Thursday, December 15, 2011

Merry Christmas

When as you sing of Christmas cheer
    And welcome in the bright new year,
And feast and laugh and dance and play
   And open gifts on Christmas Day,
Pause as you hear the angel's words,
   And don't neglect the little birds.
                                 ~Anonymous

Wishing all of you my dear friends a very happy holiday season, and a wonderful New Year!


Wednesday, December 14, 2011

SCBWI's Tomie De Paola Award contest

The theme this year is the scene from Chicken Licken, when the gang comes upon Turkey Lurkey and tells him of their plan to talk to the king.  As per every year, we're supposed to illustrate it in a way that hasn't been thought of before.

I imagined my Chicken Licken gang coming from Paris: wearing their finest from a night out at the Moulin Rouge, perhaps.

The competition is amazing; my fellow illustrators are top-notch.  For me, setting and meeting my goal of submitting, and taking a chance on myself is something I can be proud of regardless of how my illustration is received.  Good luck everyone!!

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Illustration Friday - Separated

This kitty will see to it that he and his boy are never separated.
This illustration was just a doodle I was doing while watching The Green Lantern last night.  As you can see in my original image below, my paper was slightly used (notice the ghost erasure marks above kitty's head), and I just threw down some color.  I tried to clean it up a bit for IF, and decided to turn it black and white just for fun.  Which do you like better?

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Conqueror

This is an illustration I did for my daughter's 2nd grade teacher.  Her birthday is next week, and I thought I'd make a little card to go along with her gifts.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Illustration Friday - Brigade

Who didn't love sleepovers when they were little?  Sleepovers are a blast.  You get to eat cookies, dance around, play games, and feel "that much closer" to being a big kid!

This bedtime brigade knows how to boogie-woogie!

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my family and friends!  I hope you have a wonderful holiday spent with loved ones, and enjoying your harvest meal! :)

Monday, November 21, 2011

Custodian Joe in color ...

I tightened up the frame a bit, and added some color.  I used Strathmore Cold Press which really shows the texture when painted. Hmmm...



Did Custodian Joe steal the school mascot?

Find out in "The Case of the Missing Mascot."  Can Michael, Sean, and Connor find out who absconded with the school mascot?  All the signs point to Custodian Joe .... but can it be that easy?


Thursday, November 17, 2011

Misc Sketches - Bedtime Stories

Dogs are such great pals.  I can't tell you how often our girls read to our dog, Lucy.  She just sits there like a good dog, listening, and then hands them her paw.   They always end up giggling.



Sunday, November 13, 2011

The Roaring 20s

I looooove the style of the Roaring 20s!  Especially, the Flapper look.  I've always been fascinated by the mystique, as well as the fashion, of that time period, and was just thinking ... hmmm, I bet it would have been fabulous to have lived then, I could have been a flapper... but then I read a little more  ...

"Flapper in the 1920s was a term applied to a "new breed" of young Western women who wore short skirts, bobbedtheir hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. Flappers were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking, treating sex in a casual mannersmoking, drivingautomobiles and otherwise flouting social and sexual norms."

And realized that if I had actually lived during that time, I probably wouldn't have been a flapper.  I'm way too shy, and modest to have lived on the edge of social norms the way they did.   But, I still love their style.

PTA Reflections

Our girls recently participated in the PTA Reflections program.  It's a wonderful national program that celebrates the arts, and in this day and age with so many art/music programs being cancelled, it's all that more important.  (If you're school doesn't participate, think about it ... PTA Reflections )

Kids get a chance to create to a theme... they can draw/paint, do photography, music composition, dance choreography, write, or create a video.  It's so fabulous walking down the halls looking at what these young minds can create!  Truly amazing stuff.  

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Cleatis and Emit

My husband is teaching a graduate class in Thermodynamics.  It's mid-term time and one of the questions he's giving them has to do with two guys and a distillery.   He asked me if I could draw a picture to go with the question, and being the sweet and wonderful wife that I am, of course I said "yes.   I had fun drawing Cleatis and Emit; hope the Thermo students enjoy them too.  :)

Misc Sketch - Run Chicken Run!!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Read Every Day

This is the poster I did for our girls' elementary school librarian.  Got to promote those books!!   Get out there and read, read, read!!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Mark Twain

I'm sitting here on this snowy November day watching the Ken Burns' PBS documentary on Mark Twain.  It's a fascinating story, I highly recommend.

While watching, I was inspired to draw ... the female version of Huck Finn ...

Friday, October 28, 2011

Nevermore

Way back when... when dinosaurs roamed these lands, I was in 7th grade.  And during this time so long ago, I had a fabulously eccentric (think Liberace) English teacher named Mr. Lutz.  He was your standard teacher.  We studied the classics.  Same ole same ole.  That was until we began our unit devoted to Edgar Allan Poe.  It was AWESOME!!   Mr. Lutz came ALIVE!   We read all of Poe's works.  Mr. Lutz would come into class bedecked in cloaks and mystery.  He personified Edgar Allan (or at least what my 7th grade mind imagined someone who wrote such dark tales would look/act like)  soooo well.  To this day, I can't help but to think of him whenever I hear a poem by Poe.

It was during that unit, that he read The Raven to us.  I sat in rapt awe.  I think we all did.  It was so well worded; it was so creepy!!   I think that was one of the moments when I truly realized how much fun "the classics" could be!  They didn't have to be boring, stiff and proper stories.  They could be stories about people buried alive, and walls that ticked, and cats that wouldn't die.

I don't know whatever became of Mr. Lutz, and I probably wouldn't recognize him even if I bumped into him on the street, and most assuredly, he wouldn't remember me; however, that man, that teacher made a huge impact on me.  Thank you Mr. Lutz, wherever you are...


Once upon a midnight dreary, while I  pondered, weak and weary...
... Quoth the raven "Nevermore."

~Edgar Allan Poe


Thursday, October 27, 2011

Misc Sketch - Bubble Bath


I've been on a brief hiatus.  Now it's time to get back in the groove of things.    Splish Splash!

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Friday, September 9, 2011

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Illustration Friday - Stay

I did it!  I did it!!  I managed to find time for an Illustration Friday! I'm a little rusty.  This summer has been filled with vacation, and day trips.  It's been great... but not for my work.  :)

Sunday, July 3, 2011

What I'm working on

Sorry, I've been MIA for a bit.  Summer vacations, and kiddos have taken over my time.  However, I was able to carve out a small bit of time for myself .... these are really rough sketches for my Sketchbook project/ picture book dummy I'm working on about Big and Little Sisters.  Hopefully, you can see the images well enough.  Still have to craft some words, the story has been coming to me in images.


Wednesday, June 8, 2011

The Sketchables - Guest Blogger .... ME!!

If you've yet to discover The Sketchables blog, you really need to pop over there, and not just because I'm a guest blogger today, but because it really is a fantastic blog!!  You'll find sketches from some fantastic children's illustrators and you'll probably sit in awe of their ability just like I do... so don't dillie-dally, git... to THE SKETCHABLES!!

Scholastic's "Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life" Finalist!!

Yay!!  I'm a finalist in Scholastic's "Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life" poster contest!   Now it's up to all of you to help me win!  Please vote for me.   You don't need to register or do anything fancy,  vote for my poster, submit and you're done.  Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy.

Please tell all your friends, and vote often!  :)



Friday, May 27, 2011

Misc Sketches - Fine Feathered Friends

Just a completely random drawing ...

Horse crazy

Now, our older daughter is a cinch to come up with an image for ... she's horse crazy.  This initial drawing went over quite well with her.  Now I just need to find time to paint it.