Angel's Tattoo

This is a tattoo I just finished for someone who is about to be married in Key West. Good luck to the happy couple!!!!

Snappy Soup

Ok...though my computer ink crapped out on me on the print out...here is the cleaned up version!

"Snip, Snap, Snoop! There are turtles in my soup!!

Snap- Illustration Friday prompt for March 31.

I had several sketches for this idea. All different. The one I am sharing is my favourite. I kind of "threw" colour in there so excuse the primativeness of the piece. I have been very busy on other projects!!

We have several little boys coming over to the house Saturday for an Easter Egg Hunt so that will keep me busy as well.

Oh, if anyone has an idea on how to get a robin to stop ramming into my window PLEASE let me know. It has been two days and lots of noise! I put a sun catcher in the window and that didn't help. My cat , Casper, is loving it of course! No, the cat doesn't stop him either. HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!!

I Spy...I-Fri!

OK...here are a few pieces I just did for a couple of stories TBA.

I spy a frog, a worm with teeth, a turtle, a ladybug, a dragonfly, a grasshopper, a squirrell, a slug, a bird, a boat, a blob, several hearts and seagulls. Can you find them all?

Llama Llama

Llama,Llama...This is done with watercolour pencils- LOVE THEM! I did this when a friend of ours gave our grandson a book called Llama, Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney . It is a very cute book.

My partner and I were toying with the idea of raising llamas.

Totally Wired/Totally Jungle!

Totally Jungle! Illustration Friday's challenge for March 16 (my birthday), 2007. I give you a totally new look in watercolour. The colours are so washed out with scanning, but you get the idea!
"Frankie convinced everyone last year that pet dogfish and pet catfish would be very popular; however, this year he would have a hard time convincing fish that he could harness electricity by being wired to an electric eel and talk in a little hand held device to other fish wired to eels all over the ocean!"
Totally Wired! OK...so this is the week before's prompt (wired- Mar. 9) but by the time I finished the piece the second word was out!

Hidden Treasures

Art of Bev Doolittle: Check out her site and see how many hidden images you can find in her work!! http://www.bevdoolittle.net/

"Though he had many treasures Tommy was always saving to buy more. He kept his money in a treasure chest his grandmother gave him hidden under the bed."

Hide- Illustration Friday prompt for March 2.

Of course one of my favourite artists is Bev Doolittle. http://www.bevdoolittle.net/ She likes to "hide" images within her art. So do I, many of my pen and inks have hearts in them.

Gravity of Communication

Gravity- Illustration Friday prompt for February 16. Yup...late. But with good reason...the displays I have been working with at work this week (and last) are extremely heavy and my body is taking quite a beating! I am sure I took at least ten years off my life these last two weeks! Thank GOD for Hydrocodone/APAP!!!! Don't miss "Communication" below!!

Communication- Illustration Friday prompt for Friday February 23, 2007. (I can't believe I have been doing this every week for almost three years!)

What else would a fossil collector/hunter choose for communication? This is "Our Ancient Earth" done in old fashioned pen and ink. I just love that fossils communicate the past to the future. Often times I wonder what will be fossilized for people 1,000 years from now to find.

Crash

"Stanley was sure he could pin this on Sabastian but just then Mr. and Mrs. Jones came home....earlier than expected!"
"Crash"- Illustration Friday challenge for February 9, 2007.
Artist notes. This scanned horribly...But I did enjoy working on this topic. My first idea was a four year old crashed out on his bed with toys everywhere but someone else did a kid on a bed. Can't help wanting to be unique...that's what I do best.
Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Stay warm!!!

Sprout

Illustration Friday Challenge for Friday February2- Sprout.
Better late than never I say!
"The problem with turtles planting gardens is...they move so slow everything has sprouted by the time it's done!"

Red Faced

Illustration Friday prompt for January 26- Red

Harold was sure the bean borrito was out of his system before his date with Lola!

(Read with lots of sarcasm and a Mae West accent)---->" Oh lover boy! I see "LOVE" is in the air...lucky me!"

Artist's notes:

This was drawn in pen and ink then scanned and more ink was added via the computer. Later detail was added with more pen and ink, oil pencils and coloured pencil. "I enjoy adding detail to a piece. Such as the dead fish, tiny bird in the distance, ant on a leaf and the dragonfly (my favourite)! This was after the audience has enjoyed the laugh they can further enjoy finding something new in the piece!!"

Post Script: Can you find the five hearts in this piece?

SuperHero

"Felix was the type of friend every cat wished to have. He was kind of a superhero of sorts!"

Illustration Friday challenge for January 19- Superhero.

Well we finally got our first snowfall! We tend to get a lot of ice and freezing rain with it. It was all gone by mid afternoon.

Hope you are staying warm this week wherever you are!!!!

Awesome Site

A group of us just formed a new club for would-be writers. This is a site one of the members shared with us :
http://write4kids.com/
It's really a cool site...check it out!

Eight-Ts

Illustration Friday challenge for January 12? Why "Eighties" of course! LOL!! I also have one I did with eight cats teasing a dog...get it? Eight-tease? Ok...Ok, Just a little taste of my twisted thinking. ;)
I am busy doing a few projects. Some short stories and a cd cover that I will tell you more about later...Oh, and transforming one of the guest rooms into a full fledged studio!!!
Thanks for visiting!!!!

