Remembering Neighbors

Remember/Neighbor- Illustration Friday challenge for 4/27 and 5/4.

When we were young we did a lot with our neighbor's the Pierce family and the boy down the street Randy Hess. Wayne, Betty, Tammy and Doreen were the Pierce kids. What I loved were the shows we had in the back yard for all the neighbors to see, playing baseball in the side yard, selling mud pies door to door and of course the "Fleming Flop" club house. It didn't look exactly like this but you get the idea!!

OK...this is the past two Illustration Fridays combined. I have been busy on a few projects. One is a book I am working on that I can't wait to share with you all soon. Another is described, somewhat, below. Apologies about the roughness of the pic. I'll finish and post another day.

Cartwheeling Kids

I have been holed up working on a challenging project for some time now. You would think it would be easy..."draw kids cartwheeling." Right? Well this turned out to be a bit more of challenge as you can see in these drawings.

You can see the actual evolution of this project in the sketches I share here.

Running, hopping, maybe even swinging from the trees I could handle. This cartwheeling thing had me for a while.

More on this project coming soon.....

Polar

"Next on Montel...the confusion BI-Polar Bears face and how global warming effects them in their decisions."
Sorry about the photo but I'm still in Philly. The Tut exhibit was out of this world awesome! I am going to look at dinos this afternoon.

Green Fortune

"Now that the fad of the Eastern art of Feng Shui is fading there are more and more of out of work three legged frogs in western civiliazation that are not native to this area!"

FENG SHUI WEALTH CURES
The Art of Feng Shui involves the placement of sacred objects in relationship to our surroundings - in particular our home and business. In Asia, a Feng Shui Master will even be consulted by the Architect n the planning of the relationships of rooms, doorways and windows to themselves and the forces of nature. It is truly believed that the proper, or improper, positioning and association of all these elements will have a dramatic impact on your life. Here we offer the sacred objects with their meanings for your own Feng Shui collection.
Depite being an au courant fad, feng shui -- pronounced "fung shway" -- is nothing new to the Chinese. In fact, feng shui is a millennia-old practice.
The Chinese have long believed that if a home or business had a harmonious and positive flow of ch'i, which refers to cosmic breath or energy, those living and working there would benefit, thus enjoying health, happiness and prosperity. Palaces, farmhouses, temples and even entire cities were laid according to feng shui's precepts. One element of Feng Shui is placing certain objects in "key" corners of the room like the "Three-legged Money Frog."

THREE LEGGED FROG WITH A COIN IN ITS MOUTH, or, MONEY FROG - Named Chachu will attract plenty of wealth into your home using three-legged Frogs with a coin in its mouth! This auspicious creature attracts good fortune into your home. Place the frog in any of the corners diagonally opposite you front door for best effect. At the very least, you should have one frog facing out to collect the money and one facing in to bring the money back into the house. You can also place him in view of your front door. Every morning turn him towards the exterior. Turn him towards the interior in the evening to prevent him from becoming exhausted, or, letting your money escape. Keep you frogs below the table, behind the couch or in other discreet areas of your home. Some people keep theirs on top of my computer at night facing into the room and facing toward the window beside their computer during the day.

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!