Caution

Sometimes caution ties my hands, other times I take the anxiety and play with it. (Hand modeling thanks to G.A.B)

My youngest decided to join me in the Illustration Friday fun this week. Here is Sylvie’s work. She taught herself to use  a free paint program that came with the family computer. Unbeknownst to me, she  was working away on her submission while I was here in my studio working on mine. Surprise Mom! I am looking forward to doing mother/daughter IF posts more often.

Big thanks to Chicken Nugget Lemon Tooty for the inspiration!

IF: Wrapped

Its been a while since I’ve posted anything to Illustration Friday, so I thought I’d give the prompt “wrapped” a whirl.

Here is the preliminary sketch I did of myself wrapped in towels.  It doesn’t really look like me.

The nose is too short and the eyes are too big and the chin is just wrong. Self portraits are tough. One thing I learned is that if you put on a clay face mask before you start it helps you see the planes of your face. I think it changes the way you look just enough so that you can see yourself a little better. Below is a reference photo.

Ok,  yeah, I got a little carried away with the face mask…heh heh… next time I’ll use more colors and put flowers on my cheeks and make myself into a sugar skull.

For some wonderfully expressive portraits, check out my cousin Janet’s paintings. She really knows how to capture a likeness. You can find her work at the Bluebird Novelty Co.

Imaginary playmates

That is what I used to call my blog friends.

While I was planning my recent trip, I thought it might be fun to actually meet a blog friend in person. Shelley Noble is a stop motion animator whose work  I have admired for some time.  I wrote to tell Shelley that I’d be in town,  and her reply with an invitation to visit her fabulous world of Halfland was so warm and welcoming that I knew it would be a special day.

From the minute she met me at the door I knew that this would not be a typical “how do you do” visit.  Shelley lives and works in a wonderous loft. Her work and living spaces were in a lovely balance when I arrived, the set for Halfland on one side, living space on the other. Shelley’s workspace is chock full of stuff for making  Halfland come to life. It’s an incredibly magical workshop with everything in it. Honest, every color of paint or pastel, ribbons, feathers, paper, all sorts of tools. I could have lost myself in there for weeks.  But the thing that really makes it all work is her resourcefulness. Just read her blog posts about the way she creates things and you’ll understand what I mean. She’ll use a drinking straw to make the perfect mechanism to animate a bird’s head, or a 99 cent container of gloop to make a cup of tea look delightfully real. Incredible imagination, she has.

Here are a few of the beautifully detailed props that she showed me. I love Shelley’s blog because she is so open and generous with her techniques. She is always willing to share what works and discuss what doesn’t and why.

And for more fun, she asked me to draw some paper trees for Halfland! She brought out some huge pieces of cardboard  and we spilled over into  the whole space.  It was the most wonderful blend of life and art. We talked and talked about everything as we worked; animation, dance, art,  food, books…etc. Shelley and I have a lot in common, but the most important thing that I noticed was that we are both curious. The questions flew back and forth between us and it was all so comfortable. We each had a genuine interest in how the other conducts her life/work balance.

Shelley painted this quote backwards on the wall so that it can be read in her bathroom mirror. Clever.

We had a great time cutting out the trees. When my family came to pick me up, I couldn’t wait to show them everything. Next thing I knew the girls were painting too! YAY!! They each signed the guest artist board, they will never forget it.  To see how the trees came out check out Shelley’s post.

I could not have dreamed up a better visit.