Tamsin Ainslie

Tamsin Ainslie, Illustrator and designer, Ainslie Beard Creative, Australia. Blog "My studio space, which is looking really quite organised at the moment, due to the fact that I have just finished one brief and starting another. Usually it is a little chaotic and when I can't see my desk, or the floor, or find anything, I tidy up and start again." I always stick my work up on the wall around me. I love being surrounded by paintings, drawings, magazine clippings, old boxes and other things that inspire me."  "The bookcase and my painting trolley with all my oils and acrylics on so I can wheel it outside when I do larger paintings."  "Front deck where I have my easel - with Cusi, our dog, asleep in the sun."  "On my desk at the moment is..."  "My daughter, Olympia and her guinea pig, Cocoa Truffle Bean, in the studio. Olympia also sits at my desk sometimes and draws or paints and the guinea pig runs around the desk sometimes..."-TA 

Lauren Braun

Lauren Braun, Illustrator Buffalo NY website blog "I posted a bunch of photos from my very narrow art studio in my house. As you walk up the stairs, your turn a corner and come to a T-shape." " I keep all my art supplies on a shelf in the linen closet to the left!" "Then, you see my work table and computer on one side and bookshelves opposite." "I love my art books and I keep a clipping file of magazine images." "This last picture is outside in the garden, it's my favorite place to sit, think, work in my sketchbook or read." - LB

JoJo Yeung

Jojo Yeung, Artist/Student Oklahoma, U.S.A. http://bubu.gsg-asia.com/ http://jojoyeung.typepad.com/ First of all, I wanna thank Linzie for inviting me to participate as I am not a professional artist, and I know there are many awesome people here, so it is my honor to share my little world with you guys. I am still a student, and I live in the campus right now. That is, I have two rooms---the room of my sweet home and the dorm room. I would love to show you guys some of my favorite corners of my two spaces. Welcome! The room of my sweet home; click to enlarge. My paper dolls and my bird clock. My dear laptop and the mousepad with my drawing. My greatest drawing tool is my mouse : > No matter where I am, my world is always colorful. : )

Colin Johnson

Colin Johnson, Freelance Illustrator/Gallery Artist, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA www.colinjohnsonillustration.com Flickr General chaos on my desk. Guess it's time to do some cleaning and go buy some more acrylic paint! Here's a pic of my cutting board filled w/ little cut out collage pieces that will eventually find their way into my crazy "hyper-collages." Trying to work on many projects at one time equals disorder! Shot from the top of a cup on my desk filled w/ pen, pencils, brushes. Desk overview!

Kim Carney

Kim Carney / Graphic Designer, Illustrator, Photographer, (wanna-be assemblage artist and quilter) Edmonds, WA Website Blog Photography My studio is somewhere I go and get completely lost in time, a place to dream and play. And although I do not get to spend as much time I would like to there, I am so thankful when I do and that I have such a space. It wasn’t long ago that I dreamed of having such a retreat, a place to hide from the world. Thank you for visiting! Over the years, I have also taken over another room for a sewing space and we have added several Macs in the family room so whoever is working on projects doesn't feel so isolated. A place for me to blog in the sun, where my son checks his myspace and learns Photoshop, where my mom can check her email and listen to BBC radio programs, where we all try and learn flash. Computers are such an intricate part of all our lives it is good to have a universal space for all us to work, together. I am longing for a G5! I am a graphic designer, illustrator and work for a online news organization. My husband is a newspaper illustrator, graphic designer. He was really the collector of fun objects, wind-up toys, rubber stamps, baseballs, books and he has infected me. So as much as a studio space, it is also where some of our fun collections live. Go there for inspiration, pick a book from our library of reference, atlas, art books. One can never have enough books! I have always been interested in quilting, assemblage art, print and painting canvas, painting furniture, really just painting anything would take acrylic. I have also become fascinated with photography and try to shoot something at least once a day. In short, I love to do it all, jack-of-all-trades, master of none. But that doesn’t stop me in trying out new processes, new ways to marry different media together. When I seriously took up assemblages the last year, my husband built me a new workspace in the garage and organized with all my favorite tools. Keeping organized in a studio owned by two junk collectors is the key. When I found a small 9-drawer wooden organizer at Target one year, I bought one, and my husband sent me back to buy more. Small drawers perfect for business cards, staples, glitter, rivets – all things small. We found 3-drawer side table at IKEA and bought 6 of them, perfect for storing papers, envelopes, carving material, paints, my collection of antique military printing set, rubber stamps, vintage photos. I also have a collection of fun reproduction lunch boxes that I use for storage. Old and beautiful, new and unusual bowls become holders of secret, found objects. I found an enormous table in the “damaged-merchandise room” at IKEA and that has been the best purchase of all. We also keep flat files, file cabinets and such in the “furnace room” just off of the studio. I do not throw one piece of paper or ribbon away, that room has become the deposit area for most of that. (would never let anyone SEE that mess). I found a tall antique full of drawers perfect for special papers, tags I save and emphera. I love those little photo alligator clip holders, I use those for inspirational bits and pieces for different seasons. A small wall space is changed out throughout the year for my personal inspiration. Art that friends have sent me, bird feathers, dried leaves, Christmas tags, photos. I love that I can change it out with my mood. More wall of inspiration set on flickr.

