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Good morning everyone,

Here is the latest in my Celtic cross series. This one is a bit more involved, not in the intricate design on the cross itself but in the background, as you can see.

As usual I created this with a pencil and paper. The color is all done by painting on a single color layer in PhotoShop. I originally sketched the concept out last year, and spent a few evenings last week working out. The last time I spent this much time drawing leaves was when I illustrated Jairo Penaranda's book "The Little Leaf" which is available here. Like most people I enjoy fall, the bright colors in the trees. I'm especially enjoying it this year as we had such a hot dry summer here. I'm very thankful for the cooler temperatures, and the rain.

I chose simple colors, and gradations of a single color for each leaf, instead of multiple colors for the leaves. After spending a few days on the drawing I don't have the time to spend making a photo realistic painting (I've never enjoyed that style myself, why not just take a picture, and save the wear and tear on your hand and wrist?). I like to keep it simple too, it appeals to me.

This is a close-up of a portion of the pencil drawing before I colorized it in PhotoShop.

Thank you again for stopping by my blog. I hope that you enjoyed what I have shared with you here, and that you have a terrific day today, God bless. --Ryan

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More layers. #leaves #instaart #wip

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We are doing a special promotion through 9/15/15 to coincide with our favorite season.  We’ve teamed up with a bunch of really cool kidlit authors to offer some great free and discounted eBooks.  4EYESBOOKS has discounted The Nutt Family:  An Acorny Adventure on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks & Kobo.  Chess Nutt and his sister Praline are always pretending to have crazy adventures. What happens when these two acorn siblings have an unexpected real life adventure on their own? Things get a little nutty!

Other books in this great promotion will be discounted from 9/11 – 9/15.  Check them out HERE.

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On Saturday, a box arrived at my door, and I remembered that an old friend from back home in Indiana had recently asked me for my address. The package was fairly large and I pondered perfunctorily what could be inside; the box felt as light as air in my hands.

Curiously, I tore off the tape and peered inside. On top of a pile of various and vibrant shades of autumn leaves rested a note that read:

Tonia,

I read a post of yours about missing the fall leaves of the Midwest & I thought I could help with that! I hope these bring a smile to your face and you’ll enjoy them for a little while!

Love & Miss Ya!

Regina

One lone tear rolled down my cheek. I was surprised by how overcome I was with raw emotion. The gift was more thoughtful and meaningful than anything ever given me by a friend. It was a gift so powerful that it left me forever touched, because it was so simple. Regina knew I was a bit homesick for the Midwest and sent me a piece of HOME – vivid, reminiscent hues from my youth – all packaged up nicely and left waiting for me on my doorstep by the mailman on an average, sunny day in California.
Where Autumn never comes.

Regina’s gift is a reminder that giving isn’t about spending or going through the motions; giving is about getting personal and evoking feeling from the recipient as a result of the kindness of the gesture. If the gift is heartfelt, it will surely be richly treasured, in a way much like I felt about my wonderful, crisp pile of leaves.

As for me and my colorful treasures, I will discover fun ways to use them this fall. And, when autumn first turns to winter, I will seal them back up in Regina’s box and use them again for another reason in a different Autumn season.

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Title: A Grand Old Tree Written and illustrated by: Mary Newell Published By: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2005 Themes/Topics: Trees, life cycle, ecology, seasons Suitable for ages: 3-7     Opening:                            … Continue reading →

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It is raining leaves! – Micron Pigma Brush Pen Black & Graphite pencil

 

Autumn leaves are falling to the ground here in Western Massachusetts. The fall colors are becoming more and more vibrant. As I walked on campus yesterday, I noticed the leaves coming down, just like rain. Beautiful!

I purchased a black Micron brand Pigma Brush pen. I really loved the feel of it. It is my first time using a brush pen for inking. I love the loose line it allows yet still with the control of a pen. I will be using it again!

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Name: Leafsnap
Platform: iOS
Cost: Free

Leafsnap has languished for years on my phone. The app represents the sort of big audacious online project that we as librarians need to know about. Merging geographic location with image recognition, it combines reports from the field to produce an interactive electronic guide.

