Hearts and Laserbeams

Or it feels like it, anyways! Between getting to baby classes and finishing up projects before going on maternity leave, it seems I’ve fallen a little behind in my updates for you fine folks.

Last night I finished one of my last projects that needs to be done before leave happens! I was commissioned to create a custom 3D wedding cake topper featuring my robots done up with details to reflect the bride and groom, and it turned out really cute! I got to bust open my stash of vintage 50s plastic flower beads for the headpiece on the bride, and all of the 3D elements came together better than I could have imagined. Click on the pic to see more images of this cake topper, and make sure to like the Hearts and Laserbeams Facebook page while you’re there!

Did y’all see the Etsy Storque Blog today? Amy Zurcher from ShopScad, a boutique with locations in Savannah, Atlanta, France and online was a guest curator for a post. In her piece, she featured some of the great work by Scad students, alumni and faculty that are carried in the shop that are also available on Etsy. Click here to read the piece, and as you get near the end… You may recognize our panties!

I went to Savannah College of Art and Design from 1995 – 1999, graduating with a BFA in Computer Art (with a concentration in 2d hand-drawn animation – something that is probably pretty easy to see in a lot of my cartoony looking artwork!). If you happen to visit ShopScad at one of their shops or online, don’t forget to look for Hearts and Laserbeams goodies while you’re there!

I got some really exciting news this weekend! Hearts and Laserbeams has been working with a licensing agent for the last few months to try and get some deals going, and get our characters out there in stores. It looks like we may have a deal with a tee company in the near future! If all goes well there may be shirts with Hearts and Laserbeams  characters on them in actual major stores by the end of this year! If all goes not well, there may be a Hearts and Laserbeams employee (me) crying in the dark with a bottle of wine… er… apple juice (until our little boy is born. then bring on the vino!).

I’ve been taking a break working on the licensing stuff for the past couple of weeks because it’s been ungodly long work days for the last few months, but now that a deal is pending I gotta make like Devo and crack that whip and finish up what this company’s gonna need art-wise so all goes smoothly when/if a deal gets signed… I just wanted to share the excitement – keep them fingers crossed that this thing goes through! Hooray!

I just wanted to share the progress on a wedding cake topper I’ve been commissioned to paint for an upcoming wedding! I love working collaboratively on projects like this, it really turns out a unique result. The bride has all kinds of quirky, eclectic and handmade elements she’s incorporating into her wedding, including a bouquet made of vintage brooches and earrings. It was such happy kismet when I poked through my collection of vintage plastic flower beads for the girlBot’s headpiece and found one random sparkly flowery vintage clip-on earring that looked perfect to use as a bouquet!

I can’t wait to show you guys more progress on this piece – I’ll be continuing work on it this weekend!

Here’s a little sneak peek of style guide stuff I’m working on this week – check out some fun apple characters!

Ok so last night was a blasty at the Long Beach Museum of Art! They were having their After Dark event, and invited Long Beach Craft Mafia to set up shop to show off and sell our wares and do some demos throughout the night. I set up my merch (which Tamara of Crayon Fawn was awesome enough to sell for me!) and then sat down to an evening of caricaturing.

It’s funny how self-conscious I get about my drawing sometimes, and caricatures is even worse because someone is right there watching you do it… What if you screw it up? What if it doesn’t look enough like them? Good lord what if they hate your drawing?!?

What was different last night, as opposed to other caricature events I’ve done, is this one was mostly adults. And they were just as enthusiastic about my drawing as kids at 8th grade grad nights. So it’s time to stop worrying about whether or not my drawings are good enough. They’re fun, and they’re funky, and that’s all you need to know! I know I’ve mentioned this before, but if you’re in the LA or Orange Counties I am definitely available to draw at your party just email me and we’ll make it happen!

Also awesome about last night – I changed one small technique in my caricature drawing towards the end of the night, and it solved something that’s always been a little bit of a problem for me! Thumbs up for progress and change and practice and drawing! Here’s a few warm-up sketches from last night – I’m hoping my buddies Steph and Ellen will scan in their caricatures so I can show ya a couple of finished drawings!

In closing, I want to go back through all my almost 8 years of blog posts and find out just how many of them start with “ok so”. The end!

(Also, when I research the “Ok so” thing, I will count how many posts end with “the end!”)

I only signed up for one event this summer, because I wanted to take it easy with the little one on his way (good job spending gobs of free time on licensing stuff, Steph!). That one show I’m doing takes place tomorrow night in Long Beach, and if you’re free you should go!

Photo from Long Beach Museum of Art website

Long Beach Museum of Art is hosting After Dark from 6-10pm (with a 5pm early entry for museum members), and it’ll be a blasty. It’s $10 to get in (free for museum members), with drink specials, djs spinning some tuneage, access to the museum’s galleries, and a chance to win a free iPad! Make it worth your while and ride your bike there, you’ll receive a voucher for a free appitizer!

Long Beach Craft Mafia will be there doing crafty demos and offering up some unique handmade shopping – Hearts and Laserbeams will be there sellin’ mousepads, coasters, magnets, pins, little 3″ paintings, hand-screenprinted tees and underwear… AND we’ll be drawin caricatures til 9pm! And the caricatures will be cheap!! I’ll be workin for tips, so whether you can only afford to spend one dollar or 70 dollars, I’ve got a drawing for you! Come get yourself drawn up in a wacky, non-traditional style and be the envy of all your friends! Or some of your friends. Some of your friends might be caricature snobs. Those friends aren’t much fun.

Click here to check out the Long Beach Museum of Art’s website for more details - see you tomorrow night!

So I recently joined up with the Etsy Twitter Team, and it’s been great connecting with this group of indie crafters to cross promote our work! From time to time I’m gonna share some of my team members shops with y’all, cuz there’s such good stuff to see!

woven paper basket by SewDanish

Sew Danish hails from Europe, and makes lots of great Scandinavian-themed textile art pieces. Things like journal covers, embroidered notecards, and cosmetic pouches. I think my favorite stuff in her shop is her woven paper baskets, though! Check out these pencil holders made from maps of France:

woven map pencil holders by SewDanish

There’s also some cool woven fabric pieces in the shop, like this basket!

woven fabric basket by SewDanish

Click here to check out Sew Danish’s Etsy shop – what’s your favorite handmade item in there?

I’m so close to being done cleaning up poses for the new Hearts and Laserbeams style guide! This little guy is by far my favorite new robot pose:

Just two more poses to clean up before I can move on with this project!! But first, I will be doing a whole lot of relaxing with the remainder of the holiday weekend. How was your 4th of July?

Work continued on the new Hearts and Laserbeams style guide last night, including a good chunk of hours sketching my robots for fun new graphics! Here’s a sneak peek:

I’m excited to spend some time today cleaning up all the sketches into finished art for the style guide before heading to the beach to check out the Queen Mary fireworks with Gayle! Unfortunately, Josh is workin tonight – but we both have the day off tomorrow to hang out and make up for it!

Hope y’all have a great 4th of July – don’t forget we’re havin’ a sale at the etsy shop! Use coupon code KABOOM! before end of the day tomorrow (7/5) and you’ll get 20% off your order!