It’s been a good while since I posted any sketches I’ve done at church.  Several reasons account for that, I guess, one being I’ve not done much sketching there in the last few months.  Also, lack of time in general has been a big factor since September, when I took on a number of projects that have kept me very busyful.

Paul was doing sound this morning so I went in early with him to help.  I’m glad I did as it afforded me an hour to simply sit and sketch.  It was relaxing and had me wondering why I wasn’t doing this more often.  Just for sanity’s sake, you know?  That right-brain activity stuff can be calming.

I left the first two pages as-is.  The third I opted to add some color to with the computer.

In other news, I suppose you can see that I’ve been fooling around with my blog here.  I picked out a new WP theme which has more space for images, a menu bar, and a few other behind-the-scene tools.  There seems to be a problem with activating the widget for my blog-roll but I’m working on that.  I’m thinking I want to make this space my active portfolio for now so you will probably be seeing me working on that here as time goes on.

And I’ve noticed several of my illustrator friends have been posting their 2008 accomplishments, along with goals for ‘09.  I might do that here, too, when some time opens up.  Really, it’s all about time right now.  I’ve never been busier as an illustrator as I have been this year.  As I mentioned, since September, it’s been almost non-stop.  I’ve been having to fit in short vacations or the holidays, it seems.  And I don’t see things slowing down until sometime in March.  It’s all good, though.  I’d much rather be overly-busy than not busy at all. : )

That’s my make-shift cat box for Orange Kitty to sleep in.  She spends a lot of time in there since it’s now cold and snowy.  Occasionally I give her food but when I do it routinely, she gets demanding, so I’m trying to only divy meals out to her randomly.  Believe me, she’s far from starving as she’s very plump.  I’d say she’s got 3-4 places she’s getting hand-outs from.  The ony danger here is my getting attached.

I isolated and extracted this little guy from that early version of my Christmas card, below.  I needed a quick, seasonal image to make a quick business card to send with my cards.  It turned out kinda nice, with my name on the bottom half and all.  Now all I need is the cards I ordered to get here.  Hey, it’s only the 18th of December.   No need to panic, right?  I figure as long as the cards get to people sometime before January 15th, I’m still operating in the Christmas zone.  At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

Below: Early version of my Christmas card.  I miss the squirrel and birdy in the final!

Santa’s reindeer can be a rambunctious bunch.  But no need to worry.   Just cuts, scrapes and bruises.  Nothing too violent.

The above are some sketches for a new project I’m working on.

I’m happily swamped again.  Happy to have work; happy to be productive and busy; happy to be doing lots of drawing (though my right hand/wrist might take issue with that).  Not so happy that I don’t have much free-time.  I have litle time to do the things ya gotta do for the holidays.  And I’m still not sure if and what I should purchase/make for family and friends.  Are any of you in the same boat?  All the social expectations are an odd thing anyway.  But it takes a certain amount of energy to buck the system and I don’t think I’ve got that right now.  Either way is stressful.

My family members in Texas agreed that we’d do mail order food items for Christmas.  We figured it’d be fun to sample some foods from places we’ve never tried.  I found a restaurant in Camden, Maine that purports to make “the best of the best” local clam chowder, so I ordered a case for my dad.  I’m also going to order some wickedly good brownies out of Austin, Texas.  That should keep the folks down south fat and happy for a good while.  But for everyone here, I don’t know.  A slow panic will set in soon as the C-Day approaches and I’ll have done nothing.  Maybe liquor for everyone, or some bread and pastry samples from the village bakery.  Maybe a drawing of some sort.  …Help!  Any and all ideas are appreciated.

I FINALLY whipped up a Christmas card for myself.  Yes, it only took until the second week of December to get it done, but I did pretty good to accomplish that!  Some outfit in The States is printing a small batch up and I hope to have them in my hands by the end of the week, if I’m lucky.  Thus far I’ve yet to find a Canadian printer to do a small run at a reasonable price.  If anyone knows of a Canadian company that will print 50-100 greeting cards, please let me know.

………….

The temps dropped dramatically today.  When I checked it this morning it was -3 (farentheit).  I was concerned about the pseudo-stray Orange Kitty that sleeps on our balcony.  Last week, I put out a box with some towels for her to sleep in, thinking that would be more comfortable.  She seems to like it as I’ll see her snoozing in there periodically.  Last night I put the box in a second box, so that if it rains or snows, the inner box will stay dry, as well as block the wind to some degree.  I’m also thinking about adding a thermal blanket if I can find an unused one around here.  So this morning, I saw Orange Kitty taking a poop in the snow.  A few minutes later she was on our balcony.  Poor little thing had snow crusted on her face and was shaking her tootsies.  I tried to get her to come inside but she’s having none of that.  I’m inclined to grab her and, for her own good, bring her inside when the weather turns insufferable.  It’s my maternal side taking over here.  I get that way with animals.  And the husband.

I got some samples in the mail last week for a piece I finished up back in late August for Clubhouse Jr.’s November ‘08 issue.  I had posted a little about it here, but below is the final product.  The art director wanted me to use a tighter, thinner line for the project so that’s why it looks that way compared to maybe most of my work.  I also incorporated a little collage, which can be seen in the girl’s pajamas and repeated in the pillow.  I was very pleased in how this printed in the magazine, which has a lot to do with the type of paper they chose to print on.  Despite being a little tight in some respects, there’s still a looseness to the line.  Nice to know that I was able to achieve that.  Below are a few views of the project.

Below:  Isabel stands alone.

Below:  Final piece.

Below:  The rough.

Hmmm.  They’re not really in a sharing frame of mind, it seems.

Some roughs from a project I’m working on presently.

I just wanted to mention that Cindy Woods, artist/sketcher,  passed away this past Saturday after a battle with cancer.  Cindy was one of several artist-bloggers who inspired me to sketch more (I wrote about it in this post).  I never met her personally, though we corresponded off and on by email and blog comments over the last few years.  She was well-loved by the sketch blogging community.  When I first encountered her sketch blog a few years ago, I was mesmerized by her art.  Even today as I was looking through the vast collection of drawings on her blog, I was utterly taken by her style and voice.  And Cindy sketched up until she could sketch no more, an artist to the bone.  Thank you for sharing your marvelous art with us, Cin.  You will be greatly missed.