Yep, that time again

Postcard mailing time. I finished my postcard for this quarter. It always feels like an achievement. Hopefully, it will bring good luck with this New Year!!

Get well soon Carol!

My dear friend's mom is in the hospital right now. This is the Get Well Soon card I made for her. I hope it cheers her up a little.

We're routing for you Carol! Get well soon!!

Merry Christmas

I finished it!!

Now, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!! :)

May all your wishes come true!

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!

(I'll try to get the color one up today, but no promises!)

Winter in Color

Wow! I actually got all the painting done in one day! So, here they are ...

Winter

I haven't had a chance to paint them yet, but these are the B&W's of the little series I did for winter. I'll try to get the painting done in the next few days.

Patterns experiment

OK, after Jim's advice, I deleted the patterned floor and added my own. I think it looks better. I also added some shadows on the floor that I forgot to add in before.

I'm illustrating a story for January's Stories for Children mag about a dog who steals Casey's bed.

I was playing with backgrounds. What do you think? I'm not sure that I like it. I don't know if I'm just not used to it, or if it really does look off. I'm also including the scan without the backgrounds. Should I just paint a light wash background instead?

Any advice is welcome!!

Coloring Sheet

I was recruited by my youngest daughter's Kindergarten teacher to do a coloring sheet for the kids. So, not wanting to leave out my eldest daughter, I did one with numbers, and one without.

I never did a color by number before, but I think it turned out ... not half bad. :) Feel free to print out to share with your kids!

Now ... must enjoy the snow day we have!!

Warm Fuzzies

I'm really happy with the way the rebus I illustrated for the Dec issue of SFC turned out. It was entitled "Warm Fuzzies" by G.R. LeBlanc. I even received a thank you email from the author. Cool!!

The Mixed-Up Platypus - Stories for Children

Here's a quick little illo for an article on Platypi (?), well you know what I mean. I'm working on another illo for the January issue too, but this one was pretty quick and straight forward.

Misc. characters

Stories for Children - Rain Dance

Holiday Program

This is the program that I made for my daughter's kindergarten holiday program. It's kind of hard to keep it neutral and still in the spirit of the holidays, but I'm pretty happy with how this turned out.

Illustration Friday - Unbalanced

Crossing the creek by way of stepping stones, was not as easy as Victoria thought it would be. Only one of them on this adventure didn't seem to have any trouble: Whiskers. Cats were just nimble that way. Claude on the other hand, didn't even make it to the first rock without sliding in. Well, "sliding" wasn't exactly the word to describe what he did, more like "galumpfed" in. Thank goodness Nevin wasn't around to see this. As far as big brothers go, Nevin was the worse. He always complained about how clumsy and klutzy Victoria was. It was a relief he wasn't here to see this spectacle.

What do you guys think? Sometimes my work feels flat. Do my pieces convey action, movement, expression or do they feel flat to you too? Honestly, the truth may be painful sometimes, but that's how we grow. Thanks!

Breakfast snack

Finally, found the time to scan in a bunch of illos I've recently done (I think I've posted eight!!). Whew! I hope you like them. They're just little spots. After working on elaborate stories, and focusing on keeping things moving and active in my illos, I enjoy creating more quiet and reserved spots. It's relaxing. Ahhh. Now I think I'm going to carry on relaxing, and get my morning cup of tea. Mmmm.

Have a creative day! :)

2nd grade love

Scent-sational reading

Black Mamba

Primping

Otter Artist

Pelican Portrait

The Skydiving Grannie and her dog Chuck

Grannie McGill always loved adventure. All her life. Even when she was a young girl, no one: not boy, not man, nor beast could out do my Grannie McGill. If Billy Barkley could climb the old hickory tree, Grannie could climb higher. If Susie Detritis could build a sandcastle, Grannie could build a palatial estate equipped with sand servants and sand stable. My Grannie McGill is the most incredible, and most invincible person I've ever known. So, I took it real hard when Grannie got sick back during that skorcher of a summer when I was eight and she was eight-eight.

Mother called it the "sickness." Grannie just called it like it was ... she had cancer; now stop fussing. At eight years old, I didn't know much about cancer, except that a bunch of my friends' grandparents died from it. But they didn't have a grandparent like Grannie McGill. Grannie decided to prove to all of us, and probably to herself too, that no cancer was going to put a damper on her life. She had a lot of life left in her, even at eighty-eight, and she wasn't going to squander it feeling sorry for herself.

Grannie gathered all of us together and told us we were to meet her at Abercrombie's field at 1:00 pm and told us to bring the reporters. It was all very mysterious.

At 1:00 pm, there we all stood. Just about the whole town of Odon was there in the field. We stood there looking at each other wondering what she was up to now, when we heard the rumble of an airplane above and then saw two black specks in the sky. What in tarnation was going on ...

Well, you get the point. The headlines the next day read "The Skydiving Grannie and her dog Chuck."

NOTE: I never had a Grannie McGill. I just thought she would be a cool character, and made her up.

Stories for Children - Warm Fuzzies Rebus

December's issue of Stories for Children is a fun one for me. I got to illustrate a Rebus. A Rebus for those of you unfamiliar, is a story that uses pictures in the place of key words.

I really enjoyed this piece by G.R. LeBlanc about a little girl getting dressed for a snowy day, and remembering to give her mom a hug before she goes out to play.

Watercolor Wednesday - Creature

Carlie really wasn't afraid of anything. She was even known to give a pointer or two to Bart, the creature that lived in her closet, on how to be fierce and frightening. Of course, these pointers always left Bart feeling inadequate and depressed. Carlie had that effect on a lot of people...

Watercolor Wednesday - Character

Again, with the WaWe! :)

Yes, I know, I know ... where's the watercolor already?!? No time yet. And honestly, probably none over the weekend either. (Halloween weekend ... no way!!) So, if I can't get to the painting in the next two days, it won't happen until next week. I will try to get it done though ... autumn days, class party and this little Octopus and her sea star sidekick. (And Vanessa, if you're reading this ... this is my youngest daughter's costume for this year ... her sister is a chinese dragon ... I tell you ... rivers, cherry trees, octopi, dragons .... thank goodness their Granny has the patience of a saint!) :)

Have a great Halloween everyone!!

Watercolor Wednesday - Class Party

This is an illo for WaWe, except that I haven't gotten to the watercolor part yet. I just have been crazy busy lately, and haven't had the time to sit and paint. (I will try to paint soon though!) I have been trying to keep up though with WaWe's prompts... so here is my Class Party! I have two that I have to go to this year! (I think I'm going to hand this illo out as a coloring sheet for the kiddies!).

Have a great Halloween Weekend everyone!! BOOOOOOOO!!!!

Stories for Children - Stick Friend

This illo (November Issue of SFC) is for a really cute story about a little girl who teaches how to be a good friend with the help of Henry her stick.

Halloween

This is a little drawing I've done for my daughter's 2nd grade class party reminders. It's always fun to dress up the little reminders that go home to parents.

Watercolor Wednesday - Young Frankie

Fire BADDDDD!!!!

Even as a young lad, Frankie hated fire. His classmates hated him --- the daily in school showers were enough to drive anyone crazy. The ones who weren't driven crazy by the incessant fire drills, were driven to madness by his constant admonitions "Stop, drop and roll!," "Only YOU can prevent forest fires," and of course, the ubiquitous "never play with matches."