September Update

Loyal Order of the Black Cat giclée print, new for Halloween 2016

Bye-bye summer, Helllooooo fall! What a complete blur that was...glad it's over so we can get straight to Halloween now ;)

I've got quite a few updates so let's get started:

First up! Chimichanga issue one from Eric Powell and myself is due out NEXT MONTH, October 12th (Dark Horse Comics)! Yes! Finally, after what seems like forever and a day, I'm on the last book and we're ready to rock and roll. Four issues of painted creepy-cute, bizarre sideshow goodness will be out on stands between Oct-January 2017.

Lots and lots new prints and pieces over at Pinup Girl Clothing coming up. My new Astrology print was released over the summer months and I was lucky enough to work on their 2016 Halloween collection, which is absolutely amazing and mind blowing (go look now if you haven't already!). If you know me, you know I'm freaking out inside about being able to contribute to this collection! We went with a vintage inspired Halloween theme for the art and textile designs I created-I'm very proud of this collection and how it turned out! Below are a few pieces from the collection featuring my Halloween Lantern print and Pumpkin Patch border print-be sure to visit the Pinup Girl Clothing website for a full scope of the prints and pieces available, there are quite a few (and stay tuned, the new kid's line is coming soon and it's ADORABLE!)...

Laura Byrnes California High Waisted Pencil Skirt in Lantern Print, Model: : Rachel Newell

And last but not least, I've been dropping a few new art prints and fun little items in my online shop, just time for Halloween! At the very top of the post is a brand new giclee' print, Loyal Order of the Black Cat, released for the upcoming holiday. I'll also be adding some smalls and fun item's like sticker packs and pin packs-a few photos below! 

                                                                                   
Wishing everyone a very happy fall season, thanks for stopping by! xo

Music Print collab with PUG!

Had to do a quick post and share-one my newest collab prints with PUG for 2016 was just released yesterday! Their Jenny skirt and dress is now available with my music novelty border print and it's a cute one! Now available at pinupgirlclothing.com, in sized XS-3X ♥ I'll be sure to post as the others are released xo

New things and Spring update

Tiny WIP Peek at painted interiors for the new
Chimichanga books Eric Powell & myself are working on!

Been busy busy getting some new things worked up and throwing paint around on fifty million things! The past months have been a balancing act for sure (what else is new), not too many actual art updates I can share just yet, as the majority of my painting work has all been channeled into the new Chimichanga books for Dark Horse Comics (hopefully an update on the release dates soon!). Some cover painting work and new textile designs for 2016 for Pinup Girl clothing have also been on my plate-along with any time I can smuggle for personal work!

I've got some new things out and some cool collaborations in the works that I hope to announce soon. First up-I've got some new prints on the way, but in the mean time, new scarves and small accessory items are now available in my Etsy shop . Below is a peek of a Blast Off! pattern available in both and ...and maybe as a few other items I can share soon, as well ;)


 My partner in crime (and incredibly talented designer), Rob, collaborated with me on a few new T-shirt designs. We took a couple of my sideshow character designs I had painted a little while back and gave them some new life. They came out so fun! A few photos below, they can all be found at my in Threadless Artist Shop available in a range of sizes and styles for Women, Men and even kiddos :)

Lots more to update, I'll be sure to post here as well as my instagram account as soon as things start being released. Until then, lots of painting and gardening prep will be keeping me busy-wishing everyone a happy Spring! :)

Threadless Artist Shop, now open!

After lots of requests for T-shirts, excited to share that I've opened up an Artist Shop over at Threadless! A small handful of designs are now up for grabs, I'll be adding more to the shop over the next couple of months. xo

Happy 2016!

Happy New Year! 

Now with the holidays over, it's been full speed ahead into 2016. It was a working holiday for us this year (with the exception of a much needed break on X-Mas Eve and NYE, which we spent with family and friends)-but a good head start has been made and 2016 is looking for be a really great year for us so far. Lots of things being released and some new things in the go: new patterns and collab projects happening as well. So, yay!

