IllustrationFriday: Little Things

Here's my series of the little things that are evidences of having little ones in a family:

To me, these little things are blessings.

IllustrationFriday: Excess

For "excess," I thought of a girl playing dress-up. This girl is 100% girl. You can buy this on a shirt for yourself (women's size) or for a girly girl you know (girl's size), in my shop. Since you're here, want to check out my new Christmas decorations ? :)

Christmas Decor

This year I've decorated for Christmas in all blue, with silver. There's a space on our large wall that I switch out a wall-hanging seasonally. I just made something blue to put there:

I had some blue fabric and ribbon from my chair slipcovers I made a couple years ago (they are below). I covered a piece of cardboard with the fabric and the ribbon then in the center put on 2 silver foliage "picks" (all assembled, in an assortment of colors and designs at walmart, 97 cents each). Then stuck on these decorative snowflakes I bought. Aren't glue guns great, you can adhere anything to anything. Here's a closeup:

And there it is on the wall, in context to the dining area.

(I love making different decorations in some themed color by gathering whatever I have already in those colors--any candles that are blue, a silver platter, a pine sprig from our tree, more of the above snowflakes, and another decorative foliage "pick", a blue Christmas card from a previous year framed on that shelf...) Here is that centerpiece on the table, closeup:

Here is the chair slipcovers I made a couple years ago; blue tone-on-tone fabric and satin ribbon. (Our dining set consists of a table my dad made when my parents first got married, and a set of old banquet-hall sort of chairs from a garage sale...so I made slipcovers)

In this vase I'm usually switching out seasonal decorations so for my blue theme I got some blue poinsettas (.94 cents at walmart) and also what I spread around with the snowflakes are some frosted pinecones.

So also our Christmas tree has all blue lights (we've always liked those, every year) and I'll be wrapping the presents under it in only blue paper. (Some are faintly seen down there). We just draw the line at restricting the ornaments to all blue, because I think it's more important with some things in your house to have sentimental ornaments or things that our kids make, etc.

All this and I said goodbye to my fall decorations (my favorite season!). Here's what my fall decor looked like-- the centerpiece on the table: I already had the candles, platter and fabric napkin. Added decorative fabric leaves I got last year and the walnut shells from our friendly neighborhood squirrel.

I switch out this shelf too: The left side is another already-assembled foliage decoration from walmart, and you can view/buy the vase here, and I added some pinecones we found:

The place where my new blue wall decoration is now, I had this art flag:

I got this great metal tree decoration by Kristina Frye for my birthday: (view/buy it here)

Here's that vase again, 2 foliage things I bought:

On another shelf of a "window" in the wall, another assembled foliage thing on top of more of those purple berry things above:

(Whew that was fun)...thanks for looking!!

IllustrationFriday: TheZoo

Coincidentally, the Friday we get the topic "The Zoo" was actually Black Friday. I immediately thought of the shopping malls being like a zoo! click to view larger, but here are some details:

Don't know if I'll be coloring this any time soon but I really enjoyed this!! I say the most fun about making an illustration is telling a story in a picture.

IllustrationFriday: Scale

I am always teaching my kids. I like to let my 3yearold weigh the produce on the scale at the store.

IllustrationFriday: Stuperstition

Around Christmas time, there's been a superstition since the Olde Tymes that you have to kiss whoever is standing under the Mistletoe. I was making this male cardinal as a secondary character in my new Christmas card illustration...thought I'd use him in this IllustrationFriday. The Christmas Card? I can't reveal that until after I've mailed it out to friends and family :) It's a surprise every year. Hey I finished last week's "Scale," view it here.

IllustrationFriday: Scale, line only

(I finished this one now--view it here)

IllustrationFriday: Trick or Treat

Drew this a couple years ago for line art on a flier for our annual harvest festival at church. Colored it for fun and practice. (Normally I have pencil line on top of my textures but this worked with no line.)

IllustrationFriday: Grow

When I plant, I see that area which appears empty on the surface, as it will be when it has grown. I love that this is how God sees us: not as we are right now but God sees us as who we will be! Here are some details... the thing that gave me the idea to do something farm-ish was also the part I was most excited about doing: the bandana/handkerchief print in it.