For the end user, Leafsnap is designed to make a “best guess” about the species of a plant, based on an image of a leaf you upload or input through the camera. I hadn’t been able to use it before last week. It’s limitation? Spearheaded by the Columbia University, the University of Maryland, and the Smithsonian Institution, Leafsnap is crowd-sourced, and a caveat warns that the database best reflects the northeasten U.S. for the time being (though there is a U.K. version, too). When I heard someone speculating about the name of a specific tree while I was in Massachusetts, I was happy to put the tool to work.

One word on technique: I had better success when I photographed and cropped around a leaf beforehand, and you will need a “true white” background — the reverse side of an index card works fine. The app converts your image into an “x ray” of the leaf, queries the database and returns with a series of options, all of which contain Leafsnaps as well as more holistic images of matching plants.

Using the apps involves creating an account in Leafsnap’s user-driven botanical database to track your scanning and positive identifications. Inside the app, you’re creating your own log book, marking each species with a swipe, with a geographic distribution as well.

The process of collecting and marking specimens can be addictive; even your most tender-hearted teen will respect the do-no-harm approach to nature the app represents. Within the database, the specimens link to the Encyclopedia of Life, another ambitious, crowd-sourced online project, and there’s an integrated program designed to improve your recognition skills.

It only occurred to me after the fact that leafsnap enables a twenty-first century manifestation of the very nineteenth century impulse for classification among amateur botanists. For contrast, you can see a digitized version of Emily Dickinson’s old school herbarium here.

Leafsnap offers a fun, mobile way to involve the natural world in your summer STEM programming. And while the geographic scope of the database might seem to limit its utility, I’ve found that it works just fine beyond the specified region.

Have a suggestion for App of the Week? Let us know. And find more great Apps in the YALSA Blog’s App of the Week Archive.

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Babies use their senses to learn about the world around them. By providing your child with the freedom to explore within the constraints of an intentional play activity, you are teaching him concepts and skills without inhibiting his own self-discovery. In today's post I offer you an intentional fall-themed play activity based on a board book that is perfect for babies under 1.

My baby boy bookworm and I spend a lot of time playing. Play is good for his developing mind because babies learn through exploration by using all of their senses to analyze and experiment with their environment, much like a scientist would.

Often I set a few objects or toys on the floor and allow him to investigate them on his own. Sometimes he bangs them together, or pushes them in a playful way. Sometimes he holds an object in his hand and stares at it intently. Many times toys go into his mouth so he can suck and chew on them. I try to be as "hands off" as possible to allow him to discover his own cause-and-effect relationships.

Sometimes I offer him a more intentional learning environment. I still allow him to explore and play on his own, but the activity that I have chosen has been selected with the intent of him gaining a particular skill or concept.

Leaves is a board book that I picked up at our local library, and decided to use it as the focus of an intentional play activity. It is a book full of the colors of autumn, photographs of smiling children playing in leaves, and simple language to describe leaves and what fun they can be.

Here are some suggestions for reading this book with your baby:

1. Talk about and point out all of the fall colors in the book
2. Talk about the different kinds of leaves you see in the book
3. Talk about the different sights and sounds of autumn
4. Talk about the children in the book and why they might be dressed they way they are

If your child is an active crawler or walker who doesn't like to sit while reading, take advantage of your high chair or stroller like I often do.

Allow your child to handle the book after you are done reading and talking about it. Point out the words versus the pictures, the title and front cover, and demonstrate how to turn the pages.



Next, invite your child to do a planned play activity that relates to the book. As you do your activity, make connections back to Leaves and the concepts you might have talked about. Intentional learning activities might include:

• Exploring and playing with leaves at the park, or at home (shown below)
• Finding different kinds of leaves and collecting them while on a walk
• Playing in a fall-inspired sensory bin full of different kinds of leaves
• Painting a leaf cutout using finger paints in fall colors
• Painting "leaves" on a tree with baby food in fall colors (shown below)

While your child plays, allow him to discover and explore on his own but offer guidance. Ask questions or narrate to help boost his language skills. What does the leaf feel like? What is this part of the leaf called? What does the leaf sound like if we crinkle it? What color is this leaf? How many leaves did we find?

