We're releasing a slew of original art into the Etsy wilderness this morning. I don't even have time to type a decent message because I want to get these babies off of one computer window and into a different computer window. The future is happening 18" in front of me!
Here is the quick preview of what will be available:
It's the last day to get your votes in for what will likely be the last animal vote of the year!
So far it looks like these friends are in the lead:
You can probably tell where my allegiance lies by the GIANT smile on my face.
Sorry about the otter picture (who are technically in the lead right now), but I only wanted to use photos from my own collection. If you are in dire need of some otter photography, however, you can revisit this post from last spring.
Also, just a little update, Ryan's lovely Mom Nancy did, in fact, write thank yous to all the lucky orderers from last Saturday.
She also helped us consume the largest platter of Ethiopian food known to human kind!!
If that doesn't inspire you to vote, I don't know what will!
Vote now!
What animal do you want to see in the Berkley line-up next? Now is your chance to get in on the animal favoritism! Please leave one comment with the one animal you'd like to see in fancy clothing -- you can even vote for your friend's favorite animal for their Christmas present! This might be the most important thing you've voted on all day.
P.S. You might notice from the last post that we received a two-for-one deal on black censorship bars.
*ALERT* SPECIAL ETSY BONUS TODAY ONLY!
Thanks to a very special houseguest we have this weekend, all Etsy shop orders placed TODAY (November 13th) will receive a handwritten thank you note from RYAN'S MOM!!!!!!
(She is the be-floraled lady in the middle. That's Grandma Lucille on the left and Aunt Taina on the right. The dog must have been a practice run before Ryan came around.)
End Alert.
VOTE NOW!!!
It's been a good press week over here at Berkley headquarters (aka, our house). Ryan is thrice featured in the printed form.
Example A is this week's cover of the Portland Mercury:
Massive thanks to the always delightful and recently de-bearded Justin Morrison for the art editing.
[Pssst: Prints of the original image are available via Monsieur T right here!]
Example B is his illustration acknowledged in the 2009 Communication Arts Design Annual:
You may recall this Sherry project Ryan did with Creature Design in Seattle. If you haven't checked out the mysteries that await you on the Secret Sherry Society website for this, do it now. It's still awesome.
Example C came as a surprise to us via our eagle eyed friends and fans of Country Living magazine:
The cover image has been edited to suit vegan Thanksgiving eyes. [That also reminds me that I need to start thinking of a fun new vegan Thanksgiving food item for this year.] Country Living featured the Urban Outfitters version of our goat which, at this time, looks to be sold out. Plenty of goats are still to be found in our Etsy shop, though you'll have to find your own snazzy oval frame and, as I write this, the Cheetah is still available from Urban. Rumor has it (and I am starting the rumor right now) that a few more animals will be making their way into oval Urban Outfitters frames soon.
Another rumor I would like to start: a new animal vote will be coming tomorrow so put on your zoological thinking caps! (I'm such a gossip.)
Come one, come all to Crafty Wonderland tomorrow (Sunday!) at the Doug Fir in Portland! This is the last regular monthly show of the year and the last regular monthly show at the Doug Fir period. It'll be a bittersweet day. Our pals Torie and Cathy have been running the monthly show for the past three and half years and they made the decision this month to transition into two larger shows per year.
We are really excited about the move because it's going to be a for buyers and sellers alike. Still, we'll be a little sad doing this version of the show for the last time. We were vendors at the very first Crafty Wonderland. In fact, that fateful day was our first craft show or real Berkley Illustration event ever (and it would be a year and a half after that when we finally joined Etsy).
It was at the first Crafty Wonderland that Ryan's animals in suits appeared...
Back then each one of those little pieces was an original and they went for around $20/pop. We decided before the show that each month we did Crafty Wonderland, we would produce items within a rotating theme. For this first month we chose the theme of ancestry and that decision was 80% of the genesis of the Berkley animal portrait. We never did end up doing another theme month.
So many things have changed since then. Perhaps most notably, we now have better cameras. Ouch, looking at that photo above is painful.
One of my favorite animals Ryan ever did was sold at that first show:
I say that it's time to bring back the bow-tied ventriloquist Chameleon! And what of poor Marcel? There is a very lucky person out there in the world who owns this little slice of history.
To honor the spirit of that first show, we've created a few print versions of the same thing to sell tomorrow:
(Obviously we still have a bit of work to do tonight.)
Speaking of work, my face is half painted right now because we have to take a pause in production to attend a paint-your-face Bunco birthday party for our friend Chad. I've been typing this entire blog post while looking something like this:
If you are in Portland, we hope to see you tomorrow at the show! If you're lucky, we won't have slept and our faces will still be painted. If we're lucky, our faces will be clean.
