New Header! Yay!

Was futzin around with some site designs this evening, and thought I'd create a header image for my blog. Hope ya like!

(I'm stuck, as far as trying to center the image though.. argh... If you feel like sharing any pointers, I would really appreciate it!)

Pocoyo!!!

I've fallen for this little guy, his friends and his adventures.
Amazing how far and how successfully ZINKIA Entertainment, S.L., have come with the making of this animated show. It has hit many international markets already. I hope they start showing the show in U.S. soon!

You must check out their site and blog:
Zinkia Entertainment, S.L.,
Official Pocoyo Site
Pocoyo Blog

IF:Gravity

once the burden had been lifted, she felt as light as a feather and ran passionately without a care, spreading her new found joy!

jus' workin on my 'mad' illo skills.. gawwsh..

'more to come!!!

Happy 30th Birthday To Meeeeeeee!

Wow... I'm 30... I don't feel... 30... I hope I don't think I have to feel 30 from this point on.. although I have been noticing a few extra wrinkles around my face I could do without.. hhhmm..
I guess since I'm 30 know I can pass on some wise old wisdom to them yung'uns out there.. Age is just a number. Mind the simple pleasures. Life is about living out your passions.

As my wise aunt says.. "Live Passionately."

Happy Valentine's Day too! ♥

New sketch spreads from M2

Took some time this weekend to scan in some pages from my second moleskine, (if yer intuh-rested!)

So go grab some hot cocoa and sit yer butt down for some more fun sketchie randomness! That's one thing I've noticed with my sketch books is the amount of randomness there are in them. It's with me 24/7 and open so if a thought occurs I can quickly scribble it out!
I have to apologize for all the writing in them too.. I'm in planning and brainstorming mode, so you'll see a lot of notes-to-self.

The Doodle Monkey Dump

IF: Sprout

A second rendition has been done, per the critique of Bearuh on the ThreeThumbsUpGallery Blog. "Thats really great! I like tablet Pcs too! I recommend using your space more.. And maybe have the faces bigger for more of a focus point. AWESOME!"
Thanks Bearuh!
.....................................................................................................................................
Their feelings for each other sprouted out and was placed not only into each others hearts, but into everything they've ever loved in life.

*playin around with the new tablet.. i luuuuuv eeet! It really makes things so much easier for me, and can't see how I went so looong without having one.. well.. this size! :)

Here's the original sketch!

Hooray!!!

My parents came by today, bearing gifts '0' plenty! They gave J.D. his belated birthday gift, a beautiful pool cue rack and cocktail stirrers, and for me, something I've been hopping from foot to foot for since christmas (since they had to send in what they originally got for an exchange.) *eeeeee* I'm soooo excited!!! I finally have, and hooked up already, the WACOM 6x8 Intuos3 Pen Tablet... *sigh! I am in love with this thing! (I'm such a nerd!!!)
So as promised, I sent my parents the first thing I made with it!


Thanks Mom and Dad!!!

Hoo-Hoo

Had this little guy prepped on canvas for awhile, so while my husband hogged my computer to do taxes, I thought I'd finish him up.
He originated from an attempted sketch of a skull. I have this habit of putting random jibberish next the sketches that happen to be there when I think of the non-word.


So here's Hoo--Hoo. He likes the water, especially when bubbles float past him. His favorite food is fried calamari, and of course, loves long walks on the beach. He loves to talk about his adventures, so hope you're a good listener!

IF: Red

As she laid in the field of paper poppies, her worries and cares drifted away with the clouds that passed her by.

DC Art Org Show: FLUX: TONIGHT!!!

A one night art show happening in good 'ol VA, in the town of Clarendon. The show is taking place within an old body shop, with tons of DC area artists showcasing their work with the accompaniment of live performances.

I have a previous engagement, so won't be able to make it (believe me, I'm crying inside.)

It's a little last minute, but if you're in the DC metro area and want something fun to do, go to this show!

