"There may be a fortune waiting, or maybe an egg souffle..."

The Argyle Sock Club Challenge no. 15 was to pick out a favorite song and to make 2-4 spot illustrations for it, so I picked "Meet the Sun Halfway."

And although Bing Crosby sang it first and was quite the crooner, I personally think Tiny Tim and his ukulele do it best:

ASC Challenge no. 14: Museum of Bad Art

Turquoise Sunrise

by Marti Major

6.125" x 6.125"

Acrylic and Glass Beads on Bristol Paper
[The Argyle Sock Club Challenge no. 14: The Museum of Bad Art Link]

This is a tributary companion piece to a glorious work titled "Silver Rain" that my sister and I saw 3 years ago at the Yavapai County Fair in Prescott, AZ. Unfortunately we didn't take a picture, but the sketch below is the best that I can remember:

(Envision loads of thick black/blue/purple/gray/yellow paint with black glass beads for the horse's eyes.)

Not purchasing the piece is one of the few regrets of my life, so here is my tribute to a masterwork, as painted with my right hand (I'm left handed).

While cleaning up my acrylics, I was also inspired to create this with the end of a paintbrush and the smudge of paint on my professional-grade yogurt container lid palette:

I call it, "Neville Thinking."
For purchase inquiries, please email.

The Naturalist

This sketch is for The Argyle Sock Club challenge number 10. See just what it's all about over here at yonder argyle club blog.

Little Sami Deer

I happened to look up the Sami people of Norway this week---the native, nomadic, reindeer herders of Scandinavia--- and wanted to somehow use that for this week's Argyle Sock Club challenge. So. Here's our little Sami girl out on a stormy day, playing on the mountainside with a miniature, invisible reindeer friend. I'm sure there are other exciting animals in this part of the world, but who wouldn't want a little magical reindeer all for themselves? It's probably bright blue too, and can fly, and can make cake appear, and is nice and soft, and always smells like peaches. 

I also may have been vaguely influenced by this theme song from days of yore.

Argyle Sock Club: Challenge no. 5!

Ah, all of you who are so nice as to come visit me here will be pleased that the content is distinctly improving over time.

I bring you: Harry Codfish!

To find out just what this is all about, you had better go on over to the illustrious Argyle Sock Club blog, right here.

Charlie Bucket

This is my drawing for The Argyle Sock Club Challenge no. 3, which was to do a character design, or a scene, from Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. Good ole Charlie Bucket. 

This is the part where it's winter, and Charlie has begun to grow, and what's worse, there's been nothing but cabbage soup at home to fill up on for days on end. On his soggy way home from school, he happens to find some lost money in the gutter which leads him to the purchase of the lucky Wonka Bar with the last golden ticket.

I can't remember the exact words, but Roald Dahl's contrasting description of the gritty, sharp, hungry winter outside, to the big, fat, smiling shop keeper watching Charlie wolf down the chocolate in large bites is glorious. It's so satisfying to read, like you somehow are right there, eating it too. So that's why I chose this scene. It's where it all shifts for the good, smack before that beautiful, chocolate-wolfing climax.

The Argyle Sock Club

Some BYU Illustration alumni friends and I have a weekly challenge blog over at:

argylesockclub.blogspot.com.


This week's challenge was to draw a Muppet, and this was mine.
(Post link, with all you ever wanted to know about Trixy the Elephant, here.)