HEY YOU GUYS I STILL KNOW HOW TO DRAW! I need to put down the felting needles once in a while and I lucked out when I was asked to make spoof trading card illustrations for an indie film! These are for Magic: The Gathering (The Musical) and this is a sample of what's to come. Think Muppets meets Magic meets Avenue Q. The first song in the movie is called 'The Motherf*cking Rules", so you know you're in for a treat.

Some of them are based on actual Magic cards. Can you tell which one from this batch is? I'll post more of these as I make them. It's a nice excuse to be silly and colorful. :)

I've been busy this last week working on a new series of felties! These are Fledgies (feltie + fledgling = Fledgie!) and were made especially for TR!CKSTER, which if you don't know, is an amazing gallery/mobile storefront that started up last year at Comic Con. Though I can't attend this year, the Fledgies will be there in my place.


My inner character designer came out with these guys, I decided to keep them somewhat graphic and shape-driven. Depending on how these do I might do another series of different birds!

Here is TR!CKSTER by the way, should you find yourself at SDCC next week! I am super honored to have work there, the place is packed with talent, mostly of the Pixar variety ;)

I made Marcus a baby brother! I think his name is Razzie. Not sure yet.

This will probably conclude my Muppet making for the near future, since there are lots of shows and projects coming up that need doing. I do want to share a little doodle I forgot about from my puppet class last month though!

See, I really struggled with the backwards-ness of the TV monitor and almost always botched my choreography. I remember the instructor calling out "PUPILS!" to me quite a bit, since my puppet would get turned around and he'd lose his eye contact with the camera. Mind you, I did lousy in my dance classes as a kid, and those had proper mirrors with no image flipping. I am not cut out for this biz.

Speaking of cut out, here's a ninja photo that Mayka Mei took during Razz's conception ;)

There should be a lot of updates in the weeks to come as I knock out these projects, so keep an eye out!

GUYS. YOU GUYS. I MADE A MUPPET.

Not an official one of course! This is Marcus and he's the result of the first day's endeavors at Puppet School! It was taught by the amazing Michael Earl (or the front end of Mr. Snuffleupagus and Slimey the Worm to us children of the 80's.) It was a 3 day intensive workshop and the other 2 days were spent learning choreography and getting used to the horrific reality of working in front of a backwards mirror, aka a live television monitor. I am not much of a performer but I had fun, despite all of the soreness and sweat! I hope to be able to do the advanced puppet making courses someday and make more elaborate critters.

Check it, that's Michael Earl and his puppet, Bruno! Michael was the front end of Snuffleupagus, Slimey the Worm, Forgettful Jones and many other Muppets back in the 80's. He was an amazing teacher and had the patience of a saint with my bungling of the choreography! I may or may not post the skits that I performed. I'm not exactly comfortable with being on camera!

I've been felting up a storm for the last few weeks! Here's a seated Baby Appa for y'all. Once I finish the remaing sky bisons, it's back to felting ratties for me :)

We were given an assignment at the character design workshop to illustrate Scrooge, according to Dickens' description of him:  

"Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind-stone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas."

Challenge accepted! I love, love LOVE A Christmas Carol and old men are stupidly fun to draw! I am waiting for some feedback on this pass, but I will be updating with a little more polish once I hear back. It's nice to be drawing for fun again.

Please be sure to check the Berkeley DGA tumblr to see the other submissions from folks who went to the lecture! My fingers are healed up enough to start stabbing again, so onward through the commissions I go. Time for another Appa.

Two posts in one week? What the hell?! This is one of many commissions in the needle felting queue, as I work through the projects that will pay off Boo's bills! I seem to be averaging one feltie a week but I will have to hit the gas on these. Anyway, this is Socrates! She will be traveling to Europe with her soon-to-be-made partner. This pose was challenging for me and there's certainly some stuff I will do differently next time, but all in all I am happy with her and hope that her new owner will be too! I am doing that time-lapse I have been promising of the next rattie in a week, so we'll see how all that goes!

