Painted this little Dolly Parton portrait for a friend! It’s my first attempt at a celebrity portrait (if you can call it that) and I think it turned out okay, and I absolutely love Dolly Parton because how could you not. I wish I could just draw pictures of Dolly Parton all the time.
I’ll be traveling for the next couple of weeks but again, feel free to email me about commissions etc. during that time!
.jb.
I made this quick birthday card for a friend last week! I don’t know if it fully captures the extreme adorableness of the parties involved, but it was super fun to draw a blue cake.
back to the way less fun work of writing papers,
<3 jb
Another donation request painting, that I mailed out earlier this week! I included some process photos below…for this one I sketched the design onto computer paper and used a lightbox to transfer it to coldpress watercolor paper (to avoid too many pencil marks). I used Dr. Ph Martin’s liquid watercolors and a Faber-Castell pens on the finished product.
EDIT: here’s a slightly better final image…
I love the opportunity to foray into adorableness.
–jb
Drew up this piece today for someone who donated to my summer donation campaign. This actually wasn’t a request, it was just what I was feeling at the moment, but if you donate, you can request things! I refer you back to ye olde summer projects “I need some money real bad” drive, a few posts down.
Anyway, interspecies bud stacking is basically the salve my heart needs right now.
<3 jb
Developing ideas, characters and images for a graphic project, I’ve started doing some sketches that are partly from old photographs, partly from my imagination. I’m excited to spend more time with character’s clothing, since I usually just draw t-shirts and button downs and the occasional vest. In this piece, I kind of decided not to use color after I had already started, but I think it looks alright anyway, like overpainting (though if it were overpainted the cheeks and lips and probably hair would also have been done–next time!).
Back to writing final papers for a while,
jb
I was so excited when amazing Toronto-based illustrator Clara Bee Lavery asked if I wanted to do a portrait exchange with her, and even more excited to actually get the results in the mail! My portrait of Clara Bee is above, her portrait of me (as a sexy lumberjack, no less) is below! It’s kind of like we actually get to hang out…
This has been a good month for art–so many of my dear friends are gearing up for exciting summer projects and producing amazing pieces that will look so good hanging on your wall. If you have some cash left over after contributing to my donation drive, or you don’t really want to support my work but are looking for someone else to throw some bucks at, Elle Perez is producing beautiful photography and selling prints to pay their MFA position placeholder at Yale (YALE!). Also, photographer and printmaker Amy June Breesman is graduating and being thrust into the wide world and also making some gorgeous pieces that would look so good in your life.
Hope wherever you are is warm and sunny, and that we can collectively emerge like a 17 year cicada brood and fly into people’s hair.
<3 jb
I painted this little 4×6″ mermaid while watching that epic new History Channel show Vikings, using my new Dr. PH Martins liquid watercolors, which are amazing. In the interest of paying for said watercolors, if anyone wants this piece, make an offer! I come cheap.
<3 JB
I did this watercolor for my partner’s birthday card this past week. I’ve been hit pretty hard by the realities of moving and starting a PhD program, so drawing has been on the backburner lately. I’ve mostly been limited to frantic doodles in the margins of photocopied readings, but I’m determined to get back to the comics I’ve been working on asap.
It seems like all the things are happening all at once! The D.C. Zinefest was a smashing success, the Femme conference was an amazing weekend of supportive and babely femmes being brilliant, and somewhere along the way I officially moved to New Jersey. Pen pals new and old take note!
Pieces for the femme con art show– W3R3B1TCH3S #1 and #2
The detritus of mine and J.Ros’s “My Body’s Too Beardalicious For You Babe” crafting and facial hair workshop, in progress.
I hope to get back to regular posting soon, once I’m settled and not living out of a suitcase anymore! In the meantime, me and my scruffy zine suitcase will be at the Philly Feminist Zinefest on Sunday.
<3 jb
p.s. I will NOT have a new Femme a Barbe for the zinefest Sunday–I need about 3 more submissions to round out a really solid issue, since I’ve gotten a lot of submissions on the shorter side this go around. Send yr shit to sassyfrasscircus@gmail.com! Thanks boos.
