#WarbyBarker Live Dog Portraits!

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Warby Parker does it again!  On April 1 I had the honor to sit in the New Orleans Warby Parker Frame Studio and DRAW A BUNCH OF DOGS!  It was honestly one of the best days of my life.

Those are just a few photos from the party.  Even though New Orleans experienced a lot of rain that evening, plenty of doggies (and their parents) showed up :)

Thanks to the amazing Warby Parker team!  I love y'all!!

10 Year Anniversary

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A little illo I made for my almost-husband (18 days!), Stephen.

We started dating in high school, and made it "official" on March 18, 2006.  I feel like I can accomplish anything with him by my side!  Trying not to gush, I'll leave it at that. :)

National WWII Museum: Drafts for Crafts

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I had the pleasure of creating some WWII themed temporary tattoos for the National WWII Museum!

My tattoos were revealed last Friday night at the 3rd Annual Drafts for Crafts fundraiser in the Boing Center.  

The WWII museum has spent almost a decade restoring the PT-305, a patrol-torpedo navy boat, that was originally launched in Lake Pontchartrain more than 70 years ago.

 

Here are some of my tattoos in action:

Set #1, celebrating the women workers of WWII:

Set #2, VICTORY GARDENS!

Set #3, some miscellaneous patriotic tattoos:


Special thanks to the WWII museum for such a fun illustration job and for throwing a great party!   

My partner, Stephen, and I really enjoyed ourselves.  We saw John Goodman, ate a bunch of food, drank some sazeracs, danced all night, and pretty much had the best time ever.  Seeing my designs around the room was super cool, too!

Balloon Man! Big Class Illustration

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New from Akili Academy x Big Class: "Will You Be My Sidekick?"! 🎈

3rd grader Ronell wrote about a super hero with BALLOON POWERS! His sidekick is Spot the dog and together they defeated the evil Christian with *spoilers* jalapeño pizza! 🔥 

If you want to volunteer with Big Class now would be the time, they have 4 insanely fun projects lined up for spring! Visit BigClass.org/volunteer for more information on how to get involved.

1001 Knights: Fairy Knight Philomena

 
 

Introducing Philomena, the fairy knight. Like most artists, I can find inspiration everywhere but I love to look back on my childhood idols and interests.  This piece was inspired by beautiful fairy wallpaper that adorned the walls in my childhood bedroom.  These wallpaper fairies lived among the flowers with bumblebees, and I liked to imagine they protected the bees that lived and survived off of the flowers in the garden.  I was so excited about creating a lady knight protagonist based off of these fairies; one that will inspire children to love bees and our fragile ecosystem.

Here is some of my sketchbook character development:

What started out as a "Lady Knight/Women of Game of Thrones zine" is not a massive 3-volume people-positive-feminist-as-f*ck anthology featuring artists from all over the world.  With a little over a week left in the Kickstarter campaign, we have raised $98,000 more than our $70,000 goal! 
I am so humbled and honored to be included in this movement, HUGE thank you to Annie Stoll and Kevin Stanton for orchestrating it all so perfectly.

Here's a look at the 2-book mock up:

Be sure to check out the complete list of 1001 Knights artists!  And visit the Kickstarter page for more information (ALSO you also have 9 more days to score on these books and LOADS of bad-ass add ons, like posters, enamel pins, and patches!)

Will you be mine?

I couldn't help myself.... Valentine's Day is one of my favorites!  Good Mardi Gras feelings went right into the weekend with a Galentine's picnic on Saturday and Valentine's Day Sunday with my dude.  I made a few lil' images to celebrate love:

❤️❤️❤️

Final Quick Draw Collective Post

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Here’s my illo for the last Quick Draw ever. (!!!!!!)  This image is about my personal growth as an artist thru QDC over the past 3 years (and how much joy it has brought me!).  I am so grateful for this collective and each and every artist that I’ve gotten to work with; I’m so lucky to have these guys as my friends.

Much love to all the QDC members and to everyone in ~*cyber space*~ who has followed along with us.  💛💛💛💛  THANK YOU!

-Julia

2015 Year in Review

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Here’s my favorite illo from each month of 2015✨

 

Definitely not my best year by any means but I’m going to reflect on the best from my personal and professional goals: 

Personal - Taking care of my health. Stephen and I joined a gym and have been going at least 3x a week! I never really lifted or have done anything other than dance/yoga classes (that were free in college), and I really love it! Along with this I’m drinking a LOT more water and less caffeine and alcohol. 

