hippo gift certificate

peeking in to share this sweet little hippo gift certificate that i was commissioned to create a few weeks ago for a dear client. it was part of a baby shower gift and couldn't have been a better more thoughtful idea for her daughter's first baby!

i'll have more to share soon featuring this hippo and a couple other fun jungle characters!

allison and anthony

remember these boston terrier wedding portraits matt & i created? well this commission was inspired by them but featuring black cats! i jumped for joy at the proposition because i have the perfect model, even though he can't sit still, my very own black kitty licorice!



we had fun creating each in our own style, but adding similar touches with the border and colors



congratulations to the couple, anthony and allison!

miss yarn hair >> a doodle

you should know by now my love for drawing ladies with large imaginary hair! i doodled this one quick and light-boxed the watercolor overtop, so if mistakes happen no re-drawing is needed :)

i kind of love the idea of yarn hair. perfect print to hang for all you avid knitters and crocheters out there! i'm going to keep playing with this idea, so you may see a new version in the shop!

new york inspired

last week I was lucky enough to spend three days in new york to celebrate my birthday! I made a couple of new york inspired thank you's featuring lady liberty (even though we didn't see the actual statue of liberty we did see one made entirely out of legos...)
Here is the watercolor wash and the almost finished note!


and just a few snapshots from the trip...


Matt in line for the lion king! and yes, it was amazing.


a new york slice, as big as my head!


charming detail at the carousel in central park


there was about a dozen of these illustrated windows, they were so fun and brightened up our walk to Fao Schwartz

lady with fantastical floral hair

a new lady with a flower garden atop her head. next, a veggie garden? yum!

good morning rooster >> a new print!

yesterday I revealed on flickr a sneak peek of my latest drawing soon-to-be print!
very enticing isn't it? 

here is the finish! I made a few color changes but overall the palette stayed the same. I went back and forth and back again on wether to have a background color or even lay in a background. I admit I loved it on screen and in thought but once it was printed I really didn't like it. at all. I reminded myself that I'm going for clean and simple and left the background white, that way the sunshiny yellow can stand out.

the print is now available in my shop and to celebrate the first official day of summer use the code YAYSUMMER to receive 10% off anything in store. limited time only so move fast :)

new new new +links!

hello dear blog! it's been so long, you probably thought i had forgotten all about you. 

but don't fret i have lovely things to share like my shiny new etsy shop hello niccoco that I have been filling with prints

Etsy helloniccoco

also i'm currently a part of the papernstitch exhibition this month, and couldn't be happier! i credit my first sale to being a part of brittni's lovely round up of shops & i hope to make a few more by the end of the month. 

lastly, this may be old news to some but in april i received an email from society6 (where i've been uploading designs & selling prints and yes even iphone/pod cases!) that my "all you need is love" design would be a part of urban outfitters print shop. i couldn't believe my eyes, but it was true! i've sold a handful of prints since being on the UO site and it's been a great experience. 

i promise more updates in the futures especially of sneak peeks of new prints for the shop! 

Love is all you need

and here is the other half to join this first design.
the deeper colors seems to pop more for me so i went with the second color scheme.
i can't say it enough, i just love how easy it is to switch and play with color in illustrator! seriously, its the tops!

all you need is love

a fun little design that will soon have an accompanying one to match- bet you can't guess what that will be!


all you need is love in pastels and an orangey orange


all you need is love in blue-y greens with a popping yellow

even though its monday...

today will be top notch!




its true! sometimes we just need a little sunny reminder that it can and will be a good day :)

hello bird!

a fun little piece i drew up yesterday in between some work... its always nice to take a break and make something just because. it wasn't until after i played around with the colors that i realized it kind of resembled my latest inspiration board!




& just in case you haven't seen over at society6 i have some designs up for sale as prints, tees, ipod/iphone skins and cases! including yesterdays hello bird! its really quite an amazing site.

hello from sunny florida>> in progress peeks

i always love seeing the behind the scenes/development of a piece of work... so just in case you missed it on flickr here are all stages of the florida postcard!!


the initial sketch done with 4 other concepts for the commissioner


playing with placement of all the landmarks- they were each drawn/scanned in/placed separately for easy moving around. here i was also testing a watercolor bleed...


the finished digital image! complete with watercolor bleed in the shape of florida, & interstate signs!


kept the back of the postcard simple but fun!
everything turned out so lovely that i'm currently working on a maryland map for a personal piece! i've been wanting to do illustrated maps and this commission was the perfect excuse to get started.

a little yodelayheehoo for you

i've been drawing imaginary mountain ranges with polka dots & stripes and thought it would be fun to finally color one of them. i couldn't decide on a color scheme (frozen and wintery? or lush and green?) so here are both of them for you to enjoy!

a little winter forest

a quiet little forest created for the trees galore exhibit/silent auction at the lancaster art museum in december. my favorite thing about creating this was experimenting with the layers/opacity of the trees. really, i could spend hours mocking up different versions, its oh so fun!

october inspiration + nested

my new october inspiration board... i decided to go through old magazines/catalogues for this one and my eye was caught by creamy neutrals & hand drawn line work. 

another illustrator piece! i sketched this same idea next to the previous, ocean swept, so i think they have a similar feel. blogger seems to have really desaturated this one making the greens/browns look gray-ish. flickr has a better version (on my screen at least!)

shades of blue

i've been playing around in illustrator, my ultimate default program is photoshop, so its been a bit of a transition... but i'm finding out there are a lot of cool/easy/super fun tools that i didn't even know existed!

i first started with this scanned ink drawing (i'll spare you from the two watercolor attempts)


first color-way here in light blue/seafoamy greens


second color-way in deeper blues


i'm not sure which is like best?! its fun working digitally because with the click of a button you can re-do/un-do everything!

oreo the dog!

yesterday was my mom's birthday & in hopes of breaking the tradition of the same ol gifts we give her.. i tired my hand at something new. i drew her something. come to think of it, i don't think my parents have any recent artwork of mine!



this is a portrait of their dog oreo, who is a mostly black (with a tiny bit of white) cockapoo. she is still a puppy and is full of energy, and of course very adorable! i tired a few different versions.. one with her name and the big O, an actual oreo. but i went with this and was inspired by the design on the cookie as the background pattern.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevendepolo/4596906329/in/set-72157608772318264/ by stevendepolo

happy june!

can you believe it's june already?! i certainly can't!


here's a little piece i finished the other day for a friend's birthday (which i believe is today!)
she loves owls. i love owls. it worked perfect.

here's just the background of leaves. i kind of like it. a lot.



and the finished piece!
happy june! & happy birthday sara!

a lesson in lift

my newest just for fun drawing. 
the balloon is like the tiny banner in the yay! owl piece, it is a "pop-up". i've been considering using this as a new promo postcard, but i really don't like how it looks in a 4x6 box (with and without type!) that's a bit of a problem, huh? i have some other ideas brewing... i'm long overdue for a postcard mailer!

start to finish

here's a peek into my goings about a drawing like this! this is actually my second version so things are a bit tidier :) I light boxed all of the fishy sea creatures from the first version (with a few tweaks!) and inked them. then i start on the bubble/barnacle background



i tend not to work in just one spot for fear of overworking the area. i tend to jump around and let the shape form itself. if you look closely in these in progress shots.. you can still see some pencil lines!

 


pencil lines gone! few details added to some fish! now onto color!







and voila! the finished piece.
the original size is 11x8.5 and i think i may be using this piece for my drawgasmic (aka massive art show/coffee table book of 1,000 artists, illustrators, designers) submission. i believe there's still room to sign up so go on, check it out!