#35 Ponies & Streudels

Amper­Art #35 is the third line of lyrics that contains “and” in the song  My Favorite Things from the 1960 musi­cal and the 1965 film, The Sound of Music:
 

Rain­drops on ros­es & whiskers on kittens
Bright cop­per ket­tles & warm woolen mittens

Brown paper pack­ages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream col­ored ponies & crisp apple streudels
Door­bells & sleigh bells & schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings

These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dress­es with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Sil­ver white win­ters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I’m feel­ing sad
I sim­ply remem­ber my favorite things

& then I don’t feel so bad

 

This is a col­lec­tion of four edi­tions, each fea­tur­ing a line from the song that includes the word “and” which of course we replace with our favorite charac­ter, the ampersand.
 
About the art­work: 

 

The art­work was mod­eled after the orig­i­nal movie poster, and I hand-​lettered the & to resemble the orig­i­nal poster title, which was also hand-let­tered back then. (I used to hand-​letter head­lines and titles with pen and brush, before pix­els took over.)
 
The amper­sand does dou­ble duty in all my prints for this set. Not only does it con­nect rain­drops & kit­tens & ket­tles & ponies & door­knobs, it also ties the last two lines of the song togeth­er:I sim­ply remem­ber my favorite things & then I don’t feel so bad
 
 
 
The col­ors were sam­pled from the movie poster, and I select­ed just a few from the palette. I did not use any blue, as I thought a nice sky blue would be a beau­ti­ful mat col­or if you decide to print and frame this set.
 
I hope you enjoy this series inspired by The Sound of Music.More impor­tant­ly, I hope you get to enjoy your favorite things this hol­i­day sea­son & always.
 
PRODUCTION NOTES:
Pro­gram: InDesign
Orig­i­nal dimen­sions: 20″ x 30″
Fonts:Bodoni Con­densed Ital­ic; Pupcat (mod­i­fied)
Amper­sand: hand-​lettered, based on main poster title font 
Col­ors: Sam­pled from orig­i­nal Sound of Music movie poster
Ref­er­ence: Orig­i­nal Sound of Music movie poster
Poster image appears for edu­ca­tion­al pur­pos­es only.

#33 Raindrops & Whiskers

 

This is the first of four pieces in the My Favorite Things col­lec­tion, inspired by the song from the 1960 musi­cal and 1965 movie The Sound of Music. Only the lyric phras­es con­tain­ing “and” were turned into Amper­Art designs. I’m glad “whiskers on kit­tens” was one of them. I love cats & kit­tens. I don’t like ros­es as much as car­na­tions, but “rain­drops on car­na­tions” prob­a­bly would not have won an Emmy.

Each edi­tion in this series will be released a week apart. You must sub­scribe to receive high-​resolution pdf files so you can cre­ate beau­ti­ful prints (11x17 or 8.5x11 inch­es). Sub­scrip­tions are free & you will receive your print down­loads by email. You’ll find sug­ges­tions on print­ing and fram­ing here.

In research­ing the style to use for this art­work I found one of the orig­i­nal movie posters, sam­pled the col­ors from which I chose a lim­it­ed palette (I did not use blue as that would be your per­fect mat in a nice frame), select­ed the appro­pri­ate type­styles & hand-​drew the amper­sand, styl­iz­ing it to resem­ble the main title in the poster:

The amper­sand not only con­nects rain­drops and kit­tens and ket­tles and ponies and door­knobs, it also links the last two lines of the song, which appear on all four lay­outs at very top and very bottom.

To fur­ther research this piece, I real­ly enjoyed watch­ing the movie! If you ever need a joy­ful lift & a lit­tle humor, this is the movie to see. It’s won­der­ful & timeless.

If you love the amper­sand sub­scribe to Amper­Art here to receive future Amper­Art edi­tions. They’re always fun & fab­u­lous & free. Sub­scribers also receive spe­cial bonus­es.

#31 Bats Rats & Black Cats

#31 Bats Rats & Black Cats
#31 Bats Rats & Black Cats
Click image to view full-​size or download hi-​rez file for gallery-​quality printing and framing.
This is a high-​resolution pdf & may take a few minutes to download.
Find printing tips & framing ideas here.

As if planned by the spir­its them­selves, this edi­tion of Amper­Art hap­pens to be #31, the very date of the hol­i­day it was haunt­ing­ly designed for.


Bats Rats & Black Cats…
Lizards Gophers Birds & Snakes

JeepersCreepers

These are Hal­loween creatures?

No, not all of them, but they are all “gifts” that my black cat, Jeep­ers Creep­ers, proud­ly brings me once or twice a week. Yes, bats and snakes. Def­i­nite­ly ejects me out of bed faster than my shrill alarm clock.

Jeep­ers Creep­ers, 3 years old, was named after my black Jeep (he can plow through any­thing to get to food), but this time of year his name takes on the spooky mean­ing of Octo­ber 31.


PRODUCTION NOTES:
Program: Photoshop
Original dimensions: 20″ x 30″
Fonts: Visigoth, French Script, both modified
Images: Traced and modified from reference
Effects: Noise added to background layer