Sweets for the sweet

Not edible, but candy-colored!

Good enough to eat, right?

The multicolored ones with the beads 
sewn on outside the center

were the idea of my little NanoBot.

At four, she's already a better artist than I can ever be :)

Pin-brooches sewn at the back - 

wearable happy-ness :)

All wrapped up and ready to go

Oh December, where did you go?  

And now it's 2012 and January is half gone???

At least I have a little bit to account for my time: 

my latest book with Creative Education and Publishing 

is at the printer's as I type.  Yay!

I had shared some rough drawings before.  

This is their final form:

I used a lot of greens in this one.

And this was the cover spread I designed for it.

A couple more pics from the book:

This was the first time I did a story with twins in it,

and it was twice as much fun :)

One

One...

with Nature



This is so much more clear and vibrant in person -

I just couldn't get the scanner to capture it right,

especially the lovely, neon greens :(
I'll have to use my camera, I guess.

There are details in the real thing that you can't see here,
(how the blue foreground turns into her dress)

but mainly the idea was to

integrate the girl into her surroundings.

Is that a quirky head-dress,

or are they trees in the background? sort of thing.

I also enjoyed the play of colored areas

juxtaposed with pencil drawing.

This was all done in watersoluble crayons

and color pencils on watercolor paper.

NO PhotoShop.

More boys!

Some time ago, I was wondering 

why I always get to illustrate stories that feature girls.

I've done a whole string of girl stories.  Back to back.

But right after my post about this,

I got a boy story to do.

And now I have another, and this one features twin boys.

There's yet another book waiting in the wings, and also features

 - you guessed it - a boy!

Here's a sample drawing from the story about the twins...

I made a rough sketch, scanned it, then placed the text on it

(not something I normally have to do since that's 

taken care of at the publishing end)

and then I saw a whole bunch of white space left over, 

so I drew in things with the mouse, straight on my image.

I've sent it to the publisher to see what he thinks.

Once I have the green light, I'll draw the whole thing again by hand.

Properly :)

The kid on his Daddy's lap looks like he has three legs, doesn't it?

I'll definitely need to fix that!

But overall, do you have any ideas or suggestions?

A is for...Alphabet Art!

My painting

+

a nice fat type

+

some clipping mask magic

Put them all together and you get...

this!

Nursery art, grown-up art...I'm not fussy :)

Sunshine In My Hand

Real paint (YAY - REAL PAINT!)

on paper.

OK, a tiny bit of PhotoShop too...

but mostly just honest-to-goodness acrylics.

Ditzy Doodle Day

Hey!  I like the sound of that.

That's it. One day of the week should officially be called

Ditzy Doodle Day.

So here's my ditzy doodle for today - 

ink pen and felt markers (some nearly dead but braving it)

on printer paper.

Drawing really doesn't need fancy paraphernalia 

(ah, another juicy word!),

but just a minute or two of not being afraid.

Really.

I've been told my ditzy doodles would make great fabric prints.

It's funny, but many people have asked me if I design fabric,

and the truth is I don't know the first thing about it.

By the way, I'd like to share with you this wonderful place

that sells designer fabric.

It's full of amazing talent. Do check it out!

Soup Season!

I like soup.

Carrot, pumpkin, chicken, tomato, potato, onion, 

rutabaga, wheat-and-barley...

...soup made with any of these,

or all of them mixed together, and spinach, oh yeah spinach!

With lots of black pepper, ginger, cinnamon...mmm...

Soups are wonderful!

Well, soup season is here!

Do YOU like soup?

Fully equipped

Pencil-drawn, scanned, colored in PhotoShop.

It's Children's Day in India today.

Here's to all children, everywhere, being able to

learn, discover and grow in safe, happy environments.

Over The Moon Stories Facebook party

Author Suzanne Muir of Over The Moon Stories

asked me if I would like to participate in her blog party.  

She is trying to raise money for an iPad for a special needs kid.

It always humbles and amazes me when people organize events 

in order to benefit someone else!

I hope this party does well!

Here's my contribution:

Red Leaf

Reproduction print of my original acrylic painting.

I scanned the original and created digital variations, 

so I have the same painting in a few different colorways.

The two below are slightly different from each other,

but they both share the same exuberance :)

My contribution is one print in one of the different colorways 

(I haven't shown them all here).

It'll be a bit of a luck of the draw kinda thing!

Drop in at Over The Moon Stories this Saturday at 1 P.M. EST 

and bid for a good cause.

Art Everyday Challenge - Day 6 to Day 14

Art Everyday...I'm hoping I can get away with CREATING, 

if not POSTING everyday...

This piece above is acrylics and crayons on canvas.

This one is an old drawing I re-colored.

The above is a mishmash of many things, but mainly digital.

 A doodle...

Another doodle...

And some biscuits!

This is from a lovely blog called The Nourishing Gourmet.

You can read the recipe here - it's very worth trying.

There are a couple more things, but I don't have the pics yet...

And also, soon to follow, the NanoBot's work~

Art Everyday Challenge - Day 5 and 6

Another watercolor

(these are fun!)

 A couple of drawings by the NanoBot...

She said these are seals who have just been scared by a shark...

The Daddy seal has a lots of hair and a beard.  

I think he really does look terrified.

The other seal is a baby, and has only its head 

sticking out of the water, which may look like a beard, 

but is most emphatically NOT, 

just in case you were mistaken into thinking it was.

And another ditzy doodle by me..

Art Everyday Challenge - Day 4