Some updates while I catch my breath-firstly, so happy to share the new website! My talented husband worked his magic and made a bunch of changes over at StephanieBuscema.com and I have to say, it's looking pretty darn spiffy. A few more things to do, but it's pretty much all there. I'm really excited to have a designs and jewelry section now, which I'll be able to update more frequently with current things I'm making alongside my painting and illustrations.

New scarves are happening and in the works and FINALLY some new jewelry. It's been a short while since I've added new items over at the Kitschy Witch shop, keep an eye out-new things are being added pretty often now! I've been dreaming up lots of new pieces while working, jotting down ideas and hoarding supplies. As much as I detest the cold season and not being able to do any gardening, it's given me a tiny window of time per week to stay inside and work on some of my own things (aside from painting), like some new jewelry designs and textile patterns. Slowly chipping away at a new fortune teller silk scarf design and a new collection of brooches. A peek below at one of my vintage inspired hand brooches, coming next month.

Above is a small portrait piece painted around the holidays. A fast attempt to simplify and make a few changes to my painting approach for work that needs to be done and handed in fast. It's currently been difficult to get any free time to do these small experiments with my work load, but hoping to make more time to do this type of work later in the year. It's become a bit of a goal to make more selfish "me time" this year-to learn more technique and create for myself. These little creative burst breaks, even if it's an hour or so, are so important-I can't stress that enough.

Enough babble-Back to work! Wishing everyone a very happy and healthy 2016! xo

Holiday Sale & New Goodies!

Guys! New things! And a sale!

I was lucky enough to get my claws on a very small handful of these new Queen of Hearts silk scarves and bags I designed just in time for the holidays BY THE SKIN OF MY TEETH. I’m beyond thrilled with how they turned out and I hope you’ll dig em’! Next batch will be printed soon and available sometime in January, so if you miss out on the few that I’m offering up for grabs, there will be more after the holiday rush/craziness/insanity.

The biggest thanks to everyone who’s been supporting my work and little shop! As a thanks, I’m offering up free shipping on any order over 50.00 with coupon code THANKS✨OR✨20% off orders 100.00 or more until 11/30 with coupon code THANKS100!

Happy shopping! xo

Halloweeeeeen!

 Soooo, who else is ready for Halloween?! I’ve been planning and making a bunch of cool new items for the shop over the past few months as time allows, it’s been fun and I’m pretty stoked to share everything!

Between now and October 31st I’ll be releasing a bunch of new Halloween items to welcome in the new season (so check back often, there’s some really cool stuff on the way, like limited ed cases and silk scarves :) ).  These cute little mini makeup clutches just arrived over the weekend, now available in the shop!

To the left and below is some of the progress of the new Halloween silk scarves I'm having made, these have been a real labor of love and my first venture into having accessories manufactured on my own. All elements have been hand drawn and inked, then worked to death until the pattern felt right. I'm hoping to be able to release a new scarf seasonally, I'm sort of in love with making them and it's a nice release from everyday work.

A quickie update, back to work for me, I'll be posting more as the new items roll in. Wishing everyone a happy fall! xo

July Update

(Peek at the new Go Go Ghouls print series!)

No clue how it's July already, time has been flying! A quick update, I'll be releasing a bunch of new items over the next two months both in my online store and at Boston Comic Con the end of this month. First up, new tote bags! I've been meaning to release them sooner, but work has been keeping me more then busy. My Curse of the Black Cat tote bags will be available in my online shop July 15th as well as at the Con end of month. These are part of a set of vintage Halloween style items I've been designing-more will be available as we get close to the Fall (hopefully some T shirts...)! SO happy with how these came out, also-they GLOW IN THE DARK! 

Now, on to art prints! A few years ago I released a set of Go Go Ghouls art prints. I've decided it was time to revisit the theme and freshen them up a bit. I'll be adding to this set throughout the next year or so, adding a new piece here and there. These giclee prints will be a limited run, making room for new additions every few months. The first four in the series will be release at Boston Con (sneak peek of the paintings are above...), I'll be bringing 10 of each to the show. The remaining prints will be available in my online shop soon after. 

