BEGINNER BALLERINA .... IN ALL HER GRACE

Since my three year old grand daughter, Delaney, has started taking ballet classes my heart has moved its passion specifically to the tiny ballerina. My drawing table is covered with photos of innocent, dreamful awkwardness, and I can't wait to transfer their little gestures to paper! Every time I watch those dainty princesses in their untied ballet shoes with their tiny little backsides covered in spandex, tummies pronounced, I get the urge to create.

This is my first attempt. So far I've only finished the main character - but the pose is over-used, so there's more to the picture. The frosting on the cake is in the works.

Stay tuned to the finale .... and be sure to scroll down ~

MINIATURE ENSEMBLE of GRACEFULNESS

NEW PAGE FOR THE CHILDREN'S BOOK

Here's the hungry little four year old - showing how he loves his mom's southern cooking and has every intention of eating every bite! My taste buds acted up just drawing that piece of fried chicken! ;o)

Children's Picture Book.... onto Page Two

Lots of interruptions since my last post. .... if you consider a newborn baby in the mix! Welcome Dax Scott Harris ... baby #2 from my second daughter, Katy, and my beloved son-in-law, Scott. This was the BEST interruption EVER, and after hours of sleep deprivation I welcomed getting back to the drawing board. How fortunate am I to have illustration work as my day job?!! 

Would love to hear your comments :o). And if you're not "following" PLEASE do!

ILLUSTRATING A NEW CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOK .... GOING SOUTH

Just when I'm in the middle of putting on a new hat — as my brain makes a hard left turn away from Creativity Blvd, a new project comes up and I find myself making a U turn to get back into the right-hand lane! Simply put... I'm going from making calls marketing my Just...in case Emergency I.D. product, to illustrating a children's picture book. Two very different hats! Sort of like comparing a solid black helmet to a wildly colorful headdress with feathers and rhinestones! Being the salesman that I'm NOT, I prefer the latter. So, when I was contacted by the author of this book, with questions and details of her project, that heavy helmet started slowly sliding over, making room for the feathery new one.

The book practically speaks to me with a Southern accent, since the manuscript is targeted to parents of little boys living in the South. The author is a dream client - almost too good to be true, which makes the drive I'm on more of a joy ride than being in a traffic jam on the Brooklyn Bridge. We'll see how it goes.  Stay tuned.

And so it begins ...

SWEETS for the sweet ... topic for Illustration Friday

Ya can't get much "sweet"er than this!

THIRD BALLERINA IN

I showed this sketch to my Laney last night when she graced me with her company, and it got her little stamp of approval! Then I got news from her mom that starting late June she'll be taking her first ballet class. Can't wait!! I'm thinking I'll do another series - but this time of tiny ballerinas. I love their tenacious little ways of trying soooo hard to get it right - without losing their balance! 

THE GRACEFUL ART OF LITTLE BALLERINAS

I raised two daughters ... and granted it had it's emotional downpours from the typical stuff girls are made of, but it's all I really knew. I knew Barbie dolls and puppet shows and the giggles of girlie things. But years later, when my firstborn had her firstborn - a son .... then another son.... and then another, life became an explosion of wrestling and loud video games and "men". You know, Spider Man, The Hulk, Darth Vader .... on the opposite spectrum of The Barbie, Cabbage Patch, and Strawberry Shortcake. And my drawings reflected it. Monkeys, bears - no flowers, no frills.

Then along came Delaney. A very, very Girlie-girl, gifted by my second-born daughter. A child who glided across the floor post-first steps, delicately carrying her little purse inside the crook of her elbow. Not a Spider Man bone in her body. And then one day, not long after her 2nd birthday, her mother introduced her to ballet, the Nutcracker, at our local theater. And that's all she wrote! The living room ottoman is her "stage", as she appears ballet'd up in her pink dance slippers and sparkly blue dress, doing her miniature contortions with the grand finale of a tiny graceful bow.

    

Now THAT'S inspiration for some fun stuff! - Wall Art for the little ballerina's room. 

First stage, pencil sketches ... more to come:

P.S. If you're with children who do ballet, I'd love to hear your feedback!

Delaney ... choreographer, dancer.

BACK TO LOGO MAKING

Creating logos hasn't always been my favorite type of work. They're often serious and technical ... but not this last one that I just finished. It helped that the person who hired me was on the same wave length as I - wanting to incorporate humor. Sometimes goofy is good, and in this case I'm thinking the look pops in a way that will draw attention to his new business. It's always such a rewarding feeling to give my artwork a good home where it's especially appreciated. I wish this entrepreneur the best - it's a dynamite idea for a business!

THE ART OF MONKEYS

I have to say that the animal that I've always had the least amount of desire to draw has been the monkey. I'm not sure why, but it's just never appealed to me.  How Murphy's Law'ish that I was asked for a picture featuring not one, but THREE monkeys as a piece of wall art. Enter: PROCRASTINATION... and finally SUB... quiver,quiver ...MISSION.

The good thing about this piece is the fun I had with it - having just added soft pastel pencils to my art medium list. What a difference in confidence while painting a flat dark colored base for the characters! Since the chalky pastels do wonders for highlighting - and can be worked with, I had no anxiety of putting down the darkest color brown for my first monkey attempt. . . I knew I could work with it without feeling "stuck" with the flat color. Such a great discovery for future projects!

HEAR NO EVIL, SEE NO EVIL, SPEAK NO EVIL

GETTING OLDer IN THE EYES OF AN ARTIST

Turning 70 isn't funny to most people, but it could be - especially when a new member of the 7th decade gets a picture for their birthday that brings out some funny stuff about them.

