a peek at the sketchbook

Stuck in the house, perhaps inspired by Harold and his purple crayon? Doodle of an owl and birch trees with a purple pencil. Thinking of expanding this into a pen and ink pointillist piece... we'll see.

Illustration Friday: Canned

"Chasing Fireflies"
8.5 x 11"
watercolor, pen and ink


My first submission for Illustration Friday (IF), a weekly online art exhibit. This week's topic was "canned." As I am currently on vacation and enjoying lazy summer days with my dog, this was my take on the subject. (Click on image to enlarge)

Photography

Sometimes I take photographs. Here are a few favorites:

"Shoe tree from beneath"

A photograph from one of our road trips. This tree is alongside a lonely highway and full of shoes... hundreds of pairs. I was so intrigued that I crawled under a barbed wire fence to take a picture. I can only speculate as to what the shoes symbolize or what their purpose is. They were all different sizes, and some of them looked really old. There was a funeral parlor business card nailed into the bottom of one leather boot.

"Agriturismo Castro"

A farmhouse I visited in northern Italy

"Il Capo del mercato all'aperto"
or
"The boss of the outdoor market"

I promise I didn't pose this guy. I did accidentally wake him up from his nap to take this picture though. He and his human run a flower stand in Roma's Campo dei Fiori, (translates to Field of Flowers), an Italian square, formerly the site of public torture and punishment, which is now a lovely outdoor market. I lived with 12 other artists in an apartment above Il Campo when studying art in Rome.

Shower Invitation

An adoption party invitation I made for a coworker.
I just put this together during my lunch hour-
but it made me think about exploring invitation and greeting card illustration

Happy Fourth of July

Happy 4th! Last night was a beautiful evening. We went to our town's celebration in the park, where we had a picnic dinner, met some very nice folks, and enjoyed the fireworks. It was a very small town Americana fourth of July, and I thought it deserved an illustration:



"Summer Evening"
watercolor and ink

Watercolor Creatures

"Cephalopods Imbibe I"
graphite, watercolor, ink





"Toad"
watercolor