Anndrea Boe

Anndrea Boe, Co-owner / Art Director and Artist Clodhopper Design Company, Lincoln, Nebraska www.anndreaboe.com "Here's some photos of our little creative dungeon. My husband and I work together at home as designers/artists. It gets very crowded sometimes, and I think we both look forward to eventually getting more space to spread out... possibly our very own offices! But for now, this is where we hang our happily hang our hats. We also have a small and crowded but working screenprinting shop in the garage." "This is a side view of our desks. This arrangement is great for throwing things across the table and making faces at each other. I am on the left side; my husband is on the other side. His signed Art Chantry poster helps for good inspiration and humor when needed... he also has some of his own screenprinted posters framed as well to help bring some color to an otherwise dark and boring beige basement." "This is the back of Allen's desk – the printer, guitar, paper samples, portfolio cases, some vintage artillery cases that now act as CD organizers (didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea)... and our only source of natural light is that small basement window." "Here's my desk and our dog, Ranger. There always seems to be stacks and stacks of papers and reference books all over our office... they appear out of the blue, I don't know who puts them there or where they come from." "Here is the view from my desk to my husband's desk. Wacom tablet,drink, little photos of my baby girl for inspiration. This desk is great. We bought it from a friend, and it is huge (I think about 36" deep)! It has enough work space for my monitor, keyboard AND sketchbook at the same time!" "If I turn around in my chair, this is the view. Lots of books. There's another shelf of books in the office too, but it pretty much just looks like shelves full of books, so I didn't include that photo. The file cabinets are packed full, and as you can see, we should probably invest in yet another set of shelves. This serves as our library of reference materials. My gym bag is also right there tormenting me daily!" "That's basically where we earn our bread and butter. It's nice to see other people are working out of somewhat cramped quarters too. I wish all of you previous and future posters bountiful creativity!" -AB

Sandra Monat

Sandra Monat, mixed media artist, Koeln, Germany my website second website First of all, thank you Linzie for the invitation! Hi all, I want to give you a glimspe into my studio. It's part of my living space. Living and working under the same rooftop is perfect for me. Two years ago I gave up my studio outside and decided to work again "at home". I love to start whenever I get the urge even in the middle of the night. And my cats love their "Mommy" being at home the whole day ;-). Whenever the weather allows I work outside After years of only painting I felt the need to try something new and to work three dimensional. One year ago, I was given a sewing machine and I fell in love with textile arts. The birds were some of the first textile creations. Many other creatures followed. You also can see my foundlingsheep Friederike! on the picture below. I found out that the brains of sheeps and humans complement one another to perfection :-) My newest designs are spiritual dolls. I created these dream guardians (they are for people like me, suffering from insomnia). Dream guardians take care of your sleep and dreams. They really work! :-) Manas are the female counterparts, white, wise woman who keep ancient knowledge. Thanks for reading! Cheers, Sandra

