Something In The Wind

Some day I'll post some jewelry pics...

Late spring in Southern Ontario = very nice.

All I want to do is sit outdoors in the cool breeze.

But actually, I'm not really.  Well, not that much.

But there is so much other outdoor stuff going on, 

especially with the NanoBot

(since we're not in the school system)

that it evens out anyways.

But...I do have illustration deadlines.

And I AM trying to work on them.

And I have TONS of pictures that I need to upload,

only not the time to go through them all

and make them web-ready.

Some of them being pics of my fabric jewelry

(made ages ago but still trapped in my camera).

One day soon... :)

Meanwhile, here's a painting (also made a while back).

I call it Rain and the Beachmat.

The NanoBot thinks I made beans falling out of the sky.

Maybe I did?

Upon a Beam of Moonlight

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My latest venture was with first-time author, Lisa Torres.

It's called Upon A Beam Of Moonlight.

"Lisa Torres is a Heilkunst practitioner who specializes in holistic family care,

abuse recovery and travel health. Her international practice based in Ottawa,

Canada, serves women and mothers in English, French, and Spanish.

Her journey thus far has led her around the world and back and from

sickness and despair to health and love. While she previously lived by default

she now lives by inspired design with her beloved husband

and two phenomenal children." 

Simply put - just a story about a girl and a box.

As it says on the book blurb:

A daddy has a little girl.

He also has a box.

He loves his little girl,

and he loves his box.

Can he get the girl

to love the box too?

What if she can’t?

Can they ever be happy?

Behind the quirky illustrations

is a tale of love and acceptance.

I like the universal message of the book.

And that it's for everyone, young and old.

Lisa is working on French and Spanish editions as well.

For more about her Hielkunst practice,

visit her website www.healn.org.

The book is available here as pdf or hard copy,

or you can download it to your iPad right here.

Book and bugs

This book was a long time in the making,

but now it's done and ready for printing.

Here's the cover:

And the very last page:

It's always great to wrap up a project!

With the weather so beautiful now

I can hardly bear to stay indoors for long.

The NanoBot is out all the time,

'making observations', as as she says,

of her beloved bugs.

She has a whole booklet worth of mental notes

about potato bugs, for instance.

By the way, when we say potato bugs,

we mean the cute little pill bugs that like

to roll up in a ball, not the other kind of

potato bug that actually infests potato plants.

Apparently, baby potato bugs have white legs.

I didn't know!

But we looked them up and discovered that 

the babies are in fact all white when they are born.

Like so:

Neat, aren't they?

Discover Issue 8

This story is all about patience and gratitude,

and ease after difficulty.

The kind of reminders we ALL need...

only it's kinda hard when you come home from school 

to a twin-engined, turbo-powered destruction machine,

and MOMMY ISN'T AROUND

to pick up the mess!!!

(It was a great story to illustrate.)

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.