first outdoor art fair in Chicago. It was quite an adventure getting to my space and setting up my canopy and stuff. And at the end, taking everything down and packing up.
Thank you to everyone who visited my booth and took some Razorberries art home. Plus, I couldn’t have asked for better weather.
And I especially couldn’t have asked for better artist neighbors! I love meeting interesting and great people while doing art fairs.
Before this weekend, I’ve never driven a pickup truck. I generally avoid giant vehicles. I didn’t even want to drive my mom’s SUV back home in Galesburg, IL, even though it was fun the one time I drove it. This pickup truck was the only vehicle that was available at the car rental to fit my equipment, at the time.
Chicago roads get pretty narrow. When the man at the car rental place handed me the truck keys, I thought to myself – “Heeeere we go…” And then, I could barely climb up to get into the driver’s seat!
The Ford F150 XLT 4×4. This thing is probably 3x the size of any car I’ve driven before. Yet, somehow I managed to maneuver this truck through some really tight spaces to get to my booth at Wells Street. It’s a really nice ride and did its job but it’s definitely not built for a person my size. I felt like Goldilocks in Papa Bear’s truck the entire time!
This coming weekend I’ll be at the Custer Fair in Evanston, IL – I wonder what vehicle I’ll be driving next 😀
Thursdays, most people post old photos of themselves on the internet for fun, but I want to post my old art. This is my creative edition of the #ThrowBackThursday.
Warning: last drawing might be NSFW for dogs. Cover your dog’s eyes for the last segment.
Space ships, human seesaw, exaggerated princess dresses, cigarette-smoking crab, urinating dog… You know, the usual stuff that 5 year-old me drew in 1990 while still living in Ukraine.
I wanna see your old creations. If you have some, post them here in the comments, or your Twitter/Instagram and tag them with #TBTart.