Andi Butler

Andi Butler, Illustrator/Textile Designer Cary, Illinois Website Blog Welcome to my little creative part of the planet! This is actually supposed to be our living room, I call it my studio, my older son always corrects me and calls it the playroom...You can an old drafting table from way back when my husband used to work for Kmart Headquarters in MI. It has the light mechanism inside...Can you even find these today? Forgot to remove the playdoh case...We're a bit bare as we're trying to pack things to get ready to put the house up for sale... The other side of the room, you can see who gets more of it! My desk, littered with coffeeness...That's a Tim Horton's mug which my 'rents brought during a visit...They used to only have them in Canada (we were close to the border) but they have them in MI now...My husband wants me to upgrade my Mac, but I love my little toddler iMac with the cuddley round base...The apple looks like a nose and the disc drive looks like a smile! But I know the new ones are wicked fast...I will have to break down eventually *sniff* Various toys and whatnot...my pencil mug is from Serendipity in NY...They really do make frozen hot chocolate! The mini living dead doll is the newest doodad! The bowl is filled with chocolate chips...I used to eat trail mix while working, but I found that I picked out the chocolate anyway.... One of my best friends sent me this Shag tiki! He keeps me in line with my deadlines! And pix of my 'rents from the sixties... My buy and dump reference filing technique.... this is where all my books used to be...Hope you enjoyed the tour, thanks for taking a peek! a : )

Danny Mansmith

Danny Mansmith, Artist Chicago, IL http://www.scrap-dannymansmith.squarespace.com/ "I was so happy to open my workspace/studio almost two years ago since i usually found myself working fromthe kitchen table,dinning room floor,or any space I could squeeze into." "The studio is a place where I work and show the things I make in an environment that has continued to grow I guess the whole space in a work in progress." "People's workspaces should have things around that keep them inspired to work and push them to try new things and to be excited about the possibilities." - DM

Tim Harries

Tim Harries, Cartoonist Newport, South Wales, UK My Web My Blog Hello lovely people! I work out of the second bedroom in our house. It's not very big, but I still manage to fill every corner with stuff. Here's my computer desk, only slightly cluttered. The top shelves are filled various cartoon collections and drawing pads. To the top right you can see my Buddy Bradley doll about to leap to certain death while the Clone Wars figures above the monitor look on aghast. Yes, I have one keyboard sitting on top of another keyboard. No, I don't know why. Here's where I draw - the homemade lightbox doubles up as a heat source in winter. I put the mirror behind the lightbox to pull daft faces (for reference you understand) and ended up just sticking interesting art to it instead. On the walls are postcards from cartoonists all over the world who took part in a huge cartoon swap a few years ago. You can also see a few Gorillaz figures and a Yamaha keyboard that really shouldn't be there. Ah, my box of pens. Love them brush pens! I tend to ink all my work on the lightbox and then scan/colour everything on the computer. There's a DSLite there to distract me from work and a half eaten packet of Kettle Crisps. Yum! Behind me lives the printer graveyard. This desk is meant to be kept clean. This lasts for about three days until the Mess Fairies sneak in at night and dump everything on it. Cheeky scamps. Another tidy corner of the room. I really need to clean this area up - I've got a fantastic bit of original Hunt Emerson art in there somewhere I want to get framed. Can I find it? Can I 'eck! There's a pile of cd's on the top shelf, since I've chucked everything onto Itunes they don't really get looked at. Wanna buy a Beach Boys boxset?. Here's a Jamie Hewlett signed print above the desk. Looking down at me, laughing .... Hope I didn't bore you. Bye! Tim

August Bulletin #2

It's been a busy time with over 30,000 visitors since June 1st, so thanks to all you workspace exhibitionists and voyeurs alike. Extra thanks go to the many contributors and bloggers who have added a link to their site. Elsewhere on the internet, the lovely people at Juxtapoz Magazine, Drawn! and Apartment Therapy have all taken the time to write a little bit about OnMyDesk.com and Heavy-Backpack, AIGA , Pixelsurgeon , french'n'fresh among many others who were nice enough to post this site to their news section. And speaking of news, this blog is one of How Design's Top Ten Sites to see for August. So if you're an all-round lovely creative type (or just a run of the mill illustrator/designer/artist/evil genius) and you'd like to share the stuff on your desk or request a blogger invite, just drop me a quick hello by email. It's nice to share. Cheers for now, Linzie www.onmydesk.com / www.linziehunter.com

