This is the drawing I'm working on currently... I think it's just about finished... I just may work on the highlight areas a bit more [especially in the melty head... I'm having trouble with that area]. I'm going a bit crazy with the Mirror Tool in Photoshop lately. This drawing has a bit of everything on it... watercolor, ink, markers, colored pencil and acrylics.

I had a snowday today because of the cold. It was -11 when I checked at 5:30am [right after I got the text that school was cancelled.] So... yeah. It's a bit warmer now. No, not warmer, just less cold; it's still freezing. 

To keep this site from becoming monsters, monsters, all monsters blah blah blah I wanted to share a few more of my drawings. Here are some I did in 2009. Both are self portraits and were done in a variety of media [colored pencils, markers, watercolor]. I really want to start drawing and painting more. 

In the last post I said I was going to do a painting... and I painted and painted and it felt great. I haven't painted in so long. I used acrylics for this. It turned out better than I thought it would... although I may add more shading in the background because it looks a bit flat and boring. I'm excited to do this project with the kids!

Today's snow is big flakey lake effect so I stayed in [after venturing out to the post office] and worked on lesson planning... which turned into playing with photoshop... which turned into this...

which is currently turning into a drawing with will turn into a painting.

Monsters are in the mail again. This time they are headed to Hope Gallery in Bristol, Rhode Island. I've never been to Rhode Island so I am letting my monsters check out the state for me. For real though, they're headed to Hope Gallery to be part of the February "Colors of Love" show. If you happen to live around Bristol, Check it out! More information can be found on the Hope Gallery Website if you'd like to purchase one of these critters. 
[They're actually much bigger than the monsters I usually make and they're all hand-knit from wool]

Hi everyone! If you're a knitter or a crocheter [is that how you'd spell that?], here's a contest that you may find interesting. Vanna White has her own line of yarn and there is a contest through Lion Brand where if you make something using her yarn, you can enter it and try to win prizes. The grand prize is a trip to meet Vanna, but there are 32 other prizes of various amounts of cash and gift cards. Here's a link for more information on the contest: www.vannaschoice.com

All the yarn is 100% acrylic and typically I like to knit with wool. The yarn isn't that bad for acrylic and the colors are pretty sweet. I used both the Vanna's Choice and the Vanna's Choice Baby lines and the colors Mint, Pea Green, Chocolate Cake, Berrylicious and Magenta. I think the yarn is pretty good for hat knitting and I've used it in the past for some of the bigger monsters I've made where I've used it double stranded when I couldn't find a chunky yarn in the color I needed. 

Anyway, here are my entries! Enjoy! {and wish me luck!}

Sometimes the clay bust I made my college Figure Modeling class sure does come in useful! Bob Booth would be proud. I have a few more pictures that I just added to the erinmakesstuff page on facebook too, so check those out... mostly different angles. 

My brother is in a band called The Devil in Love and they're working on creating a CD of their songs. I drew this for them to use as their cover. If you click the picture you can go to their youtube and watch their vlog. Josh and Tom are wearing hats I knit in the video. I like how the illustration turned out... you can make your own judgements about the music. 

Also, that contest that I mentioned in the last post is ongoing... so... do it! Remember though, you have to post on the erinmakesstuff wall that you did it because I may not see it if we're not "friends."

Take it easy.

The first 3 people link to erinmakesstuff - hand knit monsters in their facebook status win an ornament. Any color you like. Awesome, right? The trick is I'm not mentioning this at all on facebook so only those true fans cool enough to come here will win.

1. "Like" erinmakesstuff - hand knit monsters on facebook [www.facebook.com/erinmakesstuff.monsters]
2. Update your status on your profile to include  a link to erinmakesstuff - hand knit monsters. Then post on the erinmakesstuff wall that you did it so I can check. If you know for sure you're one of the first 3, feel free to also gloat about how awesome your ornament is going to be in your status.
3. I'll look at my page and the first 3 people to do this will win an ornament!
4. 1, 2, 3... GO!

Hey everyone. My new years resolution is to update this site more often... and update my etsy more often, but we'll take things one step at a time. I haven't actually finished much lately because the things I have been making are more experimental and time consuming. I made a few items to enter in the Vanna's Choice Contest [which I will post at a later date once I take better pictures. What I wanted to show today are two hats that I made recently with hopes that some of you will give some feedback. I have my own ideas about what works and what doesn't... but I'd like to hear from you what you think and what you'd like to see in a monster hat.

Please excuse the dorkiness of all these photos, but it's really hard to photograph a hat that is so intrinsically dorky with a webcam and look like anything other than a huge dork.

So anyway, want a hat? I'll be able to start working on more custom orders soon. I just need to finish... and really work on! The 5 awesome monstapi I'm making for Hope Gallery. It really feels good to experiment a bit more... but I dunno, I'm still not leaving my comfort zone. I need to push it more. Hope to hear from some of you, leave comments here or on facebook!