How to use this Page

Hurray, Inkygirl has been successfully moved to Squarespace! If you're reading this post in your old feed, then all is well  - I'd appreciate it if you'd post below to let me know. I encourage you all, however, to update your feeds to my new RSS info; you can find the list of feeds in the top right corner.

I'm actually going to be displaying two blogs on the Inkygirl page: my regular Inkygirl info plus a separate comics blog. I decided to keep my comics separate to make it easier for people to find the comic they want since I'm tagging/categorizing as I upload my archives.

In addition to Inkygirl, I've moved over Blatherings, Will Write For Chocolate, My Life In A Nutshell, Filking.net and my Filk FAQ, iPadGirl and DebbieOhi.com. I have about half a dozen other blogs to go, but when I have the basic infrastructures in place, I'll go back and do finetuning and link-fixing.

If you notice anything amiss or would like me to fix certain pages sooner than later, please do let me know! And thanks for sticking with me through this transition period. I'm hoping not to have to move again for a very long time.

I decided to redo my moving monster piece, you can find the first attempt here. Thanks to all the feedback here and over on flickr, I was able to see what was missing. Here's what I came up with now:

Here was the "before":

Now that I look at it, The "before" looks more like a sketch. I'm glad I was willing to push it a little further, thanks to all the encouragement. I feel alot better. Whew! :-)

Trying to get back in the swing of things with an attempt to come up with a moving announcement postcard. I'm finding that I'm struggling a little bit, did I leave my muse behind? This is my first attempt- fun to post here but I don't like it enough to use as a postcard. Back to the drawing board.

Fun things I'm enjoying:
*Fellow illustrator Gina Perry with a pic of her baby Miles reading The Haunted Ghoul Bus! Totally adorable facial expression while flipping through the book! Its priceless to me, thanks, Gina!

*Recently found this awesome blog about children's book design and illustration:
The Apple and the Egg

Cluck cluck!

The latest excitement around here is that I finally got an iPhone! I can finally be on the go and stay in touch with clients! (But really I've been obsessively downloading apps and games to play.)

Hard to keep up with blogging right now as my apartment looks like this:
This is the "neat" corner. We don't leave for another month but have started sorting, packing, and throwing things out. Also just enjoying friends, family, and New York City as much as we can before we head out to Ann Arbor. So thank you to those of you who still drop by this blog!

On another note, I have a very fun licensing announcement next month! (Woohoo!) Stay tuned!

I have some big personal news: I will be moving from New York City to Ann Arbor, Michigan in August!

Why the move? My significant other got a post-doctorate position at the University of Michigan...which we've known since March. Even though it will only be for three years, it will be a big change for the both of us. It is much wanted. But scary. Yet exciting.

So for the next two months, you'll be hearing about our adventures. It is the reason I haven't been posting as much art as I've used to. This year has been jam packed for me- getting married, exhibiting in a big trade show, and now moving!

It's been a while since I put together a new zombie shirt (because I've been so busy) so I started on another design last night. I haven't even finished drawing it yet, but if you can guess what it is, I'll give you a gold star. (Which will actually just be me typing the words "GOLD STAR" in the comments...I know that's a bit of a let down).

Here's a hint: B.A.

Oh, and I've also (very slowly) been moving some of my designs over to zazzle as well, but that's taking a long time (you know, because of the whole "busy" thing again) I've included a link to the zazzle stuff in the sidebar.


make custom gifts at Zazzle

Steve!

It's been such a long time since I've updated that I'm just not sure where to start... So, we're finally all settled here in Austin after our big move from LA. It's hard to believe we've been here for about a month and a half. The time just flew by and now it's nearly Christmas! I had forgotten how all-consuming long distance moves can be. During the move there are these long stretches where we're just waiting around, but at the same time there are so many little loose ends to take care of. It seems like I've done everything but art lately, although I did manage to scribble down a first draft of a very simple early reader that's been swimming around in my head for a while.

We spent our first two weeks here in an Extended Stay on the east side of the city which was . . . okay. We managed to find an apartment within our first four days here which I thought was very efficient of us! So I was able to call in for delivery of our possessions pretty quickly. Unfortunately, the mover scheduled the delivery for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving which was the same day we were supposed to fly out to visit my parents. Try as I might to reschedule, I couldn't reach the moving coordinator, who, as it turns out was sick with the flu for an entire week, so we had to cancel our trip lest our things be left on the curb or shipped around the country for a while before they made their way back to us again. Needless to say, none of us were to happy about any of this.

One of my big concerns regarding the move was not knowing how the cat would handle it. I've never traveled with a cat before so it was uncharted territory for all of us. He actually did surprisingly well on the flight over and in the hotel. There was a bit of growling and slinking around, but he took it all really well. Where I made my mistake was when I took him with me to the empty apartment one day to do some cleaning. He was fine all day - really interested in checking the place out and then in the very late afternoon something in his little brain snapped and he started dashing around madly and frantically washing, twitching his fur and shaking his head as though there was something on him that he was trying to shake off. It was very disturbing to watch him in this state. We took him to the vet to see if what was bothering him was something environmental. The vet seemed rather baffled by our description of his behavior and suggested we just keep an eye on him for a while. He did gradually get over the problem, so we can assume it some kind of bizarre stress response. Thankfully, he's all back to normal now.

