Just a new banner to kick off the idea of “spring”.  My gosh it’s certainly not happening here today in Montreal!  It’s bone-chillin’ coooooold out there!  And I’m feelin’ it inside, too.  The sun is shining bright, but the temperatures are in the single digits (fahrenheit).  5 degrees with a strong wind means it feels like… -15…?  That’s what my weather forecast site tells me.  Well, that makes it more palatable to leave on my trip south.  It’s been a balmy winter over-all but it’s been making up for it the last few days.  So the birdies will have to wait a while longer to see any leaves or buds on a tree.  At least here, anyway. 

These are actually fun to do; like a coloring book page.  I do a relatively quick sketch and color it later after scanning it.  We sat on the left side-front today.  I know at some of the churches I’ve attended, people like to sit in the same place every week.  Creatures of habit, I guess.  Given that we do various activities–or not–each week, that kind of determines where we sit.  Changing up our seating keeps things “fresh” in a way.  Anyway, today’s sermon was on the Transfiguration passage.  The pastor segued that into talking about and promoting a particular ministry our church has called The Open Door.  There was also a sharing of a vision during prayer and an interpretation of that vision.  This is an unusual Anglican church, I think, given that things like visions, tongues, etc. are not uncommon. Oh, and Greg (pastor) does not stay still when he’s preaching, so I drew him several times in different positions.  I had to settle on just doing a likeness of him as he never stayed in one position for more than 2-3 seconds at most! 

I was working on a number of practice sketches a few months back of a bird having some tea.  I posted this one and this one.  All are a little different but not much.  It definitely fits the tea theme.

I found this old drawings while I was straightening up some areas of my studio.  My guess is I was 7 or 8 years old, which was when I started a cartoon called “Water Works” (personafied waterdrops as characters) for a third grade assignment.  I thought it had an appropriate theme for a salute to the Winter Olympics given that these characters are doing some sport called “Ice Logges”.  I don’t know what the big fly is doing there, and the front ‘ice logger’ skirted the tree nicely.  Looks like I had a little handle on perspective, with the background ‘ice logger’ coming down at an angle.  Well, I know I enjoyed it as I did slews of cartoons when I was in grade school.  Those were prolific days. : )

……………

Tuesday will be a long day of traveling from Montreal to South Texas.  I’ll try my hand at sketching in the airports while waiting for connections, like Cin and others have done.  I’m at least feeling much more comfortable sketching on a regular basis thanks to the inspiriation of those bloggers who are sketchoholics.  Much thanks, you guys!

……………

One of the things I’ve been looking forward to, besides spending time with my family and friends, is seeing the family cat, Bobby.  But over the last two weeks, there’ve been some problems in the neighborhood with a pack of renegade dogs that have been terrorizing the cat community.  Two cats were killed and Bobby had an encounter with the pack coming into the yard, probably twice.  The first time, he disappeared for four days (this is a cat who NEVER leaves like that).  We thought he was gone for good (yes, I cried) but he came back.  Then a few days later, the dogs came into the yard and Bobby took off for a day.  In the meantime, the cat owners in the neighborhood were in quite an uproar, locating the owners of the dogs (who couldn’t care less that their dogs had escaped and were killing other’s pets).  One of the neighbors was relentless and finally the dogs were dealt with.  However, Bobby has been quite tramatized.  He was kept inside for three days while thet dogs were still on the loose.  Once the dogs-issue was resolved, Bobby went back outside.  But he’s apparently not feeling safe so he took off again.  This was last Tuesday.   Today, Saturday, he came back.  Poor kitty.  We’re thinking that he might have another ‘home’ he’s going to (‘double-dipping’, as my brother calls it).  I just hope that he’ll start to feel that his home is safe again and he that he doesn’t need to leave.  I really want to spend time with him.

Too tired to do more than post but thank you all for your kind IF comments.  Always appreciated!