Quite a few additional prints (including The Ghost of Tiny Tim, Possessed to Skate and Skull Studies, below) will also be available in my online shop as well, I'll be sure to post when they're all listed and ready to rock :)

A bunch more to share over the next few months. Slowly working away on my Lenormand fortune card set still and mulling over ideas and venues  for another solo show related to the cards...hopefully in 2016-ish. In the meantime, I'm spending all my painting energies on the new Chimichanga comic series with Eric Powell, which is looking to be a pretty special book. It's been a real challenge hand painting this book and I'm really proud of how it's coming along. Can't wait for it to be out!

Some exciting news! So honored to be asked to paint a very special Nancy Drew piece for Papercutz 10th anniversary. These will be a limited run of 250 numbered pieces and will be available for purchase at BookCon and from selected bookstores and comic book stores across the United States and Canada on May 30th. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the prints will go to help charities including the Children’s Book Council, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the Hero Initiative.

(more info at http://graphicpolicy.com/…/papercutz-celebrates-10-years-w…/)

April Update

Happy spring! It's finally warming up a bit here after what seemed like months of endless, miserable snow and ice! Birds are finally out and seeds are being prepared for our flower and veggie gardens. Sad we aren't doing much traveling this spring and summer, but looking forward to being home and really working on our gardens when not working. Lots going on this month and not a whole lot of time to do much posting, so here's a quick run-down of what's to come before I bury myself in paintings! A few art shows and releases, first up is:

The release of the Magic of Mary Blair collection by Pinup Couture at the Pinup Girl boutique in Burbank, CA on April 25th (info to the left). Excited to have my new Alice fabrics/dress/skirts released at this big event along with 5 brand new Alice inspired fine art prints (peek at the new Queen of Hearts art print, above!) and a limited amount of handmade Jewelry to match the collection! A few of these items will be available in my online shops after the release for those of you who won't be able to attend (Prints will be available here and Jewelry items will be available here!).

I'll also have three new paintings in a show over at Bear and Bird Gallery, for their Studio Ghibli inspired show! Show opens May 8th and runs through July 4th, opening reception from 7-10pm. Wish I could be at the event to see all the beautiful work they're featuring! Please stop by if you're in the area (and take lots of pictures, ;) Below is a peek at one of three paintings I've sent over to the gallery, couldn't resist painting a little Jiji!

A few special projects are in the go as well as working on the Chimi books over the coming months, so I might not be posting very frequently. Next show will be Boston Comic Con over the summer. Unfortunately, I'm not able to take on commissions due to my work load, however, I will be bringing a bunch of smaller sized paintings, some cover paintings and new prints to the show. Looking forward to seeing our friends there and sneaking out of the house for a few days!

Chimichanga!

The news is out! I'm so crazy excited to be working with Eric Powell on the new Chimichanga series for Dark Horse Comics. It's pretty much the most fun I've had in a long time on a book and I couldn't be happier about this collab! The book was announced at ECCC this past weekend, you can peek at a few pages and read the interview over at comicbookresources.com. If you aren't familiar with the series, please check out the original book, it's packed full of fun circus sideshow-monster-y goodness for all ages. I absolutely loved the book when it hit shelves a few years ago, so it's been a real treat to be involved with the new series.

