Rose Beetle Man

Summer is here, which means lots of trips to water parks, splash parks and pools with the kids. I've been reading on of my favorite books again, by Gerald Durrell. It's called "My Family and Other Creatures". One of the passages is a long description of a curious person called the Rose Beetle Man. In trying to picture what he looked like I decided to work on an illustration of my interpretation. I kept finding I needed bigger and bigger paper to work on. I still have some other ideas, but this is a start. I will play with some color next. This is a work in progress.

Focused for Illustration Friday

Focused, on being the one to eat her food.

Clumsy for IF

There are doves in the garden that try to land on the smallest parts of the fence. They are not very graceful about it, trying to get both feet in a place where they don't fit. Sometimes they get one foot on and step on that one with the other. They look so clumsy about it, I had to do a little sketch of one falling off. Ink.

Wilderness for IF

This is a painting I completed recently and submitted to a show in Glendale, AZ. Geocaching leads us to so many wonderful places that we wouldn't find otherwise, and this is one of those spots. We came here to look for a cache (didn't find it) but enjoyed walking around the river, throwing rocks in the water and identifying a new bird. "Invitation" Jan.2010 Casein on board.

Renew

Renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10

Unfold

The idea of what Heaven might look like unfolded in my mind as we talked about it in class. I played around with some different ideas and came up with a "street of gold in a crystal city". The kids really got interested in it, so I re-worked the design and made copies for them to color too. This was the final one that inspired them to begin telling stories about the people, and apparently mermaids, that live in the Crystal City.
We cannot see the flowers that the little girls pick, or the fountain around the corner to the right. Those are pictures for another day.

Craving marshmallows sketch

The topice at Illustration Friday was"Craving". My family had recently been camping and that's the only time the kids are allowed to eat marshmallows, or the only time I buy them. S'mores! After roasting one of two, and making the whole chocolate/marshmallow/graham cracker sandwich, they still just want to eat marshmallows. And the next day, they still remember the marshmallows are there, and want to eat them right out of the bag. Such a yummy, sweet, soft treat they crave when we are camping.

Puppet theatre

I've been working on other stuff, but finally have something for Illustration Friday. The theme this week is "theater"! I got the idea for this a long time ago while watching my nephews put on a puppet show for their little sister.

Read a book

I seem to be taking a little vacation from the Illustration Friday topics, but that doesn't mean I have stopped painting. I have several ideas of my own that I've been working on. This is what I did today. I like reading books outside when the weather is nice, and I love to see kids enjoying stories together.

Summer bubbles

This time I thought I'd post a work in progress. The topic this week is "Celebrate" so I picked some kids who were out of school for the summer. Bubbles and barefoot is a great way to start!