Hi ya!

I did this picture a while back with pencils and colored pencils on a thicker paper. It kind of was an experimental piece, because I'd never used that sort of thick paper before. It turned out better than I expected though. Basically it wasn't any different than what I do on regular white printing paper.

Family Birthdays

I have 2 family birthdays coming up that both fall on the same day. No, it wasn't a coincidence either. :) My dad was born at the end of September, so my brother and his wife had a planned c-section on his birthday with their daughter, my neice. Therefore, they both have the same birthday. For it, I thought to post some pics of birthday drawings I have, but I don't think I have any scanned so far. I'll have to scan some and put them on here.

Quote of the week

"Tis the good reader that makes the good book." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Get a Grip...

I actually stole this idea and transformed it abit, so it's really not my own and therefore it must stay in my own private collection. :) (In case you don't recognize it, the face is from the back of the Gripz candy boxes, hence the title.) Still, I thought I'd post it just to show how much better I'm getting at my artwork, even if I did copy it. I did paint it myself, so it is my own work. I just changed it from a person eating snacks to one who's screaming because they're about to get a shot. It reminds me of going back to school and getting a checkup. :)

Bear attack

I originally posted my sketch of this pic, but then I did a larger picture on paper because I thought it was so cute. I changed a few of the details, like the trees in the background, but I think that's about it. Oh, and it's only done in colored pencils, too, just like my sketch.

Red nosed...mole?

I guess this is a sketch of a mole? I don't really know what this animal is, but I think he's adorable. :) If you notice, the butterfly seems to think his nose is one of the cherries that are in the background. I'm hoping to do a bigger piece of this, like my bear picture, but I haven't done so yet. I'll try to let you know if I do and post the outcome. :)

Still life

I love this picture. It's sort of a copy of a still life I saw on the front of my notebook. The picture didn't have any color and it was alot different then my picture, but I think I'll keep this in my own collection because I love it! I've not really ever done too many still lifes before. This wasn't a still life either, since it was based on someone elses' art, but I guess it would be considered a still life anyway. :) I used acrylic paint to make it. I used bright colors because they seem to make my art just jump off the page. I've been trying to use more bright colors to do that, but sometimes it's hard to only use bright colors. :)

The magic dragon

This picture reminds me the cartoon Dragon Tales. It just feels so magical! I feel like I can step into this picture and there would be a road waiting for us to walk down! I like dragons myself, although I highly doubt I would ever want to meet a real one. :) I think this would make a really cute picture book, too. I just need to think of a story to go with it......

Quote of the week

"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." ~Francis Bacon

A picture frame?

I made this about a month or so ago and absolutely love it! It's not great and I'm not sure if it's a picture frame or what, but it's so unique. I can't believe I made it! :) In case you can't tell, it's supposed to be a frog, even though he's blue, and he has a crown on.

Eye see you....

I've been working on drawing eyes. Realistic eyes that is. I did the bottom one at work one day while I was having a dull moment. (That's why it's on a sticky note.) The other two I did later. The one on the left is done in colored pencil. I was trying to see if I could do colored eyes, but I think I like the pencil drawing better.

Autumn

Fall is my absolute favorite time of the year, and since the first day of Autumn is coming (Sept. 22/23) I thought I would post the one picture that I have scanned that reminds me of Autumn. This is of a girl who misses summer and her time to relax, hence the words 'relax' in the pic. I colored this one with colored pencils only, no markers. This is the one that showed me it wasn't so bad to use colored pencils only. I could actually get brighter colors without the streaks and dry outs that markers have.

My "Other" blog

Okay, I've decided to start another blog. This one incorporates children into my love of art and children's illustrating. I have one neice and two nephews (so far) and no children of my own yet, so they will most likely be the children featured in my blog. Over the weekend, me and my neice did our first, real art project together, which you may view here. It's not the best work we could have done, but it's a start, anyway. :)
Hopefully I'll be able to post something there maybe once or twice a week, but don't hold your breath. My neice and nephews all seem to have short attention spans when it comes to sitting down, so if we start a project, it may take awhile to finish it if it ever even gets finished! :)
I hope this will inspire some other artists to incorporate children into their hobbies or work and show them why you do what you do and how much you love it. Who knows. You may help create the next Mary Engelbreit or Bob Ross. :) (My favorite artists.)

