IF - Perspective

Lily - Original Graphite

Lily - Sepia Tone

Lily - Colored in Photoshop
Please click any drawing for more detail

Don't loose your perspective during the cold and snow 

spring flowers will be here before you know!

I had a difficult time deciding what to post this week for the theme perspective.  I must've gone through about 20 different ideas!  I finally chose to focus on something spring-like as we've all been looking forward to the warmer weather and some GREEN on the ground.  This is an Asian Lily I drew while taking classes at the New York Botanical Garden where I learned some serious observation skills.  Once again I couldn't help playing around in photoshop - for the full color version I used the airbrush tool (with the mouse! I really need one of those Wacom thingys!).  While I was coloring it, I couldn't help thinking of all those classic black and white movies all colored in by Ted Turner!

Contour Drawings

Please click for more detail

Many thanks to dthaase of  The Quotidian Journal  and Kinga of Now I will be an artist  for inspiring me to finally get back to basics and practice some more contour one line drawings.  I had forgotten how HARD this is!  Just proves I need to do it more.  Once I got started on the conch things got a lot easier, which surprised me because like the gourd it's much more complicated.  Then I realized - duh - there's more lines than spaces, so mistakes don't show up as much!  Anyway, it was fun...now on to more Monday Art Day!

Animal Wednesday - Cosmo's Job

A big thanks to Mim for letting me pariticipate in 'Animal Wednesday'.  I just asked and voila, here I am!  As many of you know, Cosmo and and I are a certified pet therapy team at one of our local hospitals.  I haven't posted about this important work we do for awhile, so I thought I'd take the opportunity here to re-introduce it. 

Cosmo is a wonderful therapy dog, his personality and temperament are perfect for the job.  Although he is a firecracker as soon as we make our way across the hospital parking lot, by the time we get home, he's pretty pooped.  Here he is, happy but a little droopy. I just love it that he gets his own badge!   

For those of you who are new to my blog or might have missed some of our stories,  when you have a moment, check out some of my previous posts: Nine Ferrets!, Pets or Angels?, and my unfinished series from Cosmo's point of view: Cosmo Considers - I, II and III.


As always a big thank you for stopping by to visit and sharing your thoughts!


PS - Although we are certified with Therapy Dogs Inc. Cosmo and I are going to be featured in the The Delta Society Blog sometime in the next couple of months!

The Truth Revealed!

I love cardinals!

Happy snowy Tuesday (at least here) everyone!  For those of you who are interested in my truth,  just go back here to the blog award post and scroll down all the way to the bottom in the comments.  Enjoy whatever weather you're having in your part of the world!

IF - Propagate

Everyone knows that washing your hands frequently 

prevents those pesky germs from propagating!

Blog Award!

Thank you to Weezel of  What Scares You?  for presenting me with this annoying prestigious blog award. In a few moments, I will be bestowing the honor on a few of you per the rules below.

 Here are the rules:
1. Thank the person who gave this to you.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you.
4. Tell up to six outrageous lies about yourself, and at least one outrageous truth.
5. Nominate seven "Creative Writers" who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies.
6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.


Ok...Here we go - As some of you may know in addition to the written and visual arts,  I am also passionate about music and love many, many different styles.   I  have also been a musician myself for many years.   Let's see if you can guess my truth!

1. I have played all four instruments above at one time or another.

2. My participation in a bell choir in high school was a complete waste of time. 

3. I love country music, especially Kenny Chesney.

4. I am a Rush groupie, concert coming up, backstage passes in the works.

5. I was extremely disappointed in both Broadway musicals The Phantom of the Opera and Wicked.

6. Our i-tunes library has only about 20-25 downloads.

7. I helped design that awesome dragon on the Asia album cover.

I nominate the following seven blogs  for the  'Creative Writing'  award....it was difficult because I love all your blogs!  Please check them out, I guarantee you will have fun the learn something!

Andrew Finnie:  Andrew Finnie, Artist and Illustrator

Debra Aungst: Life's Simple Pleasures

Jose Giammarino: Jose Giammarino

Jack Foster: Jacktoon Originals and Mr. Biblehead

Karen Whitaker: A Puddle of Crumbs

Krista Hamrick: Krista Hamrick Illustration

Shirley Ng-Benitez: Shirley's Illustrations

Have fun!

IF - Adrift

Please click for more detail

Once I decided on a space theme for this week's prompt, I had to choose whether or not to use black paper.  I opted not to as the colored papers tend to have a lot of tooth and I didn't relish applying 37 layers of white!  I encountered a similar problem anyway trying to lay down an opaque black with the colored pencil.  I went through three black pencils and many hours before I finally decided to try my hand at photoshop once again to help me out.  After finishing what I could with the colored pencil, and some trial and error, I finally achieved the result I wanted with the airbrush tool.  Does this thing make great stars or what?  Just for fun see if you can guess the constellation I added (in the lower right).  Sorry no prizes this time!