At the moment I am not accepting any more commissions, as I am plenty busy for the next couple of months with these, but I will let you all know if and when that changes :)

I needed to draw something for myself, I've been doing a lot of freelance and whatnot and drawing has become a bit of a chore. :( So in anticipation of Shane Prigmore's lecture tomorrow night at UC Berkeley, I decided to pay homage to - wait, I wanted to borrow ideas OH FINE I YOINKED PARTS OF HIS STYLE BUT HOW CAN YOU BLAME ME?! <3 So what's the deal in this image? My boyfriend has a very "special needs" kind of kitty. She's very lovable but is sharp at the wrong times and falls down a lot. So I figured I'd draw something I'd expect of her, if Rez didn't have a cordless mouse, that is. There's a lot that I am not happy with on this one, but it certainly felt good to get the stylus moving again. I need to pick up steam and do regular illustrations again. Now back to work!

DOG(s).



More development sketches for Laloo, as seen in the post below this one. There is never a shortage of inspiration or personality whenever I research dog breeds. Can you spot the Bedlington terrier?

I will be cleaning these guys up to match Laloo's vectored look and posting those when I can. I often find that I can be at war with vectors, particularly when doing cleanup on rough sketches like these. Even if I was using traditional media for the final polish, there is always a little something lost when you pare 6 lines down to just one. I find that at the end of the day, if I just let vectors BE vectors and not graphite/linework, there is a happy medium to be found.

Checking in with some character explorations! This is Laloo, star of his own books on iPad, Laloo the Red Panda by Laloo LLC. Available soon in the app store! (Email lauren@laloo.us if you wanna know more!) He's got some doggie friends, but they're still on the drawing board, so let this little red panda keep you sated until then :)



I also wanted to extend a huge thank you to everyone who has commissioned me in the last month! In the weeks to come I will be hunkering down with the felt and fulfilling orders, so keep an eye on your inboxes and later, mail boxes. I am happy to say that over HALF of Boo's bills have been covered in commission sales, which is more than I had ever hoped. Thank you again so much <3

Hello again! This isn't deja vu, it's another commissioned feltie! This is Baby Appa II, made for a die-hard Avatar: TLA fan. He's a little bigger and denser than his previous incarnation but in the end I am pretty happy with him!





This would be a good time to mention that in an effort to pay off some huge vet bills, accumulated while trying to save Boo, my little blue rat, I am now taking felt commissions. Prices start aro0und $50 for something basic, like a rat feltie increase as the complexity and size of the piece does. Unfortunately, despite 3 days in an oxygen tank, nebulization and round the clock fluid/medicine injections, I still lost my little Boo to pneumonia, but I wouldn't have done anything differently in terms of her care. Ratties are such little heart breakers.

Big plans for the next commission. My fiber optics kit is in the mail. Mwahaha!

I still draw things too btw! I swear! D:

Where did all of my weekends go for the last month? Why wasn't I at that party or other social gathering? What was I so stressed about?

THIS.











What's this? IT'S A FLAMMIE! How did I make it? It's mostly needle felted, actually! That fur is just a skin glued on top of a nearly solid wool base.
This is based on the beautiful Flammie model that was used in Nintendo Power and the Secret of Mana instruction booklet back in 1993, so credit to the original (unknown) artist and sculptor.

I made this enormous feltie/plushie hybrid for the Super Button Masher's show next week at OhNo!DOOM.

OhNo!Doom
Super Button Mashers Mega Opening
February 11, 6:00 PM-10:00 PM
1800 N. Milwaukee
Chicago IL 60647
Tuesday and Thursday 4:00 PM-10:00 PM
Saturday 12:00 PM-7:00 PM

This was absolutely a challenge for me but I loved every step of it. I am officially bitten by the crafting bug again! I also put together a photo slideshow about how I made this beast, if you care to see.



For more photos of the process and other shenanigans, check out my facebook group.

Thank you for looking and if you're in Chicago this weekend, please stop by and see Flammie-in person! He's looking for a loving, geeky home (as much as I hate parting with him ;_; ) Please spread the word so that he finds the right owner!

It's time to play the music, it's time to light the lights...

It's time to post MUPPET ART.





