Winter Revival

It looks like Winter's not done yet in Missouri. Here's what we woke up to. 5 and a half inches of fluffy white stuff.

Louis Armstrong - What A Wonderful World

Talk about precious!!!! Sorry for the youtube again but I just could not resist this one!

Everything's amazing, nobody's happy

This is sooo funny and sooo true!

What I'm working on - part 2

Here's a peek at the color of what I'm working on. Sorry, you can't see the rest until it's published in May. I'll be sure I post the whole thing then. :o)

Happy Valentine's Day

Here's a big Valentine's Day hug to all my blogging friends!!

What I'm working on...

Here's just a peek at what I'm working on.

The Caldecott and Newberry Awards announced!

American Library Association announces literary award winners.

They're here!!!

The Katherine The Almost Great series books arrived today! It's always exciting to have a book arrive in printed form after waiting for months to see it. These were the first chapter books I have illustrated and they were printed with hard bound (library bound) covers. The colors printed really wonderfully. No scary color surprises. Yay! ABDO did a great job!

Here's a play by play brought to you by my photographer husband, Bradley Harris. :o)...

Ta Daaaa!!!!!!!

Juggling

I've been absent recently from my blog but I am back after my husband's surgery. We are home from the hospital for him to continue his road to recovery and much better health for the new year.

I've got a deadline looming so I will need to juggle my nursing skills along with sketching over the next couple weeks which means I may be absent a while longer but I will try to post something when I can.

Stay tuned as I expect some copies of the books I illustrated to arrive on my doorstep any day.

Happy 2009!

I'm back!

After the wonderful but hectic holidays we've just returned from a relaxing trip to my brother's cabin. We enjoyed spending time with my brother and his sweet wife and my three fabulous nieces! He has a dream cabin in such a peaceful place and when the weather is right, it's some of the best trout fishing in the country! What a blessing! I can't wait to go back sometime with my easel and paints in tow.

Anyway, here are a few photos. Enjoy and Happy New Year to all my blogging buddies!!

Playing around with washes

I was having fun playing around with watercolor washes on some old scraps of student-grade watercolor paper. I always feel so much looser painting on this old stuff because when I go to paint on the good watercolor paper, I instantly start tightening up thinking about how much each piece is costing me if I mess it up.

I know it shows a lot of texture because of the grade of paper but I actually thought the texture was kinda cool.

Merry Christmas!!

I just went outside to play around with my camera and take some night shots of our Christmas lights. It is snowy and SOOOO cold but I thought the pictures turned out very festive. Merry Christmas all my blogging buddies from our home to yours!!

Bear Hug

Here's a sketch of a piece I actually first did about 9 years ago. I always wanted to try reworking it so I have re-sketched it and I will eventually paint it.

I could use a big bear hug, it's brrrr cold today...in the single digits. My fingers ache as I try to draw. But that could just be my age and "old Arthur" aka- arthritis, coming for a visit.

Facebook Pro Page warning

Well, I just took down my pro facebook page after reading the fine print on the copyright info. Sorry to have steered some of you in the wrong direction. I don't feel it's safe to post art on Facebook when they state under terms and conditions:

"When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and
direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in
order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content
on the Site. By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you
automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you
have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable,
perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide
license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly
perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in
whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any
purpose on or in connection with the Site or the promotion
thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into
other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize
sublicenses of the foregoing."

Oh well...live and learn. And thank you Kate for your wise warning!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I just took this photo outside my studio window. I was already in the Christmas spirit but this little snow we got last night made it even more festive.

My hubby and I feel so unbelievably blessed to be able to work at a home office, especially when the streets are slippy-slidey. :o)

another Brandy girl

Ok, I am posting this again after taking it down a couple days ago. After previously posting it, I realized it just wasn't quite finished. You'll see on the digital version that there is no bottle of bubbles on the ground so that's why. I decided I liked the traditional one so I am not going to bother adding the bottle to the digital one but at least you can still see the difference between the two, digital and traditional.





Roz posted before that maybe I could mess with Painter and try to get more grain in my digital watercolor paintings and this is true. I just haven't played a lot with the settings recently. My very first book that I did in Painter I tried to put a little too much grain but at least you will get the idea of what Painter is capable of so that's what the seal painting is-- it's a painting from Swim, Swam, Swum that I did about 8 years ago.

What's on my desk

While I am waiting on a contract to be signed for a new book I'm going to be working on with Abbeville Press (Yay!) I have been playing a little on some personal work. Here's what on one of my desks...I have several desks/tables and it seems they are all this messy.

Another Brandy sketch

Here's my most recent installment of my Brandy series. This is the sketch with color to follow.

First snow

Yesterday was our first snow for the year, although it was very light we woke up to a light dusting on the ground, maybe a half inch. It was still a thrill and it came before December 1st! Everything is decorated for the holidays and it's already feeling like the Christmas season has begun.

I sent off my Winter postcard mailer yesterday through Premium Postcards. Here's a peek at what I did with it. I went with the traditional watercolor and did a very simple design. I sent one to myself first and was happy with the way they turned out so I sent it off to my list yesterday.

Here's to a new year of wonderful new projects!

Happy Thanksgiving

This sketch has absolutely nothing to do with Thanksgiving but I am very thankful to be able to do what I love and love what I do. So Happy Thanksgiving to all my blogging buddies!