Hilda

How cute are these? Obviously not mine, but done by Duane Bryers, a mid century illustrator, muralist and cartoonist; He did pin up calenders of this particular character, Hilda, for several years and the paintings are all great fun- unusual (and challenging!) poses, a tremendous amount of personality and a light, charming touch. There are tons more here, do check them out.

Illustratice Francais

In lieu of something new by me, here's two adorable french illustrators- they have a great sensibility.





Aurelie Guillerey









Melanie Allag

Sketchy, Mr Sketchy Galore

So on a whim I went to the Met today- They had an exhibit of Ancient Afghani art, and I drew this singing bird-woman-jug thing; I like that she has both betty page bangs and gauges in her ears- she could be the hipster harpy of brooklyn.



A bunch of girls dancing from a japanese screen- I loved the middle one's sticking out ears.

Charles Beauclerk, Earl of Burford, and the illegitimate child of Kings Charles the 1st and Nell Gywnne, who was the very first in a long line of bawdy red headed english language comediennes; one of the stories of how charles junior supposedly got his title: "The first is that on arrival of the King, his mother said, "Come here, you little bastard, and greet your father." When the king rebuked her for calling him that, she replied, "Your Majesty has given me no other name to call him by." In response, Charles created him Earl of Burford."

Ms. Travale

Got a postcard the other day from talented illustrator & mustache enthusiast Rosemary Travale- check her work out, its great.

Ze Queen

Couldn't think of anything tonight, so here's a quick doodle of marie antoinette, after the Vigee Lebrun portrait of her (ignore the messed up arm). Sign that I've been looking at the pre-industrial crowned heads of europe for too much of my life: as I was drawing her, I wondered if she was a habsburg- one of the more unfortunate looking royal families, best seen in the portraits by Velasquez of the spanish branch of the clan-because she had that very distinctive habsburg face. Looked it up, and sure enough she was; its probably a little sad I recognized that.

Chicken Nugget Lemon Tooty

The very talented kids over at Chicken Nugget Lemon Tooty are having a little blog-iversary celebration, asking people to take a drawing and reinterpret it in their style. The problem with kid's art though is that they're usually so perfect in terms of self contained humour, story & character that it doesn't always seem like there's anything to add! That said, I took a crack at a version of Grace's 'Drifting.'