So far, I'm really liking Austin. It's very pretty - very green - not at all the stereotype of the dry, dusty Texas I'd always imagined. And I am so happy to have forest the reaches right up to our back balcony. It's quite an improvement over our last view of the building next door - the typical LA 'view.' We have a nice big picture window in the master bedroom which makes for really great bird-watching. The cat and I are both loving it. There seem to be a couple pairs of cardinals that frequent the juniper nearby. They are just so pretty to watch flitting around, nipping berries off the branches. Must paint a cardinal... The wildlife is just great around here and we haven't even started hiking the local wilderness yet either. The forests must be teeming with deer since we see them all the time. They are pretty brave. They come right up onto the lawns and you can get pretty close to them without spooking them at all. I know a lot of people have deer in their backyard, but I never did so it is pretty novel to me. Oh - and I saw a little owl the other day! It was just so cute! Must paint an owl...

And here I was worried that I wouldn't have any pictures to post since we all know pictures are the best part, right? I went outside, thinking maybe I'll see something interesting to shoot. Shot a couple pictures of berries for future reference and on my way back to my apartment I spot three deer grazing on the lawn just like I was saying:
Well, most important of all, my husband is very happy with his new job which is a very good thing since we did move all the way here for it after all. He's working on a next-gen game called Darksiders. It's set in a fantastical post-apocalyptic future with angels, demons, etc. and you play as one of the four horsemen. It's still in it's early stages, but what they have so far looks really great. There are some trailers here (yes, you have to sit through a commercial if you want to watch them) :
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/21723.html
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/21562.html
This one's an interview/trailer:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/22357.html

Well, I think I've yammered on long enough today. It's almost time for dinner anyway. Since I probably won't update again until after the holidays (we'll be in Arizona!), I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! See ya in 2008... Read the rest of this post

Good Morning:

I think it's a sunny day today, but there's so much smoke here, it appears to be dreary and dark. My house has a stench of burning leaves and stale firestorm smoke. My home is not in harms way, but the fire is only about 5 miles from us, as the crow flies. Yesterday, it literally snowed ash all day long. We captured this photo of a perfectly preserved leaf made entirely of ash~~



This little leaf managed to blow in the wind, and land on the bumper of our car without breaking apart.

The billowing smoke, with it's orangey glare is otherwordly and bruised. I've lived in Southern California all of my life, and I've experienced forest fires many many times, but never, ever like this. Everything in my house is covered with ash and soot, including my studio. We won't even think about cleaning until the Santiago fire is contained.

I am so thankful that we are not in harm's way, and I am ever so saddened by the losses that so many folks have endured.

I'm off to attend to my daily chores and to work on my daughter's Halloween costume.

Until next time:
Kim
Garden Painter Art

So it's official - we're moving to Texas. My husband accepted a job in Austin and just put in his two weeks this past Monday. It's such a strange feeling. We had a few weeks of anticipation and mild uncertainty and now, suddenly we're in the thick of preparations. We're out of LA in exactly two weeks, so it's going to be quite a whirlwind. I'm really excited to be moving - trying out a new city in a different part of the country, but the moving itself can be such a dreaded experience. We had a pretty horrid experience six years ago when we relocated from NY to LA and I'm not at all eager to repeat it. Fortunately, I have a bit more time to do better research on moving companies and the like this time around, so hopefully it will be a somewhat better situation. We shall see...

I've never been to Austin myself, but every one we've spoken to seems to really like it, so I have high hopes that we will too. The cost of living is very attractive and I hear it's quite green and boasts spectacular thunderstorms. I so miss thunderstorms...

Here's a sketch a did last week:
I've had a thumbnail of this idea waiting around in my sketchbook for years, so I'm glad to finally have a chance to tackle it. I'm not sure where the idea for it came from - instruments as boats just seems like a neat idea to me. I've got a color study finished for it, but I have a feeling I'm not going to get to touch it again for a while, since my current job is now 'moving coordinator.'

So as we're preparing to move, going through our possessions and trying to figure out what we can do without, we managed to gather up a few stacks of books that we were willing to part with - a lot of them duplicates that we both had before we got married. I remembered a small used bookstore right around the corner from us, that I'd walked past many times, but never really ventured into before. So I headed over there, arms full of books. It's one of these places I wish I'd discovered sooner - a really nice store with good selection and the owner's just nice as can be. They even had a copy of Castles by Alan Lee - quite a find! I love the big bookstores, Borders, B&N as much as anybody, but there's something to be said for the charm of the smaller independent bookstore. So, if you happen to be passing through Canoga Park, stop in and see what you can find - address is on their website: www.nextchapterbooks.com.

Also, I mentioned sculptor Vicki Banks' beautiful animal sculptures in a previous post - seems she does indeed have a website: http://www.vulturesculpture.com/

It's time for me to dive back into the madness of moving - many phone calls to make. Anybody know a good pet-friendly hotel in Austin by chance?

Hello Friends:

I promise I won't make a habit of using my "art blog" to advertise deals on our internet mall, but I thought this may be fitting, considering lots of artists enjoy the Harry Potter books.

Go HERE and check out this deal from Barnes and Noble.com. It's quite amazing and it's short lived!!

I guess I could also use this time to say that I've just wasted my 200th post on an entry for the mall.... I'm not happy about that !!

As always, thanks so much for stopping by.
Until Tomorrow:
Kim
Garden Painter Art