Monthly Archives: November 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!

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I hope everyone out there is having a great Thanksgiving, able to spend some time with family and/or friends to appreciate all of the good things in their lives. Personally, I’m very grateful for having been born into — and married into — a loving family, for meaningful work that supports me, for a comfortable home to live in. These are the things that really matter, more than “Black Friday” and all the other craziness that goes on this time of year.


Thanksgiving With Scratchoffs
click to enlarge

So what’s up with this somewhat…. unusual picture? Well, one of the things I’m grateful for has been an increase in client work, but it’s been cutting in on my time for making “for fun” work. As a result, instead of something more personal I’m posting a recent piece I produced for Cactus to promote scratch-off tickets for the Colorado Lottery. It should be only the first in the series for a campaign called “Celebrate the Season,” which is already shaping up to be a lot of fun. They wanted an old-fashioned look, so I drew it in ink to simulate an engraving and added subtle tints to color it; the rest of the series should be in a similar style. I produced this one in record time for the complexity of the drawing, and I look forward to taking a little more time to lavish details on the rest of the series.

I wish you all home, health and happiness for this holiday… have a good one!   

The last of the little flock

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Tiny Gryphons #5 Goldfinch by Stephanie Smith

I saved the most colorful of my little house-gryphons for last. I think these are my favorites from the set. If you missed the previous installments, they’re here and here. I hope to make some little notecards with these after the holiday, but I’m not sure whether to leave them with the watercolor pencils or recolor digitally… I have the scans of the uncolored ink drawings just waiting on my computer. What do you think?

Tiny Gryphons #1 Cardinal by Stephanie Smith

Tiny Grypons #2 Blue Jay by Stephanie Smith

New smartphone cases at Zazzle

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Zazzle has been steadily adding new products to their lineup, and I’ve finally gotten a chance to add some of them to the Critterwings store. It’s hard to find the info about them on their website, so I ordered a few to see for myself and I wanted to share the pictures with you. Because all of the cases look amazing! I only ordered iPhone 4 cases, because that’s the phone I own, but they are also offering iPhone 3/3G, Blackberry Curve and Bold, and Samsung Galaxy cases in the Case-Mate style.

Hopefully I can get this posted in time for folks to take advantage of the  amazing coupon sale at Zazzle: 50% off of shirts, cards, calendars, necklaces, ornaments, phone cases, and more, through 4pm PST on Friday, November 18 with coupon code FFHSHUGEDEAL  If you miss out, the coupon is still good for 20% off for the rest of the weekend. And remember, everything at Zazzle can be customized, or you can make your own from scratch, and still get the same discount.

Originally, Zazzle only offered the Speck Fitted fabric-backed case, seen here.

Dragon of Autumn Speck iPhone 4 case
“Dragon of Autumn” on the Speck Fitted case

This is a hard-bodied clamshell case with rubberized edges and a fabric cover on the back, which is printed. It’s a very solid case, with good access to the buttons and feels like it can take a blow. There’s also a nice bezel around the screen to protect it from damage. The rubber edges make it the most comfortable style to hold, and it snaps very tightly together. I had to search YouTube to figure out how to open the Speck case back up again to change it. The buttons are easy to get to, and I was even able to use it with my docking stations without removing the case — without the docking adaptors in place, anyway. The colors printed nice and bright on the fabric, although not as brightly as the other cases, but because of the grain of the material my ink drawings lose a lot of sharpness and detail. I’m a little concerned about keeping the fabric clean, but so far the trimmed edges seem nicely sealed down and unlikely to fray any time soon. I bought this a little while ago, and at the time it shipped by itself in a small zipper bag with no other packaging, which might be a concern if you’re getting it as a gift for someone else.

