Art: Newest Pet Portraits

Art: Newest Pet Portraits

I need to get some of my sketches and such online, but in the meantime here's a couple pet portraits I recently did for my friend Marlee and my friend Rochelle.





There you have it. I have some more coming down the pipeline! Yay for pets!

Huggles,
Lauren

Work: Just another Pet Portrait

Work: Just another Pet Portrait

Over the holidays I always end up doing custom watercolor pet portraits, and this year I was featured in House Beautiful so I got even more orders! I had to say no to people, that was saddening... But here's a quick look at the pets this season!



Happy Howl-idays!

DIY: Nautical I Love You!

DIY: Nautical I Love You!

Yay! I'm so happy you guys liked my sailor top I made. So to continue on with the trend here's a fun nautical inspired DIY Project! Creating hidden messages with the international maritime flags! Here's a print out you can cut out at home and hang up this for the one you love like a sailor loves the sea! C'mon everyone loves this whole nautical look!




Start out fist downloading this pdf https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4oTVeyiNDfudUx1c20wSVlpREk/edit?usp=sharing. Cut between the g=flag shapes where the arrows tell you to cut. For best results use a ruler and xacto blade. Fold the 8 rectangles in half to make little squares. Then get a cute piece of ribbon, twine, or string around two feet in length and take the folded flags and put the string in the fold, like a hot dog into a bun! Try to space them evenly or into words like I did. Then take a glue stick and swipe some glue into the fold and shut the fold over the string. Let the glue dry then take the ends of the string and hang up your nautical flag pennant flag!!



I love my little flags hanging over my bed with my awesome California hanging to remind me of the adventures I've had out here and all the fun things I've done these past two years by the sea, on the sea and sailing. look up online for the whole International Maritime Flag alphabet, and make your own phrases! Here's the wikipedia article about these awesome flags (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_maritime_signal_flags)



Have fun making your sea loving message, and let me know how you like them!

Huggles,
Lauren

BagTag

BagTag

Hand drawn type I did for a project, this isn't the final but you can see some type work I do for our clients! Yay being able to write well!

Huggles.

Free V-Day Printable

Free V-Day Printable

I made this quickly for my boyfriend, since we go sailing, biking, hiking, and beaching together. The line "You & Me, Land and Sea." seemed appropriate. I did all the type by hand and scanned it into Photoshop and colored it. Not my best work, but still fun!

Sorry it was rushed, but if you like it you can download and print it here and fold it up for your land & sea loving valentine.

(ps: sorry for the crappy iphone picture) Below is a little video on how to fold the card... but I'm sure you are smart enough to fold up a card!

Baby Shower Seahorsie

Baby Shower Seahorsie

I did this illustration last year for the baby shower invites my friend and fellow designer Andrea was doing for her friend, Julie. Julie loves the ocean and before she was born her mother's baby shower invites for her featured a pegasus carrying a baby like a stork. So Andrea and I decided to combine Julie's invites with her love of the sea creating this "stork" seahorse for her baby girl's baby shower.



Huggles,
Lauren

One Pug, Two Pug

One Pug, Two Pug

The cutest little black pugs Lucy and Lily!

Maya & Emerson

Maya & Emerson

I've been a busy busy bee with so many pet portraits this year! Unfortunately my scanner broke :( So I'm trying to photograph more of the drawings. This is Maya, a rescued Great Dane! This was a gift so it was requested to be wrapped with a Happy Birthday card, nothing says Happy Birthday like Tripp barking it out!




The second drawing is of a cutey named Emerson, I hope her portrait makes a wonderful Christmas present!!

If you are interested, order your pet portrait here and use "FREESHIP" for free shipping on domestic orders!

Huggles,
Lauren

I want to go to there

I want to go to there

I recently discovered this photographer, Heinrick Oldhauser, who lives in Oregon. His photos really make me want to dive into the spaces created and feelings they invoke. Like a glimpse back into the dust bowl his images invoke the spirit of the farmer, or wanderer. For me growing up near farming towns in Southern Ohio, I had a dream of what it would be like to live on a farm. Although I know this fantasy is no where near the reality of farm life, especially early century farm life, I still fantasize about being Laura Ingalls, and these photos are a snapshot of what I think it would be like. Muted tones of cotton clothing on the golden fields with the wind blowing in your hair.

