Illustration Friday "Journey"

Last Friday's IF topic was Journey. These turn into week long projects for me and today is the deadline. This is a day in the life of my cat, Juliet. It's not a real traveling type of journey because she doesn't meander far from our yard but this is her world. She's a real character and I think I've captured her spirit and body language. That one of her lying on the patio is so typical with her long, lanky body relaxing in the sun. The life of a cat.

This second sketch was my idea for the previous week's topic "Bottled". I doodled while my husband and I drove down the Missouri Watercolor Society's Annual Show that weekend. I just had to chuckle because it looks so similar to the one that was chosen for IF's home page - I like mine better though. :) I'll paint this one up and try to get it posted in the next few days.

Watercolor painting of Lab Puppy - Mojave

My husband's co-worker let me paint her beautiful labrador puppy named Mojave. Isn't that a cool name? :)  I am selling prints in my Etsy store so if you love chocolate labs or you know someone who does, you can find them here .

Illustration Friday "Duet"

This weekend, it felt like spring. I had 4 crocus wake up this week and my daffodils are blooming. I hope you're feeling spring in your corner of the world, too.  :)

Illustration Friday - Toy

I find that the pieces I have the most fun with are usually inspired by things I'm familiar with. This one is inspired by our cat, Midnight. When we adopted her, her name was Spitfire because she liked to jump on this elderly lady's beehive hairdo. She still has a hair fetish, but thankfully she's doesn't jump on heads anymore. My kids liked the oh-so-original pet name of "Midnight" so she was rechristened and calmed down quite a bit after that and she grew up and became a plump housecat. The end. :)

Illustration Friday - Cultivate

Here is my illustration for Cultivate, inspired by my daughter and similar to the illustration in my sidebar. I'm kind of tickled with this character and have plans to use her in future illustrations. And I had to include our kitty, Juliet, trying to steal some affection though she is black in real life and I haven't quite figured out how to paint her as an illustration using black...yet. I'm thinking I may need to darken the values in this but here it is for now.

News Article about my illustration

Tess Sykes is my new best friend! She is a local writer who I met when she did a couple of stories  last year- one about a local art club that I belong to, Bellevue Artists Association and then another highlighting the watercolor class that I began teaching one year ago. She recently started a blog to review children's books and asked to interview me. I am really impressed with her writing. :) Everyone needs to know a person like Tess to cheer them on. Thank you, Tess!

http://kidsbookcritic.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/illustrated-by-kathy-jurek/

IF "Stir"

Where does the time go? I haven't posted for about 3 weeks but not because I haven't been painting. I've actually attempted the last two Illustration Fridays even reworking one a couple of time but I didn't think they were very successful so fast forward and we'll try "Stir". This reminded me of my husband's hunting dog who was a German Short Haired Pointer and a superior bird dog. He was really pretty, too, and thought he was a lap dog. I wish I had more pictures of him.