Sad Farewell

This past week we said good bye to a really great man, my Uncle Vin. He was always willing and able to help you out, but never asked anything of us in return. An accomplished mechanic, a brilliant man, he will be sorely missed. Sleep well, Uncle Vin!

Seraphic wine label

We just bottled our first batch of honey mead using 6 quarts of orange blossom honey. We split the batch and flavored one blueberry, and one Apricot. This is the early stage of the apricot label using Painter 11. I think I'm calling it Seraphic, as in angelic. I used Makana as the angel from a photo I took of her swinging standing up on our swing set last year. I like it. I figure that if I'm not going to the studio, I may as well work on something. And we have to have labels done before we put the mead away to age for a year.

New website in construction

Soon I will be posting a new website! It is devoted entirely to miniature art and portraiture. Not only will it be a place to see all my miniature paintings, but it will be a place to learn about the history and techniques of painting "in the Little", as well as links to other miniature artists. I will take you step by step as I paint a portrait, with possible video snippets. The site is almost done and will go public hopefully within a week or so.

This miniature is only 1.5"x1.5", oil on claybord. Of three cross country skiers.

"Xski"

MASF exhibit

What an amazing exhibit! I have never attended an art show that hung so many excellent works. There wasn't a bad painting in the bunch... 829 of them! They weren't exaggerating when they told me that the collectors line up outside waiting to get in and buy. 20% of the art was sold in the first few hours, my Red Fox and Fern was one of them. And there was an interested buyer for the Fox Den that was looking into finances.

An added bonus: my Hutch Bunny was featured along with two others in the Weekend Magazine that was a supplement to Florida newspapers up and down the Gulf Coast!

I can't say enough good things about this show. The people are warm and friendly, the artists are all top notch, coming from all over the world, the exhibit was well organized. If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend attending one of their shows if you are ever in Florida in late January.

Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art

It's off to Tarpon Springs I go. I learned from a few members of the Miniature Art Society of Florida that the Collectors' Preview of the annual exhibit is a "feeding frenzy" of art buyers! Can't wait to see for myself... with camcorder in hand. They exhibit over 900 paintings in this one venue and sell roughly 40% of the work, mostly during the preview. Pretty amazing. If this pans out, I intend to make an extra effort to paint more miniatures. Apparently there is a viable market out there for these lovely little gems.

Wish me luck fighting my way through the snowy mountains of West Virginia on our drive south. I will post photos of the exhibit when I return. Happy New Year!

Sketching with Painter 11

I love this program! Painter 11 is so powerful. I have only scratched the surface of what it can do, but I'm having so much fun doing it. I'm playing with pencil sketching. I love to work in graphite anyway, so doing it digital is great. i like being able to move elements around if the composition isn't working out.

Things are Brewing!

November was a terribly busy month. Aside from the usual holiday hubbub, our family had dealings with the swine flu. But on a better note, I won an illustration contest and won an award in a national art exhibit! Also, my husband and I started a new hobby... wine making!

The contest was to develop three Gypsy Cob horses into an Anime format using colors requested by the sponsor. And it looks like I will be working on future projects with these horses and the products their images adorn.

The exhibit is with the Miniature Art Society of Florida. "Hutch Bunny" won Best Work By a First Time Entrant. The opening is January 16 in Tarpon Springs, Florida at the Leeper-Rattner Museum of Art.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving... there is so much to be thankful for!

WPa SCBWI conference results

I have to say that the conference was wonderful. Bruce Colville, a terrific author, gave a wonderful presentation. I got to spend a lot of time with Kelley Cunningham, art director of High Five magazine. She was very frank and quite helpful in her critique of my portfolio, yet very easy to talk to. She seemed surprised that I had done my illustrations entirely in Painter 11. That 's a good thing! And she thought a lot of my work was very strong. She and editor are now reviewing a submission I sent them recently. Cross you fingers.

I also got to spend some time talking with Steve Meltzer, editor of Dutton and Dial Books for Young Readers. What a great guy. But he liked my surrealistic oil paintings (pictured above) much better than my picture book illustrations. He suggested working up some redo's of novel book covers done in the same manner. I'm thinking about it.

WPa SCBWI conference

In one week, I will be attending the Western PA Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Fall Conference. I really look forward to it... it is a great place to network with other writers and artists, meet editors, art directors and published authors, and get your work critiqued by the best. For the last two years I have won the Illustrator's contest. My winning design from 2007 can be purchased on T-shirts, mugs, mouse pads, tote bags, etc. at www.cafepress.com. Last year's design is being silkscreened on tote bags that are being distributed to the attendees of this years conference. 

I encourage anyone interested in writing or illustrating children's books to come to the conference, Saturday, 8 am to 5 pm at the Greentree Radisson, Pittsburgh PA. For details on the guest speakers and workshop presenters go to www.wpascbwi.com.

Here's Lyddi

It's a wonderful feeling to develop a character... after months of writing the story, to finally know what she really looks like! I've had images in my head as to how she wears her hair, but until I actually drew her, I didn't know what her little pixy face looked like. I haven't put all the line detail in this yet, and this is only a portion of the first page of the book, "Lyddi and the List."

The character, Lyddi, is characterized after me, but modeled after my beautiful granddaughter, Makana. And the name Lyddi comes from my newest granddaughter, Lydia. So, I've really kept it all in the family this time!

Our children and grandchildren give us a rich source for stories and characters, so long as we writers and artists realize that some of our fascination lies in the fact that the children are related to us! Some serious scrutiny needs to take place before you try to publish those stories. One of the most difficult decisions to make is changing something "real" to something "invented" in order to make the story or character work. Makana was a tiny  bit miffed that the character Lyddi bore her sister's name. In the other story, "Kana and the Missing Kio", she was disappointed that her name was used, but not her image! Poor Makana just wasn't "Hawaiian" enough.

