Illustration Friday "Soar"

Hello! This is for this week's Illustration Friday theme - SOAR

Special Holiday Sale - .99 on digital watercolor clip art sheets until 12/14

I'm having a special holiday sale on all of my digital watercolor clip art.

It's available in my Etsy store here.

I don't plan on having another sale on clipart for a while so get it for .99 per sheet while you can!

Sign up for my newsletter here if you would like to receive special discounts for my subscribers.

Recap of Southwest Iowa Art Tour

Inside the new gallery, Fine Art on Fifth

This past weekend was the second year of the Southwest Iowa Art Tour which included ten communities.

I had the pleasure of being in Malvern, Iowa for the second year and all of us displaying were in both the Classic Cafe, a local restaurant, as well as at the new art gallery, Fine Art on Fifth. We were so thrilled by the number of people who came through Malvern to see the art and make purchases for their homes. There was a steady stream of enthusiastic people the whole weekend. The people are why I love living in the Midwest (it's definitely not for the cold!) 

This weekend was the soft opening of the new gallery which has lived many different lives from housing junk to being a laundromat and a chicken hatchery! With rustic walls of brick and up-cycled barn wood, it is being transformed into a charming creative space. A group of us whipped it into shape last Friday filling it with paintings, prints, and 3-d work by a dozen area artists.

One of my good friends, Marge Boska, is going to be the proprietor and we are all excited by the enthusiastic support from Malvern residents as well as those in surrounding communities. The grand opening is scheduled for early November to coincide with Malvern's beloved local artist, Zack Jones' holiday open house at his Art Church. I plan on both showing in the gallery and offering watercolor classes. I will keep you updated.

I'm calling SWI Art Tour 2015 a success. We had perfect weather and this introvert thoroughly enjoyed her weekend visiting with everyone who came through Malvern on the Southwest Iowa Art Tour. And warmest thanks to those of you who purchased artwork from me and signed up for my monthly newsletter. I wouldn't be here without your continuing support. ;)

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Four years later....

What if you could step back and see the full value that challenge has added to your life? You would seek it out endlessly. ~Ralph Marston  greatday.com

Yesterday I realized that just 4 years ago I was getting ready to quit my job so I could attend school full time and finish my degree in graphic design. That time in my life feels like so long ago but then it doesn't seem like so long ago. Looking back I would never have guessed that I would be in the middle of illustrating 3 children's books four years later, but that's what I'm doing! 

I just finished the first one about four horses. The author was a pleasure to work with. My clients have been extraordinary. I really am so grateful.

Finished illustrations for The Tale of Josephine Rose: A Horse's Magical Neigh

Next on my plate involves a little bee and a disgruntled pig and then a precocious little girl who loves math. Both should be lots of fun. 

Proposed Copyright Legislation not favorable to artists

This is so important that I wanted to share it in case you aren't already aware of discussions concerning possible changes to artists' copyrights. It would be very unfavorable to artists if it were to pass. Will Terry interviewed Brad Holland, a well known editorial illustrator who has been very active in standing up for artists' rights regarding these legislation talks.

Please consider sending a letter to the copyright office, but it is due on July 23 - only two days away! There are lots of other links to more information including sample letters on Will Terry's YouTube page.

Submit your letter here!
http://copyright.gov/policy/visualwor...

Will Terry Interviews Brad Holland on possible change to artists' copyrights

Wishing you a safe and happy 4th of July

Happy Father's Day to all you Dad's out there!

This is my son and husband on a recent night fishing.

A peek at my latest illustration project

Here is a peek at my current project - three children's illustrations centered around a big black Newfoundland dog. 

May has been a fishy month

The prevailing theme of my May was fish, Fish and FISH.

It started the first week when my husband and I traveled to Kearney, NE to spend two days volunteering with the Nebraska Game and Parks at their Kearney Fishing Expo. We were assigned to the Fish Prints Tent where we helped groups of school kids make fish prints on newsprint. I was excited at the thought of using real fish to make prints on paper, but once I got there and started working with the kids, I realized that using the rubber fish we had was a good thing. Here I am below with my two prints which I brought home, scanned and played with in Photoshop. They made interesting images for Father's Day art.

