Years and years.....

It has been a long wonderful, almost four years since I last wrote a blog post and life has continued on as it will do. Anniversaries have been celebrated, birthdays have been enjoyed, new jobs have been procured, houses have been moved into, and new art has been made!!!!!

I would like to share this small offering of some of the things I have drawn over the past years and encourage you to take a look at my work on....megarts17.deviantart.com
and also my updated portfolio at megarts17.daportfolio.com

ENJOY!!!

Unicorn girl, in process 2015

Unicorn and Mermaid, detail 2014

Pretty swimmer pin, 2014

Spirit walker, process drawing 2016

Spirit walker, finished detail 2016

Spirit walker, finished detail 2016

With a box

One night while it was warm and the sun was setting in a lovely cloudy sky, I sat outside on my buildings rooftop deck. I was thinking about my little story that I wrote and I started to draw my fox again. This time I think he is closer to what I have in mind. More Beatrix Potter and Maurice Sendak.

The fox looked into the box...was it socks? or sox spelled incorrectly?

What do you think?...
There will be more foxes and bears and boxes and socks-es to come! I can just see their cute fuzzy paws and the fox trying to find socks in his untidy little room.

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!

Yesterdays desk

I am happily working on so many things rite now. Some drawings, paintings and crafty ideas. I'm very exited about it all. There will hopefully be some new items for the art crawl in October as well as my portfolio and a possible etsy shop. Here are some phone picts of what my desk looked like yesterday and a little bit of what I am working on.

This is how my Sunday started with a nice freshly painted canvas that I transferred one of my drawings to.  I  would also like to introduce you to my desk ta da! 

This is the canvas I worked on yesterday. My carbon paper transfer  made my lines a little bit dark, so I erased them before I painted. You can see how light the lines at the top of the canvas look compared to the bottom. 

Here is my canvas that I started with white paint.

Here is my desk at the end of the day. My blue canvas has all of it’s pretty swirls painted on it and I am prepping my fairy tail birds for my yellow canvas. 

I hope you enjoyed getting to see a glance of what I worked on yesterday. I think my desk is a pretty cool place to be and it has a lot of nifty things on it sometimes. Did you notice the jars in the first picture? I’ve got some ideas for my little collection of them.

gather round' the pond

To celebrate one of the last weekends before school, my parents hosted a small gathering of neighbors in their backyard. They made up a quick invitation and I was asked to lend a drawing. I wasn't able to attend, but was happy to contribute. Here is my little sketch that formed the header of the invite.

I drew this with pencil on a simple sheet of computer paper  and then went over my lines with a gel sort of ink pen.

I heard that everyone had a great time and loved the invite. Happy end of summer to all!

modely me

When I am drawing, I know it has helped so much to have reference, weather it's for the folds and details of a costume or the gesture of a pose. The more I have taken photos the more I find myself understanding the form of what I draw, and sometimes now I remember what something is really supposed to be rather then guessing how it might be. For a lot of my more recent work, I have taken photos or had my husband take them. Even if it's just on my phone it's still my own little study of form and shape.

So when recently I was asked to be a model for a day, by my friend the Abundant Empress, I was pleased to pose.  She wanted to "take pictures that would serve as inspiration for fairies, medieval princesses, and mythical beings." I was so happy to be found such an inspiration and thought of as a light spirited fairy.

 Photo copyright 2011 Abundant Empress, LLC

Photo copyright 2011 Abundant Empress LLC

 I really like my twirl. Capturing motion is always dynamic. In the second photo I really like the tilt of the head, the leg that is bent, and the way that my hand is against the tree. When I am collecting images for reference, it's some of these kind of details that Laurel was able to show that make a pose worth drawing. Thank you Laurel!

You can read Laurel's blog at............www.abundantempress.blogspot.com

new fairy!

A little while ago I finished another commissioned fairy sketch. I still love drawing fairies and I learn a little more about drawing everytime. When it comes to drawing, I always feel challenged. Cheers to more drawing and as always more fairies! There will be many more to come I am sure!

Copyright Megan Rheault 2011. This fairy is drawn on an off-white handmade rag paper .

Wear it!

Did you want a MarsCon 2011 t-shirt ?!! If you weren't there and you really want one....I don't have any, but a very few are available while they last at OffWorld Designs! They are a company based in Chicago that prints and embroiders all kinds of t-shirts. They do t-shirts for a lot of conventions, including MarsCon.

This is me wearing my size small shirt. The actual shirt color is light gray and the art is very vibrant.

This is what the illustration on the shirt looks like. Notice our signatures (Joe and mine) under our characters!

Please go to their site and send them an email or call if you are interested. The MarsCon 2011 shirts are Hanes, thick cotton. There is 1 small, 2 mediums, 9 larges, and 3 extra larges left, so hurry and get yours today before they are gone forever!

The direct page to buy the t-shirts is.....
http://www.offworlddesigns.com/p-654-marscon-2011-t-shirt.aspx
You can also call them up at 815-786-7080 and they will be happy to answer any question you may have. Happy purchasing!

