Wishing you a weeeee-filled Christmas

A quick sketch of joy for the holidays on this Christmas Eve. May you have a wonderful evening!

Holiday card collaging has begun

I've tried a variety of both digital and traditional ideas for our holiday cards this year, and I've decided to stick with traditional cut and paste. Using all of our scraps from unused painting and drawings, my son and I will be creating little collages of wintry, holiday scenes.

Below is one of my first. I title this one, "Dream Big This Year."

Closeup of my bird cutout

Tomie's Sneeze

Last year, when I saw other illustrators posting on Facebook about their entries to the Tomie dePaola Award, I felt wistful. I love his work, and my son and I have read Strega Nona's Harvest at least 100 times. I wanted to send something in to him too.

This year, I was reminded of the contest in Kathy Temean's informative blog, Writing and Illustrating. The contest this year was to illustrate a short poem, targeting a very young viewer. Square format, 8x8, and must either include this poem or leave room for it:

Sneeze

A sneeze

Is a breeze

In

Your

Nose. 

I've been on a real bird kick these days, and I started sketching bird ideas right away. With snow days and half days at my son's school, though, I didn't really get started until a couple of days ago, and its been a pretty intense few days of drawing and re-drawing.

Before submitting my final drawing last night (the deadline was midnight PST), I thought of all the elements I could have added. All the tiny details that would have made this more curious and intriguing. I became insecure and hesitant. I wondered if I should submit it at all. After about an hour of hemming and hawing, I decided to let the doubts go and ship it. At the very least, I will be more aware of adding those details on my next (and current) projects. Try, learn, improve. Repeat.

Below is my final drawing, as well as some of the sketches that got me there...

My final drawing.

This sketch has the sneeze going up his nose, instead of out. Oops. Redo.

One of my first sketches. Again, more of a hay fever-type of inhale-sneeze. Redo.

Finishing last week's bird illustration

Although I draw using traditional methods (generally with a Sharpie marker or Pilot Rollerball), in last week's bird illustration I had decided to add color traditionally as well, using watercolor. I enjoy watercoloring, but I was very aware at how long it was taking me. I felt confined by the paint's permanency, and not being free to hit Cmd+z and try something else. I just wasn't losing myself in this art, which is something I really love to do.

So, I switched gears, and began to color my illustration digitally. As I'd hoped, time slipped away, and I was immersed in the process. I felt light and happy, which I hope I conveyed through my bright red birds.

This work is titled "Birds in the Tree (Commit)," and is now also available as a print here.

Next week, I hope to focus on this year's holiday card. I'll be posting along the way.

Adding color

I've started to watercolor my bird drawing, moving along in phases. The yellows ended up with a much more greenish tone that I had wanted, and the transition to blue is a bit harsh, so I will probably digitally tweak the background. But I'll fill in the tree next and decide which colors feel unbalanced. More to follow!

Like finding an untouched page in a coloring book

Today's drawing has begun with a slight change. Instead of drawing with my black ink pen on 8-1/2 x 11 typing paper, which I scan and color digitally, I have started this piece on watercolor paper. I used a Sharpie (which won't bleed), and I'll be pulling out my watercolor palette shortly. I have a similar anticipation that I had when I was a kid, when I would find an untouched page in a thought-to-be-completed coloring book. I'll post the color results as soon as I can. Here is my drawing so far...

Advent calendar begins

Yay! It's December 2nd! We're a day late, but we've started creating our advent calendar for Archer. Last year, we made a Brooklyn-style brownstone facade out of a cereal box, with windows and doors that opened to reveal each day's surprise. We are in a new home this Christmas, and since we have a fire place and mantel, I've decided to use it as part of our advent calendar display.

Here's how its looking so far...

Today's star, #2, said "Choose 1 gift." Archer is starting to read, and it was so much fun to hear him sound this out, and then look around with excitement for where this gift might be. My husband made up a bowl of advent gifts, all with a different wrapping paper. Archer chose the brightly blue wrapped present, which was a collection of Eric Carle stories. Eric is one of my all-time favorites, and I cannot wait til Archer gets home from school so we can read them together.