NYR 2014

I love the clean slate and fresh start and longer perspective of the NEW YEAR - and making goals! This year, I plan to make a lot of new drawings of places I love.

CITIES (and States and Countries) TO DRAW in 2014!

I've thought carefully about the places I've loved and want to get to know better, through drawing. Places I have visited and photographed with an eye to make drawings. Drawings emblematic their unique and ubiquitous qualities and evocative of the senses they conjured in me.  
CITIES (and States and Countries) TO DRAW in 2014 Mapped (above) and Listed (below)

CITIES (and States and Countries) TO DRAW in 2014!

The WESTERN STATES: USA Map-Drawings

I've just finished the Western States Map-Drawings! Working my way across the USA...https://www.etsy.com/shop/turnofthecenturies?section_id=14268693

Here they are - sort of geographically hung on my wall. Each drawing features the state tree and a quintessential or common small house type found in-state, layered over the state's borders and topography, and faint highways.  You choose the location of a small red heart or house - where's special to you? Available in 8x10 Prints and Postcards.https://www.etsy.com/shop/turnofthecenturies?section_id=14268693 

They're kind of 'kitschy cabin', and definitely made with love.
Here's WASHINGTON:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/165023520/washington-state-map-8x10-print

I love the big trees out west!
Here's OREGON:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/164865770/oregon-map-postcard

Choose one or two - even three - hearts or houses to mark you special spots.
Here's CALIFORNIA:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/165240106/california-map-8x10-print

The heart and house re-appear on the postcard back with a curly 'telephone' line between them.
Here's NEVADA:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/165377629/nevada-map-postcard

I like playing with different shades of green for each state, and for the map, tree and house.
With a pop of red.
Here's IDAHO:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/165365000/idaho-map-8x10-print

These postcards are fun to send to homesick friends or as wedding save-the-dates!
(I can design the back with your event info.)
Here's UTAH:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/165606416/utah-map-postcard

The trees sometimes appear to emerge from the ground of the map.
Here's ARIZONA:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/165307332/arizona-map-8x10-print

And, sometimes the houses emerge from the map's 'land'scape.
Here's NEW MEXICO:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/165308076/new-mexico-map-8x10-print

View the state maps in my shop to learn where the houses are drawn from.
Here's MONTANA:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/165815287/montana-map-postcard

and...ON TO THE MIDWEST!

Wedding Stationer

wedding announcement postcard, front

A wedding stationer was not what I was going for when I decided a little over a year ago to really invest myself in making drawings for the note card canvas. But something caught on, and I've been lucky to work with some amazing brides and couples, some I never met who found me through the turn-of-the-centuries etsy shop and one couple in particular who are the bee's knees in my stationer's book. Rose & Todd took my conceptual style and made it personal to them, their musical life (of Rose & the Rivals fame), their roots in Portland and New Orleans for wedding announcements (above & below) and party invitations (below).

wedding party invitations, front and back wedding announcement postcards, front and back

And there was a couple in San Francisco (and many others) who liked the Old-Time Duo silhouette of my friends Afton and Samuel at their rehearsal dinner and it seems to be becoming an iconic wedding image. Who knew?

wedding announcement postcards, front and back with a simple "tying the knot" sketch

I love making map-drawings to illustrate the quintessential elements and character of a place. To make one as a wedding save-the-date card...genius. This is the caliber of customers on etsy that I enjoy collaborating with, like Ellen in Seattle. This drawing is derived from a c.1900 map of Seattle and draws upon its patchwork of street grids, location between bodies of water, and boats - especially houseboats which line the bottom edge on the back. I searched for a slogan of turn-of-the-century town-building boom times optimism for Seattle and was disappointed. So I made one up -
Wedding Save-the-Date postcards, front and back

And this custom Save-the-Date started it all when Kristin, visiting Savannah from Washington DC, saw this postcard in shopSCAD and we got to work together on transforming (not by much) Savannah Postcard No.1 into wedding stationery.

wedding save-the-date postcards, front and back

I may have a New York City wedding Save-the-Date on the horizon. I'm thinking this may be the way to capture all the great cities with map-drawings - as wedding stationery! Who knew? Many thanks to all the great folks I've had the privilege of working with as a "wedding stationer."

CITY HOUSES: Portland Oregon

Well, I set my task two months ago: NEW DRAWINGS for SPRING, to be revealed in Late April. Time flies when you are working hard and having fun. Today is my last chance at Late April. So I will introduce the new drawings, a little at a time over the next week or so.

Beginning with the CITY HOUSES Series.

(I think I called these "Streetscapes:5 new images" in my initial goal list. Things evolved.)
I love to find the quintessential house type that seems to characterize a city. I am so interested in drawing them to see the similar language they speak, in forms, material and detail - and the individual features that make each unique. I also appreciate the urban context which gives form to these houses; In this case, the Green Yards and abundant Large Trees in many varieties.
When I visited Portland last summer, I got pretty excited about all the Bungalows.

bottom left is Shelley + Mitch's house!

Land .and. Water

Maps Progress

Meanwhile... I have been working on the turn-of-the-century city maps. I have many, many hours of tidying the drawings and working the layers of color ahead.

Here are the four city maps in their first phase:
Now, any guesses as to which cities I am drawing? Come, on...

(This is Portland)

An abundance of bungalows, old cars, vintage dresses, roses,

tall trees and bicycles in Portland.

Please click on the images to view larger.

(Streetscapes of Portland, Oregon)

Portland has a rich and wide neighborhood fabric of Bungalows, mixed among Craftman, Colonial, Shingle, Minimalist Traditional, English Cottage, and

Tudor Revival influences...
Please click the streetscape images to view larger.