I did this little spot illustration as part of a page of others depicting the life of David (King of Israel, in the lineage of Jesus…OT stuff) for part of some curriculum.  There’s a text that goes along with it (1 Samuel 16:14-23).  Interesting story in how David’s recruited from his family shepherding stint to play the harp for the then King of Israel, Saul.  King Saul was looking for a musician who would play for him when he, uhm…became very morose.  David got the job.

Something light to loosen up.

Helpful child.  Mucking things up as much as she’s cleaning. : )

————

Well, I’m happy to say that I FINALLY got some PDF samples up on my website.  It took me long enough but sometimes it comes together when it comes together.  I have more to come but I can put a check next to that on my list for the time being.  I’m, again, wanting to do a total revamp of my website.  When I browse other illustrator websites, my preference is for the simple clean ones.  They’re easy to navigate and the information and sample pieces are right there, ready to be observed.  As nice and facinating as Flash sites are, I never have the patience to even journey much past the intro bells and whistles.  I wonder if this is how the average AD/art buyer feels…

And the link to the PDF page is here if you wanna take a gander…

……………

I had a nice chat with illustrator Janee Trasler of Art & Soul earlier this week.  I’ve been going through growing pains and issues with my work/art for a good while now and she reminded me that the process can be (well, IS) painful but I’ll get through it.  That was beneficial to hear as I have tended to interpret the ’suffering’ as antithetical to the making and doing of illustration.  Meaning, perhaps I shouldn’t be illustrating if I’m struggling with the creative process so much.  Well, no.  Well, maaaaybe, but better to really push and work hard and see where that gets you verses throwing in the towel.  So, thanks, Janee, for the timely word.

…………….

I’ve also been enjoying and getting a lot out of the postings on the blogs of children’s illustrators who attended the recent SCBWI convention in NYC, them being Courtney and Amy (There were more and I hope to add others when I find my links).  Ruth Bradshaw posted her sketchbook journal/diary of the conference!  I read it all the way through and found it wonderful!  Thank you, Courtney, Amy, Ruth–and others!–for sharing your fabulous time at the conference with us! 

……………..

I finally booked tickets for my stay down in Corpus.  Eight weeks total.  So why is it that as soon as I booked it, I thought, “Eight weeks….What was I THINKING!?…”  That’s a long time to be away from home-north and the hubby!  Yes, that’s the non-fun aspect of going down South.  The plus side is spending time with family, the cat, and friends, warm weather, shorts, foliage, garage saling, taquitos, HEB, English, the beach…and the list goes on.  I’m not tired of winter (yet) so it’s not the issue for me to go.  And this isn’t a vacation as I’ll be working from what I call “Studio-South”, but I’ll miss my Binky (husband).  I’ve finally gotten used to him…and rather like having him around.  sigh.

………………

Enough chatter for now.  I’m up late again as I ended up taking a long nap this evening.  We’ve got a big, messy snow system headed our way for the weekend.  I must say that the cold, snowy weather does make it condusive to staying inside and working.  : )

A number of years ago I had a client who wanted a series of very simple drawings for a booklet she was putting together for those working with the autistic.  The figures denoted and demonstrated excercises the autistic person could perform.  Blelow is a Martian (simply drawn) performing a very simple head excercise. 

 A-one, two…A-three, four…

*Addendum

Oh, man…Sorry about the quadruple entry on the IF site!  I thought it wasn’t accepting the link, as it never showed it completed.  Well…Hmmm!  We won’t let THAT happen again…

Fun with color and images.

My hours are all fouled up.  For some reason, since the holidays, I’ve been working nights and sleeping mornings.  I’ve made attempts to get my hours back on a more normal track, but to be quite honest, I like working at night so I haven’t worried too much about it.  As long as responsibilities and committments are met (and the husband is okay with it), I guess can I stay up all night. 

Sorry, no “church sketch” this week, as I didn’t go Sunday morning (Horrors!).  Paul’s been sick all week and I’ve been concentrating on work projects to the point that I went to bed at 7 a.m. Sunday morn.  Paul did end up going to church, albeit late.  He’s the extrovert here and craves his social contacts if he’s deprived too long.

