Original linocuts for under $30

I've been thinking about what to put on our empty walls. I love original art, but it can get pricey really fast (and deservedly so). For original pieces with an affordable price tag, check out my round-up of little hand-pulled linocuts I found on Etsy. For $30 or less, they're a great way to purchase a small work of art created by a printmaker. See my Pinterest board here.

Above: Pattern by Mia The Hawk, Heads by Flat Earth Studio, Whale by We Think Small, and Bee by Art at Garden Corner.

You know you need this Bigfoot. And the award for best title goes to Donkeys Disturbed By A Meteor Shower.

Scratchboard art

I haven't seen scratchboard since art class in high school. It's a fun medium— you scrape away a black ink finish to reveal the white coating underneath. This weekend I picked up a scratchboard drawing done in the 60's by local artist Louis Speigel. I did some research and it turns out he is best known for his paintings of clown faces. I do not need any of those. But I liked this fountain. Original local art! It was an impulse purchase from my favorite antique store. I'm not sure exactly where it will hang, but I'm thinking the parlor.

The subject is Cincinnati's Tyler Davidson Fountain, named "The Genius of Water," in downtown Fountain Square.

To see some terrific examples of scratchboard art, head to scratchboard.org. There are a few tutorials and fascinating videos of artists drawing, too.

Colorful '50s art prints

I spotted these prints at Art.com and fell in love with the colors. They're reproductions of '50s illustrations from the Saturday Evening Post.

The Marriage Wrecker by Coby Whitmore-- I adore the wacky composition that breaks the rule of thirds, has incorrect perspective, and smooshes the ladies' faces into uncomfortable corners. Plus it's orange!

Marriage Is Not For Me by Robert Meyers-- The color palette is delicious. Love the detail in some areas, balanced with flat washes in others.

Hmm, how to work them into this dignified Victorian house? Maybe I could at least tuck this lady into a bathroom somewhere?

Affordable art prints

I've been poking around online for affordable-ish art prints and ideas for solving the bare wall situation in our new house. Last night I made a Pinterest board for things that caught my eye. In the light of day, I'm noticing there are lots ladies in there, for some reason. Huh. Here's a sampling of my board:

1. ADRIFT by Sammy Slabbinck
2. Three Figures, 1913-28 by Kasimir Malevich
3. Legs and heeels by Lydia Coventry
4. Feline Dream by Rachel Linder
5. Pinky Promise by Emily Rickard
6. Black horses by Robert Farkas
7. Hello? by Yetiland
8. My Eyes Had A Picnic by DiDi Higginbotham

Part of me desperately wants to put this portrait over our fireplace, but I'd probably get tired of it after the novelty wore off. Or would I...

Music video made with a Silhouette Cameo

Want to see something cool? Blog reader Helen wrote to tell me that after my posts about getting and using a Silhouette paper cutting machine, her husband bought one. And then he used it to make pop-up paper sleeves for his album, plus this amazing music video for one of his songs, 10,000 Letters of Love by The Sound of the Ladies. (The band is one singer-songwriter-physicist guy, Martin Austwick.) To see how he did it, read here.

Helen says a paper-crafty beast has been unleashed. No kidding.

DIY geometric art with simple stamps

The minimal, geometric designs that Fellow Fellow is sharing lately make me happy. Reducing objects to their most basic shapes is very satisfying, and these are great examples of what you can do with rectangles and triangles. Head to Fellow Fellow to see how to make your own stamps and create a village print.


Or grab the kids and stamp some animals together. Abstract patterns are pretty, too, when they've got that nice, stampy texture. Lovely work, Claire!

DIY posters with cut-out lettering

I'm thinking of making a poster series of ridiculous song lyrics. The first one goes to you, Ke$ha. Next up, Katy Perry. "Baby, you're a firework." What, just one firework? "Boom, boom boom. Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon." A brilliant use of rhyme. Wouldn't a whole wall of these be comical? At least in my mind. And perhaps in the minds of some friends; you know who you are.

But really I just wanted to try cutting out some lettering like I saw in the branding for the Kröller-Müller Museum. Apparently theirs was rendered digitally using Cinema4D software. I went old school and busted out an X-acto knife.


In Illustrator I typed out text using a bold font. (Novecento Wide, bold —free!) Then I outlined the text with a thin stroke and flipped it backwards. This way the printed outlines won't show on the front of the piece. I printed it on cardstock and cut along the outlines, avoiding the highlighted areas above. The left edge of each character isn't cut and acts like a hinge.


I flipped the paper over and bent the letters up, like opening little doors.


I liked it layered on top of a sheet of neon red paper.


And of course orange is always an excellent choice. You could make a series of cut-out posters and group them as wall art. Or make greeting cards with short phrases on them. To make the letters show up, fold a piece of colored paper in half, the same size as your outer white folded card, and insert it inside. Keep it in place inside the white card with a line of glue along the fold.

You could also try cutting shapes out of colored paper and layering white behind it. I opted for cutting into the white, since cast shadows show up best on light colors.

Any suggestions for more silly pop song lyrics?

New site: The Beauty of Letterpress

Today marks the launch of a new website, The Beauty of Letterpress, from Neenah Paper. If you're a letterpress fan (and who isn't?), you might enjoy this online gallery of modern letterpress prints and resources. The site posts selections from a new curator each month.

Everyone is welcome to submit their own work, and printers can add themselves to the list of letterpress vendors sorted by location.

The website is also trying to raise funds to help preserve the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum in Two Rivers, WI. If you donate just $5, you'll receive this Beauty of Letterpress print, and Neenah Paper will match your donation. Terrific! See more photos of the letterpress print here in designer Jennifer James's portfolio.

Draped wall art

I found something wonderful at Jeannie Jeannie. Art installations by Sakir Gokcebag made of... toilet paper rolls. I really, really want someone to attempt this at home.