SCBWI

All right, here's another SCBWI newsletter with my work in it. I've only got one pic in this one, but it's one of my favorites. :) I love halloween, so one of my pics for the fall issue was a cemetary with ghosts and a haunted house. It's at the end of the issue, so you'll have to scroll down to find it. Here's the link for you to enjoy it. :)

http://www.scbwi-midsouth.org/FALL2007borderlines.pdf

Quote of the week

Okay, I've decided to try and start doing a quote of the week. This may be the last time you ever see this, but hopefully I can start doing this just to incorporate some quotes onto my page. :)

Here's my header for the occassion. If I continue with this idea, then the header and the quote will be the only thing in the post. Also, the I will try to have a book quote here, which may either be from a book or about books or something, but it may not always happen. Here goes:

"Good children's literature appeals not only to the child in the adult, but to the adult in the child." ~Anonymous

Being creative...

Okay, when I first started my "Scrapbooking" style, I came up with this little man. A robot, aka Mr. Roboto for now. I made one for each of my neice and nephews (3 all together), but obviously the fact that they're made of mere paper meant that they didn't last for long at all. Still, this one was the first one I made like this and I kept it for myself. Thought I would share it with you. :) Notice my fetish and love for books?! ;)

LMSO!

Okay, I'm sick of seeing people laughing their butts off, to term it lightly. I am a christian person and try my best not to cuss, so I don't feel comfortable using the term LMAO, even if it is only typing the first letter. So, I have come up with another solution. LMSO! When I first used it as a text, someone thought it was also a crude term, but I assure you my version is not. It merely means either 2 things. I am either laughing my socks off or I have laughed my socks off. To make it funnier, and to incorporate my love of children's books into the mix, I've tried LMFSO. Laughing my fox in socks off! Now, was it so hard to change that A to an S? The letters are right next to one another. Would it hurt the world to move over one letter? That's just my opinion. If you prefer to laugh your backside off, then go right ahead. But for me, I'd rather lose my socks than an important piece of my body, like my backside. :) And yes, I did actually laugh my socks off in the picture....okay, maybe not literally, but they are my feet and my socks.

Where I do what I do

Because I love to see pictures of where people work and how they do what they do, I thought I would show my own work area first (on the left). So, this is basically my work area. And it's usually a mess! It's a small picture of my desk, which is actually a really tall desk. It folds into itself and ends up looking like a dresser for your clothes or something. As you can see, I have some of my inspirational art work and letters around me as well as some of my art suppllies and other necessities. I don't have a studio, so for now, my bed has to do. :)

This other picture (on the right) is basically some more inspirational art that I've found. I got the first one as a sample from a magazine, and I decided to make a sort of collage out of it and some more that i've found. This way, I feel like I'm drawing some informaiton from some of the greats. :)

Face to Face

I did this in pencil on white paper from a beginner's learning book. I switched some of the assignments around in the book and created my own picture from the suggestions. Then, once I had it scanned, I flipped it and inverted the colors to get the black background copy. Then I set them side by side to have them facing one another, as if they were about to...well, I guess fight.

National Grandparents Day

Well, this weekend is National Grandparents' day, so I figured I would post the only thing I have close to a grandparent drawing. This is definately not a final piece I would use, but I have always liked it because I had done things with it that I never had tried with any other picture. One was the Santa Clause. He is one of my favorite parts of this picture and one of the best parts of it I think. Another thing I had never done before this picture was snow. Or at least I hadn't drawn snow that had a frozen pond in the middle of it. It's kind of hard to see the frozen pond behind the shoppers, but I was so proud of this pic at the time, until I got it reviewed and saw that it wasn't as good as I thought. Still, I like it and think it's helped me learn more about art and how I can fix it. And while it may be a Christmas theme, I think it is a good fit for National Grandparents Day.
This picture actually has a story to go with it. The Santa all dressed up is just a man dressed as Santa, which the little girl is all excited to see. But if she would only turn around, she would see the REAL Santa and even his wife, Mrs. Clause. (For some reason, no one's ever known her name....)