Misc Sketches

On the farm...

Watercolor on Cold Press

Yes, I succumbed to receding back into my comfort zone... black prismacolor lines, and watercolor. 

I'll continue to experiment - I do like gauche.  Just need to figure out how to bend it to my will.  

And in color ...

Experimenting with different painting techniques, not very successfully, I might add.  I'm going to take the advice of friends and give it another try.  Stay tuned.

On the drawing board...kids and cats.

Yes, the end-of-the-year crazies are still going strong in my house.  In fact, I should be at the school's Field Day, as I type.  And I'll go, just as soon as I finish this blog post.  

I'm working on creating "story" samples to post on my site.  Illustrations that look as if they could have come out of a PB.  

Next, step is to add color, which I will do.... just as soon as field day is over... and the award ceremony  for my big girl... and both girls' instrumental recitals... and ....

On the drawing board...

My latest project has been a few black and white illustrations for the chapter book "Pie" by Sarah Weeks. If you haven't read it, you should.  It's a great little book.  

Here's a quick summary of the book (care of Amazon):

When Alice's Aunt Polly passes away, she takes with her the secret to her world-famous pie-crust recipe. Or does she? In her will, Polly leaves the recipe to her extraordinarily surly cat Lardo . . . and then leaves Lardo in the care of Alice.

 Suddenly Alice is thrust into the center of a piestorm, with everyone in town trying to be the next pie-contest winner ... including Alice's mother and some of Alice's friends. The whole community is going pie-crazy . . . and it's up to Alice to discover the ingredients that really matter. Like family. And friendship. And enjoying what you do.

AND there are pie recipes found at the beginning of each chapter.  I love books that have recipes.   Mmmm.   Below is one of the images.  You can find two more over at Smells Like Crayons.

On the drawing board: White on Top, Black on Bottom

This is the second DVD cover I've been working on... it's for our elementary school's Strings and Band DVD. Our musicians have a standard white on top and black on bottom uniform that they wear for all their performances.  Hence the limited color choice in this illustration.  (The thumbnail looks a bit washed out - the large image looks better.)

On the drawing board ...DVD Cover

Yes, the end-of-the-year crazies are here.  Everybody tries to get in one last performance or project before the end-of-the-school-year.  Which, of course, brings an end-of-the-school-year scheduling nightmare for moms and dads everywhere.  If I can survive, the next two weeks, I'll be able to breathe again.  It's all fun, but definitely crazy.

So, what does all this have to do with my "On the Drawing Board" post?  I'm working on a DVD cover for the school music program's DVD; one of the many things on my schedule this week.

This time, I used gauche and watercolor.  The gauche seems to add a bit more pop, than my usual watercolors.  I like it.  I may need to explore this some more.

On the Drawing Board: Best Friends - Books and Beast

On the Drawing Board: Scary Tales