Dolphin Paisley

is there any other kind?

The Tornado

Here are some work in progress still shots from the movie I'm in charge of this month at job-job.

Lately I've been feeling like we're becoming the 'opposite of racist' in the movies we provide--whatever that is. It's just that tons of our films feature African Americans or Latin and Spanish people. We hardly ever make a movie about a white person. I've been exasperated by it, in that I think it's getting strange that we're not representing a true melting pot. So when my schedule docked on Wilma Rudolph I rolled my eyes. Then I had to start researching her. I'm awe inspired. She rocks so hard. I love when my job teaches me new things. Wilma Rudolph was one of those people who shouldn't have succeeded. She was born premature, weighing only four and a half pounds. She was the twentieth of twenty-two kids! In the first few years of her life, Wilma's mother nursed Wilma through scarlet fever, mumps, measles and double pneumonia.

Wilma contracted Polio. Hospitals were segregated and she almost died multiple times, submitted to the kind of medical help you can imagine a poor little black girl in the South in the 1950s would receive. She had a Forest Gump kind of brace on her leg until she was twelve!

I loved the stories I read about her mother who would not give up. Determined to beat the odds, her mom packed Wilma up. They traveled fifty miles twice a week to get Wilma to physical therapy in the only place that would treat her. Her entire family worked round the clock helping Wilma do strengthening exercises, nursing her to health.

Look her up. She died so young. but in her short lifetime she shattered boundaries. She wrote her own biography. She consulted on the movie made about her life. She won so many awards. If you Google her you'll find multiple accounts saying she changed the world. Talented enough to brake through the time's preconceived notions about race and gender she changed the way the world measures the value of a person.

In 1960 she became the first American woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympic games.
Ooh and she was sooo so fast.

Watch her run. She'll blow your mind.

Make It Creepy

Make it crawly!Ten days and counting!
I had plans to expand this line, but after white on black, black on white and candy corn Halloween were explored I twiddled my thumbs. Maybe it was going to be something I came back to at Christmas. The life of a licensing artist is never easy. Then, while visiting my favorite baking cutie at Bakerella.com

I stumbled upon her mega inspiring Trixed out Treats.
photo by Bakerella

Is there anything that girl can't do?
She made me realize spiders are meant to be neon.

Download the 8.5x11" design paper fo' free for all those spookly last minute craft projects.
It's available until the witching hour on the 31st!
Find it at: Amber Ink. Make it Creepy - Bright Green
Coupon Code - "creeps"

P.totheS. - Wouldn't this make the cutest cupcake papers?! That just hit me now. I was thinking paper plates. As always designs features at She Sure is Sketchy are available for awesomesauce licensing at http://www.amberalvarez.com/
listening to right this second: "You Can't Hurry Love " -- Phil Collins

White on White

I don't know if I've mentioned this before... but I freaking love my job.

This is the conversation I had with my art director this afternoon:
This is the conversation we had in my head:

Him: Have you drawn a Beluga Whale for us before?

Him: Have you used your subperb drawing skills to render us an illustration of the most noble creature of Oceania?

Me: No.

Me: You mean a Beluga Whale!!? Gee. I wish!!!

Him: I'm suposed to draw a Beluga Whale for this next movie.

Me: Lucky!

Me: NO fair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WANNA draw a Beluga Whale. I only got to draw that stupid Bowhead whale for the Arctic Movie.

Him: What was the name of that stupid whale you drew for the Arctic Movie?

Me: The Bowhead Whale?

Me: My Bowhead whale was not stupid...

Him: You wanna draw a beluga whale for me?

Him: I guess since your eyes have gotten as big as 45s I will let you draw it, mainly because you are cute.

Me: Um, I guess.

Me: SCORE!!!! I GET TO DRAW A BABY BELUGA WHALE FOR MY JOB. I AM THE LUCKIEST GIRL EVERRRRRRRRRR! I get to draw a beluga whale. Yayyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!

There you have it kids.
Welcome to She Sure is Sketchy -- where I let you into my head.

listening to right this second: "Soil,Soil" -- Tegan and Sara

Montana, How I Love You - Part Deux

Let me count the ways:

#2) You know that snow should happen unexpectedly and magically.When it is over it should disappear without a trace.
This morning we awoke to rain, wait - scratch that. This looks like snow. Yes, this is definitely snow. Without anyone but my little party to run, frolic and jump in it, it stayed pretty, puffy and perfect.

#3) Compound interest. -- A couple of days ago I mentioned to my kid sister that her hair could probably use a trim. She told me to mind my own business. In the dead of night she crept from her bed and cut it in front of the bathroom mirror. In the morning she blamed me for this ripe bit of insanity. It's nice to know I've still got it. My influence would never stretch this far from New York.

4) There are bunnies!!!!
listening to right this second: "Give it to Me" -- Timbaland

Montana, How I Love You

Let me count the ways:

#1) Your bugs are kind of cute... They do not make me want to run away screaming ala Psycho.