Many thanks to my friends Karen and Krista for their help and encouragement in my new journey with photoshop.  Aren't you proud of me girls?!  And a big thank you is also in order to my friend Nancy who is going to give me private photoshop lessons starting next month - hooray, I can't wait!  Have a wonderful week everyone!

Muddy - Completed

Here is my completed drawing of 'Muddy'.  The darker areas of the piece are quite a bit darker in reality, the muddy water in particular didn't translate well from the scanner eventhough I played around with the contrast/sat/brightness settings.  I seem to get much more accurate representations from the digital camera, but right now I'm too tired to deal with it! I'm pretty happy with it - thanks again everyone for taking the time to visit and leave a comment.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Muddy - Part II

Here is my continued progress for 'Muddy'.  This piece has been a joy to work on!  Once I get past the foundations of a drawing the real fun begins - I've been having a blast fleshing out the little details of the tree bark, roots and rocks.  I plan to add a few more stones and roots and add more depth and contrast to the muddy water, but I think Cosmo himself is pretty much a wrap.  For this drawing I've also tried a couple of new things - a new paper, 'Rising Stonehenge' (don't you love that name?!).  I'm liking it - the paper is nice and thick and has less of a tooth. I'm finding I'm able to get the darker colors more easily where I want them (like Cosmo's black areas) but still able to maintain the texture and softness where I want that.  I've heard mixed reviews of this paper from many professionals ranging from "It's the best" to "I hate it!".  Just like anything else, there's something for everyone!  I also implemented a technique called 'sgraffito' which can be applied to all mediums from painting to pottery.  I applied it here to the tiny tree roots and Cosmo's belly by taking a plain old exacto knife and scraping away the color.  I love going back and forth between techniques in a drawing, it's sort of like a 2D dance!  Any comments, critiques or suggestions are most welcome - enjoy!

IF - Muddy

A muddy embankment is certainly not enough to stop Cosmo

from investigating an alluring scent!

I'm much later in posting this than I'd like to be already, but I decided to enter this work in progress at the IF site anyway.  I need to add many layers of colored pencil to finish out the darker colors and add lots more details.  Will post the finish whenever it's done!

Monday Artday - Train

Please clean your port area with your cleansing stick

Some pretend it is a train moving very quick

The new prompt for 'Monday Artday' is train.  This is one of my illustrations from 'Infusion Time'.  It represents the part in the infusion process for a child with a port a cath (central line in the chest) when the area needs to be sterilized before the needle is inserted.  Another example of those brave kids!  Please click to see more detail.

Children's Book Week and Happy Birthday Norman Rockwell!

This first week in February seems to be quite momentous.  We of course have Groundhog Day (Oh that Phil!) and for you facebookies out there it's also "Doppelganger Week" where you post as your profile picture your celebrity look alike.  I'm sure there are other things we're supposed to be officially appreciating that I'm not aware of! Now it's come to my attention that in addition to these, it is also "Children's Author & Illustrator Week".  You can read more about this by following this link The Children's Authors Network.  As many of you know, I live and breath children's & YA books alike, but this week I really got to thinking what one of my favorites of the favorites is.  It was a really tough decision, as there are so many beloved tales, authors and illustrators out there.  I finally decided one of my all time favorite picture books is The Cookie Tree, by Jay Williams and Blake Hampton.  

The Cookie Tree by Jay Williams, Illustrated by Blake Hampton 

I devoured this book as a child over and over again.  The message is simple and fun and the illustrations are wonderful.  This book is out of print and many of you have probably never heard of it, but if you happen to find it in your local library, it's a gem!  I could go on and on about my favorite authors and illustrators, but will save you from that experience until another time.  

What are some of your favorite childhood books?  I'd love to know!

Also couldn't let the day go by without a happy birthday to Norman Rockwell who would have been 116 today!  One of America's most beloved illustrators, it's also hard to pick a favorite of his, but this is one of mine:

Gossip, by Norman Rockwell

I remember the first time I saw this image was on one of our area phone books growing up - pretty clever eh?  I just love all the wonderful expressions on the characters and how, as is often the case, the gossip gets back to the original source!  I was priveleged enough to see this original painting , and hundreds of others at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge MA, where Rockwell made his home for many years.  The website for the museum seems to be down at this posting, but the link to the museum shop is here.  If you're interested later, there is a direct link to the museum home which will hopefully be up and running today!

What are some of your Rockwell favorites?

Have a wonderful week everyone!

IF - Focused

You need to be quite focused to draw factor VIII into a syringe!

Unfortunately, I've had to turn my "focus" onto many other things this week, so must "draw" upon my portfolio for my IF entry.  I think it fits the theme really well though. Hats off to Nick, my eight year old neighbor (at that time) and model for this piece and to all the awesome kids out there, including my son, who focus weekly on their own treatment on top of everything else they do!