Months and months

It has been over two months since I last wrote a post. Normally I would be disappointed with my lack of writing, but I don't know how I could be with all the good things that have happened in my life. I turned thirty and celebrated by having a relaxing and inspiring weekend in Stillwater. My husband and I participated in our local art crawl. And for once not being truly worried about how we were doing, we did very well. I recently got a few more pieces for my fantasy dollhouse, which I have mentioned on here from time to time. I also decided to work towards a long term physical goal of entering a half marathon. And to top everything all off I got a new job as a digitizer for the coolest embroidery company on the web. So yeah, ta da! I have been busy being awesome. I have lots of new ideas to try out as well and I hope as always to put them on my blog real soon!

Something Sacred

Last year for one of the first times since I was a kid, I made valentines. I sat down with a bunch of other women, cutting and pasting, every now and then writing clever little snippets. As an illustrator it was a really freeing sort of exercise in quick thinking, composition, color theory, and practicing my fabrication skills. So this year I did it again, making quite a few less cards, but they turned out lovely and the time was just as inspiring as before. Below are the four cards I made, three of them featuring the fox I drew in the last post. My favorite card though was the one I made for my husband. I felt my collage skills were really shining threw with that one. I think it's cause of love! <3

Pixiegirl Studios - Megan Rheault copyright 2012

Pixiegirl Studios - Megan Rheault copyright 2012

Pixiegirl Studios - Megan Rheault copyright 2012

Pixiegirl Studios - Megan Rheault copyright 2012

I must say that sometimes I spell valentines incorrectly (oops.) Googly eyes are super silly and fallow however you tilt them. Glitter is a sparkly necessity, and scans well (who knew.) Gems and ribbons when placed well aren't tacky. AND the use of several girly elements when utilized correctly can combine to be husband approved masculine AWESOMENESS!

Foxes

I recently wrote a new story about a bear and a fox and a box of socks. I was doing some sketching to figure out what my characters will look like.

The first foxes I drew were while I was making some valentines. And actually I just redrew the head of the fox at the top because I had erased it at the time. I think I like the shape of it a little better now, it feels more foxy.....but I don't think it's there quite yet. 

I continued to draw my fox and tried drawing a bear too. The fox's tail is a bit more bushy and the bear has a nice small tail.

There is still more drawing to do of course and I can't figure out if I would like my bear and fox to be more realistic or more cutesie. So far these are on the cute side. I think I will get some reference shots and draw on a big pad of newsprint so I can get more gestural.

If you like seeing these animals you will defenatly like my cat Ferlin, that I made up for my children's book Ferlin and his Paper Hat. To see more about Ferlin visit my portfolio as well as few posts on my blog about working on the book. Be sure to let me know what you think!

Pixiegirl Studios portfolio
Blocks of text with Ferlin
Making Ferlin in color!
Out to sea with Ferlin

Three maids

I have been practicing my mermaid drawing skills for a personal project I am working on. I am trying to make a label that will have two mermaids on it.

Copyright 2012 Megan Rheault,  Pixiegirl Studios

Copyright 2012 Megan Rheault, Pixiegirl Studios

Copyright 2012 Megan Rheault, Pixiegirl Studios

It's a bit more practicing the female figure, not so much the tail part, just a little tail part. I keep drawing the mermaids to see what kind of poses I want them to have. I'm hoping that by drawing more and more of them I will have a few to choose from that will fit together nicely. So far these are ok with me, but I haven't been completely inspired yet.........we'll see!

To see the mermaid I drew for last years marscon check out this post I wrote in 2010. It was back when I was working on the promotional artwork with my husband. You can see how she went from sketch to color!
post: mermaids they are awesome

The lady in the shawl

Some days I sketch, and one day I drew this.

Pop can wishes

Sometimes I think about ways that I could reuse or re-purpose containers that I've emptied, or things like pop cans, very easy to find ordinary items. On one of those particular nights, feeling very inspired I drew a few ideas I had about pop cans.

There is a little box, circus cars with bottle cap wheels, a lighted tent, a pretty turret that swings open revealing little shelves for treasures, and a fairy princess lamp - with arms attached with paper fasteners so she can wave her arms up and down!

