Illustration Friday-midsummer night

bug

This is the last word in the spelling list series.  It is good timing because school is already out. Here is how I spent my day which I would normally spend in the studio.

I did several loads of  laundry.

I got the guest room (laundry room) ready for summer visitors.

I signed the kids up for parks and rec.

We went to a park and recreated.

Took the kids to the doctor for the yearly check-up.

Went to the neighbor's house to sit in the shade with an ice coffee while the kids swam in the neighbor's pool.

Now it is after supper and I am alone in the studio for a little while.

So, the plan for the summer is to sneak up here or sneak the laptop into the house whenever I get a chance.

I plan on keeping up with Illustration Friday and I hope to have enough time to work on some picture books that I have started.

I am also thinking about taking an online Adobe Illustrator course to sharpen my skills.  I have gotten pretty comfortable working with Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop but I have avoided really diving in with Illustrator.

I taught myself Photoshop and Painter by using online tutorials and books from the library. This method is cost efficient but not time efficient. A class would keep me on task.

I am having a good time working digitally. I am at the point where I am drawing my preliminary sketches with the pen tablet. The first time I used the tablet it felt like driving stick-shift in London when I am used to driving automatic on the U.S. Interstate.

A year ago I was only using software for clean-up and coloring of scanned images.

I'd like to  change the saying to, "You can teach some old dogs, some new tricks".

Enjoy the summer, my favorite season.

manpain

If you are in the NYC area check out this show that I did an unsolicited poster for:

 The Terrible Manpain of Umberto MacDougal

or

for just the t-shirt

Check out my Cafepress store.

green

Three of my earliest memories have to do with cake. 

I remember my little sister's one-year-old birthday cake was a beautiful gingerbread house made by my dad's cousin.  "Those Christmas babies don't have it so bad.", I remember thinking.

A couple months later we had cupcakes for my birthday. There were little, plastic, Mickey Mouse characters on top of each one. It was fun to play with something that I had just licked, behavior usually discouraged.

About a week after that we were going to a friend's seventh birthday party. My mother had made a complicated sailboat cake. It was the kind that required cutting a sheet cake into various geometric shapes and then rearranging them like tangrams to look like a sailboat.  It was lovely. There was a number seven frosted on to one of the buttercream sails to make it look like a racing boat.

As my mother was carefully placing the cake into the holder I exclaimed, "Wow! You never make cakes that fancy for your own kid's birthdays".

I meant to let her know that I was impressed, but I could tell by the look on her face that I had said the wrong thing.

She calmly put the lid on the cake holder and said, "He doesn't have a mother to make a birthday cake for him" and we joined the rest of the family in the car to leave for the party.  There was no further discussion on the subject.

At four years old I didn't understand the gravity of the situation. 

I did realize, as I do today that I was lucky to have a mom that could make a cake like that even if it wasn't for my birthday.

Illustration Friday-launch

Illustration Friday-swept

because

Why?

Because we have to go.

Why?

Because you have had enough.

Why?

Because you agreed.

Why?

Because Daddy is waiting for us.

Why?

Because your turn is over.

Why?

Because I don't have another quarter.

Why?

Because you don't have permission.

Why?

Because you will get sick.

Why?

Because I asked you nicely.

Why?

Why?

Because...I said so.

Illustration Friday-shadows