Spring! Cometh!

 

 

Winter is on the way OUT!  I say this as a huge storm is coming into Colorado right NOW!!  No, I did not go to the grocery store in freak out mode stocking my cupboards. Instead, I spent a bit of time today digging in my garden resisting the urge to acknowledge the storm at all!  ha!

Alas, tonight I will hunker down with my pens and paper and continue to work towards deadlines for up and coming trade shows. That is the good thing about storms!  They keep me focused.  I wonder how many artists are like me?

I have one problem.  I can’t seem to go out to my studio to work.  It’s covered with papers, receipts, file folders etc.  It is my new book-keeping system in progress. Eeeeek!  My friend is helping me set up my Quick Books program.  She entered all my checks, deposits etc, and sent me the disk. I bought the program, installed it, imported my files… … then I went to reconcile the two bank statements that my friend did not add and suddenly I am thirty dollars off!  What on earth?  What could I have done?

So, I did what I do best,  I locked the studio door and went in the house. ha!  My right brain is not in the mood for numbers!  Happy Spring everyone!

 

He’s Here!

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Is Spring Springing?

I love flowers!

The weather is teasing me!  A warm day, a nice breeze, flowers peeking from the cold wet ground, and then WHAM! A freak snow storm!  Such is life in Colorado.  Peepsqueak is not worried.  As you can see in this picture, he is thrilled to find the first Spring flower.

Do you have any flowers up yet?  We only have a few tulips and iris peeking out of the dirt. Flowers are still a few weeks away.  I am ready!

 

I Remember When . . .

Oh little Peepsqueak.  This picture of you reminds me of something that happened to me when I was little.  We were visiting an aunt in Washington.  She had a rope that dangled from a tree in her backyard. She also had a big DOG that came running into the yard barking at ME!  I jumped on that rope and UP, UP, UP  I went!  I did not even know I could climb a rope!  I just did it!  ha ha!

Most of my art comes from my imagination, but it is also from my memories and from my life experiences. All that being said, I think I can still climb a rope!

A Defining A New Character

“Welcome to the studio, Dahlia!  I am so glad to meet you!  Your entrance made me smile! Now let’s get down to business!  Tell me about yourself? “.

When I create a new character I have to find out who they really are and what makes them tick! Will they be loud and boisterous?  Will they be shy and hold back? Will  they run to meet the world or hide behind trees and bushes?  It’s great fun to imagine!

Since Dahlia is new, let’s walk this process together. Let’s get a good look at her and ask ourselves some questions.

Here she is, in her great BIGness.  As you can see, Dahlia is running!  That gives us our first clue. She is ready to meet the world!

(Another little tidbit you can use when creating a character.  It is a link to writing a character profile. It can get your wheels turning!)

http://www.squidoo.com/CharacterProfiles

In order to decide WHO Dahlia is, I  look into her face. Her eyes are not like our eyes, but expression and body language are quite helpful.

Dahlia is running.  Dahlia is laughing.  Dalia is carrying a flower. Dahlia is practically leaping off the ground!  I can almost hear the ground shaking!  So, she is a “ground shaking” happy elephant.

But wait!  She has no tusks!  That tells me she is a baby elephant. My imagination is taking off now!  Dahlia tromps!  … but no…  I found out that tromp is not a word… (hmmm…it seemed so fitting).  So, Dahlia thumps, stomps, tramples and plows through!  Thank you dictionary.com!  Love all those words!

Looking again at this picture, I see that Dahlia is also clumsy.  She trips, stumbles, tumbles, plunges, sprawls and topples. Even so, she is not bothered by falls.  She simply rolls over and gets back up to her feet laughing!  “What great fun!” she gigglies, “Let’s do it again!”

This tells me that Dahlia does not take herself too seriously. She is playful,  but is she smart?

More of her qualities may surface once the other characters in her story emerge.   Bring on the monkeys!

VOTING for Peepsqueak

Today a new Peepsqueak came in the mail.  I have to decide which one I like the best.  The one on the right is the new one. He is chubby and the pile is short.  The one on the left is more shaggy and his body is softer and squishy. Which one do YOU like best? Do you have any comments?

Which Came First? The Chicken or the Egg?

The P E N C I L !

Many have asked me what my process is for creating my characters.  Here is the low down with my “Peepsqueak” chick.

1. First I sketch him with a simple pencil. 2. Once Peepsqueak is sketched, I lay a piece of tracing paper over the sketch and draw him with an ink line. (I use a #3 Micron pen) This inked-in image is then scanned. 