Looking back at my sketches I realize that some of these ideas are a bit large for one can and might need to be pieced together from a few. There would be some seams showing and I think it would be a challenge to cut the aluminum exactly the way I intended. I have a lot of ideas, but sometimes aren't ideas perfect because there is never any limitation where there is imagination.

Papers at the ends

I am not sure who started the practice of maps on endpapers, although it was very clever and thoughtful of them. Some of the most charming ones I've found are in children's books. Having just looked at the endpapers in Winnie-The-Pooh, I was reminded of a reproduction I drew for a dear friend of mine. The drawing is my hand rendered copy of the endpapers that were found on the original Betsy-Tacy children's book series.

Here is my drawing as I worked on it at my desk. The map was about half done.

This is a scan of the map in it's entirety. It was done on handmade rag paper with my favorite mechanical pencil.

One day when I put out my own books I will be sure to have pretty endpapers with informative maps.

If you are interested in learning more about the Betsy-Tacy book series you can visit the Betsy-Tacy Society at www.betsy-tacysociety.org

You can also visit a previous post of mine to read a brief history of the Betsy-Tacy series and also read about my starting of a poster for the giftshop.   My Betsy-Tacy poster post link.

Finding Winnie

The other day I had the good fortune to find a vintage Winnie The-Pooh book in my library's used section. It is a charming book and this particular copy has some very loved pages that I adore. The binding is loose, the fabric edges are fraying and there are some worn patches of color. It still has it's library card envelope in back and I imagine all the children who read about Pooh's heffalump dreams or sitting with ten pots of honey as it rained and rained. As an adult the stories are as memorable as when I first read them and I see the reason for having favorites and classics.

My copy is a reprint from 1961

A small sketch I made, because Pooh is of course always thinking about honey.

The left side of the endpapers. I love the tradition of maps in endpapers.

The right side. It is so sweet to think that if I were to visit the 100 aker wood I would know exactly where to go. By the way as a "bad" speller, all of these carefully written words on the map seem to be very correct in  my mind.

Fall Crawl 2011 pictures!

I am finally getting to show you pictures of how our place was set up during the Saint Paul Art Crawl. Enjoy!

This is the main hallway sort of area after you have walked past our laundry closet and such. It's our first big wall to put art on.  The small table in the corner has my Ferlin book on it, all ready to be picked up and read. Above it are Joe's comic pages and my fairy inks from the Marscon 2010 promo.

This is showing more of the whole wall. Joe's new painting is featured between to his comic pages and the sculls he designed for a friends tattoo.

This is half of our living space transformed into an art gallery. On the round table we featured our magnet packs as well as drawings and business cards. Paintings, prints and books are displayed on the tables just beyond that. Behind our makeshift wall is our working studio space.

This is the other half of our "main gallery." More paintings, prints, and original work can be found on the tables, grids and walls. 

We were lucky enough to find a great display rack to hold all of our many prints. We sell epson, mat finish and lustre metallic prints of a variety of our work.

This is my favorite little corner where we have a print station set up as well as offering paypal. In the background the wall with lots of different posters and art all over it is our studio. It's a very cosy place to work.

So this is what our apartment looked like. I hope you enjoyed seeing our set up!

If you haven't seen my husbands work before, or even if you have, go visit the artwork of Joe Rheault at www.dirtyinks.com

Art Crawl Fall 2011!

My husband and I are opening our apartment once again for the Saint Paul Art Crawl. And as you can imajine this week has been full of making sighns, rearanging furniture, contacting our fellow artist, and as much etc. as possible. We love the experience of inviting people into our home and sharing all of our hard work. If you live in the twin cities of Minnesota there is still time to stop on over.

We are open today Saturday October 8th from 12-8pm and Sunday October 9th from 12-5pm!

This is the poster/handout that my husband Joe Rheault designed.  If there is a particular piece that stands out to you and you want to know more about leave a comment

We are located at 2285 University Ave West, Saint Paul, MN 55114

Come see us and say hi!
I will be posting pictures of the event a bit later. Watch for it!