Sunday Sketches: Puppy Love

It continues to be a crazy busy time filled with illustration work and prepping to head out of town for a family funeral. With three children's books launching for publication, I've been pretty busy wrapping up the final details for all of the projects. This one is another snippet from the third book, "The Adventures of Chopper & T". It seemed fitting with the Halloween season upon us. Hee

Here's to a lovely weekend to all of my wonderful peeps. I'm looking forward to catching up with each of you.

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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: Blessed by invisible disabilities

Most of you know I've been diligently working behind the scenes on several children's books. Let me say just how blessed I've been to have these multiple opportunities to touch the lives of children across the world. My studio table has been filled with paints, brushes and a lot of watercolor paper these past several months and all of the hard work is coming to life!

The illustrations above are a peek at a very special children's book releasing in a few weeks called, "The Adventures of Chopper & T". This darling adventures is a true story about a little girl named Tiana Hope, and her dog, Chopper.  The story and illustrations capture the special bond of true friendship between the two, while touching upon 'invisible' disabilities, such as the brain disorder Tiana and her parents face each and every day.

Life always brings us unexpected challenges and what I've learned through this book is to never take for granted the little things we're surrounded by each day. Yes, life can be hard and unfair. But if we take a step back and look at it through the eyes of an innocent, precious child, such as Tiana - maybe then we would learn to take hold of life with a grateful heart knowing tomorrow isn't promised.

For more WOYWW studio tables and work, visit Julia's lovely page: Stamping Ground.

Incredible Peace for a Journey of Courage

It's been a quiet week here thus far. With all that's been on our plate the past few weeks, it's been nice to have a few minutes to sit down and reflect upon the beauty of this time of year. It's so easy to get caught up in the list of to do's of our daily life, forgetting the important things and people around us.

Today, I was reminded of my step-daughter, Rachel, who faces so much every single day and still chooses to rise above regardless of what comes her way. My prayer for her is that any day she may feel weary on her journey, the most incredible peace would shower down upon her in ways she could never imagine. In the end, rejuvenating her heart and soul to continue forward on her Journey of Courage.

Sunday Sketches: Bundling Up, Part 2

 

Good morning and terribly sorry for posting just a tad late this weekend. Mr. Toast and I had a wedding to attend and arrived home late last night. You should have seen him kicking up his feet on the dance floor. He was quite the chap, all dashing, smiling & laughing, twirling me around on the floor. Hee

With that said, I'm about 3 days behind on my inktobers but pushing through. Here are the last two sketches in which I tried my hand at something new each time. As you can see in the polar bear sketch, I decided to add a new ink color. In the bottom one, I reversed the colors on his scarf, using black as the main foundation and adding white on top. These have been so much fun and look forward to posting the others along the way.

Happy Sunday Sketches!

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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: Postage Stamps

My love for penguins has infiltrated my illustrations over the past few holiday seasons now and thought it fitting for the current Creative Tuesdays' theme: Postage Stamps. For those of you following along my inktober journey this month, you'll see I took my day 13 sketch and took it a step further by coloring it in.

Typically, my illustrations are all hand-painted using watercolor and ink. However, tonight I thought it would be fun to take a stab at coloring my illustration via Photoshop for the first time. Last Fall I took a class online but have never really attempted to do anything since then. It was certainly enjoyable overall, watching it slowly come to life, but my poor hand was cramping horribly, practically curled up in a ball when I finished! Oh dear me.

I'm looking forward to turning some of my inktober sketches into cards in the future. Especially this little guy!

Sunday Sketches: Bundling up with more Inktobers

My daily inktobers continue to come alive on a small 4x6 sketchbook from Barnes & Noble. Each day I'm challenged to not only come up with a new character but new patterns for each scarf as well. So far, it's been quite fun and am surprised with what I come up with. My favorite one so far has to be Olaf, the fisherman (top photo). Hee Hee

Here's to a fabulous weekend and Sunday to each of you. I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone!

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!

Creativity birthed in the wee morning hours

Yesterday, Mr. Toast and I awoke in the early morning hours. Um, seriously way weeeeeee early morning - like 3:30 am! I'm not sure why we were awake and restless but we took advantage of the time and made our way to a new local coffee shop just a few minutes down the road from our cozy little home. It was utterly magical to arrive before the sun was up and snuzzle up in the corner by the window to sip on our favorite lattes.

One of the perks of getting up so early is getting to dive into my illustration work earlier than planned. So far, I've been able to keep up with the daily inktober 2015 challenge, while also finishing up some upcoming book projects. Stay tuned for a special, upcoming announcement in regards to my ongoing children's illustration projects.

Sunday Sketches: Story-time & Rabbit Doodles

It's been a wonderful Saturday filled with reading, coloring and sketching - and a fabulous one, to boot. Today was my story-time event at the Wolverine Farm Publishing Bookstore for the recent children's book I illustrated, Peanut Butter & Pumpernickel. Not only was the cozy loft filled with children from the area but even a handful of adults popped in to say hello, hanging out to take part in all the fun. While reading the book, the children colored, pointing out each character along the way. Afterwards, I sketched Peanut Butter the pug on a giant drawing pad and then each child came up one by one, adding their own little doodles. So utterly precious!

After finally arriving home later in the afternoon, Mr. Toast and I cozied up on the sofa with hot water bottles and began putting to paper our daily inktober sketches. I've posted mine above and you can view Mr. Toast's over on his Instagram. I'm curious if anyone has picked up the two re-occurring themes for mine, yet. Any guesses?

I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone. Happy Sunday Sketches!

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!

Embracing the new when seasons change

It's early here on this cloudy and cool Friday morning. The changing leaves dance in the breeze, eagerly waiting for the first Autumn raindrops to fall. Occasionally, feelings of excitement well up inside. As I sit here sipping on my hot cuppa I begin to ask myself why Autumn captures my heart as much as it does. This late season promises many things such as [more] tea, scarves, hot water bottles, the smell in air, the gentle touch of the Autumn breeze - the list could go on! However, the one thing that stirs my heart the most is the symbolism of life ending and beginning.

Most of the time, we think of Autumn as the season that represents the end of summer. The leaves slowly die and fall to the ground. Grass that was once green, caressing the bottoms of our feet, dries and brown. The snow comes and blankets everything with it's white coat of magical wonder. Autumn -  it's also the beginning of new life. It's a time of year where we learn to let go of the past and begin to focus on the future; a new year. How much more joy would we find life if we approached Autumn as a time to renew our hearts, letting go of the old and embracing change?

Autumn excites me! Life slows down and with it, a unique opportunity to embrace something new in the palm of our hands.

With that said, enjoy day 1 of my Inktober2015 contribution. If you've not heard of this, individuals are challenged to sketch something in pen every day for the month of October. I'm looking forward to all of the new illustrations that will come to life from this.