I am thrilled to say that the Muppets Premium Level Kit launched for Little Big Planet 2 and that I can finally show the stickers I made for the kit! If the poses look a little stiff, it is because the characters are composed of 4 different parts (head, arm, body and leg) to allow the player to build them in the game in such a way that allows them to be puppeted. Literally. Normally I would just draw an intact character in motion but this is a little different.

I wanted to make a ton more (Sweetums, Lew Zealand, Crazy Harry, Foo-Foo, Sam the Eagle...), but we ran out of time and budget ;) Seriously, I am a lifelong fan of Jim Henson, so when I was approached to contribute to this set, I was BEYOND GIDDY. I am so happy to see the Muppets getting a second wind now that the new movie has come and gone and I hope that it inspires people to check out the original Muppet Show to see some of the best comedy sketches ever.

Like this one.



Who's your favorite Muppet? I've always been partial to the Swedish Chef and the little Java slinky guys there ;)

Blossoms for Bill







I made almond blossom pins last night for Commander William G. Chace Jr, or as I knew him, Opa. He was my boyfriend's grandfather, mentor, and wise old sage, who left us suddenly two days before Christmas. I am giving the pins to his family to wear today at his memorial service.

I only spent time with Opa on holidays and family birthdays and I deeply regret not being able to have visited with him more. Opa was a big man; big in heart, big in his laugh, big in his bear hugs and enthusiasm for his life and his family. He was a traveler (even at 82!), years before that an almond farmer, and some years before that, a commander in the US Navy. Every interaction I had with him always left me in a state of warmth, as he radiated generosity, snarkiness, energy and love. He was always interested in what kind of projects I was working on, asked me all about Boston, having spent time on the east coast himself and we shared geeky facts about biology and botany together over holiday dinners.

Once I got to know Opa, I could see where my boyfriend got some of his best and most shining, lovable qualities from. Opa was, deservedly so, the most important person in my boyfriend's life and thus, strengthened and built one of the most important people in my own life. It is that reason and more that I am so deeply grateful and weep for him today and remember the big, pushbroom mustached smile that preceded the bear hug I was about to receive.

Here's to you, Opa. We'll talk about hybrid trees and New England autumns one day yet.

Remember a couple years ago when I made that poster for The Bad Dudes' album, CHRONOTORIOUS? Well, it kinda happened again, only this time with METROID.



Admit it, hardened gamer, you cried about 10 seconds after this scene took place. ;) I know I did. I think this scene in the game is one of those "OH SHIT NO" moments in gaming that has stuck with me throughout the years. I never thought I could come to care for a life-sucking jelly blob, but here we are.

You can only get the poster with the hard copy of the Bad Dudes new album, which you can snag here. There are also bonus tracks not found in the downloadable version! You can witness an epic unboxing here:



Similar to the CHRONOTORIOUS post, I hope to be following this one up with some Little Big Planet goodies that I made for the Muppets Level Kit, which is supposedly releasing this month. Keep an eye out, thar be googly eyes in this blog's future!

I also found out this week that the Ghost Chef sticker activity book is up on Amazon now for pre-order! The game itself is still in the works and should release for ipad in the spring, but it's mega cool to see the assets I made for the game come to life in physical form. I hope that kids really dig it.



Also, Stuart Ng is now selling Brianne and mine's joint sketchbook! We drew doodles in every single one and signed them, so if you'd like a copy, please pay Stuart's site a visit!

That's about it for now. Planning a big feltie for the end of the month and I hope to document as much as possible about the process, maybe do a little time lapse, assuming my camera is even capable of that. Here's a little hint as to the theme of said feltie. ;)

Hey guys! I am glad to say that after a few months of conventions and classes and work and other BS, I have been able to take my foot off the gas pedal and decompress for a week over the Holidays. What do I do when I am in my happy place?

FELT.












This little rattie is on her way to her new owner. I tried something different with this one and built it around a wire and foam armature. I'm really happy with the process! I already have another feltie in the pipeline for an upcoming gallery show and I plan to use the foam and wire base again. Saves a ton of time and makes for some good stability.

I also start my traditional animation class in January, and I am shitting bricks. I haven't animated in over 10 years (excluding tweening in Flash, but that was a mess too) so I'm in for quite a ride. We'll see if any of my abominations make it to the blog. ;)