Another tiny painting

Acrylics on a piece of magazine paper.

Can you spot the magazine text?

If Only I Could Paint Like This...

My just-turned nine niece, who excels in academics,

won yet another award - this time for painting.

Although I didn't get to see the painting while I was in Houston

(it's touring the city as part of a rodeo festival there)

I'm glad I could see pictures of it.

There's something magical about how kids paint,

don't you agree? 

I love how my niece used purple

(who would have thought?) on the horse,

and how she outlined the fence with red.

It makes the painting really special, I think!

One from the archives

I have three books I need to be working on,

and I've only started on one so far.

Looking through my old files for ideas, 

I came across this:

I drew it all with my mouse!

I quite like it now.

It's....atmospheric, isn't it?

Maybe I'll make more of these.

Maybe I'll make more of these 

and I'll make them in fabric!

I even have it in a different colorway.

But the books...!!!!!

No Ordinary Day

All done...

In my last post I wrote about the spring story

I'm illustrating for Discover.

This is what it looks like now.

I hope they have room to fit some of the story

into this double spread, with the rest of it

on a new page.  I have to wait for feedback.

I did this one while on my trip to Houston with the NanoBot,

who had a blast with her cousins,

and also enjoyed signs of spring meanwhile :)

Sadly, the nest time we saw them,

three of the ducklings were gone.

But the rest of them were flourishing.

Spring critters

The next issue of Discover magazine has a story about spring,

and these two lovely creatures are part of it.

 A blue tit and a hedgehog.

And this is what they look like, colored...

I still have all the rest of the picture to draw,

but it seems promising.

Flowers

It all began with me drawing a single petal.

Then it turned into this:

Illustrator is fun that way :)

Going sculptural

With a great big fabric bead.

I wanted to switch to something a little organic in shape,

and decided to try a fabric bead.

Well, for something so simple looking, this was a huge pain to make - it was so hard to get the shape right!  And then I couldn't encase it properly in the top fabric, and had to disguise the horrible creases with random stitches all over the bead. 

Luckily, those came out pretty neat, and give the bead a subtle coloration and texture.  Of course the teeny meeny beads add to the charm of the big mommy bead.  So it all turned out OK in the end, although it's not entirely finished.  I attached the chain to connector rings, which I simply pushed into stitches on either side, but I need to find a better way than that :)

I'm thinking of making my next bead with only the random stitches

and seed beads, no other ornamentation.

That will make it more sculptural, I think.

A story about friendship

Here's another illustration for Discover - 

a lovely kids' magazine from the UK.

and how it appeared in print.

I Love My Dad...ongoing work...

Written By Ghada Alo,

to be published by Creative Education and Publishing.

Illustrations for Greenbird Books

This is a story about charity.

It's called the Jariyah Jar.

I guess the British use cute terms like "scrummy".

It was in the story and I thought it would look good

on the awning for the cake stall.

Discover - Issue 3

Another illustration for a wonderful new magazine from the UK;

a story about an archery - a sport I would love to learn.

And this is how it appeared in the magazine...

Painting

Blobby bits of color - I like :)