new illustration

                                                 collage then photoshop -whale boy

new illustration

working on this collage, drawn from a children's book story idea, still playing with color.

The background was made from photographing tinfoil with holes poked into it ( see below)

old sketch book

      I took an old sketch book and made these tiny ones that I colored and photographed (here)
      Now all my old sketch books better hide unless they too want to snip, shrink, snizzle

playing off a sketch

                      
                                                  images from sketchbook
                                                  that I have played some more
                                                
                                                  my new friend is the paint bucket pattern tool in photoshop,
                                                  only took me a few years to discover that one

Sketch Book pages

old made new

some older illustrations revisited and replayed

He turned my heart upside down

                                      
                                           sketch for a picture book idea in musing mode

Love-a-Ball

                     sketches from a picture book dummy (i prefer smarty). It is called Love-a Ball.
    Dog loses ball. Dog finds ball. Dog loves ball. Dog plays with ball in the SNOW he calls OH!
Dog loses ball in the Oh. Oh NO! Dog is sad and remembers ball and calls for ball and.....

If you are an editor or art director and would like to see the full smarty for Love-a-Ball let me know. Cheerio!

Muse Hint

double hint for below
red dot red dot + blue dot= purple dot purple dot

What's in a muse?

                           Love it when I see something new in something I have seen and heard before.
                                          The word muse provided me with some a-muse-ment recently.
                           Can you see what I see inside the word muse? (hint, connect the color dots)

Brrrrrrrrrr

  
  Man oh man oh wooooo, it is brrrrrrrr today. Fine hour to sip tea, play with some collage, and voila!

Focus Pose

Rainbow IGLOO- LOVE THIS

ooooh, I want a rainbow igloo, I want to build one now. How absolutely fabulous. I LOVE THIS!
check out story behind this delightful winter structure at the link:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2013/01/rainbow-igloo-lights-up-edmonton-backyard.html

Paper sculpture

This piece is made from stacking various blue, blue- green drawn dots on top of one another. It has been hanging around my studio for quite some time. I finally got around to taking a picture of it. It is a mix between a drawing and a sculpture.

Playing with Color

 Brain Storm

I found these images yesterday and had fun adding more contrast with brighter colors and texture.

From a Drawer, Watch Dog

I love our big dog. He is away for a few days while we go away,

 and today I found myself staring at this old sketch. I must miss him already. 

Love this!

Love this video of Tomi Ungerer talking about making 
children's books.
I agree it is a great luxury!
http://youtu.be/gDF5c3-Nvjo

New illustrations

                                     some new illustrations (in process) from a new picture book (in process)

Love This! The Art of Bullshifting

The Picasso Picture Book Scale: The Art of Bullshifting and the State of the Contemporary Picture Book

went clicking this morning and landed on this, quite brilliant and hilarious take on the art in picture book making, take a look

http://www.candaceryanbooks.com/2011/11/picasso-picture-book-scale-art-of.html

Green Eyes

                          Playing with this image last night, green eyed figure growing more green eyes

Blue Cat Collage

"calculating the distance between moon and star"

Rediscovered Print

                        
                       I just rediscovered this print I did awhile ago. Perhaps I was sifting through voices I  collect, not crazy voices although when someone says voices it is easy to think crazy. I am thinking more about inspirational voices. Voices for characters. Some that like to draw. Some that like to write. Some that like to sing and ponder their target audience.

Bye Bye Summer

Doggie Dreams

Have been wondering about dogs and their dreams. hmmm, I wonder what this is one is dreaming about

snow, definitely dreaming snowballs

This is Ferdinand a French Bull dog having  

a flying flipper dream.

                                                        dreaming that the power in his tail can open doors.

Brain Storm

Have been thinking a lot about ideas recently, not really where they come from but what to do with them when they arrive. I think I have a tendency to live in this idea making place, you know ("dwell in possibility"). I am working on bridging the idea making stage to the reality building one. I just need to learn how to pick the sturdy ones. While I was brain storming the actions in brain storming, this image rained. hmmmmmm.....(Have been reading Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky) which certainly explains this little blurb...

Something to Ponder

3d collage

Recently I have noticed I really like the word CORRIDOR. I like saying it. The more I say it the more I like it.
Corridor, Corridor, Corridor.
It is starting to sound like car door. Corridor evokes mystery in me. As if traveling through or by corridor has the ability to create a deep experience, a deeper one than traveling through hall, a hall.  A hall sounds like work or requires a certain dress code. It has sides that wall. A hall connects two or more rooms through straight movement.
A hall has point a and point b or c or d. I do not lose or discover any long songs in a hall.
A corridor echos.
If I travel by corridor it could take days, months, years to ever arrive beneath a door.
I can meet an unnamed you in a corridor,
and we can eat something blue, answer questions with ribbons as tongues,
 from heart to mind and back through again.
Corridor or Hall? Something to ponder

New Collage

Lions Lions

                                                                        a new collage

Discovering a Giant Strawberry...

                                                         ...  can make you sleepy

Old made New..updated image

This is an image posted awhile ago that I have revisited, replayed,

 and re-imagined with a new character. 

Crazy Bird

                                                  Yesterday I felt a bit like this....
                                                  It must be the influence of a bird I keep hearing sing
                                                  its most beautiful clear whistle tune at 4:30 am inside my pillow.
                                                  Who knew there were such crazy birds singing in Brooklyn?
                                                    

Love it!

www.monstrum.dk  One of my not so secret dreams is to build a playground sculpture. These guys are AMAZING. Who wouldn't want to climb and play and imagine all day in one of their structures. I think I may hire them to build me a house head in a tree over swirling rivers with floating window castle slides into open frog mouths. woohoo. LOVE IT, check them out.

Thank You Sendak!

I never tire of reading In the Night Kitchen. To me it is a perfect book. The words are fun to read, they sing while still telling a story. Every time I look at the images I see something new. It took me a few reads to notice the airplane above the bed, not sure how I missed that one. It is a slow quick book, meaning, I want to stay on every page but then before I know it, the book is over and I want to travel it again. This book reminds me to stay with every line, every word, every color, because in the end, they do add to something great. THANK YOU MAURICE SENDAK for your delight. You continue to inspire me.

Collages

                            

                                    These collages were made from the NY Times Design Section.

                           The first is a book cover for a pretend novel titled: Color Me Way Nightly.