IF - adapt

For Illustration Friday this week - I've had to adapt to eating only on the left side of my mouth for the last few days. Everyone's heard about root canals, right? And many of you have had one, I suppose. But, did you know that the thingy that they put in the root during a root canal can break and eventually become infected and you then have to go in and have the whole root taken out? Yuck. Ugh. Gross. Yep, that's what I did for fun on Wed.

Loosey-goosey, painterly style.

IF - cracked

"A cracked sidewalk, a little boy and and old superstition make for some fun times! Step on a crack, break your mama's back!"

I actually posted this one for another IF challenge, like maybe a year ago, but it was great for the theme this week and I'm on the home stretch to finish the book I'm working on, so my focus is on that. When I first saw the theme word this week, I immediately thought of a plumber bending over and some kids cracking up off to the side. Oh, I wish I had time to work on that idea!

Have a great week everyone!

IF - contagious

"Petunia was contagious, so Wilber had to wear a mask around the farm for a whole week!"

My entry for Illustration Friday this week. A little commentary about swine flu. Playing with vector art.

new art

Here's some new art that I'm framing to take to the gallery at the art museum next week. I haven't done this kind of art for awhile, so it was fun to mix it up and get away from the computer for a few days. It took some time to get my groove on, I was a bit rusty, but I'm happy with the end result. I'm calling this series Weathered, because I used some sandpaper to distress the paint a little - this doesn't show so well in the photos, but the effect just tones down the color and softens the edges of the shapes.

These are mixed media - I used acrylic paint, stencils, collage with decorative paper, oil pastels, sandpaper and I scratched into it with a ink pen nib.

IF - parade

I couldn't let another week go buy without participating in Illustration Friday, so I went through my old illos and took bits and pieces of a few and came up with this...kinda funky and probably not what I would do if starting out fresh, but hey, it works and it was fun to do. And that's what this is all about anyway, having fun with no strings attached!

I'm making good progress on the book - (for those of you who don't know, I'm illustrating my 1st kids book right now) Whooo-hooo, I'm on pgs 24-25, out of 32. I'll be sharing a few sneaky peeks soon, I promise!

Hope all you moms had a good day today!

What do you do when you're getting a box ready to ship to your Mom for Mother's Day and you discover all you have is Holiday wrapping paper? As my friend Gail used to say whenever we were bored, "We could make something". It became a joke after awhile, but that's what I did. I made my own gift wrap using brown kraft paper and A Muse stamps. A little ribbon and a bit of raffia tied in there and they turned out very eco-chic, in my humble opinion.

And of course, I had to make a card. This picture of it is awful, don't know what happened there, but I printed out a small illo I did last year for a Dunkin Donuts Mother's Day gift card contest (I didn't win, darn it!), matted it with some A Muse cardstock, glued that onto some white cardstock and added a row of pink buttons along the bottom. Easy peasy and fun to do.

Look it, Gail...I made something!

final installment - nikki's photos

more fun photos from nikki...she's always taking photos of herself - like the top 2, some are really silly, some she manipulates on her mac to be more arty. The bottom 2 - another favorite thing of hers - taking photos of her friends, of course! I just thought these 2 were particularly interesting.

nikki's photos continued

more photos by emerging artist, Nicole Seven...don't you just love that term - emerging artist? It just sings with potential, like the person is just bursting with talent. (and of course, I think she is) I like these 3 for different reasons. The guitar I like for the graphic lines, the tree for the sharp contrast between the tree and the vivid blue of the sky and the faucet for it's quirkiness. Who would think to take a photo of a faucet and have it come out so cool? Nikki would, that's who.