Creative Tuesdays: Little Twitters

You know, it seems I do well with Creative Tuesdays when I wait until the last minute to do something. haha Gotta LOVE me! I wanted to do something a little different than what most peeps would expect for the theme however, this was only thing I could craft and toss to paper. However, it was fun, drawing in a crowd at the local Starbucks - including a lady asking to snap a picture of me to share on her Twitter account. How fun!

So with that, enjoy this little twitters. I'll take the one with the hot cuppa in hand. Uh huh.

For more Creative Tuesdays contributions, make sure to pop in on Mr. Toast's page and say hello!

Sunday Sketches: Creating Simple Watercolor Flowers

I've been continuing to push forward in the amount of children's book illustration work on my studio table and am happy to say the "Monster Adventures" and "No Matter How Small" are now finished. I'm quite excited and am looking forward to more great news/events coming from the both of these! With those two cnow behind me, I'm now focusing on finalizing the last few illustrations for the other children's books still on the table, "The Adventures of Chopper & T" and "Mia's Magical Christmas". Keep an eye out for upcoming announcements for these wonderful books!

With that said, one of the things I've implemented in my daily studio time are watercolor warm-ups, and I'm loving the results. Since I've started doing this, almost every single one of them have sold. What a blessing! Above is one of those darling warm-ups and the video of how I made it. Quite simple, actually. I simply dropped water on the paper, then paint and added black lines while the pages were still wet, creating very simple flower doodles. Something anyone can learn!

Happy Sunday Sketches! Wishing everyone a lovely week!

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Sunday Sketches: A Litte Blue For You

Another lovely week of this and that, pushing through illustration work and enjoying the gorgeous weather we've had here in our little cozy town. It's been a bit warm for Mr. Toast's liking but nevertheless, lots of sunshine to brighten and encourage the creative soul!

These darling swans were a part of a special fuzzy monster children's book illustration set I completed last week for a precious boy in the UK.  I love my job and the various opportunities to bless people across the world with my work.

Happy Sunday Sketches! I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else has been up to....after I bake a homemade cherry pie (from scratch, no less) and prepare a steak dinner to celebrate Father's Day with Mr. Toast and the children.  Mmmmm!

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Submit your artwork by signing up below with a link to your website/blog.  PLEASE make sure to visit each other! One of the biggest reasons for this co-op is to encourage and lift others up in their creative endeavors as well.  Thank you!

 

Creative Tuesdays: Aqua Sailing Hope

This round of Creative Tuesdays is focusing on the theme, aqua. To be honest, I wasn't planning on participating as absolutely nothing came to my mind. Nope. Nada. Zilch. Uh huh. Well, until around lunch time today and this crossed my mind and I was like - well, I'll let you imagine my excitement when realizing I'd get to join C.T.'s lovely, creative peeps after all! So, come with me as we sail across the waters of life, bringing hope to those around us. :)

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Sunday Sketches...poppy love

Good morning and happy Sunday Sketches! I feel so blessed to have each of you a part of my life each week, encouraging each other in our artwork and more. May you be blessed in all you do!

This week, I've been focusing on flowers for my 15-minute warm-ups and have been enjoying it. I've always had a love for poppies so thought I'd do a little bit different style of them than what I've previously done. They're so bright, cheerful and full of life. Enjoy them and this little 1-minute video sharing my process of this piece.

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Submit your artwork by signing up below with a link to your website/blog.  PLEASE make sure to visit each other! One of the biggest reasons for this co-op is to encourage and lift others up in their creative endeavors as well.  Thank you!

WOYWW: An illustrated life...

It's been awhile since hopping on board Julia's WOYWW (What's On Your Work-desk Wednesday) and thought it fitting on this cloudy, rainy day to grab a perfect hot cuppa and join all of the other wonderful creative peeps out in bloggie-land.

Life has leveled out some. Although still quite busy, I feel there's more of a balance to my daily illustration/work schedule and for that, I'm pleased. Sometimes, situations and circumstances can throw things out of sync. Over the past several weeks, there was a struggle to find that and am excited to see things leveling out to as normal as life can be.

While sitting at a local coffee shop, sipping on my hot cuppa, this little guy came to life. He's the very first illustration for my illustrated biography that I'm working on and hope to publish early next year. At the moment, I'm wrapping up illustrations for two children's books, "No Matter How Small" and "The Adventures of Chopper & T", while working on a set of sketches for a brand new, TOP SECRET children's book, set to publish early Fall of this year.  With these projects, my own book and custom orders for other clients, my workload is pretty steady at the moment and I couldn't be any happier!

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Enjoying life in through simple things...

Last week seemed like a wash for anything creative, leaving me feeling as if I was never going to grab ahold of my creative mojo once again. In some ways, I was beginning to feel overwhelmed with all of the various art projects on my desk and looming deadlines. Most of you know life has been quite eventful these past few months, and in that, forcing me to find a new balance between my work and home-life. While going through this temporary growth phase, I was reminded of the things I currently teach in my online course, Hello, Courage - "when things becomes challenging, find joy in the simple things of life" - and that is what this girl did. Uh huh.

Understanding and accepting that life brings us challenging moments (especially ones where we want to pack our bags and take a long holiday) is important to our own personal success and prosperity. Each one creates a deeper strength within our spirit, allowing us to face the next demanding situation placed before us that much more so.

One of the things I've been focusing more on as well is getting back into a healthier lifestyle. After the awful car accident I was in just a little over a year ago, I was faced with months of confinement to the sofa, no exercise and with it, poor eating habits. Now that the doctor has given the green light on moving forward, it's been important to me to start regaining the physical strength I once had, along with a healthy mindset. In that, each day is filled with searching for those simple things to make my heart smile. Today? It was the bowl of fruit on our kitchen counter. Silly? Maybe. But for me, it's a sign of improving my life in every simple way that I can.

Sunday Sketches: Peanut Butter & Pumpernickel Love...

This weekend has been such a huge blessing to me as it was my very first Barnes and Noble children's book event where I read to the children my first illustrated book, "Peanut Butter & Pumpernickel". Afterwards, I sketched Peanut Butter, joined the kids in coloring activity sheets and then signed their books with little special messages.  Thank you to the parents and grandparents who came out and gave their children this wonderful opportunity. I look forward to seeing some of the kids' colored in Peanut Butter posters that many of the children carried home.

I'm off to rest for the evening and look forward to catching up with everyone tomorrow. Happy SS!

Grab the Sunday Sketches button HERE.
 
Submit your artwork by signing up below with a link to your website/blog.  PLEASE make sure to visit each other! One of the biggest reasons for this co-op is to encourage and lift others up in their creative endeavors as well.  Thank you!

Creative Tuesdays: Traveling buddies

This little illustration is a huge representation of my younger brother.  He usually has some sort of backpack with him and our little scottie following right along by his side.  Other items included representing him are the cookies and coffee in the side pocket, stickers on the front of his bag (as he loves to collect stickers!) and his favorite "Sun" music t-shirt. If you look closely, you'll also see a chain around his neck with a tiny urn pendant, where he carries his wife's ashes.

Recently, my brother felt he needed to return to California for closure and spreading his wife's ashes. He's not made it back yet and we're praying he does. For this place is his home now. It's been rough pushing through the last day or so but I hope he knows he is loved and missed very much.

For more contributions to the theme, orange, make sure to hop on over to Creative Tuesdays and say hello. Everyone is welcome. Maybe you'll be sharing your lovely art one day!