How to use this Page

Add a Comment

"a girl can dream..." ©the enchanted easel 2015

Add a Comment

©the enchanted easel 2015

Add a Comment

... I had a life.

Source

Now I spend much of my time working and working and working, and while I'm not doing that I'm writing.

Source

Ignore my fat hand. Haha

Ronan Lynch - The Raven Boys

That's a wreath, folks

I have to go back to work tomorrow and I'm not really looking forward to it.  I don't feel like I've been "off" for awhile, which is really terrible of me.  I mean, I had a LOOOOONG time off in April-May.  I'm just a vacation person.  Work doesn't suit me.  Hahahahahahahaa!

Anyway, this is my super short blog post that I felt I simply HAD to do, since it's been something like 1-1/2 months since I last blogged.

Oops

So now I'll love you and leave you.  God bless.  Byeeeee!!!!

Cat

Add a Comment

I wrote a picture book over a year ago. I love it. But it has never felt “right” to me. I’ve revised countless times. My kids are tired of hearing me read it outloud. And my critique partners are ready to put it to bed. But still… it felt like something was wrong. I didn’t…

Display Comments Add a Comment

The cover image for the little book of children's dreams I illustrated entitled Tomato Rain. It will be published shortly by the mighty Roger Omar.
Click to enlarge.

Add a Comment

Honored to have this book cover I did selected for the Society of Illustrators Annual 55 (whoo-hoo!)
The opening reception was last Friday and runs until March 2nd 2013.

Unfortunately my work schedule means that I won't be able to check out the show in person, but if you do go, please drop me a line (and maybe a photo?)

Add a Comment

My submission for Illustration Friday's "Snow and "Glow" theme is a pop-up Christmas card made of paper, paint, some photo shop and a little glue too. Have a very Merry Christmas to you!!!

Display Comments Add a Comment

Below is Illustration For Kids‘ latest postcard promo! (I put it in a vertical format for better sizing on the the blog.) Please have a visit at our group website and check out the individual illustrator websites, blogs, FB, Twitter pages, etc. Thanks!

Add a Comment

Display Comments Add a Comment

I've started on the castle itself, after lingering over the sky.

This is an old stone castle, so its scruffy and uneven and has irregular color patterns.

Its tricky sometimes to keep the colors and values in check, and describe the form accurately. What I mean is, you have values that describe the form, like the light and dark sides of the building. Then you have the changes in color in the stonework, which sometimes fight with the light/dark pattern. You might have dark stone on the light side of the building, for example, which goes against the ideal 'light to dark' way of rendering something.

To add to it all, there are also cool and warm colors of stone, which ideally would be placed to enhance your picture; but since this is real life, those are usually uncooperative as well. Cool colors would be in shadows, whereas the warm tones would be out front. So here we're dealing with a good range of greys, which are all over the place, and I'm doing my best to make them work, and still have it look like the place its supposed to be (which is Enniskillen Castle in Ulster).


I'm using lots of greys (French Greys and both Cool and Warm greys) as well as one pass of Ginger Root to start giving it a bit of life. I'll continue on from here until I get it just right!

Another thing that can help or hinder your drawing experience are the photos you have to work from. Sometimes you get great photos, but more often than not, you don't. Either some nice person who has commissioned your drawing has gone out and taken photos that are: too sunny, too dark, out of focus, while its raining, with cars blocking half the building, etc. etc etc. Or you get photos that have been tarted up with Photoshop filters to look all glowy and warm in the sun, when in fact the building is as grey as old dishwater. And on it goes. So the challenge is to find the truth in there somewhere, and do the best you can to make an accurate rendering. It can be a challenge! Here I'm splitting the difference between all my reference and making the best interpretation I can.

Display Comments Add a Comment

I've finished the 37th and final card in the first series of The Cards of U'ut 
The first print run is limited to 100 boxes, individually signed and numbered. If you want a deck of these cards you better get your skates on... I sold 5 sets today. I've designed a booklet to go in the box, but am still finalising the copy for it.
Woodcut 30cm x 20cm. Click to enlarge.

Add a Comment

I just found out that a book I did the cover for is now available at your favorite bookstore!
Written by Jessica Day George, it got a great review blurb from Kirkus:

“This enjoyable romp turns mischief into political action and a stone palace into a cunning character. These kids are clever, as is George’s lively adventure. May pique castle envy.” —Kirkus Reviews

This is a splendid YA fantasy and I had a great time coming up with all kinds of cover concepts.
And what the heck, since you're here at my blog what better place to show some behind-the-scenes stuff:







In hindsight it would have been awesome if I had waited until Tuesday to post this -- ah well, enjoy!

Add a Comment

  Answers from Elena Ornig   Australia might not seem a likely place to find a castle, yet there are in fact numerous castles all over the country!   Australia might not seem a likely place to find a castle, yet there are in fact numerous castles all over the country! These castles do not rival those in European countries simply because the average castle age in Australia is really quite young. Many function as hotels or tourist attractions, whilst others are actual homes where people live. Castles in Australia tend to be built in the style of the medieval castles of Europe which are commonly depicted in movies and television shows.   ‘Kryal Castle’, in Victoria, sits at the foothills of Mount Warrenheip, near the town of Ballarat. It is an amazing replica of a medieval-type castle featuring Gothic architecture. Open to the public since 1974, it was created and built by the owner and has ... Read the rest of this post

Add a Comment

I went down Walworth Road tonight.
Watercolour and ink 18cm x 12.5cm. Click to enlarge.