Unlike the majority of specimens I have come across in one New York City, your bugs all seem to have a job.Your insects celebrate thrift and purpose. I for one am tired of the dead beat bugs NYC side, their only occupation seems to be freaking me out and scaring me to death.

listening to right this second: "Untouched" -- The Veronicas

Sun Jumping

Montana wild fires turned the sun nuclear pink on Saturday.
This is livestock country in this here parts. I caught a glimpse of this cow clearing the sun.
Milk cows are notoriously daring.

Sweet and Simple

I'm working on a new activity at job-job. This month I made a math movie about patterns. It's funny, I spend so much of my career doing surface design. I just never break it down to this simple and beautiful idea that's based in the simplest math; math that you learn when you're in kindergarten. These are going in our geometry unit.

I had to make our activities for this movie as simple as possible.

It is important that the kids can draw in what's missing themselves.

My instructions were as follows:

"Draw simple shapes: Cat, Dog, Mouse, Blank, Dog, Mouse, Cat, Dog, Mouse......"

This one might be my favorite. I'm going to let this new way of thinking about pattern bleed into my normal artsy life. I'm sure you'll see this reflected in my surface design in the very near future.

Yeah, like when do I ever think about keeping a butterfly "as simple as possible"?!

I love this little gal! (Oh and incase you couldn't tell -- It's National Punctuation day, seriously!)

3rd graders at Auburn Elementary School (Auburn, MI)

These kids know how to properly celebrate a holiday.

(I'd use an exclamation point, but you know you're supposed to use those sparingly.)

The Better To See You With

The Arctic

OK. Confession.... This is a huge embarrassment on my part, but my entire life....for the past 27 years, I have been mispronouncing 'Arctic'. That's right kids. There's a town named 'shame on me' and right now I'm its chief inhabitant. I have also been misspelling it, which puts us in this 'Chicken or the Egg' conundrum. This week at job-job we learned that Arctic is spelled as such and not known as the 'Artic'. My drawing-girl roots are so hurt.
I was a bit shocked. I considered hiding this indiscretion but it's less shameful if I admit it and move on. Seriously, though...I thought this part of my life was over! In the sixth grade a fight with Lahela Lindsey took a turn for the worse when it came to light that she was in fact correct. 'Pretzel' is not pronounced with a 'n'. Sorry kid, there is no such thing as a 'prentzel'. That's the last time I can clearly recall such a blow. In my defense which one of us is now living an awesome life in the 'pretzel' capitol of the world?! HUH? Take that Hawaii! So who really won that one? I think it's clear. Uh...yeah. In breaking this logic, I have no intention of ever moving to the Arctic. As a compromise I am thinking of christening my studio. It doesn't seem right that our universe wouldn't have some place called the "Artic". Could you think of somewhere more fitting or more sketchy? I for one, cannot.

The Arctic is cold. OK. I'm sure you knew that already. But it's really cold. We're talking negative 40 degrees Celsius. That's like normal winter but times 40! Actually, I have no idea what negative 40 degrees feels like -- but it's really, really bad.

In the summer it is hardly ever dark.

In the winter it is hardly ever light.

Sami and Inuit's live pretty happily in the Arctic. Honestly, I don't know know for sure that they're happy. I imagine things can get kind of dull. Sami live in these really adorable little villages. Maybe they have dances? Food isn't easy to find there. So they fish. It's starting to look like I'd make a really bad Arctic girl... What with the cold and the no sun and the catching and then eating of fish. They fish with nets, so maybe I'd take to that with a better attitude than fishing with bait. Gew. Bait. Gross.I would probably make a better Arctic flower. They are low to the ground with very shallow roots. Plus they're very pretty. They grow long hair that is wild and unruly. They're prickly on the outside but incredibly fragile once you get past the outer layer that they develop for protection. It's like this movie just wrote me a dating profile.

My favorite part about designing and animating this movie was all the cool animals I got to research and draw. I'm going to show you some of them now. Check it:

My art director and I got into a fight about this whale. He kept complaining about how it looked. I'd redesign and then he'd complain some more. I got SOOOOOOOO frustrated. Finally I realized that he was upset with the way that this whale actually looks, not with the way I was designing. After a lot of back and forth I got the last word with, "Dude, take it up with God."We talk a lot about how we're ruining the environment and doing bad stuff for the earth. I animate ice caps melting and glaciers moving. It's actually pretty sad. At one point we have a momma polar bear and a baby polar bear on seperate flats of ice as they float away from one another. It's enough to draw a tear.
Do I feel guilty after this Arctic movie has sunk in? A little.... but then I slap myself and pull up a chair in my perfectly temperature controlled studio and look at my blog stats for today. Let's be honest. The Arctic is hardly even looking at my blog! Maybe I'll go back to calling it the "Artic," afterall.

Shopping Should be Fun!

A couple of weeks ago I posted a fast and loose fashion sketch here on She Sure is Sketchy. It turned out to be pretty popular with the ladies. The finished result can now be seen on ivillage's new website NeverSayDiet.com. Three cheers for the World Wide Web!

Silent E!

This week at job-job, I've been finishing up some animation for our newest phonics movie. Here are some stills of the art I made for it. Illustrating the mule was my favorite part, the chore of making him walk, not so much. It was always thus.