Becky was Owly before Owly was Cool

Owls are the New Black. . . .

But Becky was there first. She's liked them for at least as long as I have been married into the family (and probably longer).

So WHO better than her to draw owls.

This beleaguered guy is Geoff. To quote from her shop,"the Geoff Owl is the distant cousin of another challenging bird, the Henry. Much like the Henry its attributes are poor judgment, frequent memory loss and a vacant expression. As this specimen shows, much to hubris’ chagrin, it has forgotten that it is eating a mouse’s tale and also forgotten that it should not eat mice as it is a Herbivore. Cousin Geoff simply doesn’t know any better."

He's 5" x7" on illustration board and has real plastic googly eyes.

The technique used is gouache, which is a technique of painting with opaque watercolors prepared with gum. I had to look that up! So writing about what Becky does is highly educational for me.

(Becky, to refresh your memory, is my step-daughter who also created the art for our knitting shirts. She can draw and paint and all that fun stuff and has a BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design. I can't draw a decent stick figure. It is not fair, but I am learning to get over it.)

You can check out her blog at http://OwlFactory.com or peruse her Etsy shop at http://OwlFactory.Etsy.com.

Talent in the Family

Becky Dreistadt

One of the fun things about being a step-mom, is that you get to write the biographies for your step-daughter, and talk about her artistic talent.

And the nice thing about it is, you can show the artwork and people can see you aren't making it all up.

Becky has been drawing since she could hold a crayon. It's a part of who she is. She was always the girl in school who could draw, who won the art contests and the county fair ribbons, and eventually won a Congressional Art award before attending the Savannah College of Art and Design, winning the Sequential Art award, and graduating magna cum laude this past May.

Now she is living in New Zealand and creating all sorts of fun art. She also started http://OwlFactory.Etsy.com. This is her "Mountain Quail," 5" x 7" on watercolor paper. Cute little fellow, isn't he?

Did you Draw that? Wow!!!

The artist behind Funky Quail

I get a lot of compliments on the shirt artwork and need to make this perfectly clear - I can not draw! The artist is Becky Dreistadt*, a magna cum laude graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design, who is currently residing in New Zealand.

Becky took the ideas my sister and I had for knitting tees and turned them in to a reality for us. Each shirt has a very different style. Our best seller is "Ninja Knitter," a sly-looking Ninja who casts her wool upon needles made of swords.

Ninja knitters are pretty much like regular knitters, except they tend to be a little more stealthy about it.

Check out more of Becky's work at http://OwlFactory.Etsy.com


* my step-daughter, so I can brag when I write bios about her.