Calm and Bright

After being super busy with a recent project, I got to do some work just for me today :) Here's one inspired by Christmas Carol lyrics

Foxes Under the Mistletoe

We're back from vacation, we're all decorated for Christmas, and I finally have something finished to post!  Yay! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'll be traveling tomorrow, so you all get the Thanksgiving card reveal a day early! :)

That Time of the Year

This time of year, all the squirrels are fattening up for winter and I say, twice the size equals twice as cute :)

Snow White

The Sketch Dailies prompt on Friday was Snow White.  I got this image of a wintry scene in my head, so here she is:

Mother Goose Day

It's the day of the Annual Mother Goose Parade in El Cajon, CA (just around the corner from where I grew up) :)

World Hello Day

HELLO!
It was fun learning how to say hello in some different languages today :)  And I enjoyed the reason behind today's holiday being about how communication can lead to peace, so say make someone's day and say "hello!"

Rafiki Sketch Daily

The prompt for Sketch Dailies today was Rafiki, which made me think of the part in the Lion King that he points Simba to the river and says "Look harder..."  So I wanted to show him saying that in a different context.  I imagined him telling his son or grandson (since he seems kind of old) to look harder for something they lost.  Which is exactly what my mom would always say to me when I'd lose something. :) how wise

Summary of yesterday for me

So, on Wednesday, everyone said it was going to snow on Thursday.  "Blizzard like conditions" ended up just being a little bit of freezing rain, so I felt like this all day...

"Umm, hello, yes, I'm looking for the snow..."

Witch Doctor

Here's one for Sketch Dailies, a witch doctor and his apprentice(s):

Cliche Day

Here's a quick watercolor sketch for today's holiday, Cliche Day.  "All dressed up with no where to go."

PiBoIdMo

Picture Book Idea Month starts tomorrow!  This will be my second year participating and I'm super excited!  Last year it was really challenging, really fun, and I got a few great ideas out of it that turned into actual stories :)  Let's do this!

Happy Halloween!

Happy National Candy Corn Day!

YUM! :)

Shadows

Here's my finished drawing for a spread from a book I'm creating.  Now I have to decide what if any color to add to it and how... hmmmm.

Dessert Day Painted

Here is my Dessert Day piece finished up.  It's not quite what I was hoping for, but we press on :)

Count Your Buttons Day

Sketch for SketchDailies Inktober

Today's prompt was scarecrow:

Rainforest Day!

I'm one of those people that has one supreme favorite animal (giraffe, of course) and a bunch of other sub favorite animals, organized by region.  Two of my favorite rainforest animals are sloths and toucans, so I thought it would be fun to draw them for Rainforest Day.  Then I had the idea of a toucan trying to be like a sloth:

Quick Sketch

There's a picture of my nephew on my calendar this month from when he first tried on his Halloween costume last year.  I decided to do a quick sketch of it today because it was so darn cute.

National Dessert Day

Just a sketch for today but I might go back and finish this one up another day.

Frankenstein Monster Date

This was for today's Sketch Dailies theme, Bride of Frankenstein

Halloween Card Revised

I think this is it.  Now to add the text and we're done! :)

Halloween Postcard

I think this might be it, but I'm going to take a step back for a couple days and see if I come up with anything else I want to do to it.

Bathtub Day!

Look at the Leaves Day

I'm a day late getting this one up here, but here it is:

I've had one of those weeks where I really feel like I'm fighting my materials so it was super nice to make something I'm happy with today and to have fun doing it :)
PS Can you tell fall is my favorite time of year in Oregon.  Most of my pieces lately have that theme :)

Homemade Cookie Day

Here's a sketch of a little bear cub who stole one of mama bear's homemade cookies.  Maybe I'll play with taking it to color another day.

Read a Child a Book You Like Day

Here's a rabbit reading a book I think they'd be very fond of and that I love, Watership Down, to a little bunny.

Save the Koala Day

In honor of today's holiday, here's a koala ball :)

Time for a new postcard

Here's the sketch for my Halloween promotional postcards

Blanket Weather

It's not quite here yet, but these past couple of gloomy days reminded me that blanket weather is just around the corner...

...and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Forest Walk

This one was inspired by afternoon playtime with Scout in the park near our house.

Warm Up Sketch: My favorite piece of clothing today

There's a fox on my sock!!  It's a cloudy cool day today so I decided to bust out my new socks and my old sweats.

Another Fall Inspired One

A little inspiration

Some great thoughts from Don Freeman, author of "Corduroy," from a lecture on the creation of children's books:
  "Since I never write a story concocted for young tots, I have the satisfaction of trying to please myself first and foremost. This is the crux of the whole message I wish to leave. The writer should, according to the way I feel at least, endeavor to please him or herself. Hopefully, you as the writer, ought to be extremely tough to please!"

  "Freedom isn’t always easy to grapple with because to make full use of freedom of expression one has to work all the harder to examine what it is you truly wish to say. In essence, creating your own story is hard work and I urge anyone of you entering this field to realize the dedication and labor it takes.  
  Perhaps it would be helpful if I told you not to be anxious about sending off a story immediately after you think you are finished. My advice would be to let it linger a little longer in your hands, or even to put it away for a week or so. You just might be surprised when you pick it up later how you could better the story. "

"I recommend that you give yourself a chance to reflect on the merits of your manuscript, and to gain a new perspective. You may just decide to reject your own work, thus depriving an editor of the opportunity to do so.
  I hope this does not sound too cynical. From my long association with editors and publishers I find them to be quite human and easy to deal with. Some of you might have the mistaken notion that they are ferocious folk who enjoy sending out rejection slips when actually know for a fact that they are as eager to get your story as you are form them to see it."

  "I have not revealed anything about why I write these books for children! Maybe I have resisted speaking of the reason simply because I am not sure why except that it seems impossible for me to draw the line between so-called reality and fantasy. Even if I could draw the line I would not want to."

Talk Like a Pirate Day

HARDY HAR HAR!!!!  That's what I thought when I read this joke:

Monday was Dot Day

A little delayed on this one, but Monday was Dot Day and when I think dots, I think Seurat :)

Quick Sketch

Here's a quick watercolor sketch from this morning

Fall is in the air

It's starting to feel like fall is just around the corner, so I thought I'd create a piece with that kind of feeling.

National Dog Day

Uh oh...looks like someone has a new teddy bear.

Pluto Demoted Day

Poor Pluto!  You're still one of my favorite "planets."

Senior Citizen Day

Here's a tribute to my favorite senior citizen gals of all time:

Happy Lemonade Day!

I imagine this at the top of the page for a chapter called, "The Lemonade Showdown."

Sad Fynn

I just got back this weekend from visiting my family in Arizona and the last day I was there, this is what my nephew did in the car.  He said, "I'm sad."  Then when we asked why, he said, "I want to go swimming."  I haven't even fully captured how serious and pensive he got when he said this, but this sketch gives you a general idea :)

Just for fun

Yesterday was National Lazy Day

Play in the Sand Day

Date to Create!

Three Bears Bare it All!

It's National Underwear Day!

Finished Spread

Here is the spread from yesterday finished.  I'm very happy with it and I'm super excited to work on the rest of the book now :)