Illustrated typography desk calendar

I had a fun mail day recently: one of my packages contained a 2013 calendar gift from Italian designer Simone Massoni. Called "Chicks and Types," Simone has illustrated a series of pin-up girls and paired each one with a featured typeface for every month of the year. A few of the ladies are a bit spicy and missing their tops, and I'm too bashful to show you those. But here's a sampling of the more modest pages. There's a Sherlock Holmes girl!

I'm completely charmed by the illustration style, the interesting color palette, and the deliciously thick, soft paper stock. Plus I get to familiarize myself with more fonts. Terrific!

Calendars are available in Simone's Etsy shop. Meet the other girls here.

P.S. Simone has added a comment to this post, and I wanted to share it:

"It's funny how you picked Rosa as the main image for the post, since it's one of my faves.

Just for people to know, every pin-up has a story. I'd like to suggest few hints to better feel the mood of the artwork: Fabrizio, is a display font by a friend of mine and well-recognized designer, Federico Landini.

Fabrizio is named after Federico's father, who the font has been dedicated to. Federico's mom is Rosa (italian name which means "rose"), they both come from Pistoia, a medieval wonderful city in the centre of Tuscany. Despite the pin-up is not the mom's portrait I imagined to build a story about a romantic picnic lunch in the country side surrounding Pistoia."

Now we can appreciate this page even more!

A gallery of the world's best fashion windows

Need a 5-minute break to enjoy a little window shopping... at the fanciest department stores and fashion boutiques in the world? WindowsWear is a gallery of 1,500 windows from over 350 stores in New York, Paris, Milan, and London. They're magical, gorgeous, and strange.

See the best of 2012 right here.

Photos one and two are from Lanvin, Paris. The following are windows at Dior, Paris; Ralph Lauren, London; and Bergdorf Goodman, New York.

"Go Vote" illustrations by artists

Americans, did you do it yet? To help with motivation, GoVote.org has a gallery of hundreds of illustrations from artists nationwide. You can even update your Facebook cover image with this one. Enjoy! The illustration above is by Yours, Roxanne.

It's vacation time

Folks, I'm going on vacation! I'll resume regular posting on August 13th. Until then, have a super week and enjoy some nostalgic summery paintings by Leah Giberson. (I own one of her camper prints.) See lots more work in Leah's Etsy shop.

Orange art

Welcome to Orange Week, featuring a healthy dose of orange goodness every day. I'm on vacation this week, but pre-scheduled posts will keep the blog living up to its name. Artwork kicks things off! Perhaps you need gin, Johnny Cash, bikes, or a llama?

Or try birds, kitty, coffee, or cart.

Rex Ray wall decals at Blik

Friends, humans, countrymen, lend me your eyes! My friend Susie just sent over a link to these new wall decals at Blik, saying "You like Rex Ray, right?" Heck yes I do. While I feverishly try to think of a place to put these, you should go have a look if you like playful, retro graphics.

Every few months I hear someone say that wall decals aren't in anymore. Nonsense. What better way to put a cool image on your blank wall, for relatively little cash, that won't harm your paint job? Long live wall decals!

Fresh photography by Fulvio Bonavia

If you like captivating photography, food, and accessories—particularly when all three are combined—you'll enjoy Fulvio Bonavia's portfolio. Take a look at his "A Matter of Taste" photographs in the "Work" section over here. I'm glad my shoes aren't made of food. As it is, I have enough trouble keeping my foot out of my mouth.

(Images by Fulvio Bonavia)

Paint chip projects by Matthew Sporzynski

A new issue of GD USA magazine, a free publication for the graphic design community, arrived the other day. On the cover was a paint chip ice cream cone by Matthew Sporzynski of Real Simple magazine fame. (See his paper sculptures for Real Simple right here.) These amazing paint chip creations are part of a Sherwin Williams ad campaign; view all the print ads here. I wonder if these are too awesome—Sherwin Williams might end up with a massive paint chip shortage as everybody rushes out and attempts their own creations. And by "everybody," I mean, um, me.

Block figures by Ingela P Arrhenius

While glancing through Grain Edit, I came across the work of Sweden-based illustrator Ingela P Arrhenius. One of her pastimes is creating characters from painted wooden blocks. Completely charming! A bag of blocks...

...becomes little animals and people transported through a mid-century time machine. To meet more of Ingela's characters, visit the wood figures section of her blog.

(Images by Ingela P Arrhenius)

Free Twitter backgrounds by Nate Williams

Welcome to 2010, everyone! Hope you had a refreshing holiday break. I'm still on mine until Thursday, so I'm trying to avoid making eye contact with my computer as much as possible. Heading into Christmas vacation I'd wondered if I had a computer addiction and wouldn't be able to stay off my Mac. Nope. Turns out I can quit any time I want—easily. Yeah, that's what they all say, but I've tested it and it's true. Last week I was hunting through my recipe box for cake and found this Thomas Merton quote printed on a scrap of paper. I have no idea where it came from or when I put it in there. It reinforced my longing to move to a deserted island.

Ironically, before typing that last paragraph, I had set out to write a post about Twitter backgrounds. My island will absolutely not have Twitter access. But if you must spend hours tweeting, you may as well freshen up your page with a cool background by illustrator Nate Williams. Visit his gallery of patterns, click your fave, hit "no" to tiling the pattern, and save the image. Upload it to Twitter and click the check box to tile it.

Charley Harper high res images

While poking around the internet, I came across artwork by Charley Harper, modernist designer and illustrator. Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center has a bio on Mr. Harper, along with a few high resolution images of his work you can download. Not to be used commercially, of course, but you might put a bird on your desktop or make yourself a print. I'm a fan, and use my Charley Harper plates almost every day.