I've been hired to do just this a couple of times this year, and have done others through the years as my own "Thank you" gift created for special friends. It helps that I have a personality that has a strong propensity to tease. And really, that's basically what these kinds of pictures are all about. A sense of humor by the receiver is a MUST!

In this case, the gal who hired me (the daughter-in-law of the target character) emailed me photos of all the visuals and a list of the person's "likes" - including food and drink. She even sent me images of the shopping logos!! A dream client!! Everything you see in this picture has meaning. I had so much fun with this!! The trick is to integrate the "list" into a theme that makes sense. In this case, a shopping spree with a broken grocery bag where her favorite foods have fallen for easy viewing.

The finished picture:

CLICK ON PICTURE TO ENLARGE

And some images I was sent for referral:

One Dentist Sold!

Last night brought me a nice surprise.... my first wall print sale on Etsy! Very exciting! This was the print that was ordered.

FOR SALE!

After overusing my underused left side of the brain, and with the selfless help of a smart, very dear friend, I finally did all the calculating necessary to put up an online shop for my products and art - including holiday pics. So today is the GRAND OPENING of my newly published website! This was one of my New Year's resolutions for 2012. . . . . made it JUST in time! Check it out :o)

FARM ANIMALS FOR BABY'S NURSERY

Shhh.... don't wake the baby! I had to quietly put my brush to the canvas for this one - and as it turned out, the painting fell asleep for a few months as I worked on other projects. Now it's ready to put in my online gallery store weefive.com which is almost ready for its Grand Opening. 

A SNOWMAN FOR THE BIRDS

 

Some say "Watch the birdie", I say, "Watch OUT birdie!!" It's a game of wants: The cat wants the bird, the bird wants the flower, and the child wants a prize for building the best snow-lady. Whoops! ... KERTHUMP ... not gonna happen!

SAY IT WITH CHARACTER

In early August I attended my first SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) conference. It took place in Century City, CA at the Century Plaza Hotel - about 35 minutes from where I live. 

From Friday through Sunday I was privy to watching successful children's book writers and illustrators speak to an audience of over 1,000, followed by "classrooms" of a vast variety of workshops headed by key people in the industry. It was FANTASTIC, to say the least!! I came back each night - Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, pumped up from all that I'd learned. A big part of this was their Portfolio Showcase, for which I had prepared my own portfolio and book dummy. The Showcase was held in a room filled with long tables holding the portfolios, dummies, and stacks of business cards of each participant, meticulously organized in alphabetical order by the committee. The purpose of the exhibit was to have the work of illustrators and illustrator/writers seen by editors, art directors, etc. from various children's book publishing houses - and by their peers. All I can say is there was beautiful work everywhere!!! 

When it was over I felt motivated to come up with new characters showing a grateful group of children (background excluded) excited by this mind boggling conference, and as I created each one I felt the joy all over again of that very special experience. 

CHARACTER UNDERCOVER

He's a bit embarrassed about his spiky hair.

After a pretty long absence from Blogger I thought I'd check in. I've been working long hours, and by the time I would normally be doing a blog my forehead's in the sleep-deprived motion of hitting my work table. I'm actually preparing for the big L.A. SCBWI conference at the beginning of August, and there's lots on my plate to do! I'd rather be eating something off my plate, but that's another story. I must be over tired.... that was really corny, but I'm keeping it in, cuz food is one of my great loves, and during my breaks I've been doing some yummy "American Test Kitchen" cooking. It's great diversion, and wonderful therapy after hours of intense detail work with my pencil & eraser!

The good thing about all this drawing time is that I've been forced to keep on track - pretty much eating and sleeping my work, and I've found that all this consistency is making me faster and my work looser. I only have a very few more sketches to go, and then the book dummy will be ready to go.

Oh.... here's Pickles - he popped off the paper onto my computer screen! We're getting to be very close.

After the kill.

MY  FIRST PICKLES CHARACTER - drawn many years ago.

PICKLES IN A PICKLE

I've been working on my book dummy. Thank you Photoshop for all your help! This was done completely piece-meal - lots of paths going on here. And Pickles, for a moment, was modeled by a memory or two of my own as a child.... I was skinny then, when all my friends were getting curves! Names like "Toothpick", "Boney Maroney", and "Pirate with a Sunken Chest" come to mind. ;o)

ERNEST HEMINGWAY IN THE WORKS

The other afternoon, as I walked into the home of My Three Grandsons, I was handed a stack of paper by my 8 year old, Jace - before I could put my purse down. 

"I wrote a story in class today, Mammy. Look!" Here's a boy who adamantly tells everyone that he HATES to write!

I read it. "It's brilliant!" I told him with pure sincerity and excitement .... "BRILLIANT!!" I repeated. He might as well have written a Pulitzer Prize winner.

I know one thing, I'll never think of the sun and the moon in the same way. 

                   

NEW PAGE FOR PICKLES

I've been working on a picture book, Pickles & the Poof for several years now ----- on & off. My daughter, Jeana, came up with the idea for the story, and I put it into rhyme. I'm a little obsessed with it, and have made so many changes I should be burned out by now.... but I'm not. Maybe I'm being influenced by a Lucy/Charlie Brown poster that hangs to the left of me as I work. Lucy's giving Charlie the eye, holding the football up for him to kick. We all know where that's going. In big bold letters are the words NEVER EVER EVER GIVE UP!  Which leads me to this new page in the story.

HERE'S TO THE HENS!

Has anyone ever thought about what the mothers of the Easter eggs are thinking on this day? Hmmmm ......