artinjest

Now wait... is that allowed?

During a brief and much-savoured outing to deliver some art, I spotted this remarkably put-together person who was somehow making a face mask look both intentional and cool. How??? Had to doodle.

I clearly have a long way to go on my pandemic chic. I mostly just look REAL low maintenance.

Happy Friday Patrons!

B

Patreon comic time! Contact / Connection

Hello patrons. I wanted to make the Patreon-exclusive comic this month an old school pen and ink one. It just made sense for the subject this month somehow.

I had a lot of busy buzzy thoughts when I started thinking about this comic. I knew that I wanted to keep putting something for the neighbourhood out into our yard. When we decided to just turn the game into a bit fo a positive message, I wasn’t sure it’s old give me the same feeling of connection. I should have know that our co...

Patreon early release of the April Sketchbox review!

Hello Patrons! 

I hope you're staying safe and healthy. This month's Sketchbox was such a welcome distraction and I hope the video does the same for you. I had a great time trying out these supplies and I'm excited to share the finished piece with you. I struggled with the colour scheme in this one at first but as soon as I thought of old sets of Tarot cards I knew exactly what I wanted to draw. Follow along as I draw the piece and pop in to talk about the different supplies in thi...

Early look at the next comic!

You guys. I am eating SO MANY SNACKS.

Credit to my neighbour Kevin for coining the “Covid-19” which seems like a current version of the Frosh fifteen I acquired in university.

Staying fit with access to so many snacks is haaaaaarrrrrrrd...

TWO PART COMIC: Quarentime Disputes

Helloooooo Patrons! Here we are sheltering in place, learning to give each other LOTS of slack and not loose our minds over the little things right? RIGHT?

Heh. In all honesty, Big Red and I have been doing pretty well but we both work from home regularly and can keep big portions of our working lives similar to how they were before. I know so many people who are having to make enormous adjustments to their day to day in an effort to maintain social distancing and try to keep everyone s...

QuarenCloud

Hello you wonderful patrons. Your perks should be landing about now - as long as post isn’t too delayed? I wanted to share this comic with you all early before it goes out on socials.

Anyone else feeling hazy these days? I’ve been a little foggy and I feel like my life has been a lot closer to “normal” than many people. If you’re struggling with motivation, or just feeling sluggish or hyper or just off, be gentle with yourself. I’m trying to give myself a lot of leeway these...

Facebook Livestream April 4th at 7pm! Let's draw!

Hey beautiful people. I'll be doing some live doodling through Facebook live at 7pm EST tonight. Grab a pen and paper, markers or crayons if you got 'em and head over to https://www.facebook.com/brenda.dunn.5  and join me for a little bit of a distraction! 

Hope you're staying safe on this fine Saturday you wonderful folks.

B

Look for the helpers and a SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT.

What a weird time it is Patrons. I'm having to watch my news intake to make sure I don't go too far down a rabbit hole and this community has definitely been a huge help. It made me think of this wonderful Mister Rogers quote and I'm finding it helps more than ever to look for the helpers. It's what inspired the desktop and phone wallpapers this month. I made these drawings of a doctor and a nurse as my first instinct for people I feel gratitude for during this crisis. But that also led me to...

Strange days, strange draws.

Hello beautiful Patrons. I made this video about blind contour portraits and wanted to give you all an early look. This version is just for you before the other version goes out on socials.

Blind contour drawing is already weird. It causes a deliberate disconnect between what we see and what we know and forces us to REALLY look at what we're drawing rather than relying on assumptions and memory. It's EXTRA strange when you do this exercise while staring at your own face and this is prob...

Outfit of the Day

A little fashion show for this fine Friday. Hope you enjoy a little levity in the midst of the madness!

Here’s to a safe and healthy weekend friends. Be well!

B

Shall we doodle together?

Hello you wonderful patrons. It's time for another little drawing exercise! I put this out on socials today and wanted to share it here. Just a pen and paper will do nicely and any old object to draw. 

This exercise feels so strange but it's actually one of my favourite ways to teach the eye to really look at our subject. It's something we do in traditional drawing classes all the time, but there's a fun bonus to this exercise that I love. Because we're not looking at our page whil...

When it’s normal ‘till it’s not.

Anyone working from home for the first time? My studio has always been in my home so there are whole chunks of my day that feel weirdly typical. I will go for hours not being disrupted at all. It is a very strange feeling when I look outside and AM RAPIDLY REMINDED.

Wanted to post this little comic here before it goes out on socials because you wonderful folks have been such an amazing support especially right now. I am so lucky to have this little community. It’s been really wonderfu...

Drawing to Calm the Heck Down

The world is bananas and I require soothing. Seriously though, I don't know about you but I'm trying to balancing staying informed with ending up under my bed and drawing has always been a good coping tool for me. Getting into a sketchbook can be tough though so let's talk about how to do it! 

I wanted to share this with the Patreon fam first because it's one of my favourite ways to get myself drawing while also grounding and calming at the same time. Meditating spirals are a super...

Ohhhhhh boy...

Oh Patrons. For this Patreon-exclusive comic, couldn’t help but sketch what’s top of mine. We’re going to be hunkering down over here at Art in Jest HQ. A comic for you about moving ops to virtual. Note that I am probably going to wear pyjama pants for all of my virtual meetings.

But truly. It’s crazy times and it’s made me realize just how much I appreciate all of you. The community here and the support you provide is beyond essential in a time like this as a creative.

...

Washing hands is ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA

Hello beautiful patrons. I hope you're all staying safe and that the influx of pandemic related media isn't making you anxious and that you're travelling with a reasonable amount of hand sanitizer. With the ocean of corona virus related info coming my way, I thought I'd make a piece about how we're like...promoting hand washing like it's a new thing? I feel like this has always been a good idea no?

