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A few weeks back I had some time to kill and just happened to be right near the Denver Zoo. Armed with sketchbooks and the new water-soluble colored pencils I was itching to try out, I bought myself a ticket and ventured forth to find some likely subjects.

As you can see from the sketch below, everyone looked a little bored. Or maybe they were just relaxed by the balmy spring sunshine?

Less exotic species were still fair game for my sketchbook. Here is a family of wild primates who were busy observing other wild primates:

The Okapi spent most of their time eating, but didn’t seem to mind posing too much. They had pretty nice digs, which meant that they were rather far away from the nosy humans, but I did my best to get some detail in.

These African penguins were full of energy. A little girl was using a mirror to reflect a spot of light into their pen, which resulted in a frenzy of excitement as the penguins chased the light around their pond as though it were a fish. (They were probably sorely disappointed that it was *not* a fish.)

Eventually it was time to leave and go back to my own habitat, but I couldn’t depart without sketching this guy. He was universally adored. He certainly seemed utterly satisfied with life as he dozed in his little mud puddle. Whatever the secret to happiness is, I believe hippos have found it.

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I've never fully trusted squirrels.
Sure they're small, cute, and look adorable when they munch frantically away on a nut, but still . . .

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Last month the good people at the Montana Skatepark Association invited me to create work on a skate deck for their annual fundraising gallery show called ON DECK 7.

The money raised will go towards construction and maintenance of  Missoula’s MOBASH skatepark. The art decks will be displayed on May 4th, at the Brink Gallery in Missoula, MT where they will also begin the silent/online auction. So lookout for that come May! Visit the MSA website for more information.

Anything that keeps us active and off the streets is A-OK with me! 

I was super psyched to be given the opportunity to create work on a skate deck since I’ve never worked on a surface like this before. Prior to receiving the skate deck I had a few ideas in mind but nothing sounded as fun as creating a tree house and possibly a place where Animal Chin lives! (Special thanks to the BF, for telling me the Legend of Animal Chin.)

Here’s the fun process of finding Animal Chins House:

 

Step 1:  I started out with a quick sketch of the tree and a faint mapping of where I’d like to see the leaves.

Step 2:  I painted a thin layer of gesso on top of the sketch.
Step 3:  Laid out some color for the grass and painted layer of green as an underpainting for the tree.

Step 4:  Started to lay in some actual color for the tree trunk..There goes my boss…micromanaging.

Step 5:  Once I got the trunk texture down, I worked on the house, and added a thin layer of gesso on the stairs for later.

Step 6:  I started to work on the stairs, and the little look out point on the middle left making sure to use a slightly different wood tones for the stairs so the tree and wood wouldn’t blend.

Step 7:  I was really planning to keep the natural wood exposed for the finish but it was looking too brown and very monochromatic. (Boo.) So I placed some contact paper on the tree hou

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Happy Monday! Here’s a quick watercolor to start off the week. This is a wolf I met at a place called Mission Wolf.

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I've been creating watercolor textures to use for various projects and as I look at some of them characters start to emerge. Here's a couple of little monsters that were hanging out on my desk yesterday.

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“There’s a Polar Bear
In our Frigidaire–
He likes it ’cause it’s cold in there.
With his seat in the meat
And his face in the fish
And his big hairy paws
In the buttery dish,
He’s nibbling the noodles,
And munching the rice,
He’s slurping the soda,
He’s licking the ice.
And he lets out a roar
If you open the door.
And it gives me a scare
To know he’s in there–
That Polary Bear
In our Fridgitydaire.”
― Shel Silverstein, A Light in the Attic

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Went on a vacation to Miami recently and did some snorkeling and sketching at a place called Black Rock. The name just appealed to the Pirates of the Caribbean fan in me. But it was the visiting sea turtles that really made my day!

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This illustration appeared in last May's issue of the children's magazine Clubhouse Jr.
It's now available here in my Etsy Shop.

I don't know if I have any local readers, but in case I do I thought I'd bring up something very cool that's happening here in Dallas. Storyopolis Entertainment has established a speakers series featuring various children's book luminaries. The speakers give their presentations in both the Ball Park in Arlington and the Allen Public Library. Here are links to the list of speakers at both locations:
Ball Park: http://www.storyopolisentertainment.com/texas-rangers
Allen Public Library: http://www.storyopolisentertainment.com/allen

I went to see Raul Colon last month in Allen and really enjoyed the presentation. I'm going to try to see them all!

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I sketched these little bubbies a while ago. I'm prepping for my big annual trade show and I decided that i needed to bite the bullet and watercolor them so they could go on a banner.

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After some back and forth, I finally dececided on the illustration I wanted to use as my new promo postcard. I finished this piece in the wee hours of Monday morning. I was kind of surprised I sat here Sunday night and worked on this. I rarely paint on Sunday […]

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are you wondering how this fits into the illustration friday theme of "stir"? well..."s" is for stir! AND i couldn't resist the cuteness of the elephant...sorry;)

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In anticipation of yet another upcoming move (just a short, local move this time), I started designing a postcard to send out once we're settled at our new address:
I think I'm setting myself up for a serious challenge with all the ripples in the water those little ducklings can't help but generate. But for the opportunity to illustrate ducklings in all their irresistable cuteness, hopefully the challenge will be worth it!

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medium: graphite / digital colour

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September is the most delicious month in Solvang.

As I drove my kids to school the other morning, it made me smile because in that short two mile stretch I pass by Ted and Peggy's apple orchard (Apple Lane), Rosa's strawberry stand (where she sells corn, tomatoes, blueberries and raspberries as well), Fred's place where we get the most amazing peaches and pears, and Tiffany who sells avocados. Just past the turn off for school we can pick our own raspberries and blackberries at the Morrell's, get different apple varieties from the Dittmar's and someone new has joined the bounty with a sign out for plums. And then there's the grapes. We are in the middle of wine country here!

Right now I'm reading Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver, a nonfiction book about a family trying to grow their own fruits and vegetables and eat only locally produced food. And I'm realizing how lucky we are every September to have this incredible farmer's market of friends and neighbors.

Knowing where your food comes from is becoming a rare thing in this country. Kingsolver's thesis, if you will, is that our food system is based on petroleum because so much is transported across the country, exported to other countries and imported back to us.

For two years I was in charge of the lunch program at my kids' school along with my friend Dana. (Trust me, the lunch lady jokes knew no end in my household!) As "lunch ladies," Dana and I worked hard to make sure the kids were getting fresh, healthy food and we tried to provide local produce with every meal. Dana took things one step further: she revived the school garden. That small connection to food, growing things and then tasting what they'd created, made a huge impact on those kids. Mine were always excited to bring home what they'd grown so we could use it in a meal.

Sorting dirt to mix with straw and water to build a cob house.

This past spring she helped the sixth grade class build a cob house that will serve as a greenhouse for starting seedlings this year. Those kids got dirty. Really dirty. For a few, this was traumatizing. Seriously. But what a science lesson they got from that project!

Not everyone can make as huge an impact as Dana. But we can all make more of a conscious effort to support our local economies by eating food that's raised right where we live. Trust me, the rewards are delicious.

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