Just Being Girls

     This piece started back in 2012 with the Illustration Friday word prompt- CARRY. While I brainstormed I came up with the phrases "carry on a conversation" and "voices carry". The original is a simple black and white line drawing that I just decided to drop in the computer and color.

     Nothing beats a good conversation over a cup of coffee and a piece of pie! 

     

     Just for fun I'll share the other sketch I did in that 2012 sketch-a-day book for the same word prompt.

Illustration Friday - MOON

     This is an 8 x 10 drawing with charcoal pencil and white pastel pencil on gray paper that came out of my brainstorming session. I haven't experienced a break-up for over 26 years, and don't plan on experiencing one ever again, but the romantic in me thought up this little drawing with hope that whatever happens in a person's life, the moon can make it right. (Don't fail to take note of the shadow).

     So I am off to a good start in 2016. I may not always do a polished piece for Illustration Friday but one of my goals this year is to bring an idea each week to at least this level. In 2012 I had a sketch-a-day notebook. I may have mentioned it before, it was a gift from my step-daughter Ashley and one of the best gifts I've ever received. Even if I didn't do a sketch each day, I managed to do a sketch for IF each week. That sketchbook is full of ideas that I still refer to. In fact another version of this image is in there for the word - LONELY. That one had a happy couple seated on a bench in the moonlight while the moon looks on crying for a different reason.

     If you stop back by this blog from time to time you may someday see a more polished version of this image. I tend to do that a lot. Redo, redo, redo. 

Namasté

     This morning I was dealing with some stressful issues, as many of us do during the holidays. I wanted to spend some time on a small drawing for myself which I could post to my blog and title - "Peace". As often happens when I sit down with a creative idea, the idea took on a life of its own.

     As I was looking for a nice quote about peace to share with you, I stumbled across the word namasté. I took a yoga class a few years ago and that is where I first learned its definition. Yoga is not something I do often. It is something I intend to do often. I intend to do it at least three times a week, in fact. (I intend to do it tonight. We'll see how that goes). But, if we could learn to use that word as a universal hello and goodbye every day, and every time we use it connect to its meaning, we may create a world of . . . PEACE.

Namasté

My soul honors your soul

I honor the place in you where

the entire universe resides.

I honor the light, love, truth,

beauty, and peace within you,

because it is also within me.

In sharing these things

we are united, we are the same,

we are one.

What a powerful pack of goodness in one word! 

Namasté, my friends.

Illustration Friday - CITY

WOOHOO! Unbelievable timing. We just got back from visiting my step-daughter and her husband in Las Vegas and the IF word of the week is . . . CITY!  Everything is fresh on my mind and the photos I worked from, freshly imported into the computer. 

I started with a quick acrylic painting:

I took a photo of this, dropped it into Corel Painter and violá.

Next step is to finish up the painting and now I can use the digital version as reference.

IF - WHIMSICAL

Oil on gessoed illustration board (this finished piece shown has a little digital enhancing - just a little)

Sometime in early 2014 the Illustration Friday word of the week was SPACE and I came up with this idea. I didn't finish it in time to post it on IF but in April of that year I put the image on my blog post and called it Personal Space. A pretty WHIMSICAL idea of personal space. I recently decided to redo it, making it more colorful and fun (more whimsical) and I wanted, in the end, to have an actual piece of artwork in my hands instead of just an image that only exists in cyberspace or print. On top is the redo, on the bottom is the digital version from April 2014.

For a peak at a version further into the future (2021) click here.

Baby Dragons #4

I'm so happy to be posting a piece here again. I've been busy elsewhere and it's been over a month since I've finished an illustration. Here's number 4, and the last, in my baby dragon series.  All four are different views of the same moment and were done to practice my illustration skills. They are all 8 x 10 oil paintings on clayboard with the exception of the bird's eye view. That one is a 5 x 7 on gessoboard. I have a manuscript in the works that was inspired by the first little guy seen below. I'm sharing the other 3 pieces so that they're all on one page together.