Back to work! :)

Covers And Quick Update

 

A quick art update and post. I've been pretty awful with keeping the blog up to date with new covers and info the past couple of months. Here are a few of my recent favorite pinup covers I've painted for Dynamite. I just finished my very last cover for Vampirella, it's been a really fun run this past year and change-a big thank you to Dynamite for having me on these great books and to everyone who went out of their way to seek out my covers and support my small contribution to the books-for both Vampi and Sonja.♥

 

In some other news, I'll be contributing a grouping of small paintings to Bear and Bird Boutique and Gallery for their Studio Ghibli tribute show. I'm so excited to see what everyone comes up with for the show and I'll be sure to share the specifics and full paintings here as it gets closer. The dates for that will be May 8 - July 4, 2015. I'll also be a guest at Boston Comic Con this summer (July 31-August 2nd)-hope to see some of you there! A lot more to share in the coming months, some exciting unannounced projects, new art print editions and events-but that's all I can share for now! xo

Spring 2015 Collab With Pin Up Girl Clothing

Some exciting news: I'm happy to share that I'll be continuing to collaborate with Pin Up Girl Clothing! This year is bringing all kinds of awesomeness and I'm honored to contribute some original designs for their lovely dresses and skirts again-first up is the Spring 2015 line. It's been a real treat to be working on fabrics, and at this point I can honestly say I'm truly in love with it and the process. A big thank you to PUG for having me on board again!

The two designs I've worked up were inspired by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and will be part of the Fairy Tale Fantasy Collection. Alice and her adventures were pretty key in helping form my imagination as a little girl, they combined a sort of sugary sweetness, odd characters and some rather creepy bits that really resonated with me. With there being so many different characters and possible ways to take it, I decided to break it down into two parts for the patterns. After a lot of drawing and trouble shooting designs, The Wonderland Print and Queen of Hearts print is the result. The Wonderland is an all over print combining various elements from the Mad Tea Party, as well as the Caterpillar, Cheshire cat and little Alice (not to mention "eat me" cakes, "drink me" bottles, keys. squiggles...lots of drawing for this print, that's for sure!). This prints will be featured on the Doris Skirt and Ella Dress, below.

The Second Pattern, Queen of Hearts, is a border print. This one was a challenge-but I'm really happy with the result and how it all came together. We all become attached to making things sometimes, and the art on this print was certainly something attached to my heart-and I hope it shows. This print features the Queen of course, White Rabbit, Cheshire Cat, card suits galore and of course lots of cards, heart shaped tarts, paint buckets and red roses (carefully painted white, of course!). This print will be featured on the Lydia Dress (Up above, at the top!) and Jenny Skirt, below.

 A closer look at the fabric details below....

Please stop by the Pin Up Girl Clothing website to check out all of the the spring 2015 designs and to sign up and join the wait list-you'll be notified as soon as the new styles are available for purchase. Hope you enjoyed the peek at these pretty new things and hope some of you lovely ladies will have fun wearing them! xo

Happy New Year! A little late, I know. The holidays went way too fast last month, but it was a nice break to eat lots of sweets and catch up on some sleep! :)

Pretty much started this year by hitting the ground running and trying to manage a sort of balancing act between covers+unannounced projects+new fabric patterns+personal projects. I can't talk about or share much of anything related to the work I've been doing other then the cover previews-but here's a very tiny peak of what's to come...

First up, I'm really excited to continue work with Pinup Girl clothing on some new prints for 2015! While I can't give much away, I can post this little teaser image of a design element I painted for one of the new patterns...
Working on patterns and novelty prints this past year has been not only an amazing learning experience for me personally, but it's really helped me develop a new way of approaching image making for use other then published work on paper. Coming up with pattern idea lists (compulsive list maker *cough*cough*) and image/color families in my sketchbooks, painting color swatches and doing research on fabrics has really opened up a new way of thinking for me. I can honestly say I'm pretty much in love with the process, zoning out with making patterns has helped me get to my happy place, that's for sure!

On a personal note, I've been working on something that I'll be self publishing later this year, a first for me. The idea of self publishing something has been kind of swimming around in my brain for awhile, but I just wasn't really hip on the idea of self publishing a sketch book or art book yet. Publishing something digitally is wonderful, and works for some folks-for me, I need something tangible to be happy. After some thought, I decided to move forward with painting and self publishing a deck of cards. Something very personal to me, tangible and interactive.