Buzz-Ard Vegans

"Oh, you are NOT a vegetarian! Who ever heard of a vegetarian Buzzard?! How ridiculous! Now get over here with your brother and eat your dinner!"

Illustration Friday Challenge word for January 5, 2007...BUZZ!

I don't know why I have been doing a lot of pictures of birds lately...weird! I chose buzzards because here on the peninsula we have TONS of buzzards. There are about ten that hang out in the dead tree at the end of our street. They fascinate me. They are VERY large and much like a graceful eagle in flight!

Polly Pheonix

Polly Phoenix and Sebastian.

Phoenix- Illustration Friday prompt for Dec. 29.

I had plans to do a nice neat pen and ink with my new pens...but, for some reason my sub-conscious wanted to be funny. So here's to the New Year...full of re-birth and re-newel and toasty fried parrots for every kitty!

Peaceful Night

Illustration Friday challenge for December 22 - "Peace."

PLEASE double click for better detail!!

As you can see this is a multi- dimensional piece. It's the first time I tried anything like this. It came out exactly as I had envisioned. I used a variety of types of paper from scrapbook prints to handmade. I used acrylic paint and my new Sakura Ink pens (thanks Mom and Dad!), a paintbrush as well as a toothpick for painting.

Christmas went well. We were running around like chickens without heads right up until the last minute! Things went smooth...except that darn rain...melted the berries on my outdoor decorations! AND it got so hot in the house we actually had the air conditioning on!! So it was a "COOL Yule" after all!!!!

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmakkuh and an even better New Year!

HELP! The Mellow Men!

"HELP!" Word prompt for Illustration Friday December 15.
This one had so many possibilities. There are several archived pieces I could have used...yet, I chose these two to post. It's the first thing that came to mind. After sketching out the first one the hot chocolate just followed naturally! These marshmallow people started an organization called Help Eliminate Lasting Puffy Extinction or H.E.L.P.
OK...I am off to put together a combination pool, ping-pong and fooseball table! I wanna know who else has to "assemble" gifts this season? Last year it was a train table.

DID YOU KNOW?...
Marshmallow candy dates back to ancient Egypt where it was a honey-based candy flavored and thickened with the sap of the root of the Marsh-Mallow plant (althea officinalis). Marsh-Mallow grows in salt marshes and on banks near large bodies of water. It is common in the eastern United States. Until the mid 1800's, marshmallow candy was made using the sap of the Marsh-Mallow plant. Gelatin replaces the sap in the modern recipes. For more about MarshMallows go here: History of Marshmallows.

ARTIST notes:
In the first one I worked more with the paint programme on the computer (nothing fancy). I like bold colours and unfortunately pastels are the only ones I can use that fill the best. You can see this in the second piece.

Sooty Mask

MASK- Illustration Friday challenge for Friday December 8.

Sorry...I couldn't resist! Not a lot of time for colour or fine tuning. You'll have to settle for the rough drafts.

" Then there is weird Uncle Arthur...
...Unfortunately there was no stopping him creeping into some of the family photos!"

Quilted Northern Santa

"Quilted Northern Santa" The quicker picker upper...or maybe the quickest dropper offer! LOL!! I have been working on this and a couple other holiday pieces and finally finished this one.

Still have decorations to finish. It's hard to be the artist in the family and host Christmas dinner. Expectations are high. But I love the oohs and aaahhs (and the "you are sooo talented!") when it's all done, so I can't complain! I'll post photos of the highlights when I'm done.

The Season For Giving!

Mighty- Illustration Friday for December 1.
I chose to highlight the phrase "The pen is mightier than the sword!" in this week's challenge. If we all got our checkbooks and gave a little the world would be a better place to live! There are people and families and kids in need everywhere!

Even a little helps...a can of soup at a food drive, take a name off a tree at the mall or at work and buy a gift for a poor child...compliment the lady in front of you at the grocery store on her festive pin...give the kid at the home improvement store a tip for placing your Christmas tree in the back of your SUV! GIVE! I can tell you from experience it feels good and it's sooooo easy!
Here are a few things I did this year...

What have I been up to? WELL...the question should be...what haven't I been up to?! You can bid on a frame I designed to benefit children with aids here EBay's Mission Fish , or any other frames designed by artists from all over to benefit children with aids. Did you even realize there was such a programme on E-Bay? Check out more information here at Mission Fish. Also take the time to visit the website to learn more about the Children with Aids project. Tanya Weaver did a fantastic job of gathering artists for this task! She works tirelessly to think of ways to raise money for these kids. If you have any ideas or art you wish to contribute please e-mail her!! Tanya Weaver Executive Director. Next....

Build-A-Bear for charity! My partner and I along with everyone at her office at Tunnell Co.LP took on local children in needs project in not only buying a toy for a child but also gathering children's books and designing a bear for needy kids! Here are our bears...you can see the huge difference in our design styles. Mine is "Adventure Bear-complete with knapsack!" Hers is the Ice Skater Bear- complete with cell phone. LOL!!!

Year round we work with many charities. This year was our first Arthritis Walk, seventh for the Carey's for Cancer annual Golf Tournament, seventh for the FSMHA annual Golf event to raise scholarship money for local kids and the seventh MS Walk, and the 15Th annual Health Fair!

Take time to donate or volunteer this season. If not now make it a New Year's resolution!