IF - cars

When I first saw the Illustration Friday theme of the week - cars, I was pretty clueless on what to do. I even thought of passing this one up, until I heard Springsten's 'Pink Cadillac' on the radio, coming home from the grocery store yesterday. A pink cadillac and all the groovy design elements from the 50"s? Who could ask for anything more?

sweet shop

I just finished this illo that I've been working on for a about a week. (off and on) I gave myself this challenge - to illustrate an article for a magazine, about where to go in the city for the best treats. I wanted to use a limited color pallette, make the background and images somewhat painterly and of course make it fun and hip. I pictured it in my mind before I began and pretty much accomplished what I had envisioned, which isn't always the case! I'd love feedback on this...positive and negative. Don't be afraid to say what you think!

IF - signs

This week's Illustration Friday theme - signs. This is a commentary on the fact that many signs aren't obeyed or even read. In this case the offenders shown here - can't read! It seems like I am on a dog drawing kick. My next illo won't have one though, it's all about sweets! Come back and visit in a couple of days, if you like chocolate!

talking dog

A quick little illo I did a couple of days ago. When dogs bark, it always seem like they have a lot to say and it's important!

IF - citrus

I had just purchased some citrus blend flavored water bottles and stuck them in the fridge, when I checked the Illustration Friday site and found out the theme of the week was citrus. So, I decided to do an illo that could possibly accompany an article or ad about flavored waters. This was so fun to do...citrus colors and fruit shapes are just happy!

50 is the new 30!

I made this card real quick like in Photoshop for a friend who is turning 50 today! I used one of my 'neighbors' from my IF entry, posted below. I'm trying to be more loose with my art and doing quickie stuff like this is helpful. I know I don't want to spend too much time on the design, so it's more free and loose. (I think) Oh, and I did hear that 50 is the new 30!

IF - Neighbor

This week's theme for Illustration Friday is Neighbor and here's my entry. I did this in Photoshop and probably spent too much time on it, when I should have been doing other things, but I learned a lot along the way, so it was worth the time. I had a couple of those 'a ha!' moments when you figure something out, which are quite fun to have! I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out. I live in a neighborhood where I know a lot of my neighbors and are friends with quite a few of them, but I know many urban neighborhoods aren't like that and people just stay in their houses and never even say hello to the people around them. To me, that's so sad.

rainforest

I finished this new fine art piece a couple of days ago. I'm calling it 'rainforest' and its a 24" x 36" mixed media on paper. It's collage with decorative paper and acrylic paint. There's a little bit of pen drawing in there as well. It's a pretty big piece and took awhile to complete, but I love working on a larger scale sometimes, it nice to have some open spaces, so the elements can breathe. For anyone who might be interested, it's available at www.artquest.com along with a couple of other pieces of mine. Just go to Search for Art - Artist List and look under the S's for my name.

to do list

When I saw the theme of this week's Illustration Friday challenge - 'Remember', I thought of all the things I had to remember to do! I'm big on making lists, using post it notes and writing appts on my calendar, so this is what I came up with. I made all the background elements and sketched the face, then scanned it all in and finished it in Photoshop. Now to get back to all those things on my list!