Postcards: Mr. ZIP

Do you remember Mr. ZIP?  I only recently of his existence when my sister sent me the Zip Code Song.  I watched the video and thought "I gotta draw that guy."  Only with further research did I learn his name is Mr. ZIP. 

Unveiled in 1962, Mr. ZIP was part of a campaign to get Americans on board with the Zip Code system.  You can learn more at The Postal Museum.

Postcards: Strawberry Tree Froggo

As I mentioned in the previous post, Westen suggested I draw a frog or the Jabberwock.  It has been a goal of mine to explore more intermingling of my drawings and collage.  With the Jabberwock, I mimicked collage by writing first, and then drawing over it.  For the frog, I decided to draw on an envelope and then tear the frog out, thinking the tears and the printing on the envelope would add some depth beyond my ability to draw.

This time, instead of writing, I stole words from Lovecraft.  He's good for weird atmospheric snippets.

Then a bit of map that I had from a collage grab bag.  The map gives me an element for the frog to overlap, while at the same time breaking up the text, making it harder to just read and recognize the story. 

Finally a stamp, to make this postcard feel a little more traveled.

Postcards: Erin's Firebreathing Rooster

Erin sent me a wonderful watercolor of a barn quilt.  I couldn't think of a suitably related reply, so I went with a fire breathing rooster. Seems like a natural place to go, right?

First I inked and then cut out the rooster I have from one of Dover's wonderful books of clip art.

Then I glued the rooster down and played around with water and ink.

Voila!

Postcards: CJ's Robster Attack

Using prints in my collage is a good way to break out of a funk because it lets me play around with images I already like.  So for my reply to CJ's elaborate Christmas card, I returned to the style of postcard I was sending over to Scotland: the animal card.  While I'm not responsible for the evocation of the initial imagery, these are still a fair amount of work; I am not skilled with a knife, and there were many, many tiny cuts.

Postcards: A bowling ball man

I saw a coworker clearly look around for someone on the dock, and so asked who they were look for.  I must've obviously not recognized the name, because it was further clarified with "a bowling ball man."  Now I'm not sure what exactly was said to me either time, but the phrase "bowling ball man" gave me the greatest mental image, even if it is not actually what was said.  So here you go, what I think when I hear or imagine a bowling ball man.

Because I have a completely normal sibling relationship, I sent this to Jen and she encouraged me to better define his butt and add some pant creases.

Postcards:The Rat

Our apartment is filled with art, and so I picked up one of the little sculptures we have and sat down to draw.  Here is a little rat sculpture, sitting on top of a box camera.

Postcards: A Toy Horse

This is a horse that has been in the family a while.  Honestly, I wish I had researched/recorded a little more about its path to me.  It's heavy, brown and gold.  I cleaned it up a little before drawing it.  I decided to draw it in response to postcard that was partially colored with wine; I was inspired to use the walnut ink made by my father.  I really tried to build it up to portray the highlights and shadows of the metal.  Mixed success.  The wheels were very challenging.

Fun Fact: similar horses are sold as Indian Temple Toys.

Postcards: A Cat for Maryanne

Maryanne knit me a cowl!  It is uncontestedly great.  On the outside of the package was a message.

She requested a cat card.  I am not great at cats.  Things with soft edges in general.  So I went to Pinterest, and sketched some cats.

I decided the best way to approach fur was to ink the core of the cat, and then use a wet brush to pull the fur away from the body.

Ross helped me with the characters as best he could via text; any failings are my own.