Professional - Working with my local market. The coolest jobs I got to work on in 2015 were local gigs out of New Orleans. I’m super grateful for this community and I can’t wait to see what 2016 has in store!

Thanks for following along! Happy New Year!

#WarbyHoliday Holiday Buttons for Warby Parker!

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Warby Parker is just the best!  All around the country Warby Parker hired illustrators to do live button drawings in their studios.  On December 9th and 16th I visited the New Orleans studio and drew people's pets, family members, inside jokes, shrimp, a sloth wearing a santa hat...anything the customer wanted!  I also made some holiday illustrations ahead of time in Photoshop, because drawing on a 1" button was a challenge!

Thanks again, Warby Parker! 

"Unfinished Business" for Big Class Haunting Supply Co.

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This month I had the honor of creating an "Unfinished Business" To-Do notepad for The Haunting Supply Co.  

"The New Orleans Haunting Supply Co. will supply the ghostly denizens of the Crescent City with souls, human disguises, t-shirts, and other goods and services for the non-corporeal. Following 826 National’s award-winning model, the storefront provides a unique portal for Big Class students, families, volunteers, and supporters."  (from big class.org)

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Follow Big Class on Instagram and Facebook for the next pop-up location!  Soon there will be a permanent storefront in the Crescent City, keep your eyes peeled!

"Fireball Planet!" Illustrated for Big Class NOLA!

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Thumbnail sketches and Character notes created in class with the author, Melven!

Thumbnail sketches and Character notes created in class with the author, Melven!

From August to November, the 3rd and 4th graders at Akili Academy wrote stories based on a new made up planet they created in class.  The writers were tasked with creating their own characters, setting, and story and I was tasked with bringing a story to life in pictures!  I got the chance to meet Melven, a 3rd grader who loves to write about people with different super powers.  His own characters in his story, Fireball Planet, had some pretty cool powers!  Timmy, the hero of the story, has fire powers, water powers, and can super kick!  When I met with Melven to brainstorm and discuss his illustration, he thought it would be cool to show the heroes discovering the evil TJ's army of fire robots!

The final  illustration.

The final  illustration.

The finished book!!

The finished book!!

Thanks to Eliza for putting together this project and a special thanks to Melven for writing such an interesting and creative story for me to illustrate! I hope we get the chance to work on another project in the future.

If you're reading this and would like to make a donation to keep these (free) Big Class workshops and projects going please visit this link.  We are working on a BIG fundraiser this year and the deadline is in December, your $5 will go a long way!  THANK YOU!

Less than 100 Pop-Up

Louisiana has the worst pay gap in the U.S. at 66 cents for every dollar that men make.  This pop-up mirrors the pay gap, male shoppers pay 100% of the retail price of any item (all made by women artists and makers!), and those who identify as women pay 66% of retail price. 

The shop opens today and is open Tues-Sun 12-7 over at 1612 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd, New Orleans.  The shop also hosts various events like free negotiation workshops and Electric Girls demo thru the month!  See full list of artists and event calendar here!

Here's what I have available in the shop:

Special special thank you to Tammy Mercure, Rebecca Diaz, and Elana Schlenker for getting this project up and running in New Orleans.  I am so honored to be apart of this project!

Friendly PS:
Support women and worker friendly legislation in your federal state and local government this election season!

Grieving and Technology

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Thumbnail Sketch

Thumbnail Sketch

Death has been on my mind a lot lately.
Stephen and I recently watched Black Mirror on Netflix and we put off watching the one about the dead boyfriend robot because death is a touchy subject with me.  I'm already super emotional and I knew this episode was gonna suck. 
We did watch it eventually and it wasn't as sucky as I thought it was going to be....  but it did get me all moody about death and all my friends and family dying.  
Another thing that's happening in my life: my grandma has been asking me what I want when she dies & sometimes she just hugs me tight and says that she’ll miss me when she’s dead….yeah. 

Black Mirror showed some cool pros and the ugly cons about staying in touch with the deceased through AI.  I think it would be kinda cool if we had some sort of hologram technology that pulled from social media / video files.  I feel like that would help me a lot in my grieving process.