Life in Instagram | Pt. 4

Life in Instagram | Pt. 4

Sorry for the delays as always. Here's a life update.
An Oakland A's game with the guys
Dinner after moving Marlee's things :(
Party
Boys making music
Vintage dress for sale
Ima ginger

What I Drew: Pet Portraits!

What I Drew: Pet Portraits!

As I mentioned in my last post I've been doing commissions. Well here are a few I've done! I've always loved drawing animals so I'm putting that to good use by doing custom Pet Portraits! Each one the person emailed me a pic of their furry friend and told me their favorite flower. I'm having so much fun doing these!! And it's really helping with my lettering since I want to start doing more posters and cards in the future! I'm offering them at $50 each for an original 8x10 watercolor of your pet, of course to you bloggers I'll offer discounts if you would like to promote my new art endeavor!!

If you'd like to discuss this further please email me at { sparrowandurchin@gmail.com } and if you'd like to order on you can email or convo me on Etsy!

Huggles,
Lauren

Art: While I've been away

Art: While I've been away

So I may have mentioned that while I was gone from this world of blogging and dealing with my major life change, I was also in a group art show in town... So here you guys are...

"A Little Help from my Friends"

My Junior year in college ('07) I experimented with painting on linen and incorporating embroidery and multiple layers of canvas... My most successful piece was this one, "Rebbecca Rolfe Learns to Sew"



Anyway with all the turmoil of my life I've decided to got back to that experiment. I have a great fondness for sewing and embroidery and am excited to start this again.



This piece I painted the girl on the main canvas and the hand and birds on a separate canvas, then cut those out and embroidered them onto the main. I made the mistake though of using Cotton Duck Canvas instead of Linen... and may I say that was near impossible... I wasn't able to do all the embroidery that I wanted.



The idea of this piece goes along with what has been happening with me lately. That sometimes you have to start sewing yourself back together, making yourself presentable and feeling good, and while you do that you have to allow your friends to help give you the tools in order to pull yourself together.



So yeah. Deep. I know.

Haha.
Lauren

At Work: The Tutu Series

At Work: The Tutu Series

Two weeks ago on the 13th I curated a show at my gallery!

"the Tutu series: past and present works by Lenore Gimpert"



Lenore is one of our local regular artists whom the design community adores. Her work is seen all around the Detroit area as well as the Caribbean, NYC, and the north-east. I decided a couple months ago to throw together a show and try to get new people into the showroom. I was pleased with the turnout, and we had great food, and of course for her french inspired art we had pink champagne and macaroons! yum yum!!

And of course I also had to dress ballerina-esque! Too bad I forgot my pointe shoes. :)

I also designed all the posters, postcards, and tags; wrote the press releases and managed the social media outlets... The hardest part was my trip to San Fran was the week before the opening. So I had a week to paint and fill in all the holes in the main space in the showroom and hang everything. We had 29 of her pieces, as well as rehanging other rooms in the gallery to make everything flow together. It was a crazy week! But ending it eating treats and drinking champagne was worth it.

{ Materials Used }

Leotard } American Apparel

Skirt } Vintage Dress, will be for sale in my Etsy shop soon!!

Heels } Gifted from Kristina

Belt } Urban Outfitters

Necklace & Bracelet } F21

Huggles,
Lauren

Man oh Man } Weekend 3.4-3.6

Man oh Man } Weekend 3.4-3.6

Well I accidentally deleted my outfit from friday, which was outfit 23... So I don't know if I'll just recreate it and snap a shot... grumble. I'm bad at getting shots of the weekend lately. But this weekend I did go to my flatmate's art show. So yeah I wore my remixed clothes and this is now outfit 23...

Jen is one of the most incredible artists I know. I don't even know how to describe her work. It's angelic but also demonic, natural yet unnatural. I don't know. Here are some pictures, you can decide for yourselves.

This is from Jen's Facebook page (picture not mine)

Check out this newspaper article featuring Jen (and photo by me!) here, and make sure to become a fan of her artwork on facebook!

{ 30x30 Materials Used }

Green Shirt } Don't know where from, (worn day
Corduoroy Blazer } Vintage (worn day
Jeans } UO, on sale (worn day
Booties } UO, on sale (worn day
--added--
Necklace & Pin } Vintage
Blue Necklace } F21

Huggles,
Lauren