Illustration Friday: Visitors

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!)
This is an ink resist. I paint white tempera where I want to have white and let it dry. Then I cover the whole paper with India ink. When it is dry I wash the tempera off and then apply watercolor. Many people ask me how I have time with my children underfoot to get this stuff done. The answer is I have abandoned art school training where bigger is better and now work relatively small. (This one is smaller than usual at 6" by 7")

Illustration Friday: Captain

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."

Illustration Friday: Emergency

When I read this week's topic I groaned. Ambulances and trauma, I didn't want to think about it. And then a more absurd alternative came into mind from the TV show Red Dwarf: "There's an emergency going on...It's still going on." Which lead me to thinking about the daily dramas that go on. Our neighbor's dog is constantly making a break for it, and ours would too if the gate wasn't bungee corded shut. (And I'm sure my dog was thinking, "Where's the fire?" as I tried to encourage him to model for me in the Texas heat...)
And the extent of an emergency is always relative to perspective as I pass on the family phrase: "No blood--no bandaid."

Illustration Friday: Missing

I must admit I found this topic a little perplexing at first. How do you draw something that is not there? But then I remembered a photo of my son and his best friend displaying missing teeth... I must've been influenced by the caricature artists at Six Flags (we went this week) in terms of style.

Also on the topic of missing, I'm proud of myself for keeping up with the Illustrations. I don't think I've missed a week since I started. I have been late on few (and I've heard about it!)