Thank you, everyone!!

What a great way to finish 2008: winning The Spotted Bunny! Thank you, Lyon, for selecting me, and to all my fellow WW artists! I tend to get down in December because of the short days, cold weather (remember, I'm from Brazil!) and distance from my family at the holidays. But winning The Spotted Bunny has filled me with cheer :-)

This prompt really got me going this month, and I was lucky to have the time to participate more regularly and create a bit of a story.

Thanks again to everyone for all your encouragement and support!

The gift | Conclusion

And so our story ends, with a hopeful note for the coming year.
Wishing everyone peace, friendship, happiness and love!

Query Holiday

If you have a polished manuscript ready to go here's your chance!

http://www.firebrandliterary.com/query-holiday

The Gift of Friendship - Sketch

Here is my long overdue Watercolor Wednesday assignment:
In this sketch, we see Bear receive his most wanted Christmas wish from his parents: a pot of honey. We see Rabbit receive her most wanted Christmas wish from her parents: a big, juicy carrot. We see Rabbit giving her best friend the most wonderful present she can think to give. We see Bear giving his best friend the most wonderful present he can think to give.

The gift | The story continues...

More color versions of these earlier sketches. You know who the gift is for, but what is he knitting? ;-)

The list color version

Happy Holidays to all of you. A warm welcome to our newest member.

May all your wishes and dreams for the upcoming year come true!

winter fairy

I wanted to share a watercolor that I am giving to one of my daughters friends for Christmas. This little girl is truly one of my biggest fans. When asked who her favorite artist is she says "Lisa Griffin"... talk about melting my heart.
Happy Holidays everyone! =)

rough sketch

rough sketch for children's story "The Procrastinator"

finalized illustration in color

this is the finalized watercolor illustration for a story in Stories for Children Magazine

The gift | Color version

Here it is, in ink and watercolor, from this sketch. I'm using Lanaquarelle Hot Press paper, and sometimes I have a hard time controlling the washes. But I guess it gives it that unpredictable watercolor effect, right? ;-)
As far as the ink strokes, I've been trying to leave them looser and sketchy, and I think I like the results. What do you think?

More details to Making a list

I spent most of the afternoon trying to decide if this was finished yet. I am toying with continuing the Christmas lights around the border but don't know if it will make the whole thing too busy.

I also am thinking of wallpaper patterns and patterns on the bed spread. What do you guys think?

Posey in Color....

I couldn't resist and just had to break out my new Inktense pencils and watercolors to make this illo come alive. Have a good weekend. =)

The gift | 2nd sketch

Here's a more detailed sketch for my illustration project this month. I also did a few other sketches developing the character a bit, so you can definitely see where this storyline is going. I hope to have a color version soon. :-)

Holiday Present Sketch

Hi Everyone-

I loved the prompt this month and wanted to participate with Posey! Here is my initial sketch... in it Posey is coming home from some holiday shopping and notices one of her bird friends looking a little chilled up in her nest. So, I wonder what Posey might come up with as the perfect gift for her feathered friend? I just rec'd a new set of inktense watercolor pencils and am looking forward to working on this comp. with them.

Hope everyone is handling this busy holiday season - I've missed keeping up with you all! =)

Chyna's Very Special Gift

This is my first character for our Christmas story layout. Her name is Chyna.
Chyna is around 7 or 8. Chyna is awe struck by the lights, bells and whistles of the
Christmas season. She has not a clue as to what to purchase for her
pen pal Lysan Tong who lives in Hong Kong.

Making a list

I have more ideas for this one. One would be floating presents round her head as if she's imagining the perfect one. Of course, I will be adding my art nouveau background once I have the idea firmed up.

All comments appreciated. Just a rough pencil sketch at this point, so there are lots of things to comment on for improvement. LOL

Sorry it's late. I spent most of Saturday and Sunday asleep fighting off a cold or something.

Week 1: Prompt

Sorry this is a day late, I have been busy beavering with Sprouts, the NJ magazine... phew! Lots going on this month - anyway,here are two sketches for my Happy Holidays piece... the first is a double page spread of a 8x10" vertical book. Madam Chook is trying to figure out a gift for pal Phileas Foxx. Phileas will be back just in time for the holidays after his round-the-world trip ....



The second is maybe a scene or the cover, I don't know, but I still haven't worked out the actual 'gift' yet ... hmmm?

What do you think of these two pieces? Does the hugging one look like the characters are very young, in which case, maybe Madam Chook is NOT the BFF to Phileas?

my current work...

This is a detail of a 16" x 20" piece, showing what I've been doing lately, which is getting ready for an exhibition coming up in January. I work with an ink pen (without penciling first) and then I watercolor the image. I have four pieces in various stages of completion. My husband is also an artist & we're showing together with three other artist couples. So, between the show & teaching & other stuff I've really missed being an active part of Watercolor Wednesdays....

challenge ending Dec 7

I really wanted to post, so I added this guy to a larger piece that I'm working on for an upcoming exhibition. The

"merhorse"

is gifting a wing to his fish friend so that he can enjoy flying around the world to see the many different lands above sea level.

Unlikely Friends

I really had a hard time with this. Must be the last week of school My brain is mush. I really tried hard to come up with two unlikely friends. I'm not sure how these two ended up together. There must be a story there. If my brain wasn't so mushy I probably could tell you the tale.

I don't think I hit all the criteria either. But I really wanted to post something. It's been a long time since I've put anything on here. I can't wait to put some color to it now.
Cheers all!

Thank you SO much!

It has been so long since I won anything, I am so thrilled to have been given the Spotted Bunny. I think there may have been giggling and even bouncing.

I love the little community we have here. It is always such a pleasure to see what other people using the same media for our prompts can come up with. Everyone's art is so unique and fresh. I am so proud to be a member of Watercolor Wednesdays.

I'm off now to steal some drawing time and sketch out my gifting friend idea. Wish me some uninterrupted personal time to do it.

Thanks again for the honor! I'll take good care of Mr. Bunny, I promise!

The Gift

So here's what I'm thinking... This little guy is planning on making a handmade gift for someone he knows. This is a very rough sketch, but that's usually how I get started: doing tiny, quick and very loose pencil or pen sketches.

He doesn't know much about knitting, but he wants to give it a try and make something special. What will that be? I have something in mind...
;-)

The Gift

Okay, this is my very first crack at the character that I will be
doing for this assignment. I don't know if she will remain the
same because I really would like to work on her some more.
I know she will be African American and the other child will be
Asian or Hispanic. I would like them to give gifts that somehow
speaks to the talent in both children. HELPPPPPPPPP!!
V.

Last Minute Turkey!

Oh! I hope I'm not too late with this one :)