Speck Pros:

  • Secure
  • Comfortable to use
  • Impact protection and screen bezel

Speck Cons:

  • Not as much detail in the artwork
  • Concern about the longevity of the fabric back
  • Does not come with box

Dragon of Winter Case-Mate Tough iPhone 4 case
“Dragon of Winter” on the Case-Mate Tough case

Recently, Zazzle started also offering Case-Mate brand phone cases, for many different kinds of phones. There are a few different styles available for iPhones: “Tough” and “Barely There” Both have a lightweight plastic body with a glossy finish that reproduces the colors gorgeously. The printing is crisp and bright and wraps around the sides. They ship in a display box with a screen-protector kit. Although in my case the boxes were not factory-sealed and had gotten a bit squashed in shipping, they are still nice if you’re buying them as a gift.

Dragon of Winter Case-Mate Tough iPhone 4 case - Details

Above is “Dragon of Winter” on the Case-Mate Tough case. This case includes a soft rubbery liner that protects most of the buttons and also provides a bezel to protect the screen. It seems very solid once it’s in place, and has a pretty good feel in the hand, but I find the plastic surface harder to hold on to. (Personally, I find the iPhone 4 by itself hard to hold onto, and I’ve been relying on my cases to keep it from leaping out of grasp like a live fish…) The buttons were easy to use through the rubber coating. I just got these cases in yesterday so I have yet to see how they hold up to scratches and scuffs.

Case-Mate Tough Pros:

  • Impact protection and screen bezel
  • Bright, crisp printing

Case-Mate Tough Cons:

  • A little slippery to hold

“S is for Sunflower” on Case-Mate Barely There ID case from Zazzle
“S is for Sunflower” on the Case-Mate ID case

The last case I have to share today is the Case-Mate Barely There ID case. This clever case includes a slot that can store 2 credit/ID cards, but is otherwise identical to the other Barely There case Zazzle sells. These cases have the same printing as the Tough case above, but are much more form-fitting to the phone so they’re very compact and take up hardly any extra bulk.

“S is for Sunflower” on Case-Mate Barely There ID case from Zazzle - Details

As you can see, the plastic is very thin, and does not include a bezel around the screen. All the ports are very open and while the bump of the card slot may cause some docking issues, I can’t imagine any docking station having a problem with the non-ID version of this case. If like me you have trouble holding onto your iPhone 4 this case won’t help you at all and it doesn’t seem to provide as much impact protection as the other models. However, despite appearances the case snaps on very tightly (I haven’t figured out the knack for removing it yet) and it ships with a screen-protector kit. If you’re just looking for something decorative it’s a nice economical option for a custom-printed case.

Case-Mate Barely There Pros:

  • Least expensive
  • Bright, crisp printing
  • Pocket for cards (in the ID model)
  • Most compact

Case-Mate Barely There Cons:

  • Slippery to hold
  • Minimal impact protection

I hope this is helpful. I have most of my designs on most of the models of cases Zazzle offers — iPhone, iPod Touch, Samsung, and Blackberry — but I’m still working through the backlog. Let me know if there’s something missing that you want!

Artist Trading Cards: Tiny Gryphons

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Tiny Griffons ATC #8 Chickadee

Where did the summer go? Oh, that’s right… between client work, an illustration-heavy project at my day job, and general craziness all the way around, I’ve had very little time for “just for fun” drawing. That’s one of the reasons I like the Doodle Swap Project, a little club of artists and designers who all make tiny trading-card-sized artworks for each other. It gives me an excuse to do some quick, small, simple drawings that I don’t have any time to overthink because they have to get out the door fast.

This time around the theme was “hybrid animals” — chimera, creatures made up of two or more different unrelated animals. Perfect timing for me, since:

a) the idea for little gryphons that are a cross between songbirds and housecats (instead of the more traditional eagles and lions) has been kicking around in my head for a while, and

b) “Backyard” and household fantasy creatures are the theme of my Sketchbook project book. More about that one later…

So, this was a little bit of two birds with one stone. Or something like that. Here are the first few of the cards, I’ll be posting the rest soon. They’re all 2.5 x 3.5 inches, drawn with ink and watercolor pencils on bristol paper.

Anyone else think that these will make nice little notecards? 🙂

Tiny Griffons ATC #7 Crow

Tiny Griffons ATC #6 Robin