This lady is going to be hanging out as a 5 foot tall cutout for the Feltables trade show booth. She’ll be covered in felt embellishments and fashion totes. It will be exciting to see her lifesize!

It all started when a holiday commercial for Walmart came on, featuring a man with an absolutely hideous ice-skating cat sweater.

AMAZING. I immediately decided I must own this sweater. After an exhaustive search on Ebay for “Ice Skating Cat Sweater”, GUESS WHAT.

That’s right. Not only does it exist in real life, but people are willing to pay $50 for it. Now, it may be an investment for the future when it surely skyrockets in value after the Tacky Ugliest Holiday Cat Sweater artform takes off, but I’m not sure I’m willing to make that investment today. That and I don’t see any more available right now. *Bitter tears*

I decided to take a look at the other ugly cat sweaters available during the holiday season, and found quite a few gems! I’m still holding out for a more affordable Ice Skating Cat, but I might settle for one of these in order to have something fantastic to wear on Christmas morning.

Loving the scalloped edges

Skiing cat-- so close yet so far. Nice use of sequins

Apparently this one actually has light up eyes. Holiday Cat Sweaters go New Media!

Excellent contrast between the hideous white cats and the black canvas

I don't even know if this one counts as holiday, but they are freaking PINK.

This one needs some work. The direct reflection of the cats and yarn makes for a very uninspiring composition. The roadkill effect is nice, however

An interesting applique approach to the Holiday Cat Sweater theme. The hot pink stitching adds an extra something

Stunning triangular composition

So, which one is your favorite?

Playing with edges 'n' stuff!

Started as a quick narrative illustration for a client, then got revamped as a more finished spot.

First up is a redo of an old editorial piece for an article about kids spending too much time in summer camp. Next up?? Who knows. Perhaps a giant cat in a business suit– you always need at least one business suit in an editorial portfolio, right?

1. QuickPic – Photo Organizing App FREE

One of the most useful aspects of having a smartphone is the ability to use it as a mini portfolio. You never know when you will randomly bump into a gallery owner, art director, or other potential client. With a portfolio on your phone, you can instantly showcase your art and impress them with your savvy to boot.

You really don’t want to have all your camera pics, movies, and full LOLcat library available for browsing when trying to show off your portfolio. That’s where QuickPic comes in. I love it because your pictures appear quickly and frills-free for browsing as a portfolio, and you can choose which folders to designate as viewable. This way, you can keep all your images available in the stock gallery app for personal use, and use QuickPic to show only your portfolio folder.

2. Square – Credit Card Processing App FREE

If you ever sell your artwork in person, Square is a must-have app. Unlike most other card processing apps, Square requires no monthly fee or up-front costs of any kind. It’s a lot like Paypal in that it costs nothing to have– you are only charged a percentage of your sales. After signing up, you’ll be sent a totally free and tiny swipe dongle. Then you can accept payments wherever you are, complete with tax options. It’s incredibly useful.

3. Photoshop Express – Photo Editing App FREE

Photoshop Express is a free app by Adobe which you can use to adjust, crop, resize and otherwise edit your images. Great for editing pics of your gallery opening for instant upload to Twitter, or adjusting any phone snapshot without the need to transfer to your computer.

4. Autodesk SketchBook – Sketching App FREE to $4.99

A professional level drawing app for and Android platform by Autodesk– the makers of Maya, AutoCAD, 3Ds Max and more. Perfect for sketching on the go without lugging around a sketchbook. If you really like the idea of mobile sketching, you can also grab a phone stylus at Amazon for a few bucks.

5. Xpert-Timer – Time-Tracking App Trial, then $7.00

As an artist, illustrator or designer, one of your most important responsibilities is time management. Whether you work based on billable hours or by the project, it’s important to know how much time you are spending in various aspects of your business in order to give accurate price quotes to your clients. I have tried a variety of billing apps, but I stuck with Xpert-Timer because it has a clean interface, can manage multi-tiered projects and tasks, and has great reporting and exporting options. You simply start and stop your timer wherever you are right on your phone.

(Note: The price recently rose to $7.00 on this one, but considering these apps are for business I think it’s wise to spend a bit of money when it makes sense. You can try the trial first, to see if you like it!)

6. Taskos - Task Management App FREE

As an artist or any other freelance professional, it’s important to keep track of your to-do list for projects, appointments, calls, and whatever else you have going on.  Taskos does an amazing job syncing with Google tasks (or not– your choice!) and makes it really simple to quickly record business and personal tasks. I love Taskos because you can record tasks via speech recognition, organize tasks by category, and keep all your tasks in a widget on the home screens for quick access. The interface is clean and simple, and it makes good use of phone features, such as shake-to-clear and accessing your contact list for social tasks.

7. Angry Birds – Sanity Management App FREE

Because no client will take you seriously if they find out you do not have this on your phone.

There you have it! Artists: Do you have any favorite apps that help you do your job?

The illo was based on this concept by Evan:

Traffic Cone (see picture):  Traffic cones don’t get to have nearly as much fun as an ice cream cone, so one of them decided to switch roles when an ice cream cone wandered a little too close to the street he was set up on.  On the left side of the design in the street would be an ice cream cone turned over without any ice cream left on its top, and the ice cream cone itself would have a face and one black eye, looking beat up and tossed into the street to take the place of a traffic cone.  The traffic cone on the other hand who beat up the ice cream cone would be on the right side of the design, on the sidewalk away from the street, turned upside-down and having the ice cream cone’s scoops of ice cream in it, having stolen them from the ice cream cone and switched jobs and places with it!  The traffic cone would be in a state of total happiness, either using a spoon to take a bit of the ice cream scoops on top of its traffic cone head, or having an extra long tongue and slurping up some of the ice cream scoops.  The scoops could react as if they are being tickled, not unlike when a big dog slurps its tongue on a child’s face.  Role reversals are fun!

Evan's Concept Sketch

While reading his idea I sketched whatever came to mind...

Which fleshed itself out into....

We were pretty happy with the first sketch, so it was inked in Photoshop.

First color version included addition of a hole in the street.

Final version, with better hole and slight tweaking!

The End! :)

Here I finally got the Smiley Lion the way I wanted him!