Up Up and Away

I recently illustrated a good friend's baby girl's first birthday invitation.

The brief: 
Hot Air Balloon
Vintage colors
Creative freedom.

I sketched it out with pencil in my sketch book then moved onto the big illustration (9x12"). I could make it a little smaller and keep the illustration pretty high resolution (since she was using a digital printer called VistaPrint). Thinking about putting on my Etsy shop that I have been neglecting, and customize some orders for first birthdays. Maybe do a line of them.
The world is my oyster.

Sharky in St Kitts

We recently got back from St. Kitts, while on vacation we took a booze cruise snorkeling, without enough sunscreen. So needless to say, we spent the next day indoors. I of course couldn't just relax, so I watercolored this litte dude. 

He embodies my worse fear in the ocean. 

Dino-Wolf

This guy is making the best out of a situation.
©Melissa DiPeri

We fell hard, blissfully, in love

Coco is our 6 year old rescue dog (Corgi, German Shepherd, Bassett Hound) from Atlanta Pet Rescue, she is my best friend, my 2 year old niece's guardian, our foot warmer, little bear and sometimes a make believe villain. She came into our lives while looking for a totally different dog, we wanted a beagle I had stalked on the website. My husband brought me to the rescue center to pick up a new friend for my birthday. I had been monitoring the website for months, showing him every little pup and reading up on all their lives, and wishing I could take them all home. The beagle turned out to be very timid and seemed to be in need of a little more attention than my husband and I had could provide, with full time jobs and graduate school. Then I spotted Coco in the "big dog" pen, mind you she is 28lbs. She was laying in the middle of the room, with her big head, little legs sprawled out with all the massive dogs  playing around her, she paid them no mind. I said "that is Coco" noting I had seen her on the website, she was noticeable because her head is HUGE compared to her body. When I said her name, her big ears popped up, she grabbed a red ball and brought it over to the fence and dropped it at my husband's feet, he picked it up and threw it, she ran as fast as she could and brought it back and dropped it at our feet. We fell hard, in love, fast and blissfully. We asked to meet her, took her into the meet and greet room, and she put her paws on my shoulder and hugged me. It was over, we put in our paperwork, got her chipped and were out the door within a few hours. It really has been the best decision we have made, we love our pup.

We have some friends watch her sometimes when we go out of town for day trips. These friends get presents from Coco (usually their drink of choice or jewels); I had doubled up on the illustrations in one day to cut and paste and make it a little easier on me. 

©Melissa DiPeri

Images via personal instagram

Family gift hangtags

I did these for Christmas for my immediate family and their pets. Better late than never on posting these bad boys. It was a fun little project.

From top to bottom:

Clune's

Rumberger's

Boehly's

DiPeri's

Notice how my pup is with both sets of parents. They end up taking care of her a lot....my parents also have a beagle, she got lost in the scanner or something. 

©Melissa DiPeri

Best of 2012 (in my opinion)

Well 2012 I think I have finally come out of my shell both professionally and personally. Professionally, I feel like I really fit into a roll at my company and am working to make that roll fit my personality more.  My illustrations have taken a life of their own and I appreciate the amount of support I have received from my hubby, friends, family and people via the social media art community.

Personally I have made some changes in my life that needed to be made, made new friends, enhanced my current relationships, and became disconnected from some friends. I have bonded more-so with my family and all around tried to be a good person. Things are looking up and I look forward to 2013.

©Melissa DiPeri

Clune Christmas Hangtags

This year I did illustrations of everyone in the family so that Christmas morning they would all know which package was theirs. Before I left, I thought I scanned everyone of them in but alas this is the only full family I had with me for the break. The rest of them will follow in the New Year!

©Melissa DiPeri

Hang Tagging the Husband this Christmas

So I decided to doodle the family, that will be exchanging gifts with's person, as hang tags for my packages. I over thought it and came up with 2 concepts for what they could look like. My current style, sideway eye, big belly or tall and skinny, much like my loving husband (guinea pig). I am going with the right due to popular demand on Facebook. Hoping the ladies don't get offended by their rounded bellies. Motherhood isn't that far away, so I can use that in my favor.

©Melissa DiPeri

Zombie-Saurus

As if we needed someone else to do a doodle of a zombie, and make it as ambiguous as a zombie dinosaur. Talk about undead.

©Melissa DiPeri

Mad Hatter all Fancy Like

Mad Hatter always made me feel sane.

This guy likes to be fancy.

©Melissa DiPeri

Prints are in!

I am super excited!

Character Letter a Day - Z - Zebra

Final illustration! Got the first batch ordered this morning and liking the way they are looking. Going to get the Etsy shop loaded up this weekend and taking orders next week:)

Z is for Zebra. Zara the Zebra.

Sad this project is over. What to do next?

©Melissa DiPeri

Character Letter a Day - Y -Yak

Completely got files ready for print and realized I hadn't illustrated this bad boy!

Y is for Yak. Yolanda the Yak.

Character Letter a Day - X - Xeme

X is for Xeme, yes it is actually an animal...talk about trying to find an animal that begins with X.
X is for Xyl (yes I made that name up).

Character Letter a Day - T - Turtle

T is for Turtle. Tosh the Turtle.

I will be away the rest of the week so rest of letters will be put up next week. Then I am done with this series!!!

Character/Letter a Day- L - Lion

L is for Lion. Luda the Lion.

Character/Letter a Day- J - Jellyfish

J is for Jellyfish. Julie the Jelly.

Character/Letter a Day, I - Iguana

I is for Iguana. Iggy the Iguana.

Character/Letter a Day: B - Bunny

B is for Bunny. This bunny is a little coy.

Character/Letter a Day: A - Anteater

My niece is turning 2 next month, so I have been whittling away at ideas of what I could do creatively that she would still enjoy. As most almost 2 year olds, she loves the alphabets and silly little characters, so I am drafting up ideas to turn these into flash cards. These will surely make her the smartest kid at school! Throughout the month, I will post an alphabet letter with corresponding animal and hopefully be done in time for the peanuts birthday. 

I think from a creative standpoint, sketching needs to be a big part of our lives. The sketches show where I am starting from.  I also have a hard time figuring out eyes. So I doodle a bunch of different ones to figure out which eye is the best. So now you know what happens inside my head.