I think you'll be surprised at the ways your little scientist baby explores and learns all by himself.

Can't find Leaves? Check out the touch-and-feel board book Fall.

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Thumbnails.

Color Studies.

Final Illustration.

 That's it! Thanks for reading.

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As 2012 is quickly coming to a close, I'll use today's Nonfiction Monday event to feature my two favorite nonfiction books of the year - one for young listeners and one for older readers.

Without a doubt, my favorite nonfiction book for older readers was

• Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World by Sy Montgomery (Houghton Mifflin)

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Spent a good part of today kneeling and lying on the garage floor painting...and repainting...letters.

I think I already mentioned that I wasn't excited about painting letters and, yes, I did overfuss it.  The more I tried to refine the letters, the less I liked them (and the more they seemed to draw attention away from the mural).  In the end, I went back to fairly loose letters (sans serif).  The title simply reads:  Celebrate the Harvest - Santa Maria Valley (across the bottom of 3 panels)


I also worked on detailing the leaves around the pumpkins and building a little more contrast in that area.


Now, I'm a little more excited about working on the mural again.  I will be moving some panels tonmorrow to (finally) detail the field beneath the wave.  There'll be a little bit of greenery and some dots of red (strawberries) to pull a teensy bit more color into those first two panels.

At least I won't have to lay on the floor for the next phase!

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Getting tired of painting with so much green and brown - luckily today was orange (and a little green).

Notice anything new?  After I'd submitted my original proposal, I'd thought about adding some leaves around the pumpkins and along what will be a vine between the plowed field and the band of light green along the bottom.  So, I did...and I'll probably add a few more.

It's a 3-day weekend - no soccer games, to events!  Just time to relax and paint, paint, paint!  Oh, and probably BBQ.

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A to Z Challenge Day 14: N Netgalley is a blogger’s dream.  Whether you are beginning, or just cannot get the books you need to review, NetGalley is the best place to join.  Anyone who runs a book review site, any genre or age group, will find the books they need. Netgalley and Lerner Publishing [...]

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 5 Stars Rhyming text and illustrations explore some of the many things a leaf can be, from tree topper to rain stopper.  Includes facts about leafs and a glossary. A leaf is a leaf— A bit of a tree. But just try to guess What else it can be! This book, A Leaf Can Be [...]

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Salas, Laura Purdie. 2012. A Leaf Can Be ... . Illustrated by Violeta Dabija. Minneapolis: Millbrook.
Advance Reader Copy supplied by NetGalley.

What's better than a beautifully illustrated nonfiction picture book? One that can be used to delight preschoolers, introduce poetry, or present science concepts. A Leaf Can Be... does it all.

Introductory stanzas give way to descriptive phrases of a leaf's many uses and manifestations,

A leaf is a leaf -
a bit of a tree.
But when cool days come chasing,
it also can be a ...

Wind rider
Lake glider
Pile grower
Hill grow-er

The font is simple and pleasing, like printing with a fine point gel pen.

The illustrations, depicting each thing that "a leaf can be," are nothing less than enchanting.  Blue is the color that anchors this journey through seasons and  locales - posing as the sky, a lake, a hint of frost, the rainwater gathered in the palm of a leaf. Though whimsically drawn, the trees, people and animals in Dabija's paintings are rendered in the colors of nature - not the muted colors of nature, but nature in its most vibrant, most spectacular displays. Her use of "speckling" gives each illustration a hint of magic or fancy.
Also included are:

• "Glossary"
• "Further Reading."
• "More About Leaves," in which each descriptive tree phrase used throughout the book is explained, 

Mouth filler - leaves can be tasty!  Apes, giraffes, insects and many other animals eat leaves.  Humans do too.  Have you eaten lettuce or spinach lately?

Highly recommended. It's early in the year, but I think this will be a favorite!

Manufactured in the United States of America.



Check Laura Purdie Salas' site for a teaching guide and bookmarks, coming soon.

Due on shelves March 1, 2012. (You can request it now on NetGalley from Lerner Publishing.  Don't read this one on a black and white reader!)