Display Comments Add a Comment

Giovanni Gelati of Gelati's Scoop says "The Lost Queen...is fun, innovative and flat out well written."

Read the full review on GELATI'S SCOOP.

Or buy the BOOK HERE and judge for yourself. You won't be disappointed!

Add a Comment

Wells, Rosemary and Secundino Fernandez. My Havana: Memories of a Cuban Boyhood. Illus. by Peter Ferguson. Candlewick, 2010. Ages 8-12.

Memories can move us forward or backward, depending on how we use them. My Havana: Memories of a Cuban Boyhood evokes the intensity of one child’s connection to his home in 1950s Havana. Prolific children’s book author Rosemary Wells once heard a radio interview with the Cuban-American architect Secundino Fernandez and years later located Fernandez and worked with him to produce this resonant little historical novel burnished with hope and light.

Secundino, or Dino, relishes his city avenues “lined with coral-stone archways, ancient doors, and window frames painted bright as birds-of-paradise.” As twilight arrives, neighbors begin their checker games, and the cafes fill with people. Dino loves to sketch the buildings, with their porticoes and marble columns. The first time Dino leaves the city of his heart, he crosses the Atlantic to spend time with his grandparents in Spain. When he finally returns home, he expects to stay. Dictators — first Batista, then Castro — take over, though, and the family abandons their restaurant to join relatives in New York City.

So homesick in this dark and dreary new environment, Dino relies on his memory to recreate his beloved Havana in the confines of his bedroom. With great care, he cuts out cardboard to represent its archways, balconies and cafes. Aluminum foil glued to plywood and glazed with blue nail varnish becomes a sparkling turquoise harbor. The double-spread illustration depicting the imaginative boy, scissors in hand, beautifully captures his resourceful nature. The novel closes with Dino adapting to his new world: “New York sunlight, shimmering with the promise of summer, settles round my shoulders like the arms of my mother. It is almost like my Havana.” This brief novel would brighten units on immigration, Cuba, or architecture.

Macaulay, David. Built to Last. Houghton Mifflin, 2010. Ages 9 and up.

In my decade as a school librarian, I often watched children poring over Macaulay’s remarkable architecture books. Rather than merely compiling his acclaimed books, Castle, Cathedral, and Mosque, Macaulay has created new colored illustrations, revised the text, and clarified some explanations.

While some might still long for the previously published cross-hatched illustrations, Macaulay’s changes enhance the reader’s experience of the architecture of the past. He ushers us into his Castle, for instance, with a double-spread illustration of a purple-robed king surveying a map, with pawns awaiting strategic placement. The castle Macaulay highlights is imagined but based on castles built for the conquest of Wales between 1277 and 1305, His interesting perspectives of the workers and how they go about building still capture the hearts of readers, young and old. In Cathedral, Macaulay was inspired by the 13th-century Gothic cathedrals of France. It’s hard to resist sharing Macaulay’s passion for the plans, methods and tools used by those builders “whose towering dreams still stand today.” Finally, the least changed a

Add a Comment

I've always wanted to tour Europe by camper van.
Acrylic, watercolour and ink. 67cm x 24cm. Click to enlarge.

Display Comments Add a Comment

In Germany, Christmas celebrating and shopping begin before Thanksgiving, since they don’t do Thanksgiving here. And the Christmas markets (Weinachtsmaerkte) are where it’s at, not the mall.

German Christmas markets are like little wooden villages built inside the pedestrian zones just for the Christmas season. The markets are made up of actual wooden buildings, complete with roofs, windows, and live greenery. Vendors sell food, gift items, and gluhwein (a hot alcoholic drink) or eier punsch (egg nog). There are also carousel and train rides for the kids. It’s great to have something festive to do just when the weather is dropping to freezing temperatures.

We traveled to a special Christmas market the other day, held at a castle not far from Hannover. At Schloss Bueckeburg they call the Christmas market Weinachtszauber, or “Christmas Magic.”

This is a shot inside the castle. Love all that ornate detailing on the ceiling and the chandelier. All kinds of lovely things for sale: colorful cashmere scarves and sweaters, leather bags and ornaments, decorations. You should bring your magic wallet to the castle, though, because the prices are definitely fit for a king.

Below is a picture of an outside booth, where they were selling antique fencing. Cool, eh? Especially if you wanted to start your own cemetery.

It was freezing so we kept going inside and back out again. Above is a vintage organ with moving figurines on it. So fun. In another area, dancers demonstrated a traditional German dance in their lederhosen. We also saw, flitting about here and there, angels in white sweaters and massive petticoats, sometimes accompanied by St. Nicholas.

Sunday we also pulled out our advent wreath, and the kids have enjoyed lighting it every night and singing an advent song.

4 Comments on Move Over, Black Friday: Christmas Magic at Bueckeburg Castle, last added: 12/2/2010