Last night we warmed up the Halloween vibes with a spooky party at the home of a couple Black Apples we know. [And please check out that Halloween link. I promise you won't be sorry.]
We received this warning in the mail with the invitation:
so it seemed rather imperative we attend if we wanted to keep all our digits.
Unfortunately we did a terrible job of party and costume documentation, though we did retain ten fingers a piece. Good thing we have tonight to photographically make up for it!
We did manage to get shots of bits and pieces of our own costumes (even though we never got full body shots) so we'll just work off a slow reveal...
I swear I am not making this next part up. While we were on our errand hunt for costume bits and pieces, we were almost taken out by a hot shot driver in the Halloween Superstore parking lot. After he parked, we got a look at his license plate. Are you ready for this?...
Spooky!!!
Intrigue!
Today I found this little parcel waiting for me at my desk:
We bought a bag of these style of boxes candy treats for a party last week. [Side note: What is the classification for these things? You know, Lemonheads, Boston Baked Beans, Jawbreakers, etc...do they belong to specific confectionery category? Boxed candy doesn't seem quite appropriate.] [Second side note: In case you were wondering, the Orangeheads were the first to go among party-goers.]
Since then, I've had a real thing for the Red Hots in particular. In fact, we still have a mound of this {insert box candy genre here} waiting for anyone who would like to come trick or treating in our living room but that mound has been picked clean of the 'Hots. So, just when I thought I was out, this little package magically appeared.
Secret packaging + trendy candy desires = good husband!
P.S. Please don't tell my dentist about this. I just had my cleaning last week.
Okay, let's get blog things back on track the right way, shall we?
We're happy to announce that starting today and running through October 31st we'll be donating 10% of our Etsy shop sales to Wheels For Henry.
(Illustration by the unstoppable Kate Bingaman-Burt)
Henry is one cool kid and is the son of our pal Chloe (who is also the proprietress of one of Portland's greatest shopping treasures, Reading Frenzy). It just so happens that Henry rocks a wheelchair and he and his mom would benefit greatly from a vehicular upgrade. They have received funding to convert a van in the necessary ways to make it wheelchair friendly, but they don't have the funds for the van...yet. You can read more about Henry and his mom here.
Enough talking, let's do this! Why not start some holiday shopping now and spread some of that moolah around for a good cause. I've already been eyeing some of the other 30+ shops participating and plan to put my money where my bloggy mouth is.
I'm looking at this print by Betsy Walton (although it's really tough to pick out my favorite by Betsy):
We have their 2009 version of this letterpress calendar and I get really giddy about flipping over each month. I try to never peek at what's coming up next so I have a little surprise each 1st.
I'm also pretty sure this thank you card by Power and Light Press could come in handy in virtually any situation:
We've got the sloth taking it easy:
The cardinal wetting his whistle:
and the gorilla having it his way:
Now let's go out there and get ourselves a van! Go team!
We're back from DC and we'll have our report compiled in the next couple days. We didn't want to make you wait for the two new animals we had up our sleeves, however. Please welcome the following stubborn gents to our Etsy menagerie:
Mr. Donkey:
and Mr. Llama:
Available here.
Let's talk soon, okay?
Oh, hey there. Long time no see. Let's recap this thing numerical list style!
1. Remember Chicago? We were there two weeks ago? Well, it was awesome. It looked like this:
2. We decided two weeks is long enough to be back home so we're off to Washington, DC tomorrow for Crafty Bastards on Saturday. Why not come visit us if you live in the greater DC area? We're debuting two animals at the show who will make their way to Etsy upon our return. They are very stubborn and won't have it any other way.
The only time Ryan and I have been in DC together was in 2002. It looked like this:
It was the Fourth of July and we were paddle boating outside the Jefferson Memorial. One of us was wearing a Transformers hat. Does it get more American than that? [Side note: Looking through my DC photo album, and at these photos above, I realize that I am a much better photographer than I was seven years ago. I am looking forward to proving this to President Obama.]
3. It so happens that at the exact same time as Crafty Bastards, but all the way back on our west coast, Ryan is part of a group show called, "A Murder Of Crows" at the Gallery in Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles. That's this Saturday (October 3rd). Unless we master the arts of cloning and teleportation in the next 96 hours, we won't be there but Ryan's art is represented alongside such art luminaries as Julianna Swaney and Steve Weissman. Each artist had to represent a group of animals based on an alphabetical venery assignment. Ryan had the task of "A Dray Of Squirrels". Would you like a sneak preview? Okay, here goes:
That reminds me - If you didn't get a chance to take a look at Ryan's recent collection of "Champion Festival" art, check it out here.
