Abe's Peanut

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There's a new kid's magazine in town and it's called Abe's Peanut! Brought you by the sister team behind Abe's Penny! Each issue is four postcards (one sent every week), making it a micro-magazine and uber fun to get mail! The series is all collaborations between artists and writers and sure to please!

I illustrated the first series of Abe's Peanut and can't wait to receive my copies! The magazine will be carried in select stores and available by subscription. More info here at Abe's Peanut!

Daily Candy recently posted about the project! So exciting!

Yes, I used 8 exclamation points. It's that good.

New post at OMFG: How to sell your wares at a craft / art fair!

Recently, my good friend Meghan Guthrie and I hawked our wares at the famous Brooklyn Flea. I wrote an article over at OMFG on how to sell at a craft fair and some handy tips for first timers!

Click here to read the article. Enjoy!

Spring Cleaning

It's finally Spring here in Brooklyn and I am knee deep in cleaning and organizing everything from my studio to my brain. I have been bad about updating my blog and here are some things I failed to post!

I have been doing my monthly DIY column over at the lovely blog OMFG. It has been really fun to contribute to such a fresh and fun project. Here are some of the columns I've done as of recent:

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Clamshell Garden

Mini-Terrarium

Paper Bouquet

Eco-Friendly T-shirt Dog Toy

New Work: Pet portrait hot off the presses

Here is my newest pet portrait of the lovely little french girl Mathilde. She is a rescue living the good life in the south of France! She was such a treat to paint! Though I must say, researching Provencal landscapes whilst in my Brooklyn Studio was a little painful. I wish I could have squeezed into the envelope along with the portrait headed to France!

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New Work: It's here! It's here!!

My first published book illustrations arrived in the mail yesterday and I could not be more excited! I have been working on a series for a Dutch publisher and here are some images from the first book.

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Hooray!

New Work: pet portraits

Hello there,

Here are my two most recent portraits. I really love painting all these furry friends - particularly when the commission involves things I have never really thought to draw before (like civil war uniforms). Ever since I was a kid, I loved the challenge of being told what to draw and running with it. So now I get to research WWII medic tents and fancy yachts and Bruce Springsteen album art. It's pretty wild. Here are the two latest pups.

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Xanja the WWII nurse

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Buckley sailing the seas

New Work: pet portraits

Hello folks,

Amongst other projects, I got a bundle of pet portrait commissions for the holidays. I really love doing these as they involve animals in clothing (my favorite - particularly if they are playing music) but they are based on real animals with real personalities! Here are two that I have already finished. I have a few more to get cracking on! I'll post them when they're done!

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Rocky

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Pepperoni & Cheese and Sergeant Slaughter

New and Improved

My new website vanessaboer.com is up and running! Hooray!!

NYCares painting party!

I recently volunteered as a mural artist for NYCares and designed a couple of murals for a local school that needed a pick-me-up. Some fantastic friends, a load of volunteers and I painted two murals in an Eastern Brooklyn middle school. It's pretty amazing what people can do with bad brushes and donated paint in a multitude of institutional colors like 'Safety Purple'. It was such a great experience and I can't wait to do it again soon.

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The hallway at Eastern New York Middle School of Excellence (!)

The school 'zoo', currently inhabited by one Bearded Dragon Lizard.

DIY fun

DIY paper clock {click on image to enlarge}

I just started a monthly DIY column on the supercute blog OMFG. Check it out!