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!