Little Girl Fishing on Etsy

More fish came to play in my studio mid-May. I have been getting newsletters from Spoonflower, a fabric company in North Carolina, for some time and have been wanting to participate in their weekly pattern design contests. They sell quilt fabric and have prompts for designs every week and the designers can have their own shop and sell their designs as fabric, wrapping paper and wall paper. I started playing around last year with teaching myself via YouTube and Google how to make patterns in Photoshop and I really like it... so in mid-May Spoonflower had a mermaid design contest which was sponsored by a manufacturer looking for a mermaid design for little girls' pajamas. I didn't win but I had a lot of fun making this - my first fabric pattern. I got my fat quarter sample in the mail today and it's gorgeous. I have a little shop on Spoonflower now where it is for sale.

So now I've officially got the pattern making bug! I submitted another design yesterday and started working on a third.

My June so far is looking like it will be filled with a variety of summery things - more mermaids, children, dogs, hedgehogs and sandcastles. ;)

You can see my more art on my Facebook page.

And purchase art on my website or in my Etsy store.

Kearney Fishing Expo and Gyotaku Fish Prints

My husband and I are heading to Kearney, NE today to volunteer at the Fishing Expo. He will be helping kids to fish and I will be helping them to make fish prints. I believe we'll be making "gyotaku" which are Japanese fish prints where you actually use the fish to make the print. I was unfamiliar with this beautiful art form but thanks to good 'ol Google, I now have a better understanding and am really looking forward to helping make these. Below are some really beautiful gyotaku prints which I found online.

Sam Fenwick

Odessa Kelley 

Chesapeake Bay Fish Prints

Tiptoe through the Tulips

It's spring and the robins have been hopping around in my garden winding their way through the tulips and daffodils in search of unsuspecting worms. Thought I would do a series of birds after I finished the meadowlark for a client. So this is the second one. Even though I love doing splashy loose things with watercolor I find I have a natural tendency to paint "tight". I decided I'm going to quit fighting myself for now and go with it. Trying to decide what my next bird should be... If there is anyone still reading my blog, do you have a favorite? :)

This is the first bird painting I did earlier in April - a meadowlark I started for a client and ended up redoing much looser at her request, but this was my preference.

Illustration Friday: "Ruckus" Yay Spring!

I've spent that last couple of months with my many Snowmen friends (see all on Facebook) and last week sadly said goodbye to my snowmen for a bit and transitioned to Bunnies with this illustration - since I realized the other day that Easter is TWO WEEKS AWAY! Yikes.

The Illustration Friday theme this week is "ruckus" and I think this little Illo could fit. These bunnies first appeared in a my second Snowman Magic illustration and I am becoming very attached to them. I wish you all a very happy first couple days of Spring!

Illustration Friday "Ruckus"

St. John Ogilvie Children's Illustrations

March 10, 2015 is the 400th anniversary of the martyrdom of St. John Ogilvie of Scotland. The Jesuit Insitute in London commissioned me to do nine watercolor children's illustrations to accompany the story of St. John's life that children in their school were writing. It was really a great project and the priest I worked with was a wonderful client. You can see more of the illustrations in my portfolio gallery or go here to see the project on the Jesuit Institute website.

I'm celebrating today...

I'm celebrating today because...

1. It's Friday

2. I just finished a children's illustration project for the Society of Jesuits London about the life and martyrdom of St John Ogilvie that I've been working on for the past 4 months (some pics are posted on my website), and

3. It gave me a reason to paint another snowman ;)

Have a nice weekend!

January = Snowmen in Stripey Scarves

I've decided to post my blog both here and on my website so here I am. ;)

Snowmen are one of my favorite subjects to draw and paint so I thought after coming off of my "25 days of Santa" project in December which I juggled in between client projects, that January would be a good month for a smaller project.  (See the whole 25 Days of Santa Project on Pinterest.)

I have had a photo that my sister took years ago of my nephew standing next to a snowman that they built so I decided to finally do something with it. That first snowman was cute based on the one they built, but it wasn't very lifelike so I gave the next ones much more personality. I posted about six on my Facebook page and also listed them as a clip art collection in my Etsy store...And since it's just started snowing in Nebraska after a balmy January, there still may be a few snowmen to be born. 

I am most active on my Facebook page, so come on over if you want to see more watercolor illustration. ;)