vote early

Lilla Rogers asked the group of artists she represents to do a piece for a "vote early" campaign. I follow her blog on a regular basis because I admire so many of her artists and am constantly inspired by them. I was so inspired by this challenge that she gave them, I decided to do one of my own for this topic. (plus, I've already voted and want to encourage others to get out and vote, too!)
Done in Illustrator - I even made the background paper!

IF - repair

Even birds have to do some repair work around the house!

Still playing and learning in Illustrator. I thought I would do something simple and try out all the tools. It was harder than I wanted it to be! So much to learn and skills to master. This didn't turn out exactly how I imagined, but like I said...still learning. I tell ya, I am in AWE of all the vector artists out there that make it look sooooo easy.

witch girl

Whooo hooo! I did this all in Illustrator today! Still having trouble with that @#?%#@^! pen tool, so I used the pencil and shape tools for most of this. I've been wanting to do some Halloween designs, so this was a good reason to practice. I'm having a blast with it, I may never go back to Photoshop again. (sorry about that photoshop...I know we have been friends for a long time and you've been good to me, but my new friend Illustrator is just so cool and speedy!)

don't call me ma'am

I don't like being called ma'am. It happens every time I go to the grocery store and the well-meaning high school bag boys ask me "would you like help out to the car, ma'am?" or "how you doing today, ma'am?" I know they are trying to be polite and probably can't think what else to call me, but ma'am has got to go! I want to look around and see if there is someone else they are talking to. What does it really mean anyway? Short for Madame, right? Who calls anyone Madame any more! It's 2008, not the 1800's, people!

Anyway, I illustrated this little old lady, who I think could be called ma'am and that would make sense. I did this totally in Illustrator with my new skills I learned in the workshop I'm taking. It's not a fantastic illo or anything, but I gotta tell ya I'm proud of myself for actually getting a finished piece done in Illustrator! I used to open it up and get frustrated within 5 mins and quit, so this is a HUGE step for me! I can't wait to learn more and do more with this amazing program. Now, I just need to figure out making curves with the pen tool....arrgh!

IF - late

"I'm late, I'm late - for a very important date!"

This is an older image that I did just for fun a few months ago and I thought it was perfect for this week's theme on Illustration Friday. Alice in Wonderland is up at the top on my list of all around favorite stories due to it's rich characters and Lewis Carroll's wonderfully vivid imagination. It is an excellent story to illustrate and of course has been done so well numerous times. This is my humble attempt at illustrating one part of his great story.

I'm glad I had something to enter this week because I'm taking a 2 day workshop to learn how to use Illustrator. The 1st day was yesterday and the last day will be next Sat, so I'll be spending whatever free time I have this week practicing my new found skills. I learned so much the 1st day, but I think it will be a while before I will be able to use it to produce anything decent to post here. There is definitely a learning curve! So exciting, though! Hopefully, I will be able to share something soon, all done in Illustrator!

IF - strings

For Illustration Friday this week with the theme of "strings". I guess I cheated a bit, because this is really just "string"! Oh well, all I know is cats like to play with string and that's what I illustrated for this week.

custom holiday card

Here's a custom holiday card I'm doing for a local non-profit. I do the cards for my friend Stacey at Northwest Behavorial Assoc every year. They help families with children with autism get started with and maintain home-based therapy programs for their kids. Stacey and her staff have been helping us with our son, Derek, since he was 4 yrs old! He's 17 now, so that's a long partnership! We have really valued their expert advice over the years.

Have a great weekend everyone!

slideshow

how cool is this? check out my new slideshow that I put over on the sidebar, courtesy of slide.com. It was so easy to set up and the basic ones, like this - are free! sweet!

IF - sugary

My entry for Illustration Friday this week. I had fun with some lettering on this one. I really admire illustrators who do awesome lettering, like Linzie Hinter and Helen Dardik. (I love everything those two do!) They make it look so easy and guess what? It's not! I can't come close to anything they are doing, but I had a blast making this and I liked the challenge of adding in illos to the lettering. I learned a valuable lesson along the way on this one, too.

I started off coloring the lettering with just a transparent background, thinking I would just add the background color later. When I finally got to the point of adding the background, I found it difficult to find a color that worked well with all the colors I had chosen for the lettering. It took me forever to figure it out and I had to change some of the lettering colors to make it work. I was cursing myself for not thinking through my initial decision! Now I know - background color first!!!!