illustration – Page 2 – Despina Illustration

…notre dame from memory

I made this drawing 10 summers ago. It’s part of a drawing book that I hold very dear to my heart. One that is never too far from my drawing board. I’ve moved 4 times since I filled it with drawings and notes. With every move, I packed it with the “Fragile” and/or “Important” cargo. […]

…simple pleasures 2

As promised, a drawing of what I actually saw in Aruba. My favorite sight of all was my boy playing in the sand. He used bits of coral for knights, a shell for a princess, and a dried up coconut for a dragon in the most rudimentary, lovely sand castle those two little hands could […]

…simple pleasures

Is that all? Is that all you think youâ€™ll see in Aruba? Yes. In fact, thatâ€™s all I need to see. The horizon line. Anything more will be icing on a most lovely cake of sweet sweet relaxation!! â€“Thatâ€™s the conversation I had with myself after I made this simple simple drawing before leaving for […]

…little leaves that are so dumb

A great poem is City Trees by Edna St Vincent Millay. Love how she talks about the importance of context. I read it often and recently felt like making a few drawings. This is the first. ~Despina The trees along this city street, Save for the traffic and the trains, Would make a sound as […]

…a plant for Papou

Every time I work in the garden I cant help but think of my farmer grandfather in Crete, may he rest in peace. This is a drawing of the small tomato plant Iâ€™m growing in his memory this year. The seed is from Greece.

…book jacket

Here’s some book cover art that I recently made for Ohio State University Press. The subject was the suppressed rage experienced by many members of Jewish communities throughout the world. I think it’s an issue that should be addressed by many cultures of the world. I believe that some of the biggest world issues stem […]

…metropolitan opera zen

My husband and I went to see Verdiâ€™s Macbeth at the Met last night. On our way there I watched a guitar player performing on the platform of the subway. Later, while observing the sculpture at the top of the stage inside the Met, I decided Iâ€™d draw it like Japanese calligraphy because my thoughts […]

…etsy night was great!

Had a great time last week at the ETSY Hands-On: Drawing. Thank you to everyone who came out to draw with us. Hereâ€™s a drawing of you all drawing the great Kika

…lovely lady

…that’s alot of snow!!

Woke up to more snow than I was prepared for! My first thought was food. What will we eat today? Then I thought of posting a drawing. I thought it would be nice to share a frame from a storyboard I made about snow and gloves.

…christmas shopping

I always think of this drawing of mine when the holiday shopping frenzy rears its ugly head every year! Oh, what I would give to take a nap like the kid in this drawing whenever I felt too tired to carry on with the lists and the bargain hunting and the out of stock debacles […]

…leaf studies

Here are some drawings of leaves that I’ve made in recent days. I enjoyed sitting at my board, turning on the light and, after randomly scattering the leaves that I gathered while raking the lawn, marking down the beautiful nuances of color and textures of the leaves with my color pastels. It was quiet drawing […]

…an experiment in animation

This morning, I was reading about this year’s Paris Motor Show , and that led me to this gallery of some of the newest and most bizarre cars that are being made today. I’ve always been so impressed by auto and motorcycle design. From the practical to the exotic, the thought that goes behind the […]

…a meeting in the park

Here are the drawings of the girls we met in Brookdale Park today. I promised I would post them, so here they are. (click on them for larger images) Candice, Classy, Kyasia, Shania, and Naquiasia all enthusiastically came to model for me. Besides being super cute and having some sassy hairstyles, they were also very […]

…a bowl of veggies

Harvesting my garden is really alot of fun. The whole family gets involved and then we sit down for dinner. Lovely. Here is study for a painting of a bowl of freshly picked veggies. String beans, tomatoes of all shapes and sizes, cucumbers, squash, and purple pepper on top.

…Utne Reader illustrations

In the July/August issue of the UTNEReader:

…seasons of 1482

Fellow Studio 1482 members Michele Bedigian, Greg Betza and Dominick Santise and I have been working collectively on a series of prints and promotions titled “Seasons of 1482“. The project began last year and weâ€™ve just launched Seasons 2010 with our spring promotion and a new website. Please stop by and read more about the […]

GIANT demolition

Here are a few of the drawings I made at the demo site in the Meadowlands, NJ. The old Giants/Jets Stadium is being torn down slowly but surely. I was surprised to see so few people working on such a big task. Maybe I was there during lunch? That’s what it felt like! Whatever the […]

…first harvest

last night we had our first meal from my vegetable garden. I snipped a few leaves of lettuce and arugula and made a nice big salad for Greg and myself. delicious! Can’t wait for the tomatoes, cucumbers and peas!!

…flowers of longwood gardens

Here is another drawing I made during my trip

…Brandywine River Museum

I just got back from a trip to The Brandywine Vally, PA. My husband and I have been wanting to take this trip ever since we met in Parsons. We heard about the Brandywine River Museum with all the beautiful Illustration by artists like Howard Pyle, and all the Wyeths. After 12 years, We finally […]

…FOOOOOD

I recently went to the 3rd annual Village Voice Food Show at the Armory in NYC. Needless to say, I was a happy camper. I thought the night was off to a bad start when on my way to the event I realized that I forgot my sketchpad and pens at home. But it turned […]

…updated

I thought it was time for a change. It’s been 3 years since I started contributing to this blog. And if you scroll/stroll through my archives you’ll see the progression from ‘totally not into it!’ all the way to the present ‘hey I kinda like this blogging thing’. Only I like to call it bloggering. […]

…Irish Hunger Memorial

I’m not Irish, so I have never really celebrated St. Patrick’s Day. Growing up, all I ever really knew about the holiday was that it was the time of year that Entenmenn’s would offer up those yummy green cupcakes with the green leaves all over the box. But now, I have a little boy, and […]

…Oscars again

â€¦or the Academy Awards. I think I may have started a tradition for myself by drawing while watching the Oscars! I did it last year, and this year I thought, why not again. Mostly I love looking at the classic styles and the not-so-classic gowns that the stars are skillfully presenting to the sea of […]

…Another color study of James

James and I hang out together alot. Every once in a while as he plays, I see some funky light fall on him. So I grab my crayons and play, too.

Thank you Old Man Winter

The poor guy’s been getting a lot of flack here in the NE coast these days. Thought I’d give him a shout out. We’ve been having a snowy winter and people are complaining. What an ungrateful, whiny bunch! Hey, myself included. I just CANNOT WAIT for the Spring, and more importantly, the Summer! If it […]

Valentine’s Day

A holiday that baffles me, I guess because of its origins and popularity. But it’s for love, and I’m all for that. This is from a project about the marriage of Peleus and Thetis. In Greek mythology, it is one of the many events that got the Trojan War rolling. Aah, the power of love! […]

International Darwin Day

Darwin. What a guy. From a few years back, an editorial piece on the subject of Evolution.

Second Night: Jazz at Lincoln Center

This time around was quite different! The Rose Theatre couldn’t be more different from Dizzy’s.Â A whole other experience. It was great. The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra led by Wynton Marsalis put on such a beautiful show. And all along, projected onto jumbo screens above the orchestra, was a slideshow of some of the most […]