Jason Bronkhorst

Jason Bronkhorst, illustrator, designer, wannabe painter/sculptor/rally driver Johannesburg, South Africa www.comix.co.za My blog Hello all, here are some photos of the interior of my world headquarters. Myself and the Lovely Miss P recently moved into our modest 2 bedroom pad, the smaller of the two rooms is now my studio slash office where I cunningly plan cunning plans and doodle and design and so on. I had quite a job cramming all my stuff into it, as the old place had a lot of room for huge boards, clay, paint, tables, silkscreens, large pads of paper, etc. Anyway, here's the first pic, taken from the door: My trusty Powerbook G4: she's a beauty, isn't she? Recent drawings on the wall, an empty coffee cup, my Stone Age iPod, cheapo scanner I've had forever, and the frustratingly low-end HP printer. To the left of my laptop is the incredible Wacom tablet - it's changed the way I do alot of things. Further on are some canvasses I'll hopefully be painting soon (we have carpets throughout, so painting's gonna be very tricky) and an unfinished picture. A closer look at some of the stuff lying about (yes, I felt compelled to clean up a little, my fiance thanks you for that). Pens, brushes, scissors, a handful of my books: I have a ton in boxes. My sister works at a bookshop, so I get a slight discount! A few of my sketchbooks, some bills, a ball of Prestik on the printer, to the right is a cool waterbrush I use for most of the colours in my drawings. Hardly ever use pencils and can't remember where those bottles of correction fluid come from... This badass dude hangs out on my budget speaker, and that's a split window VW Kombi parked over there. On the right of the desk: a huge painting I did a while ago, he keeps tabs on my hours and makes sure I meet deadlines. Few more books on what was once my bedside table. To the left is my old watercolour set, coffee bottle with water to wash ink off brushes. Behind me is a built-in cupboard filled to overflowing with boxes of junk, paper, clothes, luggage, helmets and fold-up tables. Here's a view of the grotty shelves with all kinds of stuff in there - discs, paint, brushes, screen cleaner, torch, paper, tools. All the way to the left of the desk is a window - every person needs a window like this, birds hang out in the trees all day, the sunshine reminds you that you should be outside, and it's handy when you need to tell if it's night time yet. On the sill are some more cars. Each one is from a different place in the world. The wicker chair is unusually empty. It's normally piled with laundry, magazines, paper and my fiance. That's all for now, hope you enjoyed the tour. Refreshments will be served in the kitchen, and mind the step when you leave! Cheers....

Andy J. Smith

Andy J. Smith, Illustrator, Rochester NY, http://www.SmittyCartoons.com "My girlfriend and I looked for a an apartment that was A: cheap enough for us to afford but also: had enough space to accomodate my studio needs. We settled on a large two bedroom, which seemed to have ample space. Well, enough is never enough apparently, as my art desk and supplies have now flowed out of the 2nd bedroom studio and into the living room. We'll only be living in the Rochester area another 3 - 6 months, so the whole studio reorganization will start over again soon -- likely in southern Maine next time!" "Here is the 'living room overflow' where many ideas are generated while simultaneously watching cartoons (a bad habit that's tough to crack!)" "Here, in the studio (2nd bedroom, WHATEVER) is my computer area. Aside from the computer itself, the workspace has a scanner, printer (just off the left side of the photo), speakers, a mounting pile of bills. Just this summer I replaced my G4 from 2000. It still ran OK, but it just wasn't fast enough for some of the larger Flash and Photoshop files I fool with. I wanted to go for a G5 tower but was hesitant about the new Pentium stuff until a 2nd generation version and new software came out, so I found a 'new' 2005 G5 imac (pictured). So far it has been great! really cruises along. Also pictured are my many desktop denizens who help protect it." "Just around the bend from there in my studio is my little library of reference and inspiration. There's a section for animation, illustration, art history, art education, and a growing passion .... children's books! I also teach illustration at RIT so these books are invaluable sources of information. I buy a new book almost every week (Thanks to my 20% off Barnes and Noble Educator's Card!)" -AJS