Lyddi and the List

Lyddi and the List is my latest picture book story. I'm illustrating it in Painter 11. This was meant to be a promo postcard, but I rethought it. While I love the aerial view and the worried look on the squirrel's face, it really doesn't give you a good sense of who Lyddi is. I need to turn her around so you can see her face. (Lyddi is actually based on ME, as a little girl, who could not remember anything. The whole story actually happened to me, sort of. I AM a writer and allowed to embellish the truth!)

This is a page from the book I've written, "Kana and the Missing Koi". I'm afraid I've neglected this blog in order to devote my time to getting as many illustrations for this story done as possible. My intent is to include these in my portfolio at the upcoming WPa SCBWI conference this November. It was done entirely in Painter 11. What a great tool for illustrators!

Kana characters

I've done a few more poses of Kana, my little Hawaiian girl for my story. These are just line drawings. Doing quick sketches is forcing me to learn to cartoonize people without fear of messing up. If it turns out, I will use it... if not, I'll move onto the next one, or work on improving it. So far I really like her!

And now for something completely different...

I've been challenged by my illustrator friends... a drawing a day of a new little character! I am playing with software called Corel Painter 11. And loving it! Here are the first two drawings. This should help tremendously to develop my almost non-existent  cartooning skills, which are very necessary for illustrating my children's stories.

More on St. Emma's

My husband and I just spent a much needed, wonderful weekend at St. Emma's Retreat House in Greensburg. All the beautiful sisters that run the place went online to view the painting Ora et Labora. I got all positive reactions and they are anxious to know if it wins any awards in the South Hills Annual Exhibit coming up September 20.

At the retreat, we had the privilege of listening to a young Benedictine priest from St. Vincent's College. There is so much to say about this holy, pious, gentle, brilliant man that I find myself at a loss for words. If you ever have an opportunity to attend a talk or retreat with Fr. Boniface Hicks, jump on it! Don't miss it. He is also a very interesting subject to paint... keep your eyes open for a companion painting to Ora et Labora. It will be titled: Lectio, Meditatio, Oratio. This is a method of prayer used by the Benedictines. It means "Read, Meditate, Pray". Worth looking into if your prayer life needs a little "revival".

Ora et Labora

The title of the painting, Ora et Labora, is Latin for Pray and work.

From left to right, I'll list the symbols as they pertain to the individual:
Nun #1 - The Crane: Loyalty, Monastic life. Ivy wreath: hospitality. Lamp: Wisdom.
Nun #2 - Columbine flower: Holy Spirit. Snow: Purity, innocence. Heart: love and charity.
Nun #3 - Scallop shell: Pilgrim. Bee: hard work. Potter's wheel: being formed by God.
Nun #4 - Butterfly: new life. Fern: solitude, humility and sincerity. Sunflower: keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.
The colors have meaning also. Gold: worth. Blue: wisdom and charity. Green: growth, life, hope. Red: love, holy zeal.
In the background are wheat fields. Wheat has always represented the Holy Eucharist which is what the Catholic faith is centered around.

St. Emma's III

I've really come along farther than I expected so soon. But I'm racing against the clock to get this done for an exhibit.

The right nun's habit is now covered in Christian symbols that I feel represent her: butterfly, sunflowers and ferns. Each is painted with a transparent red wash, and outlined in gold metalic. The color is symbolic of love and joy.

Two faces to go, more symbols and the background and I'm done.

St. Emma's continues

I've re-evaluated the composition on this and came up with some good changes: I took out one of the nuns, furthest back in the picture plane; I changed the lay of the land just a little; and added just the veil of an additional nun off to the right. There was too much space on the right that was unused.

Yesterday I painted the face of nun#1, on the right. Today, #2. Sorry I don't have an image to show, but I will tomorrow.

Upcoming Exhibits for September 09

"Fission of Form" is a collaborative exhibit being held at Panza Gallery, Millvale PA. 20 members of the Pittsburgh Society of Sculptors created 3D works; 20 members of the Pittsburgh Poets each took home a sculpture for 2 months and allowed it to inspire them. Then 20 members of the Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators (I'm one of them) were each assigned a poem, without seeing the sculpture on which it was based, and created an illustration. My painting was inspired by the poem "I Hugged My Death Like a Child." The opening is on September 5, at 7 pm.

The next exhibit is Art in the Garden, at the Le Moyne House in Washington, PA. It is a show of small works only, being held on Sunday September 13, 2-6 pm in the gardens of the Historical Society (the Le Moyne House.) It really is a lovely affair, with wine and music and a wide variety of work by many wonderful local artists. Both my Fox miniatures will be there!

St. Emma's

Every year there is a couple's retreat at St. Emma's Benedictine Monastery. The good sisters who run the place are beautiful and caring and make an interesting subject to paint.

This is a fairly large canvas, 3'x4'. I toned the canvas with a dilute mixture of Viridian green and Transparent red oxide, which creates a range of raw umber colors.

Next I started with the far right face. I always block in the area with a thin glaze of Terra Rosa, wipe out the highlights of the nose and forehead, then with stronger terra rosa I mark the inside corner of each eye. From there I rough in the eyes and start lifting off more highlights. It's much like sculpture because you are modeling a form.

The red and green tones on the faces are part of the underpainting, to influence the skin tone I will apply later.

The black Habits of the sisters were painted on with a knife. The designs in each one are scraffitoed into the thick paint (each design is based on a Christian symbol that I felt said something about that person.) My intention is to paint the faces very luminously, but the Habits will be flat and graphic. Wheat fields will develop in the background.