nothing much going on this holiday weekend, so here are 2 photos of our boys Lance and Lester watching cartoons and animal planet a few years back. we lived in a smallish apartment then.
where we live now our TV is positioned much higher off the ground, so it doesn't catch their attention very often. besides, they have more windows here and lots more nature to watch outside--plus the frequent bug inside--even better than TV!
some things sit in your etsy shop for a long time and you start to think they will never sell (and some things never do), but then suddenly out of the blue (like most sales are), somebody wants them, and it makes everything feel okay.
i received my complimentary copies of the June issue of High Five magazine, which i have a piece in. it printed a little on the dark side even tho i thought i had overcompensated by over-lightening the digital scan i sent them (it was painted traditionally).
but still i am really happy with it. it was such a fun project for me--hard to go wrong with a little girl and a garden/flower maze as subject matter!
the last time i did a spread for them i was not super happy with it, so it's nice to feel good about something.
miss mouse got her new sweater, and a scarf and bloomers, and it's a good thing because aside from a few beautiful spring- and even summer-like days, it is mostly still damp, chilly and cloudy here in seattle!
hoping for warmer weather, she is reading my beloved old The Bunny's Nutshell Library--four magical little books, created by the genius Robert Kraus, published by Harper & Row in 1965.
i just opened my new Martha Stewart magazine and was blown away by these beautiful illustrations of plates that were created by "drawing" with a sewing machine. wow! at first i thought there was pastel underneath, for the lighter smudgy-looking colors, but no, it's more stitching with lighter colors of thread!
Miyuki Sakai is really a genius. she has taken free-motion stitching, which is usually used on quilts and fabrics, to a new level. i've always wanted to try the technique, but i don't have the right kind of sewing machine. sigh...
the book i'm working on now is the first that i'm doing all the sketching in photoshop. because drawing is not really easy for me--it takes quite a lot of work to get to what i want or "see"--the flexibility of photoshop is really great, and i think i'm getting a better result. from now on i think i'll always work this way. have a nice weekend!
theresia expained how to make a live link in a posting, so here goes.
theresia sent me this photo to show that Daisy Dog made it safely through the volcano cloud to her house in the UK. now she's hanging out with one of theresia's adorable mouse dolls, like the one i traded her for. one of the best things about Etsy is when you have the opportunity to trade with another crafter/artist. i think this was a happy deal for both of us!
this is MY mouse (theresia's original photo from the listing in her etsy shop) and i love her very much. i'll need to make her a sweater because it's still so chilly here in seattle!
this is a scan of an old photo of my mom and me in 1975--can you tell by the hippy bag and the homemade pants? i remember they were really itchy.
Happy Mother's Day! this book just came out that i illustrated for walker/bloomsbury.
i'm missing my own mom today.
my mom really loved spring, and so do i.
it was soon after my mom died that i had to start on the illustrations for this sweet story, written by Rhonda Gowler Greene, which School Library Journal describes like this: "In rhymed couplets, the child expresses how important her mother is to her every day and all year round. Realistic, attractive illustrations show the parent and child engaged in many activities, with the mother the center of them."