IF: Music

My little parade of monkeys that I just finished is perfect for this topic. This monkey marching band enjoys entertaining the other jungle animals on holidays and special occasions!

This is a colored pencil drawing with a little bit of collage (the sheet music at the bottom). To see the personalized version, check it out in my shop. I think monkeys are my favorite animal to draw... after turtles of course!

Finally finished!

It seems that I've been working on these two drawings forever. I finally got them finished and then had several weeks of messing with them because I didn't like how the colors came out when they were printed. I LOVE teal and aqua colors, they are finding their way into a lot of my new stuff....but it's quite hard to make the printer show teal and aqua. Everything comes out blue. Blue is nice, but teal is AWESOME!

Turtle Girls of Summer (8x10 available in my shop)

Monkey Parade with Personalized Banner (8x10 available here)

A very Turtle-y Christmas!

I've been thinking about that small percentage of people (and I know you're out there...) that seem to be obsessed with turtles. And so I thought, what might a turtle-lovin' person want for Christmas? What might I give those adoring fans of the beautiful, docile, shell-sporting reptile......how about some ornaments!!!

This idea is not completely of my own invention. I saw some cool cube decorations and seeing as how all of my turtle illustrations are square (a framing nightmare by the way!) a wooden cube seemed to be just perfect for them. Add to that an obsession with pretty paper and a desire to learn the "distressed" technique and there you have it.....country style Turtle Christmas ornaments!

The large size is available in my Etsy shop now. I'll be adding some smaller fun ones soon. And not all turtles either. Did I mention that Turtle Holiay Card sets with awesome metallic envelopes are available now too! Oooooooh.....sparkly!

Sugarloaf Craft Fair 2009!

I had the privelege of a mother-daughter date to the Sugarloaf Craft Festival last weekend. Sugarloaf is a HUGE juried fair with hundreds of vendors and activities. We haven't made the trip in a while but now that my mom and I have been delving into the craft fair world we decided to check out the BIG one!

Of course there was amazing amounts of jewelry, photography, woodworking, clothing, and art. The best part for us was the time we had together and talking to people that we look up to in the business. Mom got to talk to one of the 5th generation owners of Pretty Baby Soaps. And I got to see one of my favorite artists, Eric Sturtevant!

It was great seeing them do their thing and also encourage our efforts in the business. Eric mentioned and I agree that finding a mentor is key. It is wonderful when artists who are succeeding are willing to share their story and their advice with us...the confused yet hopeful crowd who is just starting out. One theme remains clear....this is really HARD work!

Random Fall-y Goodness

Some tidbits from fall so far....

going from full time to part time at work means surprises when I come in, like a desk drawer full of nuts for instance....

discussions on being thankful for what we have with the blue-eyed baby...

distracting the panda-dog from her tail boo-boo...she's convinced her tail is not her friend...

dressing up as the older versions of Charlie Brown and Lucy VanPelt for Katie's birthday party...the subsequent bring-your-wig-to-work pictures are too scary for the internet.....let's just say certain ladies wigs are not meant to be worn by men...

vibrant, gorgeous fall leaves fluttering down around New England houses (no, this is not our house!)....

and YUM, last but not least...a newfound enthusiasm for baking....whole wheat pumpkin muffins...mmmm-mmmmmmmmm!

Happy Autumn!

IF: Skinny

Long, lean Lenny loved the autumn. He loved wrapping his long, skinny orange scarf about his neck and trundling outside to watch the leaves dance for him. “They’re so graceful” he thought, as he reached out and let the leaves land on his tongue. Crunch, Crunch.“And tasty. Mmmm….Tastes like red.”

Yippee!!! A little IF illustration after hours and hours of sketching other ideas! Have you ever really studied a llama?! Wow. What character! I know a certain friend might really like Lenny....!!!