J. Michael Stovall

J. Michael Stovall, illustrator / animator Houston, TX US website: www.stovepipe.net blog: stovepipedotnet.blogspot.com "This is my work area, and I really had to restrain myself from cleaning it up (I liked how so many other people didn't). I share a warehouse space with a writer and a graphic designer, so you can see their spaces next to mine. The space is around 1200 square feet with a kitchen and such, but this is my area. I use this desk for all the manual related activities. The vast majority of my work these days is drawn and inked by hand and then scanned and colored in the computer. I do a little watercolor at the desk, but I've virtually stopped painting in acrylics and anything larger than I can scan." "And of course lots of toys, books and other brickabrack. I had to get the new Darwyn Cooke figures from The New Frontier." "Various collectible vinyl from Baseman, Biskup and Gorillaz . I do work a little at home at night if I need to, we have a studio room there too because my wife is a graphic designer." "Most of the figures from Kevin Smith movies, I just really like the character designs. I have tons of Batman Animated stuff, but not enough room to show it. This area also has a few vintage things I've picked up here and there." "And this is my computer setup. I'm addicted to two monitors now, I can barely function at home on my wife's one screen (I'll have to rectify that sometime)." "This is an overall shot of my work area. I just roll back and forth between desks. To the left you can just barely see a color laser printer we share." "This is the outside of our warehouse, the arrow indicates our front door. The big arch with bottle glass is the studio." "These are just shots of our general interior space, we moved in here a few months ago and still haven't finished painting (notice where the floor is not blue yet)." "This is looking towards the back. You can see our sound booth in the center for doing the voiceover work for the animation." "And here is the inside looking towards the bottle glass windows. This place has great light with that big front window and two skylights,and never any direct sun shining in." -JMS

Maxwell Loren Holyoke-Hirsch

Maxwell Loren Holyoke-Hirsch, illustrator San diego,California website: www.lorenholyoke.com blog:lorenholyoke.blogspot.com/ Most of my time is spent at this desk researching, checking mail and plotting my plans to take over the world. The main desk area consists of a scanner, printer, records, books, art and a toy helicopter that flies around in my sleep. Here is where the cutting, pasting, painting and overall analog approaches take place. A very warm, brightly lit corner of the space conveniently arranged in front of the southern most window. The main wall area is meant to display and arrange works for upcoming gallery shows and whatnot. Books are arranged in the following order: fine art (painters/old masters), performance art, photography, literature/novels and poetry. Below is a section for various magazines and specific reference materials. Nooks and crannies, comics, a mixer, portable record player and some envelopes. somedays I work outside in the old iron chairs. <3

Caio Nery Filho

Caio Nery Filho, Graphic Designer Sao Paulo - Brazil Blog "That's my desk...in the back you can see a piece of the studiowriter, he is dumb as a door, and he is drunk all day, you can see by the bottle of Rum next to his mouse." "I work on a iMac G5. In the picture you can see my cell phone (sucks), my scanner (sucks), my Power Mate, rubik's cubes and, of course, my iPod... full of "therapy"... so I can survive another day without shooting any client, or myself." "Power Mate... this thing rocks. On the desktop it works as a volume button, on Photoshop it zooms in and out, on Final Cut it travels thought the timeline and trims segments... and it does a lot more stuff... but is boring if I just tell you.. you gotta see for yourself..." "That's my other therapy...Rubik's cubes. They have saved my job and other people lives a few times." "Those are my babies... without them this whole desk would not worth a penny. Faber Castell, Lyra, Staedtler and Progresso pencils, Pentel 0.9, Stabillo pens, Molin pens and the best of all - My Rotring .40 Nankin pen. I like this pen so much that I gave life to its tip." "Thats about it. I hope I didn't sound so boring as I imagine." -CNF

Morandini

Morandini, designer + Illustrator Sao Paulo - Brazil www.morandini.com.br In September 2005, I had a invasion in my studio. A big cow was there for a week or so in order to be decorated for Sao Paulo Cow Parade. It couldn't pass through the door, so I decided to paint it outdoors from the studio I designed and painted this tamboret, a compact organizer designed exclusively for the studio. Features three pivoting utensil drawers and four hooded casters (2 non-locking and 2 locking) to assure stability and smooth mobility. I call it the 'apple polisher' because it is always near me. My studio is about 2 blocks from my home. It is a calm place - an old industrial village. I do most of my drawing at my drawing table. Sketchbooks. They are always on the drawing table.