3. There are always specks and lines in the scan that I might not like. At this point I open this inked-in image in Photoshop and clean it up. You can see in the image below how I cleaned up Peepsqueak.  4. The next step is to bring the cleaned up jpg into Illustrator. I open the image in Illustrator. I select it and then go under Object in the menu, select Live Trace, then Make and Expand.  After that process I save Peepsqueak as a pdf. Look how nice and clean and smooth the line is now!!

The last step is to color him in Photoshop!  Voila!!!

So, as you can clearly see,  the Pencil came first!!  Do you think God sketched us all out on paper before he made us?  Ha!  fun thought!

The Singing Cousins

Aaahhhh childhood!  Tis a time of make believe, wonder and  fun!  My cousin just sent me this picture from many days gone by.  It made me laugh out loud!!!  It is with great thanks to my parents and grandparents that I was raised with music in the house.  My dad and uncle were barber shoppers but long before they started that up, we spend time together in the basement around the piano singing songs.  It was great fun! This shot was taken while visiting my cousin.  She is the little one on the left… sooo cute!  Every child should be given the opportunity to sing their head off!  It is good for the soul!!

Bunny Bunny, Whose Got The Bunny?

A new bunny is visiting the studio.  Check out Cherry. She is trying out for a part in the Peepsqueak book.  Her personality is different from the other two bunnies that tried out.  I am hopeful she will be well received from the editing team.  The first bunny was a little whacked out.  The second bunny was nice, but this one has connected with me.  An artist can create characters all day long, but some are closer to the heart than others. They may remind us of people we know, or people we wish we knew!! At least that is how it is in my studio.

Piano Lessons?

Today I was remembering  piano lessons. When I was a kid, I really wanted to play the flute but we did not own a flute…. only a piano.  Sooo…enter Claudine Renfro,  my piano teacher.  Needless to say, Claudine did not last long. ( I did like her stickers)

Then, enter Mrs. Dewitt. She scared me!  Each week she would make me play and I had to find ways of pretending that I had practiced for hours.

One method was the sway.  I would try to play the notes and sway from side to side with the tune.  I don’t think she minded too much but when she made me play a duet with my younger sister, I would always bump into her.  The best day at Mrs. Dewitts house was the day we had a tornado warning I got to leave early!

In the end, the lessons ended.  You know that you were not meant to do a thing when you are completely THRILLED beyond measure the day you don’t have to do it ever again in your whole life!!!

My little Newton the lamb has hit the big time in South Africa!  This week I received these pictures of a new pre-school with my Newton as their mascot!  It’s great fun to see the children wearing Newton t-shirts. Way to go Newton!

Chasing Ideas

In my quest for new ideas, I often begin at our local library.  In fact, I am discovering all the libraries that are located between my house and my dad’s house which is about an hour away.  Each library has different books!  What fun it is browsing through pages and pages of BOOKS!  Children’s books,  garden books, books about weaving, decorating, farm animals, famous painters, travel books and more!  Sometimes just having a stack of books near my chair inspires me! ha!  I LOVE BOOKS!!!

YES!

Oh the “Happy Dance!”. Peep Squeak just got the news that he will be featured in his own children’s book with Harper Collins.  We have to go to contract, but for now we are both happy campers!  It’s as noisy as can be in my home with all these little cartoons running around celebrating!  Thank you Margaret for your “happy” email!

Here A Bun, There A Bun, Everywhere A BUN BUN.

Bunnies Rock!  I love them!  Does this bunny look familiar?  It’s ME! ha!  I love personalizing my art and thinking about friends and family when I draw.  When my kids were little I would draw a bunch of cartoons and they would come up to me and ask,  “Which one is ME?!”

I’ve been pretty busy with studio cleaning!!  Bags and bags of things are GONE from my sight!  Why is it that I feel so much freer when clutter is OUT OF SIGHT?

The last few days have been working days!  I have bunnies galore, many baby chicks fluttering about, a children’s book on the front burner and more fabric ideas ready to color.

I find it interesting that fall seems to be my most productive time. I get so energized!  I can hardly wait to get working each morning! The cartoons are nearly flying off the page!!

Clothworks! I have not forgotten my Winter fabric collection revisions for you!  I have many sketches ready to go and some fresh ideas!  Have some more children’s fabric in the works too…. so fun!  I love my job!!!!