Paperclay you say?

A while ago I was talking to my friends about possible ideas and projects they are working on. I got really exited about the topics of munny's (plastic customizable toys), etsy (the online shop of handmade goods), dollhouses, and the use of creative paperclay (an air drying sculpting clay.) My friend is making munny's and has them for sale on his etsy site. He is using sculpy to customize them, making them dimensional and adding details. There are so many ways you can customize your munny and the topic of munny's reminded me of the product Creative Paperclay. It's a product I haven't used yet but have heard great things about.

The paperclay site totes this message...

"Creative Paperclay  is a non-toxic modeling material that can be sculpted, molded or shaped, and air dries (no baking!) to a hard finish that can be carved, or sanded - perfect for artists and crafters of all kinds!"

Exiting! I am thinking of of all the possible applications for it. I have seen people make hand sculpted ball jointed dolls - who have full range of motion and posing capabilities. I have also seen it used as an additive, such as on munny's, where you can attach it to an object to make details. On the side of a dollhouse you can use it to sculpt and carve brick, stone or other patterns. From what I have read you can sculpt it, let it air dry, and then add more to your sculpture if need be. You can go on to carve it, drill holes in it, sand it to smoothness, paint it intricately, and seal it for protection. In my mind it sounds like the best highly conceived mix between paper mache and wood that has ever been invented. I'll be sure to let you know if it lives up to my grand assumptions when I give it a try here in the future.

Anyways here is my someday idea I have proposed to myself.

This is a little sketch I did for my future paperclay sculpture. I imagine that she has poseable arms and that she can move her head. In her heart there is a cut out area that has a little bird inside, because her heart is aflutter.

To find out more about munny, the "do it yourself toy" visit...........

www.kidrobot.com/Toys/DoItYourselfToys/

You can learn all about different artists, events, contests, and inspirations to create your very own munny.

To learn all about the wonders of paperclay visit www.paperclay.com.
And be sure to look them up on facebook to discover new ways people are using their paperclay everyday.

Lake Mills

For my sweet cousin Nikki's graduation, my family and I visited Lake Mills Wisconsin. My husband and I drew a card for her and I made a sign for the card box and wrapped it. While we were there we also had a great rainy day walking about. I am so very inspired. Oh how I love little towns....see what I mean.

This is the card that Joe and I drew. Joe drew Nikki first looking at one of her grad picts for reference. It looks so much like her. After he drew her I added in all of the scrolls, border, words, and stars. We had to snap a quick picture cause we don't travel with scanners and it needed to go in the box asap.

This is the card box that I wrapped and then made a sign for. I just drew it up super quick and taped it down. I like drawing borders especially when they are swirly.

On our rainy walk I saw this beautiful garden and I had to take a closer look.

This Venus statue is hidden in a garden just to the side of a driveway belonging to an old church building. The church is currently a residential building that is up for sale.

I went even closer and took her from a different side. She stands in the very middle of a maze-like walking path around her made up of short hedges.

These are peonies along the border of the driveway. There were many, many bushes of these beautiful dew filled flowers.

You can see how large and full the blooms are. So pretty. These were just outside of the little Venus maze garden.

Across the driveway there was a small little alcove that I was so curios about.

So I walked closer.

And there was a charming seated area under a trellis full of vines. I really wish I could buy this place. I can see me being so very happy here.

Here is the church building from across the street. Notice all the details like the tower, the stained glass window, and the stairway.

Walking a bit closer. 

This is one of the side doors. The roof and vines are so charming.

This is the largest window. Everything looked a bit gray that day. I can only imagine how stunningly magical it must look in the sun.

Another way to get in. I found three, but I am sure there are more.

I so wish could buy this lovely property, but alas it doesn't live where I do and it's price is only in my fantasy range.

Although I found myself very taken with the Church, continuing on our walk there was still more to be seen. This building is the towns library. Architecturally I am so drawn to the brick, the roof line, the little steeple, and the gingerbread doorway. It's located along the main street, that borders a central park.

This house is just one example of the charming buildings that make up the neighborhoods of this little town. There are so many pretty houses including many built in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

While walking along the main streets there were plenty of artistic stops to be found. I found this vintage store called Calamity Jane, which was not open that day, but it had a great entryway to look at threw the window. I pressed my camera/phone up to the glass to get a pict of this amazing and useful cabinet. I was so drawn to the colors of it and it’s staged really well with all those accessories. I challenge any girly girl to not like this piece.

If you want to buy the featured church building or just to see the spectacular pictures of the inside visit this site. www.cynthiaweston.com As amazing and fairy tale as the outside looks the inside is truly enchanting! If you do buy it please let me visit you! As an update they seem to have taken down the pictures or maybe the site is just not working for me today, either way it’s worth a try.

To see more about the shop Calamity Jane visit their Facebook at www.facebook.com/calamityjaneswi?sk=wall And be sure to stop by if you find yourself in lake mills.