A few years ago, I started painting a Tarot deck for myself, a huge undertaking! I decided to put it on the back burner-it became very labor intensive and I felt it was something that needed way more of my attention then just a few nights a week. After considering diving back into my Tarot project this year and self publishing it-I decided to take another route for now and work on a different type of oracle card deck, the Lenormand. Tarot and Lenormand cards are very different-however, both decks can be used together with an understanding of both card systems (I personally don't advise anyone to do this without a knowledge of both first. Stick to one system before jumping around-it can become very overwhelming and confusing for beginners). The Lenormand consists of 36 cards, the Tarot, 78. Spreads for the Lenormand are different from Tarot, as is the way they're read (I'll post more about the Lenormand system, history of the deck, how I approach the deck and read as my deck gets finished). I feel the Lenormand is a wonderful deck for both beginners and experienced card readers-it's great fun and something everyone can enjoy! If the deck I create is well received, I'll be jumping into a Tarot deck next year. The goal is to have this deck out by the late summer/early fall of 2015, so I'll be posting little updates and snippets on here as I go. So far, I'm knee deep in sketches and can't wait to get started with the painting stage. Above is a peek at one of my favorite cards so far, number 33(8 of Diamonds), The Key.

Back to work for me, wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2015! xo

November Update

The cold is setting in and Halloween is over-which always marks the end of the year for me. I know it's not actually the end of the year quite yet, but it always feels that way around mid-November. I suppose because at this rate, holiday craziness sets in and the next two months just fly by. Looking forward to having a wee bit of time to see friends and family this holiday season, it's always much needed.

Work has been keeping me pretty busy these past few months, prepping and painting for multiple new projects for 2015 plus my monthly Vampi cover which is always a treat to paint (issue 8 cover image to the left!). Some really exciting stuff is happening and my paint brush has been moving non stop-looking forward to sharing when I get the green light!

I have a few new prints available in the shop for the holiday season, a small series of pieces I hope to add to in the future (images at the top!)! Love painting little creatures and animals and don't get to do it too often in my everyday work, so figured it would be a fun subject for a new set of prints.

Aside from the everyday work, I've been trying to make jewelry and brooches as time allows...which isn't as often as I'd like lately. I did however, come across some pretty incredible pieces of bakelite and fun finds this late summer/fall! We've really made more of an attempt to frequent local antique markets and fairs. They pop up pretty often around here during the warmer months, some are disappointing, others are total scores...plus it forces me out of the house for a few hours on the weekends.

I *might* be a vintage lamp addict...I have a little problem. Especially lamps with fiberglass shades with fun lacing and colors (the more flamboyant and out there the better!), when we spotted this lamp at one of the last antique fairs of the season, we scooped it up! I assumed it would be out of our price range because of the condition, the shade is in perfect condition, as is the base. It was...practically nothing-in fact, I thought the vendor was joking when I asked the price. We got it home, rewired it and it works like a charm as a little reading lamp next to our sofa.

Some other cool finds in the way of bakelite (below)-some circular brooches (perfect for scarves in the winter months!), dress clips and the oh-so-coveted cherries jubilee necklace! This necklace is just to die for-completely original hardware and all. I am having a wee bit of a dilemma, though...while I love this necklace to death as is, I'm a little afraid to wear it due to the wear on the cherry stems (if one of those cherries were to fall off, I'd throw a fit!). I'm sure it can be restored, but will it decrease the value of the piece?

I'll have to do more research before doing anything to the piece...but gosh it's so pretty as is, and a piece I've always drooled over but could never find (for a steal or practical sum of money, anyway!). Ah, and dress clips...dress clips/fur clips have always been those little pieces I kind of disregarded when I started to search and collect vintage jewelry. They've definitely grown on me, in fact, I seek them out now. Not only can they be worn a million different ways, but they're all so different, it's really rare that I find two of the same outside of a set, and that uniqueness really draws me to them. They can be clipped on a dress as intended, a scarf, shoes, a purse, coats, necklace chains, just about every way you can imagine! One of these days I'll do a post dedicated just to dress clips :)