These videos are always such a great creative exercise for me and this month's was a huge...

My smart phone makes me feel stupid.

I’ve made a huge mistake and let my smart phone assist me with daily reminders. I am now riddled with panic and can’t stop the pinging.

Hope you’re all having a beautiful week so far and that the demands from your phone are minimal! I wanted to give the Patreon fam a little early look at this comic.

Should I just put it on silent fill time?? Airplane mode? Hide under the bed forever???

Happy Wednesday wonderfuls 🧡

Brenda

International Women's Day Perks for March!

Happy March you wonderful Patrons! 

With International Women's day coming up in a week, I wanted to do something to celebrate just a few of the LadyBosses I am in awe of. As always, if you don't see the size you need for a particular device, let me know and I'll make you one asap! These screen savers are a sneak peek into the theme for the perks this month so keep your eyes on your mailbox. Amelia, Greta, Malala, Katherine, Serena, Yayoi and Christina are coming to remind you how a...

Fiiiiiiineliners you say?

Hey you beautiful Patrons! Happy February. My Sketchbox arrived at last and it was full of fineliners this month! Trying something a little different and chatting about the different supplies over the timelapse of me creating the piece. Y'know. Informational like. What a lot of fun it was to create this drawing and I'm pretty sure it's the only time I've made an entire piece out of fineliners.

I wanted to give you guys the first look at the video before it goes out on socials and also s...

Comic time! Holding tension

Something a little different for this Patron-exclusive comic. The first time I teared up at the end of a yoga class, I brushed it off and didn't think about it. But when it happened a couple times early on, I was shocked and genuinely concerned that there was something wrong with me. It was one of those rare instances where looking up your symptoms on the internet was actually reassuring.

I wanted to tell a little bit more of a personal love using comics to tell funny silly stories abou...

Tupperware. You are the worst.

Hellooooo Patrons! Little early look at a comic that will go out on socials later but can one of you PLEASE tell me why all other dishes align and stack and nest nicely and Tupperware reproduces into a bin on nightmare chaos in the night? That would be great thank you.

Happy Thursday you beautiful people. Thank you for giving me the perfect safe space to fuss about my Tupperware drawers.

B

Weirdo body. I love you.

I was thinking about some of the strange things that my body does that don’t seem to have any rhyme or reason. I wonder if everyone has a few idiosyncrasies that are almost too strange to even google? Probably for the best!

Embracing my weirdo meat sack and all it’s quirks! Happy Friday you beautiful people!

B

February Wallpapers: Australian Wildlife love

Helloooo Patrons and Happy February! You may already have seen the Australian Wildlife series I did this past month. The sales of these pieces went to WIRES wildlife rescue in Australia for animals impacted by the bushfires. I am so grateful to everyone who purchased originals from this series and made the donation possible. 

Speaking of grateful, you lovely patrons will be getting some exclusive goodies made from th...

sneaky deadlines sneaking up on me...

Hello beautiful Patrons! Just wanted to drop this video I put together with a bit of behind the scenes stuff on project management. I recently sent in a sketchbook for the Brooklyn Art Library and I made a video of the process I use to plan out and execute a project. This was a super fun little task with a sort of tight deadline so it was a nice one to film. Some projects take months and months to come togethe...

Dolly Parton Meme Challenge!

I just wanted to share a look at this silly comic for you lovely folks before it goes out on socials. Have you seen the Dolly Parton meme challenge? She’s making some waves in the world of social media and I just couldn’t pass up a comic about it. I love pretty much any social media platform but I never got to try dating websites so I admit, tinder still sounds terrifying to me. Who better to display my thoughts than cartoon Brenda who can always be trusted to represent me with ridiculous...

Sketchbox 2020 styles!

Hello beautiful Patrons! Hope the first month of 2020 is treating you like the fabulous folks you are. This month's sketchbox took a LOT longer to arrive than usual (holidays something something customs something something) BUT I had so much fun making this video once it did arrive.

Trying something a little different and uploading the longer version so if you wanna see more of the process, this one's for you! You can see just about every brush stroke in this one AND if you wanna just s...

My decade in review and ART IN THE FUTURE

I've been seeing a lot of these "decade in review" posts and I knew right away that I wanted the Patron-exclusive comic to be on this subject. It's very strange to think back on 2010 Brenda and all the stressors she was carrying. 

It also got me thinking about being an artist in the future and I AM SO EXCITED FOR SCULPTURE MAKING SPACE ORBS. Can someone please get on that technology for me? I am ready to become one with our robot overlords. 

I promise that if I ever DO l...

Purchase anxiety and other adventures

Hello you wonderful folks. Made this little comic that I wanted to share here first before it goes out on socials. 

I have this strange habit of mind where no matter how much I need or legitimately can afford something, I get THE FEAR immediately after purchasing it.  I have been in a number of different income brackets and the amount I have in the bank doesn't seem to have any bearing on this strange, foreboding feeling that once I make a major purchase THE MONEY WILL BE GONE...

If it won't get out of your head, put it out in the world.

Hello beautiful patrons. Posting a wee comic that's going out on the socials but I wanted to share more of the behind-the-scenes here with you guys.

I've been thinking a lot about the wildlife effected by the wildfires in Australia and had that typical feeling of paralysis when I am neither a policy-maker or fire fighter. In an effort to "DO SOMETHING" I painted a series of gouache pieces depicting a few of the animals effected and decided to donate any sales to the WIRES wildlife rescu...