Earth's Day illo.

Design for a Thank you card. I'm starting to think that I'm obsessed with Kitties. Mmmm....

Emily Chen's has a T-shirt giveaway. You can read more about it here. Good luck! Her illustration rocks!

Do you Tweet? I got this tweet cloud of my TweetStats using Wordle. You should try it. FUN.

It's a tradition at the house to have a Very Special Cake for each of the boys' birthdays ever since their very first bd. Even if we had no Party at all and only sang 'Happy BD' the special cake couldn't be missed.

So... here are the sketches, illos and pics for the BD Party # 5 of my oldest. BD was last February and since then have had no time to post. Until now.

As I always do, I started designing the characters for the invitation. Then I laid out the card and continued with the design of cake. Christy from Vanlatte Custom Cakes in Mesa helped me again.

PLUG - If you ever need a baker that absolutely rocks in the Valley, you have to call her. She also helped me sculpting the cake # 3 for my youngest that I posted a year or so back. You can see those posts here and here.

Hope you enjoy them!

I've collected toys since I was a little girl. Here are some that live around my studio. Some come with me all the way from Peru. Some I got from my trips. Some I stole from my boys *nodding*

Love gives you a fleeting, sweet feeling of new start. Love makes me bubbly, alive, 17 again.

My soul is back.

After many suns, moons and changing moods, I'm finally posting. A happy illustration inspired by Easter, the comeback of love, 3 shots of Jager and 2 Stellas.

They were a few months of a severe artistic drought. Mostly due to dull graphic design work, the economy and procastination. But I had a few 'revelations' and I'm BACK.

Lots of things have happened. I have also opened my Flickr account that should lift a big weight of Blogger's shoulders.

Hope you enjoy my 'Bunny Love' that some people will probably call 'Love Bunny.' I have more already sketched and ready to go.

AFTER POST: Mmmm... still trying to figure out the whole flicker showing thingy. Will figure it out for the next one.

Reasons to celebrate Saint Patty's Day:

1. You are Irish
2. You would like to be Irish
3. An excuse to go out and celebrate on a Tuesday
4. You are a devoted Catholic and celebrate every Saint's Day
5. You started dating Hubby.

Happy Anniversary!!

I'm sorry for the disappearance. I've been working in lots of design projects in the last few months. Very busy.

Exciting news are that I just got back from Peru. It was 14 years since I got some time with my girls from high school, college and next door. I wouldn't have asked for more. I traveled single and stayed at lots of different homes - all of my friends'. I'm renovated and rejuvenated. Ready for months of hard work.

A few pics for you all. Bear Hug!

Hola chicos y chicas. Really busy days lately. I'm excited about the projects I'm working on, though. Nothing to post right now.

Finding your place to vote is easy. Just follow the link below and enter your address, the rest is magic: http://www.voteforchange.com/
See you at the polls!

Finally I got some time to upload the 4 pieces that I worked on at the Workshop in Sedona with Claudine Hellmuth. Happy little pieces. I hope you enjoy them.
:*

I got the news today - "The Magic Bluebells" will be out some days before Thanksgiving. So you can add it to your Christmas list!! If you are interested in getting a copy, drop me a line.

A couple of illustrations from the Chapter Book about Vicki and Kate. Enjoy!

I have never been interested in politics but the current economic crisis demands a call for action.

We all need to be part of the change so Get Involved! This November 4th go and vote and vote for change. We have had enough of the same politics for the last catastrophic 8 years.

Let's hope that the new President recovers the image of the US as a naive, too positive country full of people that believe "anything can come true". The world doesn't see us that way these days. Not since we went to war.

No illustration to accompany my post. Just a call for change and action. Vote wisely and vote for change! We all need it.

I added myself to Twitter!! You can see it on the sidebar with the cute bubbles - a great widget by Kadazuro. Que maestro de las teclas! Y vive en Costa Rica!

So I'm taking some time away from design work and posting about Claudine's workshop last weekend. I should have been working, though.

It was at The Barn at the Sedona Arts Center - a very old building that I thought would collapse. It didn't. In fact, it was a very sound building!

First day was a crashed course in color theory and composition. Next 3 days was all about tricks and techniques. We even played with wax which I had never used in my pieces.

Some pics:

Is this going to work?

Debbi hard at work.

Lori Garver - now also painting. She is a writer.

Table One - Tina rubbing paper. We rubbed a lot of paper last weekend.

Table One - Tina from Monterey and Kirsten from Tucson. People from lots of places attended the workshop. We even had a gal from Switzerland - although she lived in Mill Valley when she signed up.

Golden promo shot.

Table One - Tina, Kirsten, Claudine, Debbi and I.

Now the next big workshop, Claudine Hellmuth at Sedona Arts Center. Debbi and I are driving up to Sedona tomorrow after lunch. God helps us!

Hopefully I'll remember to take some pictures. With so many design deadlines, I can't have a full day worth of painting. In Sedona, I'll have 4. What a luxury!

Pat Cummings was in Scottsdale last weekend. Finally! She is an engaging speaker, witty woman and very knowledgeable teacher in her field - Children's Illustration.

Friday we had a Round Table with Authors and Author-Illustrators.
Saturday the much awaited Illustrators' Intensive.

Awesome experience! We shared the room with new people - which was great. We love getting new active Illustrators in the Chapter. Very fun weekend.

Since pictures are worth a thousand words, here you go my friends.

Blankie and all here I go!

Check out what this girl does for us. I send the sketches and illustrations and she makes them in fondant. She's an artist!
- Color illustration below

My son's bd was on the 23th. Feliz Dia, mi amor.

An illustration that I did for the invitation to his bd, and the 3D sculpture made out of fondant for the bd cake. Cake girl is an artist!

I'll post a nicer pick of the sculpture later today. I kept it!

As of today, I'm no longer Co-Illustrator's Rep for the Arizona Chapter of SCBWI. Any question about the Chapter, can be directed to Tanja Bauerle - our current Illustrator's Rep.

I'm glad I had the opportunity to help the Illustrators in our Region.