Illustration Friday - Communicate

When I was a little girl, I loved the movie Bambi. One particular scene that sticks with me after all these years, is when Thumper the rabbit says something unkind about the odor surrounding Flower the skunk. Thumper's mother says "Thumper, what have I always told you?" Thumper scuffs the ground with his foot and sheepishly recites "If ya can't say sumpin' nice, then don't say nuffin' at all". It seemed like good advice way back then, and still seems so today. This is an illustration of the most vicious and cruel form of communication - gossip. It's never kind and serves no real purpose other than to make one person feel better at the expense of another. Thumper and his mother had it right, and I hope I always remember it.

This is done with watercolor pencil in my Paperblanks journal (no water). This is my first real attempt at cartooning. It's not nearly so easy as it looks, there is much erasing here. But I really enjoyed doing it, and will continue to practice.

Illustration Friday - Gravity

Sometimes we can escape gravity using mechanical devices. But I think that the opposite of gravity is art, for it lifts our spirits and lightens our souls.

"But not only medicine, engineering, and painting are arts; living itself is an art." Erich Fromm

Year of the Boar

On Sunday, we went to Chinatown for the celebration of the new year. There were dragon dances and drumming, red and white good fortune balloons, many booths set up to sell trinkets. We bought small glass representations of our years. Just before the parade began, the wind came up fast and fierce and blew 10 or so sheets of plywood from the twentieth floor of a high rise under construction. They flew about and landed right where thousands of people were thronging. Miraculously, no one was injured! But it was an interesting start to the Year of the Boar, said to be a year when disasters would occcur.

EDM 106 - Something Sour

This is my favorite margarita, the way they make them at the resorts in Mexico. No slush, no sugar - just tequila, lime juice, salt, and a slice. Delicious and tart and refreshing. My all time favorite drink. The glass is that wonderful Mexican type of heavy glass with that brilliant blue edging, and is handmade so it's slightly crooked and quirky.

Watercolor in the Aquabee sketchbook.

Illustration Friday - Crash

I am the proud, yet exhausted handmaiden of a 7 month kitten now known as Holly-the-Crash. I was going to illustrate Holly's first crash and was setting up to get started. Holly reached up to the table with a deft paw and the metal box of watercolor crayons went crashing to the floor. As I bent to retrieve them, she seized the opportunity to jump onto the table and drink from the jar of water I was using. When I chased her off the table, she snagged a couple of paint brushes on her way down. With all four feet firmly on the ground, she chased the scattered pencils and brushes all about the room. She's a delightful cat, and I love her exuberance and inquisitiveness, but sometimes... And then I remember the Cat Creed "The whole world is a cat toy".

This isn't really very good, and I'm not really happy about it. Her ears are all wrong, I think. I'll keep practising.

EDM Challenge 105 - Scissors

I thought this would be an easy one to do, but I was wrong about that. Following all those curved lines was very difficult for me to do. This is not bad, but it is my third attempt at it. The first was terrible. But I did learn a lot about drawing what the eye sees, and following lines and shadows. Good practice.

This is watercolor and pigma pen in my Aquabee Sketchbook. I enhanced the color a bit in the scan just so the contrast shows up a bit better.

EDM Challenge 104 - Salt and Pepper Shakers

This is our pepper grinder, we don't have salt and pepper shakers anymore. We like the freshly ground pepper and we rarely use salt anymore. When we do it comes from the box. This was a bit difficult for me because the grinder is made of translucent plastic with silver trimmings. I'm not familiar with painting either one of those. But that's why they are "challenges" rather than "easies". I learned a lot about looking carefully for reflections and shadows. An excellent learning experience, using watercolor pencils and Pigma pen in an Aquabee sketchbook. The reflections and shadows are not showing up very well in the scan, however.

Illustration Friday - Sprout

This was so much fun to do. Plants are a favorite of mine - both to work with and to paint. I love doing the terracotta pots, and the little sprouts when their first leaves are that brilliant, fresh green.