FLUX show info

Pan's Labyrinth

WOW! An incredibly fascinating story, that is a must-see. A friend and I went to see it yesterday afternoon, and I just fell in love with the story. It really blends the lines between fantasy and reality for this little girl, Ivana Baquero, who is a wonderful young actress. The imagination, creativity and amount of detail that went into the production of this film is magic in and of itself. The film is in spanish, but is subtitled.

Pan's Labyrinth site

IF: Super Hero

I don't have a particular super hero in tightie whities that I'm drawn too. Isabelle's super heroes are the everyday people and animals that are in her life. They've always been there to catch her when she fell. She's about to now; see her legs are kind of in a 'I need to go pee-pee stance!'
Needs a bit of work, but I really do like the overall idea. Thanks for lookin!

Home Project

We've repainted our upstairs guest bathroom all white, and it looks sooooo much better than it used too. There was a country blue floral border along the top, and the wall color was an off-white, brown, cream grossness. I wanted to puke every time I passed it. Well, since we were expecting guests to stay with us for awhile, we decided that now was the time to give it a bit of a face-lift. We took out the shiny brass sliding doors to the bathtub that had crackly glass and a delightful stenciling of flowers. blech.. Than we took out the 80's studio vanity lights, and the country bumpkin vanity mirror off the wall, and replaced it with what you see now. And we couldn't feel more refreshed with it.


In all the excitement, I painted a simple painting to put above the toilet. I'm still working on the small shelf that will be put below the painting to hold some small baskets of stuff.
Thought I'd share, since J.D. worked so hard to put it all together!

IF: 80's

Nana, who was in her 80's, didn't live in an area where a lot of people lived. Alfred, having the memory he has, baked a lovely cake for Nana for her Birthday.

IF: Buzz

Phew! I made it. I had this sketched out in my book all week, but only had time tonight to carry it out. I thought I'd try something different. Wanted to use colored paper and play with the negative space... obviously need a little more work.
I took a stencil tool and pushed the outline through velum onto the cardstock. Took a blue and green colored pencil to highlight the lines and shade the areas. After scanning it in, I did a little digital cleanup.

And for those of you who must know... if this were me, I would have pushed the clock over onto the floor by now!!! (I'm soooo not a morning person) :)

Nando: Clocky

anticipation is killin me...

well, first, my thoughtful parents got me a wacom intuos tablet for xmas this year.. unfortunately they had to return it to exchange it for a smaller one. So I've been waiting oh so patiently for that to arrive, so I can start playing around with it!!! Come on Mister Postman!!!

Secondly, I went out to Plaza Artist, and bought a new moleskine sketchbook. I've almost completed my first moleskine, (a large graph lined notebook), which has been a wonderful starter. It's also the first sketchbook I'll ever be completing, front to back, so this is a very exciting accomplishment for me! (it doesn't take much!)
This time I got the large sketchbook moleskine with plain thicker pages, so ink (hopefully) won't bleed thru. I'm dying to take it out of it's plastic sheeting, and open it.. feel the pages, take out all of my pens, pencil and markers and start experimenting with what works on its surface and what doesn't. oooh.. I'm sooo anxious to open it..

By the way.. I've updated my sketch dump blog if you were interested!

Cheers!

IF: Phoenix

there's always one in the bunch that wants to live on, so it found the Fountain 'O' Youth!

Yip-Yip, Hooray!!! One full year of blogging has past, and I'm still blogging! I have Illustration Friday to thank for keeping challenged. I also have you to thank for viewing my posts, leaving messages behind, that draw inspiration and motivation to keep sharing. Thanks for celebrating with me!!! Happy One Year Blog-iversary!!! Woot, Woot!

IF: Peace

IF: Help

This started out, last friday, as a few simple notes, then a head inspired by the cartoon Avatar. For the next four days I kind of let my mind go wherever it wanted. This is incredibly mindless, but it really helped me out, creatively, to just let my mind and hands do whatever without too much thought. It was a fun exercise. (By the way, this is a two page spread from my sketchbook, which is why there's the split down the middle.)

Here's another view of it sideways, so you can see the other face. Thought it looked kinda neat this way too.