"For you [believer] are God's husbandry [cultivated field]; God's building." ~ 1Cor 3:9

Leaves

I love Autumn. These are a couple things I made for fun with pressed leaves that had fallen into our yard. The paper they're on is dark brown and shimmery. Nicer in person. I had a couple matching wooden 5x7 frames laying around...I don't know where i'll hang them yet or if I'll give them away.

(view this craft with TheSquirrel at BigandLittleArt)

IllustrationFriday: Extremes

Who to put on the highest peak, I thought of a Yak because of a book I'm writing that has a yak on a peak...

To counter this yak I thought of some creature that lives very deep down in the sea: an Angler fish. This also works in that their names are on opposite ends of the alphabet!

IllustrationFriday: Open

Watch out when you open your junk drawer. We all have one of those right? (click to view larger) I had so much fun making some dimensional art, using my hands instead of the computer. Just had the itch to try some "found object" art. Check out Holli Conger's awesome work here!

Junkin my Pumpkin

This was so fun! This is my pirate pumpkin. "PumpkinJunkin" is an idea from Holli, who is an awesome illustrator. You decorate your pumpkin with found objects. Join in on the fun here, Holli's first annual pumpkin junkin contest! and here are details:

this is the Squirrel's pumpkin

IllustrationFriday: Juggle

Juggle: my life as a stay-at-home mom/wife. [quick mixed media: photos, scanned fabric textures, pencil line, PhotoShop.] This is me juggling my life... I'm pulled in multiple directions. Some things that I juggle are relationships, feeding my family, art, chores, and play. Behind all this is a clock. Some real-life things I included in this are: the stuff at the bottom is a horizontal stack of diapers in our changing table. The basket of clothes is a real picture of one of the fast-filling laundry baskets in our house. The "floor" is a real photo of the toy-scattered carpet of our living room. The background is our wedding memory quilt which hangs in our house. [ask Linda about one here]. Also, "my" hair is made of a photo of my daughter's beautiful curls. The dishes are always waiting for me...forget those, they're not the picture. :) Anyway, the two heads in this are nothing but my being pulled in different directions...I am not a two-headed monster, don't have split personality and I don't call myself a gemini or any other astrological sign. Both faces in this have the same content/happy steadfast look because "we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We [the believers] are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." (2 corinthians 4:7-9) This is named "Juggle," not "Struggle" for me...... because They who wait upon the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] will renew their strength ; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. ~Isaiah 40:31

IllustrationFriday: Wedding

( i did not paint this :) This is an altered photo. This picture was taken of my daughter peeking out from behind the ring bearer before she took her brave little walk down the aisle in my brother's wedding this summer. I didn't have time to make a new illustration so I put artistic filters on this photo, exaggerated some things, enlarged their heads, and drew her basket, flower, petals, his bowtie and rings.

name tag

I've been tagged over at Becky's blog. Whoever reads this is also tagged! :) List one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. (my middle name is long!) Encourager, Learning Love, Introspective, Zebras are cool?, Artistic, Belongs to Christ, Edifier, Tranquil, Hopeful. If you do this, at the end of your blog post, choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and to read your blog.

IllustrationFriday: Momentum

Andy measures how far the momentum of the tree swing can launch his sister's doll.

To view my process of this illustration, click here!

My process of "Momentum"

Here's my process of creating my illustration "momentum:"

I started with a very rough thumbnail sketch.

I scanned in the thumbnail and printed it out larger. Then I worked roughly over that in pencil, refining and moving things. On top of that pencil work, I refined more with pen and made some more decisions. If you notice the boy's legs in the foreground I decided his position was too placid and my little pushing gesture is at the bottom.

I then worked on top of that with tracing paper to move things around and draw even more refined again.

After I scanned that in, I could move or shrink things with Photoshop instead of redrawing the entire boy smaller, for example. The changes here from the previous one are that I shrunk and moved the boy, and I tipped the swing and shortened the ropes.

And finally when I print that out, I can carefully draw the final line drawing exactly how I want it on another piece of tracing paper on top.

I scan the final line drawing and first do color testing with Photoshop--quick coloring in of areas with flat color and making color adjustments. Finally I make swatches of all colors to sample from for the final, then erase this temporary sloppy color.

I fill in each element by selecting an area one by one and "cutting" and "pasting in" different scanned fabrics.

Finally I add a lot of white to the edges of things, and my finishing touches for this one are little shines on some things.