Scrunched Face

I didn't have any specific stylistic intent for this drawing of my grandmother, but I am very happy with the results. 

This is what happens when I sit down and draw something quickly and intuitively. 

Book Release Party!

Well it's no lie that I've been busy lately. Or at least I WAS busy up until my art opening and book release party at Flutter on September 12th. After frantically preparing for that show I decided to take a week off from the studio to relax and recharge, but now I'm ready to delve back in it.

The book release party for the Advanced Style Coloring Book was a ton of fun. People came dressed in Advanced Style outfits and everyone indulged their crayon loving inner child and colored in some of the illustrations from the book. Here are a few pics from the event.

Marvel at the concentration!

Some didn't have to delve too far to discover their inner child

For others it was just under the surface

Our community coloring experiment yielded interesting results. Why so serious?

It was an exciting week indeed! In addition to the party I was interviewed by Marjorie Skinner for her weekly fashion column in The Portland Mercury. You can read the article online here.

Check back soon to see images from my all new, all different art show hanging at Flutter right NOW.

(Or go down there and see it in person. Up until the second week of October)

2 For The Price of None

It's been three weeks and I completely spaced on posting the final two complimentary coloring book images so I've decided that today's post is going to be a double whammy. Enjoy!

On a somewhat related note I've been plugging away on the Advanced Style Coloring Book which is tentatively due out in November. You can pre-order it on Amazon.com and apparently there's a sale going on? Anyhow, check it out and save 28%.

It's Friday! Coloring Book Page #5

Hey all! It's Friday and we should all take a page out of this guy's book and get dressed up for the weekend. Does anybody have any big plans? Any Color-Ins going on that you're attending? 

*A Color-In is a hang out session where you invite your friends over, listen to music, drink libations, and immerse yourselves in a pile of crayons and markers. It's a totally real thing that I just made up.

There's only two more free coloring book pages left, so I hope you're enjoying each and every one of them!

Coloring Book Page #4

Put a spring in your step today by coloring in this dapper dude. From the shoes to the hat, this guy exudes style, but my favorite item has to be his carrot lapel pin. 

Here's a great submission we received of one of last week's drawings expertly colored in by reader Rebecca Merritt. Thanks Rebecca, and keep up the good work!

Coloring Book Page #3: Hat's Off!

Hello my little Merry Maladies and welcome to the second week of April, 2013. Did anybody pull off any spectacular April fools jokes or get taken in by any? If so I'd love to hear about it! Please feel free to share in the comment section below. This post however is no prank; I am still giving away coloring book pages and will continue to do so this whole week, so stay tuned!

And once again if you'd like to share your coloring expertise, I'd love to see it. Email me a scan or photo at beardedmaladies@gmail.com or take an instagram photo of it and tag me in it @ischraer. 

Free Coloring Book Page!

Hey everybody! I've been hard at work on various projects and as you know I've been creating a lot of coloring book images lately. I've created so many infact, that we simply can't use all of them, so I decided to post the extras here and give them away for free!

Please feel free to download this image and color it in at your leisure, and if you find the time I'd love to see your work! You can email pictures or scans to me at beardedmaladies@gmail.com or take an instagram and tag me in it @ischraer. Also keep checking back here in the next few days because I have a handful more of these that I'm going to post.

Walrus Murray

Recently there were some delightful pictures of Bill Murray floating around the internet and I was inspired to sketch one of them out. 

I realize it has been a month since my last post which is CRAZY, so I'm going to try and be better about posting new arts on here. Fortunately I have a good reason for my long absence. Last month I signed a contract with my friend Ari Cohen of Advanced Style fame to officially publish our Advanced Style Coloring Book with powerHouse Books. I've been hard at work on 10 new drawings for this edition (I've actually done 17 so we can have a bigger pot to choose from) but unfortunately I can't share them with you guys until the book is published!

So sit tight everyone because more art is coming your way.

Grandparents

I recently got back from visiting my family and friends down in San Diego (and got a nice little break from the cold weather too). While I was down there I also paid a visit to my Grandparents which I always look forward to. At 93 and 92 years of age they are still very much with it and live alone in the same house they've lived in for 40+ years. I also never get tired of using them for portrait studies, so while messing around in my studio with colored pencils a couple months ago I produced these two drawings.

I especially like the way this one turned out and I may turn it into a full scale painting.

I also gave them a copy of the Advanced Style Coloring Book, and a box of colored pencils. I hope they actually end up coloring in it; I'd love to see what they come up with. 

My Grandfather doing his best to hide his pride. 

On Sale and Going Fast!

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I'm very pleased to announce that the Advanced Style coloring book is now available for preorder. This is a limited pressing of 150 and there are only 28 left! I'm blown away by the response to this project, especially since we only put it up for sale last night. I can't wait to see these drawings in color.

The book contains 20 original full page illustrations based off the photographs of Advanced Style creator (and old pal) Ari Seth Cohen. Get one while you still can HERE.

Advanced Style: The Coloring Book!

This gent looks like he's ready to ride on into the sunset, and with that protective eyewear we know he'll be just fine.

I'm really excited to be working on the Advanced Style Coloring Book, based on the blog, book, and images of Ari Seth Cohen. 

Advanced Style is blog based in New York City devoted to capturing the street style and vivacious spirit of men and women 65 and older, proving that things really do improve with age. 

Check it out!

I'm currently working on a series of drawings and will post a few more teaser images when I have them. Stay tuned.