Charlene Chua

Charlene Chua, Illustrator/Designer, Singapore, Website: www.charlenechua.com Sketch blog: sygnin.blogspot.com I live with my husband and 2 cats in a 2 bedroom apartment. It may sound like a lot but it's actually a pretty small space. I do most of my drawing at my drawing table in the hall. I have another table in the foreground with my Light-tracer lightbox. Most of my sketches are pretty small, so I tend to litter the tables with them. I stick reference material on the wall for easy viewing - usally these are pics from the net that I print out on my laser printer. You'd think the light coming in would be great for drawing, but it's very hot to sit by the window during the day in the tropics! So I mostly draw at night. Behind the main table is the comic book shelf, with some toys and paintings. My chair has an old pillow on it for back support - I want an ergonomic chair but can't afford one. My other setup is in the smaller bedroom. Half of the room is taken up by my computer, scanner and printers. On the chair is my lucky shirt - I use it when the air conditioning gets too cold. The other half of the small bedroom has a computer table which I use as a big palette when I paint. Oddly I hate computer tables for computers themselves. Various files, brushes and rags here. The painting on the easel was completed a couple of days ago. CDs in the hall. I like having my music near me when I work. The table behind is the dining table, which is normally cluttered with all kinds of junk. And this is my cat, who is fat and sweet though she mostly looks cranky and acts like a princess. I make fun of her constantly, and she keeps me company when I work.

Mark Anderson

Mark Anderson, Cartoonist Schaumburg, IL My cartoons My rants I've just gotten a real workspace in the past year or so after we moved into a bigger house. Before that I earned a living from my coffee table in the living room. Enjoy the tour... Here's my desk. I can't tell you how much I enjoy not hunching over that coffee table any more! I like to have the TV on while I work, although I'm not really watching it. I suppose a radio would've sufficed. A look in my drawers (well, one of them anyway...) My office is kinda tiny, so I put up a lot of Elfa shelving to make the most of it. That's my old trombone. I was a music major in college and, like most people here, made my living as a trombonist for years. My box o' ideas. Whenever I write a new gag it goes here. There's more in there than it looks. My other desk. I keep things relatively clean. And, like the character in "The 40-Year Old Virgin," I have a Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie" poster hanging up. My Adventure Hero Spiderman action figures. My wife still doesn't understand why I have these. More Elfa for all my books. My collection is constantly growing thanks to Ebay. Hope you dug it!

Kelly Murphy

Kelly Murphy, Illustrator North Attleboro, MA www.kelmurphy.com blog: didyoudrinkmybeer.blogspot.com "Being a full time illustrator means sacrafice, mixed with a lot of late nights. So when looking for a place to live, I needed to not feel too cramped even though it was my only option. I think I found the perfect space. I knew my crazy hours and borderline obnoxios music choices would force me to live alone. This view is from my bed, otherwise known as the "nest". My whole living area is actually the top half of a renovated New England barn. (Watching Supernanny)" (reverse view) "I totally hocked this desk from school. They were going to throw out these old dinosaurs, and I had become way too used to working on it. It nearly busted my shins moving it up, but it was free! Lots and lots of children's books and what others refer to as useless knicknacks scatter this corner." "The desktop is sort of inactive in this scene, seeing as though I just passed in my seventh picture book today. But, my brushes are held in a mailing tube my mother gave back in junior high. You can even see "Peanut Man" on the tube, a artistic rendering done by a bored brother one day. I don't know if I am cheap or overly nostalgic, but I can't throw away my grossly cracked circus water bucket." "Another corner of the place houses my computer. It's nothing out-of-control crazy, and in fact... I am still on dial up. But it gets the job done. I'm mostly paint, and only use the computer for sketches, dummies, and communication with friends when losing it from hours of painting. The pigmonkey chihuahua, Lily, needs to be sitting next to/on me all the time. It's a real treat on 90 degree days." "Speaking of 90 degree days... I bought this last summer. The barn easily hits 100 in the summer. This was worth every dime. EVERY dime. There are only skylights and a giant sliding door where the hay door used to be, so I needed to invest in the self contained AC unit. This little guy is my bestest friend." "A wonderfully frigid picture from this winter. That's the place, second floor." "And I'll leave you with the view you get coming in and heading out of the studio, a squealing bristlepig of a chuhuahua." -KM