I’ve also been most prolific with my art/illustrations, more so than in a long, long time.  And it feels good, too, which is rare.

And I’m needing to purchase a ticket to Corpus–REAL soon.  I’ve been hoping the prices would go down (or I’d get a deal or something), but I’ll just have to bite the bullet on this.  Winter in Montreal has been extremely mild this year so I don’t feel a need to escape as I have in the past, but I do have to go down and take care of some business.

Speaking of Corpus, didja see that the good ol’ Corpus Christi Caller-Times got the scoop on the Cheney-shooting-lawyer/hunting-buddy story?  I’ll leave it at that.

Oh…And the illustration above is a black & white spot depicting kids playing a ‘clothespin game’.  In this case, it’s a reworking of a very old spot I did back in ‘99 (below).  See a difference?  I’m…testing some things…

Something I’m working on…

…with the added bonus of bad poetry!

Cindy Woods at Learning Daily tagged me for this meme:

 Four Jobs I’ve Had:

•   Soda jerk/cake decorator (Baskin-Robbins)
•   Summer camp art director (Cape Cod)
•   Elementary school coach
•   Elementary school teacher

Four Movies I Can See Over And Over:

Maybe I’m taking this too literally, but I can’t think of ANY movies that I’d want to see “over and over”.  Yeah, I’m being too literal, right..?  Uhp…My husband just informed me that, YES, I was… Meh.

Four Places I’ve Lived:

I’ve lived in only two…

•  Corpus Christi, Texas
•  Montreal, Quebec

Four TV Shows I Love:

•  The Office (both NBC and the BBC’s)
•  Gilmore Girls
•  Arrested Development
•  Seinfeld

Four Places I’ve Vacationed:

•  Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN
•  Western Montana-Canadian Rockies
•  Door County Pennisula, WI
•  Leaky, TX

Four Of My Favorite Dishes: (Ooh!  Now THIS is something I can get into over and over!)

•  Butter Chicken
•  Palak Paneer
•  Oriental Chicken Salad
•  Fish & Chips

Four Sites I Visit Almost Daily:

•  TV Squad
•  Corpus Christi Caller-Times
•  Publicradiofan.com
•  Too may bloggers to mention

Four Places I’d Rather Be Now:

•  In Corpus with my cat, Bobby.
•  In Paris…with my cat, Bobby.
•  Anywhere on earth…with my cat, Bobby.
•  Forever in heaven… with my cat, Bobby.

Four Bloggers I’m Tagging:

•  Nancy Miller at Picture This (Gotta get her blogging again!)
•  Patricia Storms at Booklust, since she’s got nothing better to do than unpack boxes. : )
•  Roz Fulcher at Rozzieland.
•  Holli Conger at A Girl Who Creates.

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve done any church sketching, but yesterday I was able to break out the sketchbook.  During corporate prayers, someone prayed for an organization called “Donkey For Jesus“, hence the donkeys–and Chinese donkeys.  And I ended up sitting in back of the same person from this sketch.  I’m getting to know the back of her head really well.

I did a bunch of little thumbs to come up with a layout for a small spot illustration of a firefly in a jar…

Thumb #6 was picked and worked up.  I’ve (again) been fiddling with the backgrounds so you see the first illustration that I did (lightish blue background), then with the background darkened some, the rough, and then an alternative color (a dark…redish-pinkishy color).  It’s fairly simple to do working in Painter 9 and having the elements in layers.  I can more easily alter background colors to see how it would look.

And just so it’s easier to see, I’m posting a larger version of the darker blue one.

So I like it that I can get some feedback from my virtual studio friends.  I see nice stuff in all three.  See anything that I might have missed?

More fun with background and color changes.  Interesting how different the two pieces feel by simply changing the color (though I did add the water in the background horizon and made the girl larger and moved her forward a bit on the top illustration).  Text falls in the open area of the piece.

Maybe it’s not fair to compare these two.  I think they’re quite different even though I’m using the exact same elements.  But if you have a favorite, please let me know.  I’d be curious to hear your comments.