My Mom's favorite bird is the Turkey Vulture. While quite spooky looking on the ground they are beautiful to watch in flight. As scavengers they clean up by eating trash and dead things. (Would that our culture could be more beautiful in the way we handle trash.)
I have a friend who has a sarcastic streak. One day my three year old told me she didn't want to talk to my friend. When I asked why I was told, "She talks backwards." 
I thought too much on this one. I had images of camels fleeing from straws in my head. But then I had too much going on this weekend, (this week, this month...) to really take the time with that one. 
'Tis the season to be overwhelmed by excess. Between my son's early December birthday and Christmas I always get a little panicked this time of year. I also find myself getting caught up in consumerism. Every store I go to has rows and rows filled with shiny things that I don't really need--but they are so pretty. I added the cat as the element of chaos that also seems to come along and give us perfectionists just one more set of things to worry about. (and to remember to just let go and laugh when the tree falls down...)
I alway love the little train rides they have at some zoos. And are we watching the animals or are they watching us?
Earlier in the trip we took a glass bottomed boat tour at Aquarena Springs in San Marcos, TX. We saw some tiny turtles swimming under the boat but didn't see the ancient snapping turtle rumored to live there. My 3 year old daughter did her own artistic interpretation of a snapping turtle.
I decided to play with both the physical object and the reference to size. I created a shape in Photoshop of the dragon in the scale and then used that to make the smaller scales on the big dragon. (In a completely conceptual world the scale would diminish into infinity--but I just did it once here) I also created a dragon brush to do the background which consists of dragons of various scale--of course. 
"Bring out the candy!"
This weekend was my son's Cub Scout Campout (Pack 345) I did this sketch from our tent. What can be more about growth than Cub Scouts?
I suppose there were a lot of ways I could've gone on this one, but a favorite motif of mine, three enmeshed faces, came immediately to mind. Then it took some time to gel. 
I've noticed various types of tag games going on in other blogs, and suddenly I've been tagged! Mary has asked that I show what my desk/workspace looks like. Uh oh. (This is sort of like having people over to my house without getting a chance to clean up...) But I do find it fascinating to see what kind of atmosphere other artists create in. So here is my corner of the world where a great deal of creating goes on. (I'm currently working on brochures so no work in progress is visible.) In reality I tend to create all over the house. My neighbors once discovered me painting in the garage with my table top easel set up on the dryer!
Wow. This one really took the wind out of my sails. I struggled (juggled?) with ideas all weekend. And then had to juggle energy reserves to carry any of them out. My husband is a video game designer and he's been crunching (serious overtime for you video game novices) on a project for months now, which leaves the kids and me on our own pretty much. When I tell people what he does they are always amazed and think, "oooh glamour job." Yeah. Glamour job with really serious slave hours...
This week's topic seemed like a good one for the Egyptians. (If you missed the Egyptians before see February and March from my Blog Archives.)
My first thought on this topic was aliens... But then I thought about the amazing Jeweled spider that moved into our back yard about a week ago. I've noticed that suburban Texas sports many more critter type visitors than life in suburban Colorado. (I grew up in rural New Mexico and we had critters dropping in all the time. Top of the list was the bull snake in the greenhouse sink!)
Mommy is the Captain
Is he acting odd or is it ODD? (oppositional defiant disorder.)
Actually my son had great fun posing for this illustration and was quite compliant when I asked him to help me. But there have been times when I have had to utter the phrase, "Mommy is the captain--not you."
There have been many discoveries this week. The first one is that the Greyhound bus is not a viable means of travel for me and my children (ages 3 and 6) We are visiting my parents, and after multiple delays and having one of my bags stolen in Dallas, I bought plane tickets for the trip home. (Yes the bag was stolen, someone found it empty in a trash can in the Dallas bus station and called my husband's cell phone which happened to be still on the bag--the bus tags had been cut off.) Thankfully the other discoveries on this trip have been more pleasant. The idea started with seeing my daughter in the mountain grasses that swayed over her head. And then I was reading Eckhart Tolle's A NEW EARTH. He talks about observing the world in terms of seeing through the outer form and into the inner essence. As I read this I glanced at the bookmark I'd grabbed from my Mom's bookshelf and it was covered with random design patterns. And lo, I'd made the discovery of my idea for Illustration Friday. (albeit many days late...)
I’ve been reading Charles de Lint’s WIDDERSHINS. His stories are always filled with these wonderful fairy creatures made from all sorts of things. So I decided to just try and create a character that was made from leaves and twisted branches and I drew the little capering man. When I saw this week’s theme I recalled the little man, but I also recalled a dried bit of twisted vine I’d come across when the family was walking at Walnut Creek. So I created the other character from the idea of the twisted vine. They need a background. But that may or may not happen.
This week's topic made me think of the way nature uses camouflage, but it also brought to mind: hiding in the open. So I've returned to one of my favorite styles where two images 
This topic struck a nerve. I'll never understand why artists (of all shapes, sizes and assorted colors), whose job it is to be more observant and sensitive to the world in general, are expected at the same time to develop a thicker skin than most other professions. How many times will a doctor be told, "Yes you do lovely work, but your style just isn't right for us."
So my little rooster, Bandi Boodle Boo, who traveled the world to find his crow, is now travelling the mail encountering rejection and hopefully (someday soon!) will find acceptance seemed the apt subject to illustrate this topic. I took a more emotional approach to creating this.
Why swim suit of course! We took a weekend get-a-way to Port Aransas, Tx. We left Friday, so I didn't know what the theme was--I just did the pencil sketch for my own amusement after we'd spent the day playing in the surf on Sat. I scanned it and colored it in Photoshop. (A little artistic license with the color of the water--it was pretty murky and filled with loose seaweed that would wrap around our legs--ick! The kids still loved it.)
While this is not my personal vision of paradise, I'm sure the kids might have a different perspective. Last night I took them to Ready, Set, Play which is a nicely appointed warehouse sized storefront filled with inflatable bouncers--the fancy ones with mazes and slides. My daughter and I had been before but this was my son's first trip. His jaw dropped and he clapped his hands to the side of his face as we walked through the door and he saw a Kid's Playland Paradise. 
This topic proved to be hard because I had too many ideas--it was difficult to sort out one and then put time into it. Originally this was a dragon reacting to a "Here there be dragons" sign. But when I scanned it in I realised I'd gotten impatient with the sign and it didn't match the rest of the drawing...
But it is Monday already and I need to get on with other things.
I knew I'd have more happening with the Egyptians... I've been thinking I needed some new characters. Luckily a mischievous little sister showed up.
No matter how pretty the wrapping, creativity will always find a way outside the box...
I needed a break from the Egyptians. (Don't worry, they'll be back.) I've been contemplating style and just how hard it is for me to maintain just one. So I had to break out a bit and do something different. It's been another crazy week around here and this is just how I feel. (The question is: am I hiding, or escaping?)
